Married to the Mafia

Chapter 6

"I'm sorry I'm late!"

I smiled as I stood up to hug Momoi before we both sat back down. We were at the cafe downstairs of the Akashi building. She had been unable to make to my party because of work so we had agreed to catch up today. 

"Don't worry, work is work, I ordered you some waffles and a latte."

"Oh your an angel, thank you Tetsu-chan. Work has just been crazy lately! So many new contracts and we are expanding overseas."

"It must be with the president back."

Her eyes widened but the waitress appeared with her food and I concentrated on cutting up my own food.

"You know? I promise I only found out last night when he came here."

"I only know because he rocked up at my party last night. I wonder how he knew about that?"

"I didn't tell him, I promise. He said he had somewhere important to be, he must have been looking for you and he must have never forgotten your birthday. Did you guys talk?"

"Sure we did. Seven years apart and he dropped to his knees to confess his ever lasting love to me and asked me to be his husband."

"You don't have to narky."

"What did you expect Momoi? He left me, or are you forgetting that? Disappeared without a trace in the middle of the night without a word and nothing until last night and there was no I miss you, or I'm sorry, his first words in seven years were an order."

"But in what context? And he found you, on your birthday what did he get you?"

"Can we not talk about it, please?"

I dug into my food and we were silent for a while. Momoi was a strong believer that Akashi did and still loved me. That there was a reason for what he had done and it had strained our friendship in the early days. We had finally moved on but it was like we were back to square one now that he was back in town. 

"So," I closed me eyes, recognising her tone and that this conversation wasn't over.

"Did you guys talk about it?"

"No. He just appeared as if the past seven years hadn't even happened. Like he had just gone out for coffee  or something. We didn't speak much, he wished me happy birthday, got me a present and then we arranged to have a family dinner on Monday."

I stabbed a fork into the cake in front of me and glared at it.

"Just like old friends, nothing more."

I continued to stab at the desert, imagining a certain red head until Momoi reached out and gently grabbed my wrist, stopping the violent movement.

"It's been five years since you started dating, stopped talking and thinking about him. I thought you had moved on."

"I know it has and I have, really but, I wanted some sort of emotion from him but there was nothing! And I know him, just as well as you do, I know he doesn't show emotion, doesn't let people see that side of him but I, I don't know I just wanted something. An apology or an explanation as to why he left without a word. I thought he loved me, I certainly loved him."

I put my head in my hands and sighed.

"God I'm a mess."

Momoi nodded to one of the workers who walked past before turning back to me and reaching out to grab my hand. 

"Look Akashi, he's, well he's different from you and I."

I snorted, that had to be the understatement of the century.