Loud

Chapter 10 - The Best Laid Plans of Robert Pirone

There was no way in hell Rob would introduce Makiko to Brian Keating. Not a chance.

The cobblestone streets in the immediate neighborhood of the Peter Rabbit-like coffee shop were lined with boutiques. The area was permanently closed to traffic. Unknown to Makiko, Cynthia lurked somewhere nearby. If Makiko held her emotions in check because she believed Rob was some sort of sexual deviant, Cynthia's account of what really happened between him and those crazy high school girls would alleviate her doubts.

Rob couldn't wait for Cynthia to do her thing.

"Are we in a hurry?" Makiko said.

He slowed down. "No, sorry. Getting ahead of myself." Cynthia knew the stores he planned to visit and had promised to ambush them in front of one. "We've done a lot of shopping lately." He wanted to propose some other activity for the future.

A taxi edged around a barricade. Makiko slipped through on the opposite side and Rob followed. They traversed the narrow shoulder of a congested road on the outskirts of the no-drive zone. When Rob gave a group of elderly women more space, they passed with grateful smiles and cute, wrinkled faces. Though a few decades his senior, his enjoyment of them brought on a vision of frisky final days in a nursing home. He watched them pass, unsure what to think of such thoughts. If he was a sexual deviant, he was confident God did not mind.

He caught up to Makiko. "After the Gears leave and things quiet down, maybe we can do something besides shopping."

"Like what?" A sly smile appeared on her face.

Toying with him. How wonderful. "Mountain climbing maybe? Sumo? You could teach me the ins and outs of it."

"My stepfather's a big fan."

More teasing? "Yukiko could come too," he said.

The tip of her thin nose flashed as she shook her head. "Bad idea. There will never be peace between you two."

Rob did not have a response to that. And Makiko was probably right.

They stopped at an intersection. The street was narrow enough to hurl a medicine ball across.

"People recognize you," Makiko said.

"Yeah?"

"I overhear them."

"Well, this is a fashionable area and photography is de rigueur. That's French." Luckily, she smiled. Across the street, curved marble stairs rose one palatial step at a time to the entrance of a men's clothing store. Suits and shirts buttressed the building's windows for four floors. "A citadel of commerce," Rob said. Monumental consumerism made him nauseous. He took a deep breath. He really had to get them doing something besides shopping.

Actually, his nausea was also a form of deja vu. It came from waiting at the pedestrian light, which was what they were doing when those two high school girls ruined their first reunion. This time, things would be different.

Rob searched for Cynthia. To make her claim as a Roppongi reveler believable, she had promised to wear something a little risqué, anything except a high school uniform. There was no sign of her now. Even though she seemed more reliable than most sixteen or seventeen year olds, he worried something she considered more important had come up.

The light changed. "What's it like being famous?" Makiko said as they crossed.

He lingered at the bottom of the stairs, in case Cynthia closed in on them. "Well, most people don't recognize me. It's only happening today because the Gears are coming and my exhibit will open soon."

Makiko moved up a step.

"I hate shopping," he admitted.

"I know. Don't worry, I'll do the thinking."

"You mean the talking."

"I mean both." Her eyes flared like those of an indignant straight A student, her childhood assertiveness finally back.

"Do you remember playing soccer in Cambridge?" he said.

"Yeah, you told your friends the coach was a lesbian."

He put a foot on the next step. "But she was. We were drinking buddies for a time, so I know."

Makiko closed her eyes, shook her head, and smiled. The interview with Yuri Kameyama had changed things. She accepted more of him now, it seemed. Maybe he did not need Cynthia's help after all. When the light changed another time, more people crossed the street and came up the wide stairs. "Let's get this over with," he said, hurrying up a few more steps toward the clothing store. Makiko sprinted past on her high heels. "Hey," he said, surprised by her agility.

"Come on, slow poke." She looked over her shoulder and grimaced.

Someone slid their arms around him and squeezed his chest. That someone tongued his ear. He peeled off the manicured hands and spun around. Make-up caked Cynthia's face. "Just me, sexy," she said, bouncing her dirty blond hair. A schoolgirl uniform's skirt, yanked high, exposed her taut inner thighs. A little more movement would reveal everything. "I knew it was you from your yummy butt," she said.

"Cynthia?" He had specifically requested she wear anything but a school uniform. Given what had happened before, he was afraid Makiko would walk off at the sight of one.

Makiko frowned.

"Um - this is Cynthia," Rob said.

Cynthia thrust her large breasts at them. They pressed against her tight white button shirt. "My friends told me they saw you with a flat-chested bitch. This her?"

Makiko did not move. If she did, he planned to follow. Fearing she might run, he latched onto her wrist. She did not yank free, thank God. "Cynthia, what on earth are you doing?" Rob said.

"Why do her when you have us?"

He stared into Cynthia's brown eyes. The Cynthia he knew was hiding in there. What he saw was fear and discomfort. Maybe Makiko could not see it, but Cynthia's lying took effort. She was not a skilled actress or seasoned wench. "You're shaking. You know I refused to touch any of you. This isn't a joke, Cynthia. This is my daughter. Why are you lying?"

"I don't give a damn who she is. You said you'd call us." Cynthia ran her hand down the pleats of her skirt. "Call her your daughter if you want, but this uniform's real." She lifted her skirt, flashing a bare hip and a mound of shiny red panty. After her skirt fell, she glared at Makiko.

Makiko stuck her hand into her bag. "Go or I'll call the police."

"As soon as you turn your back, he'll run to me."

"She's lying," Rob said. This was not salvageable. "Let's go."

"I'm not going." Afterwards, Makiko spoke Japanese into her phone.

Cynthia sauntered down a few steps. "Call me, Rob."

He thought of Brian Keating. "Are they paying you to do this, Cynthia? Like they paid your friends?"

"No one's paying except you, sexy." Cynthia slipped her shiny red panties out from under her skirt and down her bare legs. She lifted one foot, then the other. "Remember me." The scrap of material landed on Makiko's shoe. Makiko jerked her foot and flicked it away.

When Cynthia entered the crosswalk, other women steered clear.

"Don't go," Rob said to Makiko. "I can explain."

Makiko snapped her phone shut. "I don't want to hear it."

Do you think Cynthia betrayed Rob for money?

Who will rescue him now...?!

FYI: The scene with Yuri Kameyama in Ch. 9 and the events in this chapter take place from Makiko's point of view in Ch. 16 of QUIET.