InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Favorite Mistake ❯ Separate lives ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: Separate lives

“Well?” Sango prompted. It was Sunday afternoon, and with a lingering headache, Kagome didn't have any desire to crawl out of bed just yet. But the insistent ringing of the phone drove her crazy, and she finally picked it up, not even bothering to say hello. She knew exactly who was calling. “What happened?”

“Nothing much,” Kagome sighed. “We had a one night stand.”

“And?” Sango asked, obviously hungry for more information.

“That's all.”

“That's all?!” Sango's incredulous voice was clearly heard on the other end of the line. “You spent the night with a gorgeous man and all you can say is `that's all?'”

“Sis, what else can I say? He was kind, and funny, and thoughtful, and -”

“Stop right there. I don't want fucking adjectives. This isn't a thesaurus entry, you know.”

Kagome giggled. Her best friend certainly had a funny way of stating things. “Meet me at the cafeteria at our corner in fifteen minutes,” Sango continued. Kagome's flat was two blocks away from Sango's, and halfway between their apartments was a cafeteria where they often met if they had to see each other in a hurry. The small establishment was perched on the street corner, and since they discovered it years ago, had referred to it as `their corner.'

“But -”

“No buts,” Sango said smugly. “I still owe you money for our bet last Friday, and I won't be accused of cheating you out of it. Meet me there, Kags, and I'll treat you to a late lunch.”

“All right, all right,” Kagome gave in with a sigh. When it comes to fishing for all the gory details of her life, Sango was as ruthless as an exterminator.

Fifteen minutes later, she was sitting in one of the cafeteria's outdoor tables, rubbing sleep out of her eyes as Sango studied the dog-eared copy of a menu. Even with a slightly pounding headache, Kagome didn't need to do that; she had practically memorized the contents long ago. Sango, on the other hand, was still hoping there would be a miraculous update one of these days. Mentally going over the menu, she decided on something light. She just didn't have the appetite to gorge on a plateful of any of the best-selling items at the moment.

“I'll have a tuna sandwich, please,” Kagome said, smiling at the waitress who greeted her and Sango amiably. “And a cup of coffee with cream.”

Sango snorted at her best friend's choice of order, and proceeded to give hers. “I want a katsudon bento, extra vegetable siding, please. Jelly cream custard for dessert. Oh, and a large glass of iced tea.”

Kagome was shaking her head when the waitress left. “What?” Sango asked defensively. “I haven't had a decent breakfast, for your information. And what on earth was wrong with your order! I'll even end up giving you change,” she continued indignantly. “There's no way coffee and sandwich would amount to a hundred dollars.”

*****

“That would be a hundred dollars, sir,” the woman informed Inuyasha, looking at him coyly as she handed him the bill for the sandwich and coffee he had ordered. Inuyasha pulled the cash out of his wallet and nodded curtly. He was in no mood to pick up women right now. When she left, quite obviously disappointed at his lack of attention, he looked across the table at his best friend.

“Did you want to talk about something, Inu?” Miroku asked, already knowing the answer. They were at a posh café in the heart of the city's elite commercial district. It was a very rare occurrence to receive a call from Inuyasha during a weekend, much less get an invitation for coffee; he was always so busy screwing with a new girl that he just didn't have the time for that. Miroku sipped his espresso and took a hearty bite of his omelet, patiently waiting. Inuyasha would talk when he was ready and not before; no use wasting his energy getting his friend to open his mouth.

Inuyasha looked uncomfortable for a minute, then he said, “You see, I met this girl last Friday.”

“A girl?” Miroku echoed. He couldn't count the number of times he had heard this from his extra-ordinarily handsome and insanely rich best friend. Usually it was the premise before he asked Miroku on how to `properly' dump her, so Miroku decided to skip with the preliminaries and just asked straight out. “You're planning to break up with her?”

“Listen to me first, you idiot,” Inuyasha said, annoyed that Miroku would immediately jump to that conclusion. He swallowed what remained of his café Americano and tried again. “She asked me to spend the night with her, and I did. But when I woke up the next morning she wasn't there anymore.”

“Hmmm…” Miroku mused. He had known Inuyasha for half of their lives, and treated him as he would a brother since they entered an Ivy League school in the US together, so he knew without a doubt that Inuyasha didn't like being kept in the dark. He was always the one doing the break-up, not the other way around. “Why don't you give her a call?”

If anything, Inuyasha's scowl deepened. “I don't have her phone number.”

“Her email address, then?” Miroku asked helpfully.

“I don't have that either.”

`This is getting trickier by the minute,' Miroku mentally stated. Out loud he said, “Well, what do you have?”

*****

“Nothing?” Sango exclaimed, disbelief evident in her caramel-colored eyes. “You were with the guy for hours and you didn't even bother to find out anything about him?”

Kagome played with the teaspoon in her cup, though she had long since finished her coffee. “I only spent one night with him, sis. One night. I didn't think it would be proper to ask all sorts of questions when I wouldn't even see him again.”

Sango expelled a deep breath. She knew Kagome had always been reserved, but this was going way over the boundary! Wasn't she the least bit curious about the handsome stranger she met? Sango racked her brain, looking for inspiration, and finally asked, “What about his name? Nothing could be simpler than that. Did you get it?”

*****

“No, I didn't,” Inuyasha muttered, almost to himself. Brief pain clouded his features before he sighed and continued. “She wouldn't even allow me to tell her my name, much less give hers.”

“What do you plan to do, Inu?” Miroku asked with sympathy.

“What the fuck can I do!” Inuyasha exploded, though he strained to keep his voice low. “I don't even know her damn name.” If this doesn't beat the crap out of him. The first time he was genuinely interested in a girl, and not only had he no way of contacting her, he didn't even know her name. Inuyasha tried to console himself. He may be a little mad - okay, really pissed off - at the moment, but in a few days he bet he wouldn't even give a damn about it. Hell, he may not even remember her by then.