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Chapter Three

“Is there something I should know about?”

“

Why Josh, whatever do you mean?

”

Chiho gave him her devilish grin and he knew he was in trouble.

“You two weren’t at the tapas place last night by accident,” he said.

“Of course not,” said Aiko, “we went there on purpose.”

“A girl’s gotta eat,” said Chiho.

“You know what I mean,” he said.

“And you,” she said, pressing herself close to him, “know what

I

mean.”

“Alright,” said Emi, leaning on the bar, “maybe I did ask them to pop along and keep you company. After all, I did feel

so terribly bad

about leaving you all alone. Oh, one second, I think someone needs a drink.”

He watched as she bounced up and along behind the bar, to a guy waiting patiently with an empty glass.

“She’s certainly something, isn’t she?” asked Chiho.

“She certainly is,” agreed Josh.

“What I wouldn’t give to have a friend like that,” she added, “oh wait, I do!” She laughed.

Josh turned in his seat to face both Chiho and Aiko.

“So you three came together?”

“That’s a pretty personal question,” said Chiho, smirking.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do,” she agreed, “do you?”

“Yes, we’re all friends,” said Aiko, being the voice of reason, “and we all came to Spring Break together.”

“Yep,” said Chiho, “it’s me, Aiko and Emi, all stuck in that one little room, barely any room to move, nowhere private to change, three of us crammed together in one little bed.”

“She exaggerates,” said Aiko, “sort of. We make do. Besides, we didn’t have to deal with that last night.”

“As I recall, we were all pretty close together last night as well,” said Chiho.

“But that was by choice,” said Aiko, “that’s different.”

“Sorry about that,” said Emi from behind, “what did I miss?”

“We were just discussing how the three of us sleep together.”

“But not like–” began Josh.

“It’s a tight fit,” said Emi, clearly enjoying teasing Josh as much as Chiho did, “but it just feels right, you know?”

Josh said nothing, knowing all too well how right it felt.

“So,” she said, “what’s the plan for today?”

Josh looked behind him at Chiho and Aiko and saw them smirking at one another.