Sushi for One? (12 page)

FOURTEEN

G
et your rear ends lower!” Lex clapped her hands to make the junior high girls pick up the pace of their drill.

She needed to hop to it and find an apartment. Something cheap.

“Lower!” She pointed at an eighth-grader who only crouched halfheartedly. The girl bent her knees and waist into a deeper crouch before exploding into a sprint to the next cone.

Lex needed to move fast. Dad’s house would sell quickly. But with the dismal housing market, could she find an apartment she could afford in only a few weeks?

“Move over for the girls behind you.” Lex signaled to a girl who stood panting at the end of the set of cones she’d just completed. She shifted out of the way as the next girl darted to the cone in a sprinting crouch, then straightened, also breathing heavily.

Now that she’d booted herself from the SPZ job, she needed to put more effort into another engineering position. The job listings on craigslist this morning hadn’t been encouraging.

“Bend your knees when you jump!” Lex slipped into the drill lineup and demonstrated with a deep squat before exploding up in a mock block. She then dropped to a defensive crouch and sprinted to the next cone. “You’re being slowpokes!” Lex straightened and clapped her hands again.

She had quit her job, and she’d soon be homeless. How could she even have time to think about getting a sponsor for this team — much less a boyfriend?

“You’re pushing them kinda hard today, aren’t you?” Vince, her assistant coach, leaned close and murmured low so the girls wouldn’t hear.

Lex moved away from his close proximity but absorbed his words. She sighed. Yeah, maybe she projected her frustrations on the team. She’d ease up —

She saw it happening and felt the pulse through her muscles as she tried to move in to prevent it. Her top hitter, Kathy, leaped into a blocking motion just as another girl sprinted toward her cone. As Kathy landed, her foot rolled off the other girl’s sneaker. A sickening
crunch-pop
echoed through the small gym.

At the sound, a blow of nausea hammered through Lex’s gut. It slowed her steps as she rushed to Kathy’s side. She didn’t want to look. What if the ankle lay twisted at a sickening angle? What if there was blood . . . ?

Lex took a deep, harsh breath, tightening her jaw, her neck, her shoulders. She dropped beside Kathy and swatted away the girls crowding her.

Kathy heaved with sobs. The ankle hadn’t swollen yet, but it would look like a grapefruit in a few minutes. The shoe needed to come off before the swelling welded it to her foot.

“This is going to hurt, Kathy.” Lex untied her shoe, grabbed her heel to stabilize her foot, and tried to ease the sneaker off.

“Owowow! Stopstopstop!”

Lex slowed her movements but didn’t stop. Kathy wailed. Finally the shoe dropped to the ground.

Lex tried to hide her concern. Kathy didn’t usually complain about pain — she’d taken hard dives to the floor without a word. This was bad.

“Let’s get her to urgent care. I’ll drive.” Maybe she had only sprained her ankle. If the team lost another player of Kathy’s caliber, they’d get tromped in playoffs this summer.

“I’ll carry her.” Vince stepped in and squatted beside her. “Both arms around my neck . . . good. Ummph!”

Lex ran to get her purse and gear. Her cell phone rang. “Hello?”

She shouldered her gym bag with a grunt.

“Alexis Sakai?” A vaguely familiar woman’s voice.

“Yes.” Lex followed at Vince’s heels.

“This is Wendy Tran from SPZ Human Resources.”

They were calling her to turn her down? Well, it was nicer than an email.

“Lex, what about practice?” One of the girls tugged at her shirt.

“Vince isn’t going, just me. Finish the drill.”

The girl groaned but went back to report to the other players.

“Miss Sakai?”

“Sorry . . .” What had been the woman’s name? “You were saying?” Lex fumbled for her car keys and hustled to beat Vince and Kathy to her car.

“It is my pleasure to offer you a position in the SPZ college division.”

“
What?
”

At that moment, Vince stumbled over the curb and Kathy let go of his neck. She bounced on the ground while he staggered onto one knee.

“Oh my gosh!” Lex rushed to Kathy.

