Mamachari Matchmaker – Chapter 4

ERIKO

I can feel my mamachari behind me begin to squirm as I lay the plastic container on the blanket in front of Henry.

“Do you like sushi?” I ask, opening the lid. “I made some just an hour ago. Avocado and crab, tuna, and cucumber. I only made the plain kinds. Sorry.” I spent an hour making sushi after spending the morning filling donation bags with stuffed animals in my quest to be a little more mature.

“Don’t be,” he responds, his eyes trained on the three dozen rolls I cut into bite sized pieces.

“Please have some.” I wave at the box, and he grabs a piece of tuna with his fingers and pops it into his mouth, humming with pleasure. Hmmm, I’m not used to foreign men liking sushi. Maybe I’m naive, but I imagine them eating hamburgers and french fries. I don’t have much experience with foreigners, so I’m probably wrong.

“This is delicious. I love sushi and eat it everyday.” Henry’s wavy brown hair flops down over his eyes as he reaches in for another roll. Something about him feels familiar to me, and with his enthusiasm for my food, I start to relax. “There’s a little restaurant around the corner from school that sells bento boxes. I get one almost everyday.”

“You can save a lot of money by making your own.”

“I know,” he says, smiling. Crinkles form at the corners of his dark green eyes, and I stop to stare at how different they are. I only see green eyes in my manga. “But my kitchen is the size of this blanket and there’s no room to make anything.”

“Where do you live?” I lean forward and draw my legs up to my chest after popping a roll into my mouth. I’m glad I wore crop pants today, but I didn’t forgo the pandas on my shirt. I was going to wear my panda shoes but I opted for the more grown-up black flats I have.

“On the other side of the park.” He waves his hand across the lawn and pond from us. That area is full of restaurants, office buildings, and apartment buildings (mansions, as we call them). I know that Mika’s school is over there, too. She leans into our conversation.

“Are you guys talking about school? I’m beat after this week. Definitely not ready to go back tomorrow.”

I shut my mouth again. Mika is a wonderful person and a good friend to my coworker, Asa, but she’s also drop dead gorgeous and men fall all over her. I can’t compete.

Henry laughs and nods his head. “The kids were possessed this week.”

“Your Japanese is really good!” I exclaim, and everyone at the blanket rolls their eyes and laughs. My face heats.

“Thanks,” he says, “but I hear that all the time. Why is it so many people can’t believe foreigners can speak Japanese?”

“I’m so sorry.” I barely eke out a response. How horrifying. I should get out more often. “My job hardly ever deals with foreigners. I’m just a secretary at a law firm and our clients are Japanese with domestic issues.”

“And they’re boring too,” Asa exclaims, laughing. Everyone laughs with her and eases the tension in my shoulders.

Henry smiles eating another roll, and I take a sip of water to cover my embarrassment. I hate being the center of attention unless I’m dressed up. I’ve been here less than an hour and I’m ready to get the heck out of here.

“Do you just teach English?” I try to steer the subject to him so I can leave behind my social blunder.

“I do, but I’m also an assistant coach for the soccer team, and I help with the manga club, too.”

“Manga club? I love manga.”

His lips quirk to the side. “I’m not surprised by that. All the Japanese kids love manga. But here’s where I make things interesting. I take the English translated manga, and I make them read that.”

“Oh! That’s a great idea. I’d like to read some of those, but I’m not into the girly, shojo manga, so I doubt there would be many for me.”

Henry pops another piece of sushi in his mouth and it doesn’t escape my notice that he’s hogging all of my food, mainly because my friends are smiling and leaving us alone. My new bike isn’t the only one that wants to set me up on dates.

I play it cool, though inside I’m a billion degrees, and sit back to stare up into the bright blue sky. It’s a beautiful day and I’m glad I made it out.

“Work on your English,” Mamachari whispers at me. “It’s only fair.”

I slide my eyes to the bike and sigh. It won’t be happy until I try.

“I only like manga science fiction,” I say in English. Henry blinks at me a moment before smiling.

“Well, your English is pretty skilled as well!” He laughs, and my face heats. Ugh. Why did I even try? I’m so bad at this, I should give up. My father always instilled his lessons of “Do it perfect or don’t do it at all,” and he would be so disappointed.

“Science fiction, huh? Spaceships and androids? Or werewolves and shifters?”

I switch back to Japanese. “One of those is science fiction and the other is paranormal. You guess.”

“Hmmm, I may have an otaku girl on my hands.” He reaches for his bottle of water and that’s my cue to check out. He wouldn’t understand my geek girl nature or the cosplaying. If he found out I dress up, he’ll think I’m a freak for sure. I grab my phone from my pocket and glance at the time. I’ve only been here an hour and I had planned to spend the whole afternoon. But I am failing at socializing today. Miserably.

“I have to go. I promised I’d help my parents with some gardening chores this afternoon.” Gardening? I hate gardening. But I will say just about anything to get away from here.

I jump up from my spot and fill my cooler again with the containers I brought with me.

Henry hands me the empty sushi container and his hand brushes my fingers. I awkwardly pull my hand away, not sure if his touch was intentional or an accident. His green eyes meet mine over the lip of the container.

“Oh no. Do you really have to go? I won’t have anyone to talk to.” His face is sincere and easy, so I stop and look around at the group. It’s true. Everyone is paired up and if I leave he’ll be stuck as the only one without a partner. “Please sit back down and tell me about the scifi manga you like. Maybe I can find English translations for them and my class can try them too.”

I glance at my phone again and reconsider. Perhaps I should stay?

Asa leans forward across the blanket, her eyebrows pulled together. “Eriko, did I hear you talking about your scifi manga again? You’re never going to find a husband if you’re constantly pining over space pirates and androids.”

My vision darkens around the corners as my face heats to summer blinding levels. I like Asa, and she’s a good coworker, but she is far too blunt and mean sometimes. Henry’s eyebrows pull together as my friends laugh around me. I’m the odd one here. They were all popular in high school and went to the same college. I lost a lot of my high school and college friends when they went to work elsewhere and I stayed behind in our little Tokyo suburb. On the weekends these girls and guys go out together, and I rarely get invited along. This is not my scene. I thought I was being brave by accepting their invitation today, but I was just being ignorant and simple again.

“I need to go,” I say, hurrying to my bike.

Mamachari sighs. “That was going well until your bitch of a friend butted in. Who the hell does she think she is anyway?”

I glance over my shoulder as I wheel Mamachari from the blanket. Henry watches me go before turning back to his water and the conversation swimming around him.

“One of the popular girls.”