Matchmaker 09: September

"More than anything. Azumi Mah, come to Dallas with me. We'll find you a little storefront somewhere and you can begin to build your name all over again. Until you can get on your feet, you can live with me. Please Azumi, make me the happiest man in the world and say you'll at least think about it."

I smiled. "I'll think about it," I said as I sniffed.

"Yes!" he hissed softly. "Can I ask you one more thing?"

I sniffed again and laughed. "There's more?"

"Will you come to England with me?"

"England? Why? What's in England?"

"Airbus. I leave in two weeks to go to Filton, to talk to them about my wing. I'll be gone for at least two weeks, possibly three, but I don't want to wait two or three weeks to see you. Come with me to England and we can tour the countryside on the weekends. We'll make a holiday out of it. I'll take you to Nottingham and show you where I lived. Say yes. Say you'll come to England with me. I'll send you a ticket, and we can fly there together." I gripped the phone, wanting to say yes, but afraid. "Say yes, Azumi. Say yes and let me prove to you that I love you," he whispered.

I closed my eyes, gathered my courage, and made the leap. "Yes, I will come with you to England, and yes, I will come with you to Dallas."

"I love you, Azumi!" he said, his voice strong and clear. "We can make this work, I know we can."

I was struggling not to cry. "I know." My hand began to shake, but I had to say it. "Roger," I whispered.

"Yes?"

"I think I love you too," I murmured, my voice barely above a whisper. I'd never said that to anyone other than family.

There was a long moment of silence. "Do you mean that?"

"Yes. Ever since I left you in Boulder, my life has felt... empty."

"Yes!" he cried. "That's exactly it!"

"It that love?" I asked.

"I don't know, but we'll find out... together."

"Where are you?"

"Now? In San Francisco. Why?"

"Would you like some company?"

"I'd love some company!"

I sniffed, unable to believe what I was doing, but for the first time since I arrived home, everything felt right. "I need a couple of days, but I'd like to join you... if you want me to."

"I'd love to you see you! I'll send you a ticket!"

I smiled as I shook my head. "No. I'll do it. Maybe we can fly to Dallas and look for a place to live before we leave for England?"

"Perfect!"

I whimpered out another soft sob. "I'm sorry I left. I should have stayed."

"Shhhh..." he whispered. "Having you leave crystallized my thoughts and cleared my head. I knew I wanted you before, but having you leave... it allowed me to understand why. You've become a part of me, the better part of me."

I sniffed and then laughed. "I thought I was being smart and thinking things through, but—"

"An amazing woman once told me I think too much," he said, talking over me. "Maybe you should heed her advice as well."

I bubbled out a wet laugh. "Maybe." I paused and decided to try the words again, just to see how they sounded. "I love you." They were amazingly easy to say the second time.

"I love you too," was his immediate response.

I was so glad I hadn't given Jen his number. "There's an old Hawaiian custom for lovers who have been apart. Want to hear it?"

"I'd love to hear it."

I smiled to myself. "When lovers meet again, they hold each other close, then the man whispers into his lover's ear 'Comeoniwannalayya' before he kisses her."

"Come on I..." he paused, chuckled, and when he continued, I heard the smile in his voice. "Yeah, I think I like that custom."

"Yeah, me too."

There was a brief pause. "Azumi, you can trust me. I love you, I'll never hurt you, and I'll never place you second behind anyone or anything."

I whimpered. He was a good man and I knew I could trust him. "I know."

"Roger Bentley."

"Mr. Bentley, Brooklyn Lancaster. How are you today?"

Roger snickered. "Knackered, but otherwise doing well."

Roger sounded a bit harried and out of breath. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all. Azumi and I are trying to get settled into our new place is all. Things have been a bit hectic these last few weeks with everything going on."

"So... things went well for you and Ms. Mah?" I asked, treading carefully.

"Things were difficult at the start. My fault mostly, but we've worked them through. We still have some challenges ahead of us, but we're both looking forward to building something together."

"So Ms. Mah has moved to San Francisco?"

He chuckled. "No, actually, we're in Dallas."

My head was swimming. It appeared that both Azumi and Roger's life had been totally upended. "You're in Dallas now?"

"Yes. I know, it's confusing. The reason I had to be in Boulder when I did was I had to attend a show to demonstrate a glider I'd designed, along with its new wing. Since the show, I've started traveling to promote my new wing design, but the company that purchased the rights to my glider asked me to consult with them. I asked Azumi to join me, and she agreed, so here we are, in Dallas. We've rented an apartment until we figure out what we're going to do."

I sat for a moment, trying to get my mind around what he'd just said. "You were in Boulder to work?"

"Just for the first week."

My lips thinned. "You should have told me that up front, Mr. Bentley. That was not the proposition I presented to Ms. Mah."

"I realize that now, and Azumi made it very clear she wasn't pleased that first week, but as I said, we worked through it and she forgave me." He paused for a moment. "She's here. Would you like to talk to her? Hang on a second. Azumi!" he said loudly, though he'd obviously held the phone away from his lips. "Brooklyn Lancaster would like to talk to you." There was another pause. "I'm in trouble," he said softly.

