Crimson Footprints (18 page)

“
You’d better get her,”
John warned. “Allison’s probably sullying the Tanaka name right
now.”

“
Why? What do you think
she’s saying?”

John shrugged. “I don’t
know. Probably that you’re a gigolo and she shouldn’t waste her
feelings on you.”

Tak drew up to full
height.

“
And why the hell would she
say that?”

John grinned. “Cause you
look like me.”

“
Bullshit,” Tak said. He
relaxed a tad. “You look like that balding father of
yours.”

John laughed. His father
Yoshi’s hairline had gone from receding to retreating these last
few years.

“
Well, you know, Tak;
people have always thought we looked more like brothers than
cousins.”

“
They were trying to make
you feel better.”

Tak watched Allison as her
arms flailed and thought back to John’s comment. “Jesus, John. What
did you do?”

John shrugged. “I don’t
know. That’s the problem.”

“
I don’t
follow.”

“
Well, here’s the gist.
Buddy of mine had a bachelor party. I got wasted and came home in a
taxi I don’t remember flagging down. But I sobered up real quick.
Allison found lipstick on my collar and gave me a black
eye.”

“
Shit, John. But you’re
still…together. Right?”

“
Due to no small amount of
begging on my part.”

“
Well, shit, what’d you
expect? What were you thinking?”

“
I’m pretty sure thought
wasn’t part of the equation. More like scotch, tits, testosterone
and a bit of encouragement from the guys.”

Tak stared at him. “So you
don’t love her?”

A flash of irritation
crossed John’s face. “It’s all ways so damned black and white with
you, isn’t it? Of course I love her.”

Tak turned back to the
water. “Just scotch and tits get in the way sometime,
huh?”

“
Listen!” John spat. “Here
you are in your first serious relationship for all of, what? Twenty
minutes? And you want to judge me? I can remember when you were
fucking girls from here to San Diego. No dinner. No relationship.
Just you, her and a bed.”

“
Yeah, o.k., can you keep
your voice down though?” Tak glanced around surreptitiously.
“Anyway, that’s not me anymore. Before the other day I hadn’t had
sex in over a year.”

“
You expect me to believe
that?”

“
I don’t expect you to do
anything.”

“
You’re telling me during
that whole ‘friendship’ stage you weren’t somewhere getting laid
every once in a while? “

“
Didn’t want
to.”

John blinked. “Wow. What the
hell did she do to you?”

Tak stared at the dark
waters and beyond it, to New Jersey.

“
I just love her. She’s
everything I’m not. Brilliant, driven, and resilient as hell. And
she’s solid, you know? You know what you’re going to get from her
every time.”

“
And beautiful. That
doesn‘t hurt,” John said.

Tak grinned. “Hell no, it
doesn’t hurt.”

“
And those tits are like,
what? Good solid D cups?”

“
All right. Settle
down.”

John grinned. “I forgot.
You’re in love with this one. So, before we were skating around
those Playboy bunny tits you were talking about how reliable she
is. Proceed.”

Traffic blared loud behind
them, New York loud, and the temperature continued to
soar.

“
Back to you,” Tak said.
“You never answered me.”

“
Yes. I love her. Of
course,” John sighed as if expecting the question.

“
So, it’s just the problem
of forgetting when you’re drunk then?”

John shot him a look of
impatience. “Listen, this is my neck of the woods, samurai. I’ll
dump you in the Hudson and it’ll be like an episode of
Law & Order
around
here.”

“
Right,” Tak said. “They’ll
be drawing a chalk line around your ass right about
here.”

“
It’s just space and
opportunity,
itoko
. Space and opportunity,” John’s palms touched, bowing with
the challenge. The gesture was a relic from their childhood,
deference to the karate films they imitated as children.

Allison sighed, watching as
two overgrown men tussled on the sidewalk.

Deena glanced at her.
“Should we do something?”

She shook her head. “If
we’re lucky they’ll fall in the river.”

She took in Deena’s shocked
expression and snorted. “I’m kidding. If we’re lucky, John’ll fall
in the river.”

“
You don’t mean that
either,” Deena said.

Before them, John yelped,
struggling to wiggle free of Tak’s headlock.

“
I can look at you and tell
how much you love him.”

Allison shrugged. “My
burden.”

“
Love isn’t a burden. It’s
a gift.”

“
You say that now. I’ll
check back with you in a year or so, when your love is no longer a
fresh novelty.”

Deena remembered Tak’s words
in Chicago. “Relationships take work, Allison. Anything worth
having takes work.”

She sighed. “I know, I know.
And deep down I know John’s a good guy. But the lipstick didn’t
hurt any less. But I guess I was to blame for that as much as
he.”

“
How’s that?”

“
Haven’t you been
listening? I didn’t make my needs clear. Our relationship was never
spelled out in so many words. So when he got backed into a corner,
that’s what he relied on—the fact that we never specifically agreed
to a monogamous relationship—despite spending every day together.
And as angry as I was, I knew that technically he was right. While
I’d been committed to him, I’d never required the same of him. I
just…assumed.”

Allison watched as Tak
helped John to his feet. “I know you trust him and that’s good. You
should. All I’m saying is, don’t make the same mistake I
did.”

Tak watched Deena folded her
arms, face pinched with agitation. No sooner had they returned to
the hotel room than did she pulled him aside and began
ranting.

“
I swear to God, Deena, I
don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said after attempting to
follow her for several moments.

