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Back This Time Will Be Different
Chapters (77)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part I
  6. 3
  7. The History of My Beef with Brynn Foer-Preston
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part I
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part I
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II
  20. 13
  21. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part II
  22. 14
  23. 15
  24. 16
  25. 17
  26. 18
  27. 19
  28. The Complicated History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Imaginary Relationship with Her Nonexistent Dad
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part III
  33. 23
  34. 24
  35. 25
  36. A Brief, Backward History of the McAllister Family, as Paraphrased from the San Jose Mercury News
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. A Quick and Eerily Relevant History of Asians in America
  41. 29
  42. 30
  43. 31
  44. 32
  45. 33
  46. 34
  47. 35
  48. 36
  49. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part IV
  50. 37
  51. 38
  52. 39
  53. 40
  54. 41
  55. 42
  56. 43
  57. 44
  58. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part II (Or Maybe It’s a Prequel)
  59. 45
  60. 46
  61. 47
  62. 48
  63. 49
  64. 50
  65. 51
  66. 52
  67. 53
  68. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part III
  69. 54
  70. A Note from the Author
  71. Index of Flowers and their Meanings
  72. Acknowledgments
  73. About the Author
  74. Praise for This Time Will Be Different
  75. Books by Misa Sugiura
  76. Back Ad
  77. About the Publisher

Mom scoffs. “Thus proving my point. And he is shit if he thought unprotected sex was a good idea.”

“It wasn’t just him. It was both of us. I mean, I didn’t think it was a good idea. But I thought—”

“You didn’t think,” she snapped. “That was the problem. Neither of you were thinking.”

I started crying again.

A pause, a sigh. “I’m sorry, CJ. That was uncalled for.” I could feel her willing herself to shift modes. “So. How many weeks?”

I shrugged and wiped my eyes. “I don’t know. Six? Seven?”

“Okay.” I recognized her problem-solving voice: mode-shift successful. “So . . .” She pulled out her phone and looked something up. “Good. That means you still qualify for an abortion pill. I’ll call my gynecologist and we can take you in tomorrow to get a prescription. Okay?”

“Okay.” I allowed myself to relax just a little bit. Maybe things would turn out okay, after all. Mom was on my side. She was going to help me through this.

“Mimi, stop!” Hannah put her hand on Mom’s arm. “Have you even asked CJ what she wants?”

Mom shot her a withering look. “Hannah. Are you fucking kidding me right now?” She turned to me. “You don’t want to keep the baby, right? I mean, that would be—”

“No. I don’t,” I said hurriedly. I didn’t want to hear all the terrible things she might think of that decision.

“Okay then.” She took a sip of wine and addressed Hannah. “CJ has made a tough, smart, mature decision, and I will not allow you or anyone else to make her feel guilty about it. Wanting an abortion and not collapsing with angst over it doesn’t make her a bad person.”

Hannah pushed her food around her plate and nodded at it. She spoke slowly and deliberately, the way you might talk someone through defusing a ticking time bomb. “I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty about having an abortion. But you’ve just made this huge deal about what a terrible mistake it was to get pregnant. I want to clarify that you don’t necessarily think that having an unplanned baby is a mistake.”

“It is a mistake, Hannah. It would be like . . . like breaking a vase she could never repair.”

“But not always.” She looked hard at Mom.

What the— Oh.

Mom figured it out at the same time that I did. “Well, obviously, having CJ wasn’t a mistake,” she said impatiently. “But her situation is different from mine. Jesus, Hannah, could you please stop complicating things?”