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Back This Time Will Be Different Save as PDF
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. But no, I mean, like . . . really need to make money.” When I don’t reply, he coughs and kicks the floor. “Don’t take this the wrong way, okay, but my dad said something about my ‘apprenticeship’”—he throws a pair of air quotes up—“being like a favor to Hannah because your store is um . . . struggling.”

It takes me a beat to absorb that, and when I do, I’m pissed at his presumption. “No, it’s not! We’re just going through a bit of a rough patch, that’s all.”

Owen puts his hands up in front of him and steps back. “Okay, okay. No need to get defensive. I’m just telling you what my dad said.”

“I’m not defensive. And your dad’s not running the store, is he, so what would he know?”

“Okay, you’re right.”

“We’re doing just fine.”

“Got it.”

Owen does not look convinced, though, which bugs me. I’m not convinced, either, which bugs me even more. It was stupid to get so defensive—I know we’re not doing fine—but to hear that Heart’s Desire is struggling, from someone who’s not Mom . . . I don’t know. That worries me.

7

HANNAH HAS LIVED WITH ME AND MOM EVER since I was born, and she basically raised me during the early part of Mom’s career when Mom was working crazy hours and traveling all the time. But she’s Mom’s baby sister, and Mom often treats her like she’s still a kid, so in a lot of ways, Hannah’s more like a big sister to me than an aunt.

Like tonight, two days into the new year—Hannah warned me things could get tense between her and Mom, and I promised her I’d have her back. She’s brought home takeout from Krungthai for dinner: chicken satay, tom kha gai, veggie panang curry, pad thai, and rice. Thai is Mom’s favorite, and Hannah has some serious buttering up to do. Owen may have been exaggerating when he said Heart’s Desire was struggling, but he wasn’t totally wrong.

“It’s just for the first quarter, to tide us over till April,” Hannah is saying. “It’s just that we didn’t get as big a bump from the December holidays as I’d hoped for. But I’ve got a couple of big weddings coming up, and then there’s Valentine’s Day, of course, so all I have to do is pick up a few extra funerals and hustle a little harder on the wedding front, and pretty soon we’ll be right back on track.”