Free Her Tokyo Valentine Conquest: An Erotic Short Story by Samantha Egret Page A

love on her way
out.
     
    *
     
    She snuggled up in her cotton jammies
and fuzzy slippers, long black hair in a looped ponytail, popping a
few of the cold pills along with some matcha, the green powder of
its finely-milled leaves settling at the bottom of her teacup in
the same manner that she planned to settle in the bath later this
evening. Grabbing the remote, for now she settled on one of her
favorite entertainment news shows. A number flashed on the screen,
indicating an incoming telephone call. Crap. It was
Danny.
    “ Hey,” she answered,
settling the phone into her shoulder.
    “ How you feelin’?” he
asked.
    “ I could do without the
throbbing, but I just took something that’ll hopefully cancel that
out. Did anything interesting happen at work today?”
    “ Naw, but even if it did I
wouldn’t tell you. You gotta focus on getting better.”
    Akie smiled. “Maybe if you’d leave me
alone with my matcha I could.”
    She heard his easy laughter. “Touché.
I’ll call you tomorrow.”
    “ You won’t have to. I’ll
be there tomorrow. This cold gets one day and then I’m evicting its
ass.”
    He laughed again. “Well, if anyone can
beat a virus into submission, it’s you. See you
tomorrow.”
    “’ Bye, Danny.” She hit the
“ FLASH ” button. A commercial popped on for Valentine’s
chocolate. Ugh! “Fuck me,” she said out loud. But instead she
sipped her matcha.
     
    *
     
    In Tokyo it had been different. The
holiday was mostly for women to give chocolate to the men in their
lives. Akie had spent five years in Japan working in Unchained’s
Tokyo office. It had been a nice opportunity to see, first hand,
the land from which her grandparents had emigrated. And yet, even
with her background as a Japanese American, there were aspects of
the culture that were so different from her home in Los
Angeles.
    A year ago today, her fourth in Japan,
Akie had been out buying giri-choco, her obligations to the men in
the office. She’d never quite gotten over how different it was from
home: so very formal and rigid. Her first year in Tokyo, it had
been awkward when she’d ended up being the only woman in the office
that didn’t have anything to offer. So she’d subsequently made the
habit of getting that purchase out the way as soon as the market
shelves were filled with cheap chocolate. But last year she’d
dropped the ball and had to make a last-minute run.
    She’d just met Ned a few days before.
He had been visiting from the Los Angeles office, trying to get
some fuel behind a few of the international accounts. She’d found
him attractive, despite the fact that she almost dwarfed him in her
heels, which weren’t even two inches but still brought her height
to a stately 5-foot-9-inches. Akie had been sure to remember him
when buying the giri-choco. When she went around the next day,
delivering them to her male colleagues, he raised his eyebrows in
surprise.
    “ Oh!” he exclaimed as he
accepted the little package. “You shouldn’t have. I—really don’t
celebrate Valentine’s Day and anyway, I…uh…”
    Akie laughed. “Actually, I kinda had
to. It’s a thing here. All the women do it, and all the men get one
whether they want it or not. You see, then, the men have to get us
back in a month.”
    A glimmer of understanding registered
on Ned’s face. “Oh—well, thank you. I—won’t be able to get you
back. I won’t be here.”
    “ No worries.” She turned
to make the rest of her deliveries.
    “ But—how would you feel
about dinner?”
    She turned back to look at him. “Oh,
you really don’t have to.”
    She could see his eyes scan her curvy,
suited figure. “Maybe I want to.”
    She smiled. “Well, in that case, I
accept.”
    “ You like a good
steak?”
    “ Yeah, actually—I haven’t
had one in ages!”
    “ Perfect—there’s a pretty
nice-looking restaurant on top of my hotel. We can head over there
together after work.”
    “ Sounds good.” Akie turned
back around.