At the Year-End Party He Thanked Me for Doing His Paperwork, So I Took the Microphone novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Chairwoman

Chiaki looked at the small palm held out to her.

Then she looked at Kaname Tsukishiro.

"Who told her?" she said.

"I did." He had the decency to look at the tablecloth. "At two minutes past seven. On the board call."

"Before you asked me."

"I hoped you'd say yes. If you didn't, I'd have had a very bad morning."

His grandmother tapped her cane once against Chiaki's chair leg.

"The ring, young woman."

"There isn't one," Chiaki said.

Her eyebrows went up.

"There's a clause about rings," Chiaki told her. "If anyone in your family wants to give me one, they ask me first."

For a second the old woman just stared.

Then she laughed. It was a high, delighted cackle, much too big for her, and the waiter dropped a spoon.

"A clause," she said. "Kaname. She has clauses."

"She has seven," he said.

"Of course she does." She wiped her eye with one finger. "Setsuko Tsukishiro. I'm the chairwoman, which means I'm the one who signs his allowance."

"I don't have an allowance."

"You will if I say so." She turned back to Chiaki and folded both hands over the top of her cane. "There's a family ring. His mother's. Pearl and sapphire. I'll have it sent to you this afternoon."

"Thank you," Chiaki said. "No."

The waiter, who had come back with a new spoon, went away again.

"No?"

"It's your family's ring, Chairwoman. I didn't choose it, and I haven't earned it."

Setsuko looked at her for a long time.

Then she reached across the table, took the last yuzu monaka off Kaname's plate, and bit into it.

"Tell me what's wrong with this," she said, with her mouth full.

Chiaki didn't need to taste it.

"Nothing is wrong with it. Hanamori changed yuzu growers last spring, from Kochi to Tokushima. It's sharper now and the bean paste is a little sweeter to cover it."

"I noticed. I complained by letter. Do you know what I got back?"

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