"Mirayi, mon amour, can you please watch my coat? I've got to go to the washroom, been holding it since we left campus," Rachel Guillaume said, shaking her head. The tall, curvaceous young Haitian-Canadian woman carefully draped her black leather jacket over the back of the chair. Mirayi Yasimoto smiled and nodded, taking a sip of her tea. Rachel flashed Mirayi a sly wink, then walked away.
Mademoiselle has a nice derriere, Mirayi thought with a smile. Rachel looked simply gorgeous in a black leather jacket over a red turtleneck shirt, black Yoga pants that looked almost painted on and showed off her thick, muscular thighs ( and her big ass ), and black leather boots. Her long black hair was done into neat tresses which hung off her back, mere inches above her waist. As Rachel headed to the ladies room, both women and men checked her out, and Mirayi smiled. Sorry, people, this cutie is mine, Mirayi thought.
Mirayi sat there, sipping her tea while waiting for Rachel. At this hour, the Copley Mall food court was packed, and Mirayi could barely hear herself think over the din of families dining, business types and working-class types going about their day. Copley Mall was supposedly the largest shopping center in the Boston area. Mirayi had seen much bigger malls in Tokyo, Osaka, Okinawa and other parts of Japan. American malls left her...underwhelmed.
Coming to the Copley Mall had been Rachel's idea, and as usual, Mirayi went along with it. The two of them met during orientation day for international students at Suffolk University, a few short months ago. Two young women who simply couldn't be more different. Mirayi, a native of the Japanese Home Islands, and Rachel, a Haitian-Canadian newcomer to the City of Boston, Massachusetts, by way of Montreal, Quebec. Yet, as different as they seemed on the surface, Mirayi and Rachel shared a secret. They were two of a kind...
"Beautiful girls are my weakness," those were Mirayi's first words to Rachel, when she nearly tumbled while looking for a seat inside the packed auditorium at Suffolk University. The short, slender young Japanese woman flashed her most disarming smile at the object of her affection, a tall, curvy young Black woman who looked like she could give Serena Williams a run for her money in the looks and athleticism department. My Afro-Caribbean goddess, Mirayi thought, grinning.
"Yeah, that and apparently gravity," Rachel replied, chuckling, and Mirayi laughed as well. From that moment on, they were fast friends. For Mirayi, this was a most wondrous meeting. In modern-day Japan, as progressive as the country proclaimed itself, being gay, bisexual or lesbian was still considered taboo. Mirayi's parents knew she liked girls, but she didn't throw it in their faces, preferring to be discrete in her private life. It was the Japanese way.
Moving to the City of Boston, Massachusetts, even for a year, well, that afforded Mirayi Yasimoto the kind of freedoms she never would have dreamed of back in Japan. On the streets of Boston, Mirayi saw handsome, masculine men...in the arms of other handsome, masculine men. She saw gorgeous young women who looked hotter than most magazine models fearlessly kiss other young women. Boston is like no place on earth, Mirayi thought, amazed.
"Hey, boo, I'm back," came a feminine voice, and Mirayi grinned as Rachel threw her arms around her, and kissed her on the earlobe. Mirayi purred like a kitten and turned around, kissing her lover passionately. Mirayi loved it when Rachel called her boo, a term of endearment among young people of color in the North American lexicon. Black folks in North America are in a league of their own, Mirayi thought, pleased with that observation.
"About time, cutie, what do you want to eat?" Mirayi asked, and Rachel frowned, then looked at the various restaurants around the Copley Mall food court. Mirayi smiled politely, even though she knew exactly what Rachel wanted. You are definitely a creature of habit, my sweet, Mirayi thought, and she kept on smiling as Rachel put her index finger to her lip, looked about thoughtfully, then settled on the Chinese food stand. Rising from their seats, the two young women lined up behind the other peons.
It was a beautiful day in early November, and it wasn't cold yet in Boston. The cold would come later. Right now, if it weren't for the browning leaves in the trees, and the occasional gusts of chill wind, Mirayi would swear they were in late summer. Rachel chided Mirayi whenever she brought up the cold. Apparently in Quebec, where Rachel grew up, it was a hell of a lot colder than Boston. I'll take your word for it, Mirayi thought. She had no desire to visit such a cold place, unless her favorite cutie made her.
"Chinese food, please," Rachel said, and Mirayi took out her new Bank of America debit card, and paid for their meals. Later, when they went to the nearby Loew's movie theater, Rachel would take care of it. They shared everything, right down the middle, it was their way. Mirayi watched as Rachel attacked her plate of white rice, orange chicken, broccoli and egg roll with intent, and grinned. Someone's definitely hungry, Mirayi remarked, if only to herself.
Mirayi had a fish sandwich and a Pepsi from another eatery, and ate carefully. As she and Rachel dined, they bantered about university life. While not as large or as prestigious as nearby schools like Northeastern University, Boston University and almighty Harvard University, Suffolk University was a nice school filled with smart, lively students. Rachel was surprised to see a good number of African American men and women on the Suffolk University campus. Back in Montreal, she'd heard terrible things about the way American schools treated minority students...
