Chapter Fourteen Satoshi
Tasting today: seventeen-year-old single-malt whisky, Yamanashi prefecture, Japan.
A classic whisky made in the Scottish style: everything in balance, flavours restrained, completely and utterly in control. Perfect at the end of a long (long) day.
FIONA
Happy New Year, Satoshi xxx
Hope the party at the bar went well!!
SATOSHI
It did
Although it would have been much better if you’d been here to kiss at midnight xx
FIONA
I wish I could have been, but Elias flew back to Germany yesterday, and asking Jonah and Sadie to babysit on NYE might have been a bit much
I ended up babysitting for them instead
Fiona sent a photo.
[Photo: Rosie and Georgia, playing with Bunbury.]
SATOSHI
I ended up babysitting *them*
Satoshi sent a photo.
[Photo: Jonah and Sadie, kissing at midnight.]
I only just managed to herd them out the door
FIONA
Oh god, I’m sorry
It’s so late, you must be exhausted xx
SATOSHI
Speaking of – why are you still up?
Was there a rager at the Fisher family house I wasn’t invited to?
FIONA
The girls insisted they were going to stay up until midnight, but they were already drooping by the 9 pm fireworks, and everyone was well and truly in bed by 10 pm
Including me, but…
SATOSHI
Can’t sleep?
FIONA
No
Matt’s first child support payment is supposed to come through today and I can’t stop obsessively refreshing my bank account
Because if he *doesn’t* pay (very on brand for him), I have a whole new mess to deal with
Anyway. You don’t need to hear about this.
SATOSHI
I *want* to hear about this
You can tell me anything x
FIONA
I know x
Let me rephrase: I don’t want to talk about it
I want to think about it *less*
Ideally, I never want to have to think about it at all
SATOSHI
Can I try and take your mind off it?
FIONA
What were you thinking?
SATOSHI
Tell me what you’re wearing
FIONA
It won’t be the mental picture you’re hoping for
An extremely ancient T-shirt
So old it probably predates the dinosaurs
SATOSHI
I would love to see you in an extremely ancient T-shirt that predates the dinosaurs, but that isn’t what you’re wearing right now
FIONA
I promise you, it is
Fiona sent a photo.
[Photo: Selfie of Fiona in bed, wearing a very old T-shirt.]
SATOSHI
No it isn’t
Take it off
FIONA
I might not be brave enough to send you a picture of that
It’s been a while since I took a nude
SATOSHI
That’s fine x
My imagination is very powerful
But have you taken it off?
FIONA
Yes
There’s a chance I may have skipped ahead and taken off my underwear too…?
SATOSHI
That *is* skipping ahead
Because we’re going to go slow
Here’s what you’re going to do
You’re going to touch yourself
Gently
Slowly
You’re going to trace your fingers down your throat
Along your collarbone
Down the lines of your arms and along your belly
You’re going to cup your tits in your hands, and you’re going to rub your nipples, and you’re going to tell me all about what feels best
You are going to check your vibrator is charged
But you are not – I repeat, *not* – going to turn it on yet, and you are not going to touch your pussy
FIONA
That might be hard
SATOSHI
Don’t talk to me about hard
Satoshi sent a photo.
[Photo: Satoshi’s tented grey trousers.]
You are going to do what I said while I clean down the bar, and you’re going to think about what you’ve done to me while you do it
Then I’m going to go upstairs, pour myself a whisky, and call you, and then – only then! – will you be allowed to come
FIONA
Thank you so much for last night, Satoshi
It was both the hottest thing that’s ever happened to me and genuinely helpful – I managed to stop spiralling and get some sleep
BTW – Matt paid
SATOSHI
1) That’s great news. What a relief!
2) You don’t need to thank me. I got just as much out of it as you did
FIONA
1) You have no idea what a relief it is!! I nearly burst into tears when I looked at my bank account and the money was there
2) That simply cannot be true. The depths of orgasm debt I’m sinking into are enormous. I’m on track for orgasm bankruptcy
SATOSHI
1) I’m so glad xxx
2) ‘orgasm debt’ is not real. That is not a thing.
FIONA
1) Thank you x
I’m expecting Matt to turn up on my doorstep and demand to see the kids *immediately* now he’s paid for the privilege, so it’s not all sunshine and roses, but at least it’s something
2) I agree in principle, but one of us has been doing the heavy lifting, and it hasn’t been me
Are you free this morning? The girls are obsessed with Jonah and Sadie’s puppy, so they offered to take them for the day, and Lex went too
So I have some time in which to, ahem, start making repayments
SATOSHI
I can’t do today, sadly – cellar consult
FIONA
On New Year’s Day?!