“I’m so glad you’re pleased.” The SPZ HR woman sounded pleased herself.

“OW! OW OW OW OW OW!” Kathy clutched her ankle and rocked back and forth.

“Just hold it up.” Lex put a hand under Kathy’s thigh to keep the foot off the ground.

“Excuse me?” the HR woman asked.

“You said college division? — Kathy, honey, don’t squeeze your ankle — I never applied to the college division.”

“You didn’t? I have your application here and the offer letter from the director.”

“Sorry.” Vince knelt beside Kathy. “Let’s try this again.”

“No way!” Kathy tried to back up, but her heel bumped the ground, and she winced. “I don’t want to get dropped again.”

What was the woman’s name? Lex’s stupid memory. “Who gave you my application? Kathy, he won’t drop you again.”

“He will too!”

“I got it straight from the head of the department, Russell Davis.”

“Okay, Kathy, one, two, three, heave!” Lex clapped the phone closer to her ear. “Russell? Russell with the Stanford Indian on his briefbag?”

“Yes, that’s him.”

Whoa. Even with her skirt soaked with Pine-Sol and coffee decorating her shirt and who-knew-what on her hand? “What exactly is the position? Another receptionist? Put her right there, Vince.”

“You don’t know? It’s for Alumni Association Liason.”

“Oh.” Lex didn’t want to sound more ignorant, so she made her tone reflective and intelligent. She hoped.

“You’ll receive the offer letter tomorrow. Can you start work on Monday?”

“Yes!” That answer she knew. She climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Great. We’ll expect you at eight o’clock at the front desk, and we’ll take care of you from there.”

She was going to whoop Kin-Mun’s fanny this time.

Lex served the ball directly at the weakest passer, a tall front-row banger who would probably shank the ball. He did. It made for a frantic set, and the banger couldn’t get an effective hit.

Her team picked up the ball, and the setter ran a four that caught Kin-Mun’s defense by surprise.

Point.

She couldn’t resist doing a “laugh and point” at Kin-Mun on the other side of the net. They each had teams for this weekend tourna-ment — it was Kin-Mun versus Lex. That was all that mattered —bragging rights.

Two tall Caucasian men stood a few feet away. Both seemed to be staring intently at Lex.

What gives? She shrugged off an uncomfortable shiver as she served the next ball.

However, her serve went long, and the right wing passed the ball perfectly to the setter, who sent a perfect set to Kin-Mun, who made a perfect line shot. Side-out and point for his team.

Lex dropped to ready position. What would Kin-Mun’s serve be?

Probably a short floater.

Wait a minute, did that Caucasian guy just take a picture of her?

Lex shanked Kin-Mun’s deep, hard serve. Point, his team.

She ground her teeth together. She pounded a fist into her thigh, hoping the pain would make her focus.

Point. “Come on, guys, call your balls!”

Point. “Let’s pass! Come on!”

Point. “Double-block!”

Point. “Timeout!” Lex shifted onto one hip as she stood in the back row and waited for her team to gather around her. “What gives?”

One of her hitters eyed her. “You’re yelling a lot.”

“Am not! Er . . . Am not.” The two Caucasian guys were talking to each other, but peeking looks at her from time to time. They didn’t look at any other player. Lex was totally creeped out. “Let’s go, guys.

Let’s beat Kin-Mun — I mean, Kin-Mun’s team.”

Lex’s setter rolled her eyes.

They lost by five points.

Lex went to slap hands under the net with the other team, then dropped to the floor next to her bag. She sagged against the far wall as she sucked down her Gatorade.

When she closed her eyes, she saw all the dropped balls, the blocked hits, the shanked passes. Half of those had been hers. She couldn’t believe how badly she’d played. Those two guys and their creepy staring had rattled her game so much. Where were they?

Gone. Figures. She’d probably have walked up and slugged one of them. Yeah, the taller one. He’d go down harder.

“Lex, what happened? You disappointed me.” Kin-Mun dropped next to her.