“
I’m talking about you,
Tak. And me. About…” She took a deep breath. “All I’m saying is, I
don’t want some big-breasted woman kissing on you!”

Wide-eyed Tak glanced past
Deena to John, who was busy pretending not to smile as he flipped
channels on the flat screen.

“
Outside. Now.”

Tak grabbed Deena’s wrist
and pulled her into the hallway.

“
What the hell was that?
What are you talking about?”

“
I don’t know. I
just—Allison said—”

“
Allison?”

“
Yes. Allison thinks,” she
took a breath, “I think that I need a commit from you.”

Deena took a deep breath and
tried again. “I need a commitment from you.”

Tak stared at her.
“O.k.”

“
O.k. what?”

“
O.k., you’ve got a
commitment from me.”

She blinked.

“
That all?” he
asked.

She lowered her gaze,
suddenly embarrassed. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“
Allison, I’m telling you,
you need to learn to mind your own business!”

“
And you need to learn to
keep your dick in your pants!”

Allison squared off before
John, fists balled.

John threw hands over his
face in exasperation. “Good, Lord! How many times do we have to do
this? I didn’t have sex with anyone and you know it!"

“
I know it? You don’t even
know it! How the hell am I supposed to know it?”

“
I’d know if I’d fucked
someone!”

“
How?”

“
I don’t’ know. I’d
just
know
.”

“
How? Cause your cock
wasn’t shiny when you got home?”

“
Listen,” John held out
hands before him as if attempting to calm him and her. “Could we
not do this right now? My cousin’s only here a few days. You said
you wanted to see him, and that’s the only reason you’re here. But
if you’re just going to fuck up his perfectly good relationship so
you can tear me down then you should just leave.”

Allison’s mouth fell
open.

“
Tear down? Tear you down?
How dare you! I have done everything for you! Everything! When my
father was going to flunk your ass—”

“
Oh! Here we go again! How
many times do I have to hear
that
shit? How many nights have I stayed up trying to
help your ass figure out some fine point of law?”

Allison glared at John
Tanaka, the six feet tall, broad shoulder, too oft-arrogant son of
a used car salesman who’d earned everything he had through a
combination of brains and brawn. She hated and loved him all at the
same time, and hated herself for both.

“
What did you end up
ordering?” John asked, peering into Tak’s brown paper bag as they
rode up the hotel elevator.

“
Chicken parm. And
you?”

John shrugged. “Whatever you
got. That’s what I told the guy. I said ‘give me what he’s
having.’”

Tak glanced at him. “No, you
didn’t.”

“
Yes, I did. I’m trying to
be more adventurous. Allison says I need to be more adventurous.
‘Like your cousin,’ she said. ‘He took his girlfriend on a cross
country trip on the spur of the
moment
,” John mocked.

Tak laughed. “And what did
you say? ‘ Fuck you?’”

John shook his head. “I
should’ve. But I said, ‘she wasn’t even his girlfriend when they
started.’ To which she answered,
‘well,
that’s worse!
”

Tak grinned. “Yeah, I’m not
really sure where you were going with that one.”

John shrugged. “Who knows
these days?”

He paused. “So, you say
she’s never been to a nightclub before? This’ll be her first
time?”

“
Not exactly. She went once
while we were in Atlanta.”

As the elevator rose, Tak
dug in his pocket for his room key.

“
Hundred bucks says I can
get Deena to dance before you.”

“
She’ll dance, John. She
just needs a little prodding. Your variation of it probably won’t
work though.”

“
Two hundred.”

Tak sighed. “John, I don’t
think you want to—”

“
Two fifty.”

“
All right. Your
funeral.”

They stepped off the
elevator. “Now remember,” Tak said as they arrived at the door. “I
don’t take sob stories and I don’t take checks.”

Allison stared at the white
pants suit with its conservative cut and frowned. “You’re not going
to wear that, are you?”

Deena froze. “What’s wrong
with my suit?”

“
Nothing. I mean, what is
it? Gucci?”

Deena nodded.

“
Well yeah, it’s a
beautiful suit, if you’re looking to sell some real estate or
something. But you’re going out to shake your ass.”

Allison disappeared in
search of the black duffle bag she brought.

“
You know, I haven’t
figured you out yet, Deena. You try your damnedest to hide shit the
rest of us are in line to buy. What gives?”

Deena frowned at Allison’s
backside as she dug through the bag. Before she could respond the
blonde stood, a dash of black fabric in her arms.

“
Here. Wear
this.”

“
I don’t even know what
that is.”

“
It’s a dress, Deena. Now
stop being my grandmother and put it on.”

Allison held it
out.

Deena shook her head.
“That’s what you were going to wear.”

“
I brought three outfits
with me, because I never can make up my mind. I’ll wear one of the
other two and you this. You’ve got the body for it, trust
me.”

Deena frowned. “I don’t
think I should.”

Allison held the dress. “I
know you should. It hugs and flows in all the right places and
Tak’s jaw will drop when he sees it.”

Deena hesitated. “You really
think he’ll like it?”

“
I know he
will.”

Tak froze at the sight of
Deena. Dark curly hair, soft tendrils falling onto creamy bare
shoulders, lips painted crimson, and pale brown eyes sharpened with
smoke-gray eye shadow. The black fabric sculpted her body, clinging
to a shelf of soft, supple cleavage with the tease of an ultralow
neckline. Tight from top to hem the dress split mid-thigh for a
dramatic flash of leg. Her tanned and toned calves were accentuated
with sleek black pumps.