[Aidan's marriage has been shattered by his wife's cheating. Unable to cope with the thing Rosa did, he boarded a plane and put as much distance between them as possible. From Australia, making new friends in Sydney, to meeting Kat and sharing her bed, he finds himself in Los Angeles as the personal trainer and lover to Mara Fey, Hollywood A-Lister and one of the most famous women on the planet. As he becomes more deeply entangled in Mara's life, Rosa becomes more distant, leaving Aidan more lonely than ever.
Mara takes him with her to Tokyo, where Aidan is embroiled in Andrew's plans and must finally face up to his past.
The background to Aidan's story can be found in
Oxygen Games
by oneagainst, continued here with permission.]
---
GETTING ALONG
In Tokyo, Andrew has booked them all into two suites in an upscale hotel situated in the middle of Shinjuku. They lose a day in the flight, and it's late on Friday night as the private car weaves through traffic to their destination. Beyond the car windows, Shinjuku is a riot of colour and sound, lit up in screens and neon signs on all the buildings, the streets packed with people.
Mara is riding in the back with Aidan, and Andrew is sitting in front of them with Indi. The driver doesn't know who she is, and Mara seems to be thrilled by that. Andrew turns back in his seat to talk to them.
"We can get settled in and then try our luck out for dinner, what do you say?"
"You got somewhere in mind?" Mara asks.
"A couple places. The menu isn't in English though."
"How will we know what we're ordering?"
Andrew laughs. "We won't."
They pull up to the hotel, and Andrew strides over to talk to the bellboy, organising the luggage and checking them all in. The ride fifty floors up the elevator, into a well-appointed corridor with doors spaced widely in each wall. Andrew has booked two large suites and leads Mara to hers. It's big, with an entertaining area, kitchenette and two bedrooms to each side. A soft, low-lying couch is arranged in an L-shape in the middle of the entertaining area around a sturdy glass coffee table, looking out through floor-to-ceiling windows at the shimmering lights of the Tokyo skyline, with its landmark tower lit up in the night.
"Nice enough?" Andrew asks.
"It'll pass," Mara replies.
"Good. I do my best to please."
Andrew takes a look around the suite and nods to himself.
"How about you settle in and we regroup in the hotel lobby in fifteen for dinner?" he suggests.
"Maybe twenty. I need to overhaul."
Andrew laughs. "No, Mara, you don't. Trust me. You on your worst day is better than most people on their best."
Mara grins back. "So, you saying I'm at my worst?"
"Oh no. You're not gonna suck me into that. See you in twenty."
Andrew leads Indi out of the suite to his own, leaving Aidan alone with Mara. She gives him a look, and then flashes a smile.
"Aidan, relax. We're gonna have a ball."
"Yeah, I know."
"Get changed. Let's go see what Tokyo has to offer."
---
They find somewhere to eat in one of the towering, screen-wrapped blocks that line one of the main streets of Shinjuku, taking an elevator up to the sixth floor and being escorted into a booth by the window, overlooking the street. Andrew takes charge, ordering from the menu with a combination of pointing and holding up fingers which the Japanese waitress appears to understand. She is fastidiously polite, reciting the order back in Japanese, to which Andrew nods as if he's understood her.
"I didn't know you could understand Japanese," Mara comments after the waitress departs.
"Not a word," Andrew confesses. "Languages are not my area of expertise."
"Ever tried learning one?"
Andrew shrugs. "Apart from Spanish at school, no. I mean, there's a practicality to it, right? The waitress, it's easy for her, she just needs to learn English. I'd need to learn, what? Spanish, Japanese, Urdu, Chinese, German, French, uh...."
He's ticking languages off on his fingers. "Benefits of exporting the American way of life, makes the options easy for everyone."
Aidan can't detect any trace of irony in his tone.
"Anyway," Andrew continues, "Who's hungry? I could eat a... um, whatever that was I pointed at."
The conversation begins to flow freely as the night progresses, as drinks are consumed and the steady progression of share plates arrives. It's mostly Andrew and Mara talking, but Mara keeps pulling Aidan into conversation. Indi sits quietly for the most part, answering questions as they are put to her, but offering very little. She's also not drinking at the same rate as the rest of them, which in the case of Andrew and Mara, is quite considerable.
By the end of dinner, they are both quite drunk, but from the looks that Aidan notices from Andrew, it's not by accident. Afterwards, back at the hotel, Mara is laughing as they ride up to their rooms. Andrew is grinning at her, but she's leaning on Aidan. Indi is watching them all. The doors open and they stumble out of the elevator.
"Back to mine?" Andrew asks, "I have sake."
"Sure," Mara responds, and they make their way to Andrew's suite.
Inside, it's much like Mara's, except it faces back towards the city buildings rather than out to the tower, with a room each for Andrew and Indi. Aidan knows that he's drunk, even as he supports Mara with an arm, and is undecided as to whether drinking any more, especially with Andrew, is a good idea.
"Make yourselves comfortable," Andrew calls out.
He produces a set of small sake cups from a cupboard. In his other hand is a bottle.
"Aren't we supposed to heat it?" Mara asks.
"God, no. Not this stuff. It doesn't come in cans from a vending machine. Here."
Andrew opens it and passes the bottle to Mara, waving the opening under her nose.
"See? This is real sake. We should be drinking it at blossom temperature."
Mara takes the bottle. "It's chilled," she says.
They sink into the couches and Andrew arranges the sake cups on the coffee table in front of them.
"Yes," Andrew replies, "But it's currently too cold. Too hot, too cold, you can't taste the complexity of the sake. It needs to be just right."
"Blossom temperature," Mara repeats, like she's mocking him.
Andrew pays her no attention. He's looking at Indi.
"We need to warm the sake gently to the correct temperature. Could you lie down on the table, Indi?"
