Bad Boy vs Millionaire (3 page)

My
phone buzzed again. I figured it was Hannah, still lost. She'd be wandering around Tokyo forever the way I was going.

But
it wasn't Hannah. It was a message forwarded from Hannah's business account.

I
slipped out of class and returned the call. It seemed important. And it was. The most important. Well as far as Storm went, it was huge. A massively important offer and I'd been left in charge of the management. When I ended the call, I was covered in a sheen of sweat. I'd heard the words the man said but couldn't put them together. It was all just jibber jabber to me. And it sounded big time. Really big time. About to break through level big time. I didn't want to fuck this up. I needed Hannah. I had to talk to Hannah, now. But an overseas phone call, that would cost a fortune. I'd told Hannah to get onto Skype in case I needed to talk but Hannah hadn't listened.

How
was I going to deal with this kind of business stuff? Things were supposed to be simple while Hannah was away. I'd said I'd take care of the band because it was going to be just the regular day-to-day stuff. Then, bam, out of nowhere, the biggest offer of their career, and only me to deal with it.

“
Are you sure you know where you are going? We've driven around this same block about 20 times already.”

Tamaki
made a little snort noise. I still wasn't sure what to think of Tamaki. He was dressed much more casually than he had been the day before but it was a very studied type of casual. Like he'd had a fashion stylist arrange every item of clothing to get the right effect. The shirt carefully untucked from his waist at the side, the hat at a certain angle. I thought about the careless, bed-tousled scruffiness of Jack Colt. He never even thought about his clothes yet somehow managed to look just right.

Last
night, at dinner, my father had pushed us into spending the day together. Tamaki had wanted to take me sightseeing but I’d said I wanted to go shopping.

“
I'm trying to find somewhere to park. I don't really know this area that well. Can you see any parking lots?”

“
How come you don't know this area? You live in this city don't you? And even my friend back home knows about it. She said it's where all the hip people shop.” I stopped talking, realising that, while Tamaki might be incredibly rich, he probably wasn't at all what Angie would call hip. I also remembered, not so long ago, when I had no idea about the “hip” parts of town and probably would have had no idea how to get there.

Still
, he’d done me a favour. After seeing all the narrow, twisting streets in this part of town, I realized I’d have been lost within 5 minutes. I kept watch for somewhere to park while we crawled through the tiny streets. I wasn’t even sure if some of these places were shops. It looked as if people just opened the front room of their houses and put their wardrobe on display, sometimes even hanging clothes off the nearby cinder block walls. It seemed crazy to me that people even lived with their houses fronting onto the streets. No garden, no nature strip, just stepping from the street into your front door.

A
girl in a whirl of neon rode on a bike beside us, her lime green fake fur jacket engulfing her. She managed to pedal her bike in the highest heels imaginable.

I
peered into a tiny shop as we waited for her to pass, the random assortment of junk spilling into the street. Then I spotted a sign.

“
Is that one up there?”

“
Where?”

“
That place with a big 'P' on the sign?”

“
Well spotted, Hannah.”

Huh,
did he think he was British or something? Actually he did seem very British. Like he'd watched too many British movies and had been impersonating them.

“
This is a car park, right?” I asked as we pulled into a tiny space between two houses that seemed to be held together with unpainted wood and rusted corrugated iron.

Tamaki
nodded.

“
But there’s only two parking spots. Don’t they belong to the houses?”

Tamaki
seemed confused by my question. Well, if he was wrong and his car got towed away, it wouldn’t be my problem.

The
car slid into the parking space easily, despite the narrow space. It was a very nice car, I had to admit. Very modern with the gadgetry of a space ship. I wouldn't have been surprised if it could drive itself. Maybe he should've set it to circle the block while we went shopping.

I
figured he'd be more of a drag than an asset on the shopping trip. At least he could carry my stuff. I'd seen about six shops at least I wanted to check out, including one men's store that would have super awesome stuff for the band. If I bought band stuff during this trip, could I write it off on tax? Maybe not, since Dad was paying for everything anyway.

“
These streets are a maze. I hope we can make it back to the car.”

“
You have GPS on your phone, don't you?” What a thing to worry about. I looked around. The streets were very twisty but the sun shone down and it made me feel like just around the corner could be an adventure waiting to happen. I really had nothing to worry about. I needed a few days of chilling out. Shopping and sightseeing. Being with Tamaki wasn’t a hardship either, even if he didn’t seem to have much of a sense of humour. Who needs humour when you have that smile and those cheekbones? A nice holiday and then I could go back to normal.

Except
there was no normal. There was no home. I'd left all my stuff, except for my two suitcases, with Angie to look after until I returned.

What
was home then?

The
image that flashed into my mind was the strong arms wrapped around me at the train station. Just when life was at its shittiest, when I thought I'd lost everything, he came out of nowhere. I hadn't even questioned him at first, just let his arms surround me, feeling him crush me into him. I had been oblivious to everything, even the beeping of the train door until my legs got squished and the doors banged painfully into my thighs.

I'd
screamed, anchoring myself to Jack Colt. He’d prised the doors open and set me free. I had nothing worse than a nasty bruise on my leg but I collapsed in relief from the shock.

I'd
leaned against his chest, gasping for breath and maybe even whimpering a little. He held me until I felt safe. Then the manager side of my brain kicked in and I realised he should be in the television studio giving the performance of his life instead of rescuing me.

Is
that what I wanted to return to? Because mixed up with those gooey feelings of his strong arms and the comfort of his chest, were the demons sticking pitchforks in my brain. Those forks reminded me that he'd betrayed my trust. I could never take anything he said or did at face value.

