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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

“Well. Yeah.” I can’t bring myself to say, “It’s okay,” because it’s not really, even though she didn’t mean to do wrong. But I can say, “Apology accepted,” which feels right.

And now I’m ready to wrap a ribbon around this encounter with Brynn, just tie it up in a pretty little bow, walk out, and maybe engineer a reconciliation with Emily. Only I have this nasty little grub of a feeling that’s still bothering me, and I can tell that ignoring it won’t make it go away. Ugh. I’m going to hate this.

“Hey, Brynn?” I say. She smiles at me. Ugh. “Um. I may have let, um . . . How I was so mad about you and Emily? I may have let that influence the way I reacted to the STORM thing.”

Brynn’s smile fades. But she doesn’t look surprised, which . . . Ughhhhh. This is not fun.

“I mean. You shouldn’t have done what you did. And kicking you off was a pretty harsh punishment, but I’m not going to apologize for the group. But I was kind of, um, operating on my anger at the old you. What I thought was the old you. Mistakenly.”

Brynn nods slowly. Okay.

Big breath. “And-maybe-I-was-a-little-resentful-about-how-awesome-you-are-at-everything-and-maybe-I-was-worried-that-Emily’s-going-to-ditch-me-for-you-and-your-elite-little-crew-and-maybe-that-might-also-have-been-a-big-reason-why-I-wanted-you-off-the-committee.” Whew. There.

“Wow,” she says. “That’s . . .”

“Yeah.” I’m tempted to throw it back to her white-savior thing. But instead I push an apology out of my throat. “I shouldn’t have let that drive me. I’m sorry.”

I fold my napkin in half, quarters, eighths as I wait for Brynn to respond. Sixteenths. Thirty-seconds. I’m trying to force it into sixty-fourths when she says, “That’s okay, I guess.”

Whew. I put the napkin down and tell her, “It doesn’t have to be okay.”

“It kinda does, though. I want it to be.”

“You’re a nicer person than me, then.”

I want to do something to make up for my pettiness, but I can’t let her back onto the committee—that’s not up to me, and I’m not sure it makes sense, anyway. There’s really only one other thing I can do.

“So,” I say, “do you want me to talk to Emily?”

48

THERE’S ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT IN MARCH, AND Hannah is in an unusually good mood, considering she bailed on the sale and Heart’s Desire is teetering on the brink of collapse. She smiles as she checks inventory on her laptop, half humming, half singing as she scrolls and clicks.

Sweet dreams till sunbeams fiiind you

Dum, dum-da-dum-da worrieees behind you

Dum, dum-da-dum whatever they be

Dream a little dream of me

Waiiit a sec. I know why she’s so happy.

“Hannah.”

“Hm?”

“Who’s the new boyfriend?”

“What?”

“I said, ‘Who’s the new boyfriend?’”