She moaned into her hand. “Let me wallow in peace.”

Kin-Mun nudged her. “I have some news that will perk you up.”

Lex shifted away. “Nothing you can say would make me feel better.”

“Sure about that?”

His mischievous voice piqued her interest despite herself.

“What?”

“There’s an opening in Wassamattayu.”

Lex jolted. “No way! Are you sure?” The wait list for the prestigious sports club was years long. Lex had been on it for at least five.

Kin-Mun shrugged, but his smile said it all.

“Their volleyball team never has openings.”

“A woman dropped. The menisci in her knees are almost gone, so she can’t play anymore.”

Lex’s mind whirled. For a recreational player like herself, Wassa-mattayu was the pinnacle of her volleyball career. The club belonged to a national organization of other elite clubs, all with stringent athletic requirements for their various sports teams, so that tournaments between clubs were highly competitive. “I need to find out where I am on the waiting list.”

“Sorry, can’t help you there.”

“And I need to train for tryouts. How many women are they going to invite for tryouts?”

“Usually ten.” Kin-Mun glanced over at the court.

“I have to get picked.”

“My team’s reffing. Catch you later.” He hurried to get onto the court.

Not only had she always dreamed of getting into Wassamattayu sports club, it might solve all her problems. Membership wasn’t cheap,so all the members were not only stellar athletes, but the majority of them were quite solvent.

She’d be able to meet tons of wealthy, young players who might be open to sponsoring a girls’ volleyball team. Or she’d find her handsome, sensitive, Christian soulmate who would match her sports ability.

If she got invited to tryouts. If she was picked. And if she got the money for the membership deposit, due before tryouts and reimbursed if she wasn’t chosen.

It hadn’t been something she worried about when she’d been a moderately well-paid engineer at Pear. Lex had received her offer letter from SPZ, but it hadn’t shed any more light on the requirements of her position. While not paying minimum wage, it didn’t come close to her previous pay range.

Too many ifs.

The thought of Grandma’s ultimatum made her head ache. Lex couldn’t ask most of her Asian volleyball friends to sponsor her team — Grandma had gotten to them. But maybe she could try for the primary purpose of the ultimatum — a date.

Her gaze roved around the gym. Who could she ask to pose as a boyfriend?

No, she couldn’t do that. It had to be long-term or Grandma could pull funding if she and her date suddenly “broke up” after Mariko’s wedding.

Okay, who could Lex go on a date with? Her eyes went down the line of players lounging against the wall. Married, dating, married, married, dating, just broke up, just divorced, married, dating.

Who was single?

Jim, Steve, and Neal.

Jim still had that weird girl stalking him.

Steve was a little obsessed with his
Star Wars
figurine collection.

Neal complained too much about his volleyball injuries.

The volleyball community was too small. Lex knew pretty much everyone. She needed new blood.

SPZ would be new blood. And Wassamattayu, if she got in. Until then . . .

There were a few guys she didn’t know very well. As she went down the line, she realized they were all Caucasian.

Really?

She scanned the crowd again. Yup. The ones she didn’t know were mostly Caucasian or Hispanic men.

Am I racist? How awful. Is it because — ?

He
had been Caucasian.

She shuddered. She shoved the dark memory aside. These guys were probably all really nice. She should get to know them.

Sweat trickled down her neck. She discreetly sniffed.

Maybe later, when she smelled better.

FIFTEEN

F
irst day on the job.
Don’t mess it up.

Lex entered the SPZ lobby on Monday, and this time a perky twentysomething sat behind the receptionist’s desk. “Alexis Sakai.”

The girl typed in the name. “S-a-k-a-i?”

Lex blinked. “Yes.”

The girl exchanged a conspiratorial smile. “I’m a quarter Japanese.” She studied the screen, then picked up the phone. “Mr. Davis, Miss Sakai is here in the lobby.” She listened, then hung up. “He’s off to a meeting, but he’ll talk to you later. Grey Meyers will be meeting you here.” She printed out a name tag for Lex. “This is just temporary until you get your security badge.”

