Chapters (77)
- Cover
- Dedication
- 1
- 2
- A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part I
- 3
- The History of My Beef with Brynn Foer-Preston
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part I
- 8
- 9
- A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part I
- 10
- 11
- 12
- A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II
- 13
- The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part II
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- The Complicated History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Imaginary Relationship with Her Nonexistent Dad
- 20
- 21
- 22
- A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part III
- 23
- 24
- 25
- A Brief, Backward History of the McAllister Family, as Paraphrased from the San Jose Mercury News
- 26
- 27
- 28
- A Quick and Eerily Relevant History of Asians in America
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part IV
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part II (Or Maybe It’s a Prequel)
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part III
- 54
- A Note from the Author
- Index of Flowers and their Meanings
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Praise for This Time Will Be Different
- Books by Misa Sugiura
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
“Never,” he says stoutly. I look away to hide a grin.
The bell announces another customer at the front of the store. “Go,” I say. “Go spread your love and joy out there.”
“As you wish.” He bows, doing that hand-swirling thing in some bizarre imitation of a European courtier, I suppose, and exits. I can’t even.
I watch him go, and as I turn back to my work, I catch Hannah smiling at me.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing,” she says airily. “Nothing at all.”
Right. I know what she’s thinking. My aunt, the rom-com queen. Well, she can think what she wants, but she will never see it happen.
9
He is so hot I stg 
, I text Emily during the video announcements. Shane and a couple of the other guys on the water polo team are making a needlessly—but gloriously—shirtless appeal to everyone to support the team by buying pizza at a special booth they’re setting up at lunch.
CJ: 
getting pizza for lunch 
She replies with an eye-roll emoji.
CJ: Come on. Even if you don’t want to date him you can’t deny he’s hot
E: *Sigh* Fine whatever
CJ: And he’s nice. Like truly nice
E: 
And you know this how?
CJ: I told you. He talked to me FOR NO REASON AT ALL last month
E: You’re pathetic 
CJ: I know
After shirtless Shane and his water polo bros shill their pizza, Brynn comes on and announces the LGBTQ+ mixer that was on that flyer she put up at Sweet Emily’s. Almost instantly, I get another text from Em.
E: Hey if I went, would you go with me?
CJ: YES
CJ: Except
CJ: You know who’s in charge right?
CJ: You-Know-Who’s in charge lol
E: I know
CJ: You okay with that?
E: Ya it’s cool
The thing is, I’ve been hounding Emily to go to one of these local LGBTQ+ mixer things ever since we started high school. She didn’t join the McAllister QSA freshman year because she still felt weird around Brynn, and I supported her on that. But I know that her online LGBTQ+ teen community isn’t enough. I love her like crazy and I try to be a good listener, but I know I’m not enough, either.
At lunch, I buy two pieces of pizza from Shane, who is no longer shirtless. We’ve exchanged exactly zero words since the Great Bakery Encounter, but he greets me with a big open smile and says, as if it were yesterday, “Hey, great call on the blueberry muffins!”
“Oh!” I am mortified to hear myself giggling. Giggling. Stop. Be casual. Be low-key. Mention something you both know about.
“So,” I say casually, in a low-key manner. “Are you going to the OUTlet mixer?”