They were driving to a new set the next morning. The scenes at the manor house were finished, and they were moving to a larger house where they'd be filming with the man who'd be playing Sumire's fiancé, the man she was supposed to marry. The actor, Hiroyuki Fujita, was a very popular Japanese singer and pop star, kind of in the mold of Pete Santangelo or George Wilder, who was banking on the success of a huge, international movie to launch his acting career.

In addition to Hiroyuki, Sumire and Nick had scenes with the actor who played her father, and numerous other people who were in the movie. This would be Sumire's first time acting with anyone other than Nick.

"You know," Sumire said to Nick while they sat in morning traffic, "I'm going to have to let Fujita-san touch me, Nick."

"You're going to have to do more than that, Purple girl," Nick answered, looking over at her with concern.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh shit, oh no."

"What?" Sumire sat up, alarm in her mild brown eyes. Up front, Mino-chan, sensing something was going awry in the back seat, flicked his gaze to his rear view mirror.

"Uh, I haven't been giving you copies of the script revisions unless they involved my dialogue, you know?" Nick began. "I figured you didn't need them unless we needed to work on stuff I had to say."

"Yeah?" Sumire was looking at Nick intently. "So?"

"Well, it's normal for the script to get tweaked, like, all over the place, and Hiroyuki and Minami's stuff, I mean Hiroyuki and yours, now, has been revised a couple times since you read the original script, and, uh, they kiss, Mimi-chan."

Sumire stared at Nick, aghast.

"They what?"

Nick nodded. "More than once, too. Before my character, Eugene, shows up from Edo, your character, Hana? She's almost happy with Hiro's character, you know? And yeah, they decided to spice it up a little and show that. So they kiss."

"Nick." Sumire's voice was almost a whisper. "I don't think I can kiss anyone."

Nick sat back, running his hand through his hair. "Fuck." He looked at the young woman sitting tensely next to him. "Look. Hiro's a nice guy, a good guy. And I don't think those scenes are on the list for today, anyway. How about if you just meet him, get to know him, and see how today goes?" He reached over and clasped her hand. "Let's just take it one day at a time, okay?"

She nodded, abstracted, biting her lip.

They finally arrived at the set, which was an actual studio in Matsuyama. They were both whisked away to make-up, and didn't really have a chance to talk after that, though they were seated in chairs next to each other.

Nick actually enjoyed watching Sumire get made up. He'd never seen her with make-up on in the first months he'd known her, so it had amazed him the first time he'd seen her. With her eyes enhanced, cheekbones highlighted, and lips filled in, the change was nothing short of astounding. She looked like a beautiful little pixie.

Today, as the make-up artist wiped and cleaned around Sumire's mouth, Sumire winced a little, and Nick could see that the skin was a bit pink and chafed. He remembered wondering last night while they were kissing if it was painful at all on her tender skin because he hadn't shaved when he showered. He was, after all, a swarthy southern Italian, and he stubbled up fast.

He had his answer.

He made eye contact with Sumire in the mirror.

Sorry, he mouthed, with a smile. He motioned around his mouth with his finger and made a face of sympathy and commiseration.

Sumire shook her head.

So worth it, she mouthed back, with her little smile, and Nick actually felt himself starting to blush and harden in his pants.

Good grief.

Sumire finished her make-up before Nick, and she wandered off to sit in a chair and watch the crew set the lights. While she was there, she was approached by Hiroyuki Fujita, who introduced himself in English, saying he was looking forward to working with her.

He was not nearly as tall as Nick, though he was at least six inches taller than Sumire. He was very handsome, and charming as well, and she could understand his popularity in Japan, a country that lived for its young pop stars.

"I speak Japanese," she responded in his native tongue. "Pleased to meet you. I'm so happy to be working with you."

"Me as well," he responded in Japanese. "And your Japanese is beautiful! I thought you'd learned your lines phonetically?"

"No, that's our co-star, Nick Pensieri," Sumire answered with a laugh. She pointed to where he was watching them from his make-up chair.

He waved to them.

"I was his dialogue coach at first, so I'm bilingual," she explained. "I replaced Minami-san when she got pregnant."

"Ahh, that's you! I see," Hiro said, nodding in understanding. "Well, I think making this movie is going to be quite interesting, don't you? So many unusual things to do."

"I agree."

"I had to learn to ride for this part," he confessed, taking a seat next to her, smiling as he remembered something related to this admission. "Do you ride?"

Sumire nodded. "Yes. I grew up in Boston, and I had cousins who rode all the time, so this was one of the very few things I could do, thankfully."

"Lucky, then, weren't you?"

Nick joined them at that moment, and Sumire introduced the two men, though they'd already met, very briefly, at the read through in Los Angeles the previous summer.