“How much are you getting paid?”
Aiyaaaah.
Lex and her big mouth. “I’m sorry — ”

The girl’s face had gone politely blank, but then she twinkled with impishness. “I’m in the high end for corporate receptionists. I demanded as much as some of these engineers.”

Lex gave a weak smile, but her knees started to shake. What had Russell seen in her? How could she be qualified to be a liaison “anything”? She gripped the edge of the receptionist’s desk and dug her fingers into the unyielding surface, welcoming the pain from her nails.

“Alexis?” A tall, thin young man rounded the corner of the receptionist’s desk. His pale eyes surveyed her impassively, as if he were shopping for toilet bowl cleaner.

“Call me Lex.”
Eeewww
, his handshake was like squeezing a wad of wet tissue paper.

“I’m Grey. We’re in the same group.”

Great. Her first coworker already gave her
Run away! Run away!
vibes.

He gave her a sly look from beneath half-lowered lids. “So, what’s your previous experience as an Alumni Association Liaison?”

What is this, another interview?
She clamped her jaw shut before the thought shot out of her mouth. Lex glanced at the receptionist, who discreetly rolled her eyes. It gave her courage. “Russell thought the superior aspects of my background would help me do a good job.”

There, she’d been nice and tactful.

Grey led the way to the stairway behind the desk. “I was just curious.”

Curious, my foot.

They ascended the stairs together. “The last AAL was Judy Baloney. She quit after her maternity leave ran out.”

“You must have been sad to lose her.”

Grey shrugged. “Not really.”

Lex stumbled on the steps. He gave her a sardonic look.

“You didn’t like her?” Lex wondered if God would consider this gossip. But she needed to know Judy’s mistakes so she wouldn’t repeat them.

Grey shrugged again. “She was eye candy.”

“
Say what?
” Lex’s tact crumbled, since Grey obviously had none.

“She didn’t know much about sports, and the alumni associations didn’t respect her all that much.” A fierce expression zapped onto his face, then disappeared. He turned a carefully insipid look on her.

“Several men within the company jostled for a transfer to her spot.”

Aaaaahh.
Lex was beginning to understand. Except she wasn’t another Judy Baloney. “Then Russell certainly picked the right person when he hired me.”

Grey’s eyes hardened. “Tigh Anders was surprised Russell hired you.”

Tigh? Mr. Hands from the club? “How strange. I never interviewed with Tigh or gave him my résumé. Does he hire by how well someone dances or something?” She bared her teeth at him. She almost growled and barked.

Surprise widened his eyes for a second, then those lazy half-lids concealed his thoughts again. He shrugged.

Lex frowned. If she wanted to be summarily dismissed, she’d have stayed at Pear.

They entered a large area crammed with cubicles. Lots of male voices. It reminded her of those movies about Wall Street traders, except apparently not all of them were on the phone.

“Lex, this is Dan and Jordan.” A Caucasian and an African American man cut off their conversation when they saw her. Speculative gazes pinned her to the floor.

An iron rod slammed down Lex’s spine. She returned a gimlet stare.

“Welcome to the team.” Dan’s voice had a menacing thread.

“Lot of work.” Jordan’s hard eyes flickered over her masculine work suit. A thin hand scratched the scruff on his narrow chin.

Lex crossed her arms. “I’m used to hard work.”
Watch out, bucko, I’ ll arm-wrestle you under the table too.

He flexed a scrawny bicep.

She cracked her knuckles.

Grey interrupted the testosterone-estrogen duel. “This way’s your office.”

I get an office?
Luckily, Lex’s teeth still ground together from her circling with Jordan, so she didn’t blurt it out and advertise her ignorance. These boys reminded her of her male cousins. She had rolled with enough punches and knew how to hit their soft spots.

Lex followed Grey down the row of cublicles.

“Here’s your office.” Gee, Grey’s voice could have been a tad more resentful.