SATOSHI
It’s for a rich old (and badly organised) Frenchman who’s flying to Paris tomorrow. This is the only time he had
But if J&S want to take the kids overnight: all I’m doing after close is studying, and I know something I’d much rather be doing
Sorry, *someone* I’d much rather be doing
FIONA
The kids are back with me this evening
Besides, I know you need to study. Hardest exam in the world and all that x
But what if I came with you to your consult? I could be your assistant
SATOSHI
Are you sure? This guy’s kept zero track of what wine he has, so I’m fairly sure today will just be me clambering around in a basement full of spiders trying to figure out what he’s stored down there
And he only speaks French
FIONA
I’m sure
I’m not scared of spiders
I love watching you work
And I’d *love* to hear you speak French
Besides, it’ll be fun watching you get dirty
SATOSHI
I haven’t been dirty enough for you?!?!
I need to up my game
FIONA
You are precisely the right level of dirty xx
But you’re always so clean-cut and perfectly pressed. Who knows what seeing you get a little grimy will do to me…
FIONA
Well, now you know what seeing you get a little grimy will do to me
SATOSHI
And I may never recover
Seriously, I have to stand behind the bar all evening and my legs are still shaking
FIONA
I told you I wanted to
Although maybe doing it *in* the spider cellar wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. When I picked up the kids, I had to think fast when Rosie asked me why my knees were all dirty.
SATOSHI
What did you tell her?
FIONA
That I dropped one of my earrings in the garden and I’d been kneeling down looking for it
And then Georgia said, ‘But Mummy, you aren’t wearing earrings’, and…
SATOSHI
You could have told them the truth, you know
Not the whole truth, obviously – but that you were helping me out in a dirty cellar
FIONA
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Seriously, though, I had fun today. I’ll help you out in a dirty cellar whenever you like x
It gave me an idea for my next column, actually – how many people have all this incredibly valuable wine just randomly stashed under the house???
SATOSHI
Oh, I can tell you some STORIES
And connect you to some people who can tell you some stories, so I’m not your only source
FIONA
You really are very useful to have around x
Just sent off the very final edits for my Bibliophile piece, btw – it’ll be published at the end of the month
SATOSHI
Congratulations!!
I’m going to frame a copy for the bar and get you to sign it x
FIONA
Maybe wait for me to get my nerve up to tell Jonah and Sadie about my little career pivot first
It’s intimidating, showing your writing to two English PhDs…
SATOSHI
I’ll hold your hand, if that’ll help
FIONA
That might be a giveaway for something else as well
From: [email protected]
Subject: Resignation
Hi Satoshi
I’m so sorry, but I have to resign my position at Tsundoku, effective immediately. My mother’s condition has got worse and I have to go to Melbourne to care for her.
I know I’m letting you down, and that I haven’t been the best employee anyway. I really appreciate your endless patience with me, and I hope you can forgive me.
Sorry again
Birdie
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Resignation
Dear Birdie,
I’m so sorry to hear this. Love to you and your mother from all of us.
And please don’t feel like you need to apologise. Of course, family has to come first!
If you find yourself back in Hobart, you’ll always have a job here.
Best wishes,
Satoshi
SATOSHI
Heads up – I’m about to place an ad for a new junior somm
You will be delighted to hear Birdie quit
ISAMU
I’m sorry – but this sounds like the best thing in the long run
In the interim, when do you need me to work?
SATOSHI
Isamu.
Vintage starts soon
Do your own job
ISAMU
I can do days in the vineyard and a few nights in the bar
I’m not the one studying for the MS
A few weeks won’t kill me
SATOSHI
A few weeks won’t kill me either
I’m not Otōsan
MS TRAUMA BOND SUPPORT CIRCLE
SATOSHI
Do either of you know any out-of-work somms?
Or someone willing to moonlight for a few weeks?
Lost my junior, and now my roster has a *lot* of holes
CARLTON
No, sorry – we just lost one here too
Took us ages last time we hired – classic Tasmania and its population of three people and some quolls
MAXI
Same here
SATOSHI
No problems – thanks anyway!
SATOSHI
Fiona, I’m so sorry, but I have to work this Thursday
Birdie quit
FIONA
Oh no! Is she ok?
SATOSHI
Her mum’s sick, unfortunately
Which means I’m running every shift until I can hire someone new
FIONA
Poor Birdie
Can I help?
I do have some experience working at Tsundoku, after all…
SATOSHI
I’ll figure it out, don’t worry! It’ll just be a bumpy few weeks until I find someone
FIONA
What about Charlotte?
SATOSHI
I need someone who’s done Certified, not just Intro, and they’re not running that qual again here until April
But please don’t let the inconvenient fact that I have to work keep you away x
FIONA
I’ll be there, don’t worry
I’ll sit at the bar while you work
Then afterwards, you can sit and I’ll do all the work
SATOSHI
What happened to ‘you’re the boss’?
FIONA
Doesn’t being the boss mean you get to put your feet up while your minions do everything for you?
SATOSHI
Compelling point