MasukDelaney"Obviously, you're required to parade him around shirtless." Daniel turns to me as he sips his margarita. "It's only fair, since I was the one to drive you to the airport for your dramatic reunion scene.""Why are you talking about me like I'm not here? If you want, I'd be glad to take it off right now." Marcus reaches for the hem of his shirt and fakes pulling it up, flashing a bit of his abs."Don't tempt me," Daniel says. "I have to be good.""Since when are you good?" I sip my margarita and glance over at Marcus, who smiles back at me, then squeezes my leg under the table. "You're never good.""Since I have a boyfriend," Daniel says, looking smug as he crosses his arms over his chest."What?" I squeal. "Who is this guy? When did you start seeing him? And why didn't you tell me?""You're not the only one who can keep a secret, doll," he says. He breaks out his phone and shows us pictures, and I ooh and ahh appropriately as I listen to the details about his new love, while M
MarcusA nearly thirteen hour flight back to Dallas and I've been on an internet blackout, of my own choosing. Before I even left Narita airport in Tokyo, my phone had been buzzing with text after text from people who'd seen the stupid story about Delaney and me on some gossip website. I'm sure that was all Chelsea's doing; the first call she probably made after quitting Marlowe Oil was a tabloid.When I started getting texts before boarding the plane, I read the first message, a "holy shit" text from one of the guys on my team, followed by a snarky one from an old booty call. Then I shut off my phone and spent the entire flight not checking my email and not logging into the internet. Instead, I alternated between lying in my seat not sleeping and thinking of Delaney and watching shitty movies and thinking about Delaney.Beau hadn't responded to my email when I woke up this morning. So when I get to Delaney's house, I could very well be walking into a fucking war zone.The concierge a
"I tried to make her see reason," he says. "But you know how she is. I can only imagine what that call was like for you.""I don't know if we're speaking anymore," I say. "Dad, I ruined everything. How can you not be angry?"He waves his hand. "Akira Ito can pull out of the deal if he wants to," he says, shrugging. "There's a morality clause Marcus very well could have broken all on his own anyway. There will be other sponsors.""You're not mad about the deal," I say.My father walks over to his bar and takes out a cigar. He clips the end of it slowly, looks at me like he's about to impart the most profound wisdom ever. But he just shrugs. "You win some, you lose some.""That's it?" I ask. "It's millions of dollars.""Honey, there will always be more money to make. It's replaceable. Besides," he says, with a sly smile, "I had an insurance policy on Akira-san. And your boss Chelsea won't find she has the employment opportunities she thinks she has.""What?" They sell insurance for this
Delaney"You dirty skanky ho." Daniel's voice on the other end of the phone is the first thing I hear as I debark the plane."Oh God," I say. "How did you find out?""Gossip site," he says. "I'm so proud of you.""What?" I can't process what he's saying. I'm just thinking about the fact that this has gone public, before I can even talk to my father. Before I can do damage control. I'm very close to bursting into tears. "I don't know what to do –""Oh, shit," Daniel says, his voice concerned. "Oh, sweetie, are you crying? I didn't mean you were a skanky ho for real. You're totally not. I'm jealous that you hooked up with Marcus. Why the fuck didn't you tell me? When did it happen?"I'm choking back tears as I walk through the airport, following the signs for baggage claim. "I don't know what I'm going to do.""Where are you? Are you in Dallas yet? Have you seen your father?" He peppers me with questions. "Please don't cry. It's not terrible. There's nothing wrong with it, doll. Nothing
DelaneyWe sit across from each other in a crowded izakaya in Shibuya, after passing a million little bars and restaurants that showcase plastic versions of their foods in the windows. Marcus sips his beer and laughs, his eyes crinkling at the edges, and the sound is infectious. He's relaxed, for the first time in weeks, and I finally feel calm, away from Chelsea and work and the hotel and everything. The izakaya is crowded, yet it feels like Marcus and I are the only two people in the room."You love it here," Marcus says."Yeah," I tell him. "I was here for a semester. Not in Tokyo, really. I mean, I traveled, but I was mostly down south. Just enough time to fall in love but not enough time to really let the little things start to annoy me, you know?"Marcus sips his beer and looks at me. "Kind of like us."My heart practically stops and I take a long gulp of my chu-hi, a drink made from soda and shochu, but tastes dangerously just like plain soda. "You do plenty of things to annoy
DelaneyThe knock on the door in the morning startles me. When I answer, my hair plastered to the side of my face, no one's there. I barely slept last night, gutted over what happened. I wonder if Chelsea is on her way back to Texas already, the bearer of such fantastic fucking news that my father will probably have a coronary.I need to call my father. I don't know how to explain any of it. I really can't face him.And I can't face Marcus, either.How can things go from being so high to crashing down so low in a matter of minutes? Last night with Marcus, I was happy. I was deliriously, irrepressibly, recklessly happy. A part of me knew it wouldn't last, just like part of me this morning longs to go to Marcus, to tell him that it doesn't matter, that we shouldn't give a shit what anyone else thinks.Except it's Marcus, the guy who doesn't spend time with women outside the bedroom. The guy who doesn't date. Perpetual manwhore, always risk-taking, never-going-to-grow-up Marcus. And the