Office? More like closet, and not the walk-in kind. It looked like Judy left in a whirlwind — papers scattered on the floor, dirt and purple petals dusting the carpet around a circle where a flowerpot had rested, the occasional waft of nail polish remover. Some sparkly flower stickers, painted butterflies, and cut-out hearts decorated the front of the metal file cabinet. An emery board and a half-open, mostly-used eyeshadow compact lay next to the desk leg.

And on top of the desk, a stack of pink “While you were out” slips. Lex caught the dates on some of the top ones — today.

Were they all — ? She flipped through the stack. They were all from today. And a couple from Sunday too.

Grey had an almost amiable smile as he watched her sift the pieces of paper. Did her dismay blare out from her face? “There are also messages from last week in the desk drawer. Enjoy.”

He closed the door when he left, which doubled the floor space in her “office.” She squeezed around the edge of her desk to get behind it and collapsed into the squishy chair.

The little pink message slips giggled at her.

She planted her elbows on the desk and buried her face in her hands. She didn’t even know what to do. Looked like Judy had been cute and feminine — how could Lex fit those stilettos?

A firm knock at the door. More roosters come to strut? “Come in.”

Russell Davis entered with the first friendly smile she’d seen since that nice receptionist. “Sorry about that, I had a meeting.”

“That’s fine.” Lex climbed to her feet.

“No, no, there isn’t enough room to stand.” Russell had to walk all the way inside in order to close the door. He perched on her desk —taking up half the surface area — while she sat back down. Somehow his proximity didn’t crowd her.

Might as well begin as she meant to go on. “So, Russell, why did you hire me?”

He laughed. “Did it surprise you?”

She thought of the HR woman’s call. And the magnificent timing of it. “That’s one way to put it.”

He peered out the window into the back parking lot. “Well, when we talked, you demonstrated all the traits of who I wanted for this position.”

“That’s another thing. What exactly is this position?”

His eyes crinkled in laughter. “That’s right, you don’t know yet.

The Alumni Association Liaison is like a receptionist specifically for college alumni associations. You’re the intermediary between them and SPZ. Information, scheduling, promotion, news. You answer questions or find the answers, forward requests, implement suggestions. Alumni associations deal solely with you as the representative of SPZ.”

“How in the world am I going to be able to do all that? I’m a manufacturing engineer, for crying out loud.”

“Our last liaison — ”

“Yeah, I heard about her already.”

He studied the dirt pattern on the carpet with a brittle expression.

“The AAs didn’t warm up to her, and she didn’t relate to any of their representatives. You will.”

“How do you know that?”

He smiled, and the lines deepened on his face. “You know a lot about college sports, and not just the major ones.”

She flipped her memory back to their conversation. “For all you know, I could only be familiar with wrestling, basketball, and baseball.”

“True, but I could also tell you’re the sort who wouldn’t mind learning other sports if you had to.”

Lex tilted her head. “Well, that’s true.” She nodded at the closed door, then met his gaze directly. “There are a lot of guys out there who wanted this job.”

He grinned. “You can take ’em.”

“I’m serious, Russell.”

“They don’t understand that the AAs, by and large, prefer dealing with a female liaison.” He shrugged.

It probably wasn’t right, but Lex wasn’t about to complain.

Russell continued, “But I also didn’t want another woman like the previous liaison.”

Lex glanced at the sickening stickers, butterflies, and hearts on the filing cabinet. “Well, I can assure you I’m nothing like her.”

“I knew you weren’t. You’re right for the job. And I think you’ll enjoy it.” He got off her desk, backed up a step, and yanked open the door.

Three men bolted to their feet from a crouching position.

Russell glared.

They froze.

“Don’t you have work?” His tone could have made a volcano ice over.

They scattered.

He turned back to her and nodded at the pile of pink slips. “For today, return those phone calls. Introduce yourself so the AAs know there’s been a changing of the guard.”

“Okay.”

“If you have questions — ”

“I’ll bully one of the guys.”

He grinned and walked out of her office.

Lex booted up her computer. The IT department had already sent someone to reset the user. “ASakai” had been preprogrammed into the login window. Password? She typed in “ASakai” again
.