"Brooklyn? This is Azumi Mah."

"Good afternoon, Ms. Mah. How are things?"

"Great! Couldn't be better! Well, it will be, after we get settled in. At least we don't have to sleep on the floor tonight."

"That's excellent news, but I wanted to apologize for misleading you. I had no idea that Mr. Bentley was planning on working during your time together in Boulder. Had I known I wouldn't—"

"Not your fault," she said, cutting me off. "I was kind of pissed off at the beginning, but not with you. He was very honest and said you didn't know. Can you hang on a second?"

"Yes."

"Roger, will you excuse me? I'd like to talk to Brooklyn alone."

"Oh hell. Nothing good can come from that conversation," he said, his voice barely understandable.

Azumi giggled. "Nothing to worry about." There was a brief pause before she spoke again. "Okay, I'm in the bedroom now. What I wanted to tell you was not to be too hard on Roger. He was in a bad place at the beginning. Like I said, I was pissed when I found out he was planning to work that first week, but not at you, and now, not at him. I overheard several conversations between him and his family, and Brooklyn, he hasn't had it easy. His whole family is screwed up, and it has affected him deeply."

"Perhaps, but it still reflects poorly upon me when I make promises that I can't fulfill."

"Not in this case. I understand you were totally unaware of what was happening... and Roger... I really don't think he understood why I was upset."

"But he does now?"

"Yes. In the three months since I stepped off that airplane in Boulder, he has become a new man, and I couldn't be happier. He is absolutely worth the effort and misunderstanding we had at the beginning."

I began to relax. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Azumi seemed even more full of life than she had when I first spoke with her five months ago. "That's good to hear."

"Yes, and I'm going to open my shop again, but things have to settle down a little first. We were in England a couple of months ago, and next month we're going to Seattle. Roger said he's probably going to be traveling a lot for the next year or so, and he wants me to go with him."

"Are you?"

"Yes, I think I am. It's why we're renting an apartment instead of renting or buying a house. We may not remain here, but even if we do, renting an apartment means we don't have to worry about a yard, or maintenance, or anything like that when we're going to be gone for a month at a time."

"Makes sense."

"Even better, going to England, and now being here in Dallas, has started me thinking. I've started doodling some ideas for when I open again. By the time everything settles down, I should have a nice portfolio to offer customers. I'm actually excited to try something different and go in new directions. I think I'd gotten comfortable in Honolulu and was getting complacent. As you might imagine, tastes in clothing in Dallas aren't the same as they are in Honolulu."

I smiled. "Yes, I can see that."

"I think I'm going to try incorporating some 'uhane and 'oli'oli, a little paniolo, into the traditional western designs everyone wears here."

"I'm not familiar with those terms."

"'Uhane and 'oli'oli are Hawaiian words, or concepts, and they mean spirit and joy. A paniolo is a Hawaiian cowboy. Most people don't know this, but Hawaii has its own tradition of cowboys and ranching, and from what I understand, it started as much as fifty years before it began on the mainland."

"No kidding?" I'd have to look that up later because I'd have never guessed such a thing.

"Yeah, so it's not as far-fetched as it might seem."

"That's interesting. I'm sure you'll be as successful there as you were in Honolulu."

She giggled. "I hope so, otherwise I might have to find a real job."

I smiled. "And you're truly happy?"

"More than I've ever been in my life."

"In that case, I guess it all worked out."

"Yes. So thank you, Brooklyn, thank you for everything you've done, for both me and Roger."

"I assume Mr. Bentley is happy as well?"

"I think so, but why don't you ask him for yourself. Roger! I'm done and Brooklyn wants to talk to you again."

"Am I in trouble?" Roger asked after a moment of silence.

"No. You should have told me what you were planning, but Ms. Mah explained it to me."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have my kept plans from you."

"All is forgiven. Now, the reason for my call. Are you happy with my services?"

"Yes. Totally. I don't think it's a complete fabrication for me to say you may have saved my life. I was headed down a dark and self-destructive path. I'm not sure where the road I was traveling would have ended, and I don't want to know. Azumi has put me on a new path, and I no longer feel like I did. I'll never forget what she, and you, have done for me."

"I'm glad to be of service. May I count on you for a reference or recommendation in the future?"

"Without question, reservation, or hesitation. I can never repay you for the gift of finding Azumi."

"Thank you, Mr. Bentley. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No. Thank you again for everything."

"You're very welcome."

I hung up the phone and smiled. Roger sounded completely different than he had when I spoke to him last. His manner of speaking had changed, his tone and cadence had become less stiff and formal, and his voice had more life in it. When I'd first introduced them, I remembered thinking that Roger and Azumi would be like oil and vinegar. They wouldn't readily combine, but if they did, the two parts would create something better than they were when separated.

I pushed back from my desk and rose, still smiling. It sounds like it took a fair around of shaking in the beginning before they realized they were better together than apart, but now I suspected neither of them could ever imagine themselves without the other.

I wandered into my kitchen to pour myself a glass of wine to toast Roger and Azumi, because in the end, it wasn't the shaking that mattered, it was what was produced. If the life I now heard in Roger's voice was any indication, he and Azumi had produced something wonderful indeed.