They began rehearsing the first scene, which involved all three of them, and the actor who played Sumire's father, and Sumire found that she didn't have time to worry about anything. The day flew by as she concentrated on remembering her lines, taking direction from Reiko Toyama, the assistant director, and tweaking everything as she was asked, from how quickly she crossed the room to how she asked her father when her brothers were returning. Even lunch was a blur of covering her costume, wolfing a sandwich, and getting back to her place in the allotted time.

Finally, after dark, she collapsed in the back seat of the car with Nick. She leaned on him with her eyes closed, which made him inordinately happy.

"How do you do this every day, for months and months?" she asked without opening her eyes. "I can't even tell if I'm more hungry or tired." She heaved a deep breath, settling even closer to Nick as she exhaled.

"Uh, Mimi-chan?"

"Mm?"

"You know how we, uh, how we--" Nick fidgeted, first putting an arm around her so she wouldn't leave his side. Up front, Mino-chan navigated the crowded streets of Matsuyama. "You know how last night we, uh--"

"Fooled around? Made out?" she supplied, and he could hear the smile in her voice.

"Right, yeah," he agreed, his relief evident. "So you know how I got, uh, how I--"

"Got excited?"

"Yeah."

"Nick, what's wrong? You're the one with all the experience, why are you so tongue-tied?"

He shrugged, thankful that it was dark.

"Anyway, sometimes, when that happens, it doesn't go away, and I have to take matters into my own hands after you leave, you know?" Nick face palmed. "God, I can't believe I'm telling you this," he muttered.

"Well, I can't either," Sumire said with a little laugh, "but since you are, I guess I have to ask why?"

"I was just wondering if you ever do the same?" he asked all in a rush. "Do you? We've been traveling down this road together, so to speak, very slowly, for a long time, you know? So I was wondering if you ever take care of business on your own?" He finally worked up the nerve to look over at her in the semi-darkness of the car.

Sumire remained where she was, leaning on him, as she considered what to say.

"No," she finally said, shaking her head slightly.

"Really?"

Sumire could hear surprise and disappointment in his voice.

"Not because you're not doing what you're supposed to be," she assured him. She finally sat up. "The thing is, I don't get excited in that way," she explained.

"What? You don't?"

Sumire shook her head. "Don't misunderstand me, Nick-san. When we kiss, it's so nice. It's the nicest feeling ever, I think." She touched his mouth with her fingers, and he kissed them, which made her smile. "I love kissing you, and I didn't think I would. It makes my tummy feel fluttery, in the nicest way.

"And last night, when you touched my--my front?" She paused. "That fluttery feeling was so much stronger. Like lightning bolts from my breast to my stomach. Wow." She leaned on Nick again. "But down below? I don't feel anything down there. Maybe it's because that's where I was--I was--" she paused. "Maybe it's because that's where Marcus abused me, you know? He never messed with me anywhere else." She shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't know if I'm ever going to want sex, or enjoy sex, either. I'm sorry, Nick."

"No, shh, don't say that, Mimi-chan, just don't," Nick shushed her, stroking her hair. "If it happens, it happens, if it doesn't, it doesn't. It won't be your fault. And even if it doesn't happen at first, it might, after you start therapy, right?"

Sumire nodded, her hair whispering under his hand.

"So, you've never had an orgasm?"

She shook her head.

"I never had sexual feelings at all until I met you," she explained. "And I don't even know if what I'm feeling now are sexual, either. They're just, like I said, 'nice,' which must sound kind of lame to someone who's screwed half the women in North America, or maybe the Northern Hemisphere," she joked. "I don't get 'tingly between my legs,' I've never gotten wet, or engorged, or any of those things. I've never felt the urge to touch myself, or be touched down there, ever."

She turned her head to look up at Nick. "I still don't," she confessed. "I'm sorry."

"I told you, don't do that," Nick reiterated. "Maybe it will happen, and in the meantime, we're having fun, right? And I have my hands."

"And you don't--mind?"

"Not at all," Nick assured her. "They were the first sexual partners I ever had."

They'd finally left the city, and therefore the traffic, behind, and were now in the dark, winding,  roads that led to the ryokan. It was a cloudless night, with thousands of stars. Mino-chan asked if they wanted to stop somewhere for dinner. Sumire asked Nick, who said he didn't care.

"No, I think we'll just eat in our room," she told their driver, who nodded and kept going, deeper into the countryside.

"Well, you're one in a million, Nick-san," Sumire said into Nick's ear before she dropped a quick kiss on it. "And I want you to know I'm grateful."

"You're one in a million also, Mimi-chan," Nick answered, "and so worth all of it." And he kissed the top of her head.