Voila.

Aaaah. She could always tell a good company by their IT department.

She already had email. Wendy Tran — that’s what that HR chick’s name had been! — had arranged for her orientation at 2:00 p.m. in the HR department. That meant she had to answer these calls this morning.

Lex picked up the first slip. Arizona State. Mark Burns.

Deep breath. What did Russell say? People hadn’t related to Judy.But what had Judy done? Said? How could Lex know she wouldn’t do the same thing and alienate this Mark guy? She’d mess up on her first day at work. She’d be a total failure.

Deep breath again. She needed to think for a second here. Russell had implied that Judy hadn’t known much about sports. Well, Lex didn’t know about every college sports program in every college in the U.S. What if she congratulated Arizona State on their terrific golfing team when the University of Arizona had just whooped their butts in the last tournament? She’d ruin SPZ’s reputation and the company would fold.

Deep breath one more time. Pull a Nike. Just do it.
You’re only introducing yourself. And if you mess up and they fire you, you won’t be any worse off than you were last Friday.

She dialed.

“Arizona State Alumni Association. This is Mark.”

“Hi, Mark. I’m Lex Sakai from SPZ.”

“Who?”

“Lex Sakai. I’m the new Alumni Association Liaison.”

“They got rid of Judy?”

“No, she left because she got pregnant.” Ooops, that didn’t come out right. “I mean, she left for personal reasons.”

Mark muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “Good riddance.”

Lex cleared her throat. “Anyway, I was calling to let you know — ”

“Did you get my message — I left it for Judy — about the web advertising for the new PAC – 10 volleyball tournament we’re hosting?”

“Cool! You’re hosting a volleyball tournament?” That came out only a little lower than a squeal. “I mean, how exciting.” What a lucky break — she could hang with college volleyball.

“This year, we’ve invited Arizona, Washington, and Cal.”

“Oh, the game between ASU and Washington should be really good. Their new coach is building a strong team.”

“Yeah, but we’ve just got a freshman who was originally red-shirted. Outside hitter, six-foot-six.”

“Who?”

“Lorianne Lee.”

“Chinese?”

“Half. Mother is Swiss.”

“I’m looking forward to watching her, then.”

“Yup.” The pause seemed thoughtful rather than awkward. “You follow baseball?”

Lex racked her brain. She remembered watching a little ASU baseball. “You guys doing okay this year?”

“Shaky.”

“Well, your captain graduated. He was great last year.”

“Yeah, he held the team together like Elmer’s. The new captain’s Dave Garrett.”

“Oh, I remember him. He’s not bad. I think if they give him a few months, he’ll get the hang of it.”

“Yeah, I think so too. Well, it was nice talking to you, Lex. If you’re ever in Phoenix, give me a call. I’ll get you tickets to anything playing that weekend. Even football.”

Whoa!
“Thanks, Mark. I appreciate that. Anyway, can you email to me the info on the advertising you wanted for the volleyball tournament? I’ll get right on that.” She had no clue what she needed to do, but she felt good enough to take on all those jealous chumps out there in the cubicles. “A-S-A-K-A-I at SPZ.com.”

“Sure, I’ll do that. Thanks, Lex.”
Click.

“Yes!” Lex punched the air with a triumphant fist.

Blip.
Oh, she got an email. A sitewide bulletin. “SPZ sponsorship program.” Huh? She clicked on it.

Suddenly, a head popped into her open doorway. Grey, peeking in at her. Except his eyes had expanded to the size and color of softballs. “Whoa.”

“What?”

“You know sports.”

“Duuuh. That’s why Russell hired me.” Her gaze flickered to the email.
Starting in the fall quarter, SPZ will offer —

“No, I mean you really know sports.”

Lex dragged her gaze away from her computer screen. “What —you think someone needs a
Y
chromosome to know sports? Think again, buddy.” She turned back to the message
— SPZ will offer full sponsorship to three local youth club teams —
“No, I just — ”