As
we walked around the corner, a narrow street of shops appeared before us. I grinned at the potential. I wanted to pull out my camera and take photos but I thought it might be a bit dorky and touristy. Still, these shops were so incredibly cute, especially the one with the whitewashed front and all the baskets of fake flowers adding a riot of colour. And all the signs around me with random English words made me grin.

“
Hey, shops. I need to buy things. Then I need to drink more coffee then I need to buy more things. That's my plan.”

Tamaki
smiled at me. The kind of smile you give an indulged child, which would have annoyed me except I intended to use him as a pack horse for all my shopping.

I
ran into the first shop I came to, exclaiming at the awesomeness of everything. I picked up a skirt to try on while ducking under a tree branch suspended from the ceiling.

“
Um, Hannah, you realise that skirt is… “ He lowered his head as if to tell me something shocking, “… second-hand.”

I
flinched for a moment but the skirt was really cute and I was sure it'd been washed before they put it in the shop. Anyway, if I came home with cool vintage shit, Angie would go gaga.

“
You… you might get a rash or something. At least buy it without trying it on then you can make sure it's clean before you get home.”

Something
about the way he said it made me want to put the skirt on and wear it all day.

I
looked around for the counter or a sales assistant but couldn't see either. There was a table that might be considered a counter, covered in buttons and badges and, slap-bang in the middle, sat a stuffed owl. I walked over and a girl popped up with bright blue hair and a chain running from her nose piercing to her ear. It made me realise that I'd not seen people with piercings or tattoos or anything like that since I'd got there.

She
beamed at me and I wondered if she could speak English. I didn't trust Tamaki to translate that I wanted to try on the skirt.

“
You are so cute,” the girl said, reaching out to touch my hair.

“
Can I try this on?” I asked.

“
Sorry, no change room.” The girl gestured around the shop. There really wasn't any space for a change room among the racks of clothing.

I
smiled and paid for the skirt.

We
wandered around some more shops. I couldn't help but buy stuff. Stuff for me. Stuff for Eric. I thought about buying stuff for Jack. I found some awesome t-shirts, but somehow it felt weird to be buying clothes for him. I bought them anyway. I didn't have to give them to him.

“
Can we stop for coffee now?” Tamaki had his arms full of my shopping bags but he hadn’t complained. You didn't have to ask me twice about coffee.

I
spotted a cute coffee shop with paintings of bats all over the outside.

“
I don't know if they'll make good coffee. I was thinking of going somewhere else. Somewhere in a different neighbourhood. Maybe somewhere more… stylish.”

Tamaki
hung back but I thought the little cafe looked charming. The whole neighbourhood with its graffitied walls and little shops and narrow little streets leading to more shops and more cafes and bars delighted me. It made me feel a whole lot more like I was on holidays than being in a street of designer shops that looked exactly the same as every city in the world. Was I forgetting how to be rich? Was it like algebra? Something you forgot the minute you no longer needed it?

I
sat down on a cushion at a low table while Tamaki ordered. I wasn’t sure what to do with my legs, if I should be kneeling or folding them. Also, I wondered if they had cake. How did you say “cake” in Japanese anyway?

The
only other people in the tiny cafe were a couple, both dressed in leopard print outfits. He had long, black hair and huge metal rings on all his fingers. He was also wearing more eyeliner than she was.

Tamaki
returned and sat down, his long legs sprawling out from under the table.

“
This place is quaint. Is that what you say?”

He
smiled at me and it changed his face from the stern mask into something charming. I nodded that you would indeed call it quaint. The waitress, dressed as a bunny, sat our cups down on the table. I looked at the tiny little teacup, thinking that it barely held enough coffee to sustain me, and tried to hook my finger through the tiny handle. Not great coffee but drinkable.

“
You really like coffee?”

“
It's one of the things that make life worth living.”

Tamaki
picked up the glass containing a single flower blossom from the table and twisted it in his hand.

“
Hannah.” He looked up at me. “Your name, Hana, means flower in Japanese.”

I
smiled, not really sure want to reply to that.

“
Do you want some French toast?”

“
Hell yeah!”

“
Ah, good because I order you some.”

I
smiled for real this time. At this moment, Tamaki was my favourite person in the whole world. My affection was easily bought with French toast.

“
You bought a lot of things for your friend. A close friend?”

“
Angie, yes. She really helped me out a lot over the last few months. A lot more than most of my other so-called friends. And now she's looking out for my band for me.”

“
Band?”

“
Yes, I manage a band. Didn't my father tell you?”

I
wondered just what Dad had said. Had he told them that he'd lost all his money and was pretty much on the run? Had he told them he'd left me behind with no money and just the contract to manage Storm? I didn't want to say too much and mess things up for Dad but it really was a pain not knowing what to say.

“
That must be a fun hobby. Maybe I should do something like that? It would be novel to have a fun, I think.”

What
was with this guy? Didn't he have fun? I didn't want to correct his English but I did notice that when he got enthused about something the grammar slipped a little. At least he’d started to warm up a bit instead of being all aloof.

“
What do you do? With your friends, I mean.”

Tamaki
stared at the girl working behind the counter. “Do you think it's hygienic for her to working as a rabbit? My friends… we go out drinking, clubbing. Normal things. We went to university together and now we all work for our family companies. We have the same problems so it's good to be able to talk amongst ourselves with that understanding but sometimes…”

Even
though he didn't finish the sentence, I knew exactly what he meant. It was easy and comfortable but not very exciting.

“
Sometimes people need more than work and shopping and going skiing, right.”

I
laughed. They sure did. Even with the credit card Dad had given me and the orders to spend up, I still only wanted to wander around these little shops, poking around at all the interesting things. I had no desire to go on a spree at designer boutiques.