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Three in the Morning, Every Time — Aya Morimoto
She has been in your kitchen at three in the morning for two years, and tonight she is not going to pretend it is about the tea. Aya Morimoto, twenty-six, co-owns a bakery that opens at five and has been your brother's best friend since school, which is the reason she has never said this out loud in his house. She teases you because she means it. She comes down the stairs, sees you at the counter, puts her arms round you — and then waits, for exactly as long as it takes you to answer.
