He doesn’t appreciate me!’ ‘Wow, I thought. What am I getting into?’ I decided to say nothing for a while, realizing that silence is sometime...s more important in communications in Japanese culture–compared to American culture in which we feel a compulsion to fill in moments of silence. I just nodded quietly. Erika began to cry and I wasn’t sure what I should do next. Should I try to comfort her, or wait? I then realized that Erika might be more Western than many Japanese women. Usually,. ..and what's worse, I'm nobodyspecial at all, just a homely nerd who works in a convenience store." Gee that's odd," Danielle said with a shake of her head. "I don't know whatto make of that." Neither do I," said Cyndy, taking a long drink of coffee."Did you like it at all?" Danielle asked."God, no!" Cyndy exclaimed. "If I was a guy, at very least, I'd like to be astud!" Both women laughed.-------The morning commuter rush had finally died down; it was a little after 9 whenSidney Hughes actually. " Now there was exactly oneother person on Earth who knew my fem name. I responded sleepily with,"You're up early." He told me he had to get up for work and I was thefirst thought he had! Ok, so if I wasn't feeling girly already, that didit for me! So freaking sweet! But I didn't have time to chat, I had toget ready for work and so did Nate. I told him I would text him later,if I had time between meetings.Since we're both in the software field we are both working from home,which is a. That wasn’t up to me, though, so stopped and went over and sat on her swing, swinging slowly, accompanied by the sound of the breeze through the grass and the joyful burble of the spring.Eventually, she returned, her gaze a little distant. Dreamy. As if, she too, was trying to hold on to a memory. I couldn’t help but smile that she seemed to have misplaced her dress and wore a pair of green lace panties, not because I was a perv, although there was that, but because I was happy that she hadn’t.