Henry Chang - Death Money

Jack shook his head as she contemplated the little sake cup, before throwing it back.

“And we can’t be seen together,” she said quietly. That’s why she chose Tsunami , Jack realized, it was out of the way, outside Chinatown. They’d have to lay low .

He didn’t want to lose her. He cared more about her than anything else in his life, certainly more than anything in his cop life.

She leaned in and kissed him.

“It’s over, Jack,” she said, sliding out of the booth, her hand holding him back from following her. “For now.” She hesitated a moment, adding, “I’ve changed my cell phone number. But you know where to find me.” She meant at AJA, Jack knew.

She brushed a final stroke on his cheek and left the sushi joint.

He thought he saw tears welling in her eyes. He stayed back like she’d asked, watching her through the restaurant window with the big crashing wave overlay. She’d make her own way back to Chinatown and Confucius Towers, he knew, as she climbed into a cab. The passenger window rolled down, and the kiss she blew him almost broke his heart.

He had to trust what she was doing, that it was the right thing. For both of them.

He ordered another sake, drained the previous one. The rice wine smoothed the way for the pain in his stitches and bruises to mix now with the ache in his heart.

He hated the feeling of helplessness, unable to affect the consequences of what amounted to falling in love. Alex. Alexandra. Falling in love?

He worked the sake down, and with the afternoon light fading outside, he fired up a cigarette and deeply hoped, against his glowing cynicism, that there’d be more chapters to their story.