Chapter 6: Overtime

On Wednesday night the Marukawa office was dark except for Nanami's desk lamp and the glow of Section Chief Tadashi Iwase's monitor.

It was twenty to eleven.

The rest of the floor had gone home at seven, because the rest of the floor did not report to Iwase.

"Hoshino," he said, and leaned on the back of her chair. "Show me the slide again."

She clicked back to the slide.

It was the one she had made, with the numbers she had found, that he would present to the director tomorrow as his own.

His cologne rolled over her.

His left hand settled on her shoulder.

It slid down her shoulder blade and onto her back.

It stopped at the base of her spine, with his thumb under the hem of her blouse.

"You've been different lately," he said, softly. "You look rested. You used to be easier to talk to."

Nanami's skin crawled.

For three years she had moved her chair an inch and said nothing.

She stood up.

The chair rolled into his knees.

"I need to catch the last train," she said, and her voice came out flat and clear.

"The slide is finished. The numbers are in the notes. Good night, Chief."

She picked up her bag and walked out, past the dark cubicles, and did not look back.

Her hands only started shaking in the elevator.

At the door of 202 it took her three tries to get the key in.

The light was already on.

Ria sat in the genkan on the step, in her cardigan and tabi, with a lacquer box on her knees.

"I let myself in," she said. "I am the landlady. I have a key to everything, and your kotatsu is on."

Her eyes narrowed.

"What did he do?"

"Who?"

"The man whose cologne is all over your blouse. I could taste it from the roof."

Nanami set down her bag.

She told her, in short flat sentences, standing in her own doorway with her shoes still on.

Ria's face did not change.

But the keys at her hip began to chime quietly, and the light in the room went a shade too gold.

"You walked away," she said at last.

"I did."

"That was brave."

Ria put the lacquer box on the shelf and rose to her feet, which brought her to Nanami's chin.

"I would like to take it off you. All of him. Let me."

Nanami shut the door behind her.

The lock clicked.

"Yes," she said. "Yes. Do it."

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