There are Many Flowers in Tokyo

Chapter Five

Massages, facials, and long soaks in hot baths were the best cure for stress.

Lily had to wonder what the cost to have her own imitation hot-spring put into her London home would be. Then she remembered that she was trying to sell said home to recoup some of the money that Julian had cost her, and that she would need to begin the entire process of house hunting once again when she returned to London. The very idea was stressful enough that she considered returning to the hot-spring for another few hours. Perhaps even sleeping in the spa and refusing to leave it until it was time for them to fly home.

All the pampering in the world still wasn't enough to get Takashi out of her mind. She'd thought him quite affable when he'd first come to her rescue, but the way his girlfriend reacted must have been a reflection on past behaviour. A normal person wouldn't fly off the handle the first time she saw her boyfriend with another woman. She would wait and hear an explanation, and trust that he was being honest with her.

Lily was sure she wasn't the first woman Takashi had flaunted in front of his girlfriend.

If walking side by side could be called flaunting.

Either way, she was resolved to believe that Takashi had been the guiltiest party in the couple's spat, if only because her own experience of men had left her predisposed to think badly of them.

The dirty, cheating beasts.

Grace had called for room service, and a platter of fruit sat glistening and fresh on the coffee table. Lily had taken up residence on the sofa. Her feet were tucked up beneath her, her hair was bundled up in a towel, and she felt snug at last in a set of flannel pyjamas. Her sketchbook was in her lap, and she carefully studied the flowers in the welcome bouquet. They were captured in charcoal lines on the page, their petals turning elegantly, their stems long and graceful, and the bursts of leaves framing and supporting them.

Lily set down the pencil and reached out to take a slice of apple. It was crisp, cold, and exploded with sweetness on her tongue. Suffice to say, the fruit in Japan was far more refreshing than most of the fruit she'd eaten in London. If one wanted to find truly delectable fresh fruit, it was always worth heading to the international markets and speaking directly to the traders and greengrocers. Everything in the supermarkets was so bland by comparison. Although Lily despised the sense of entitlement one gained when they acquired any measure of wealth, she supposed she was guilty of indulgences from time to time. Fruit didn't seem much of an extravagance, but there were people in the world who couldn't afford a single apple, and here she was, rich enough to have an opinion on where to source the finest apples the world had to offer. She liked to think she'd be just as happy with an apple from a supermarket as she would a fresh, organic apple bought direct from some upscale open market, but she knew different.

If she was really as averse to wealth as she so often professed, she could have easily given it all up.

Yet, she hadn't.

Lily wrinkled her nose and put down the half-eaten slice of apple. All of a sudden, it tasted bitter and sour, and she'd lost her liking for it.

Grace entered the room from her suite, a towel in her hand which she used to dry the ends of her silver flecked hair. 'It's been a while since I've seen you draw.'

'It hasn't been that long.'

'Not once since you met Julian,' Grace said. 'That's over a year.'

Lily drummed her fingers against the drawing.

Had it been that long?

Now she thought about it, she couldn't remember the last time she'd touched a pencil or slowed down long enough to take the time to draw anything that wasn't a stupid doodle in the corner of a napkin in a bar. Julian had occupied so much of her time with his demands to be seen in public in high-end establishments that the months had flown by in an instant. Everything that she'd wanted to do or had loved before they'd met had been pushed aside for the sake of making him happy, and for making memories together.