served in most expensive hotels.
“That’s a very serious claim,” Yuki said.
“I was a scientist. I believe in evidence.”
“And if the pancakes are terrible?”
“Then we will have discovered something important about the limitations of human knowledge.”
She left smiling.
She told herself she had simply met a charming old man.
But later that evening, when she sat alone in her hotel room, she realized she was thinking about him.
Not because he was mysterious or handsome in a conventional way.
Because she had spent an entire afternoon with someone who had not made her feel that she needed to be more interesting, more attractive, more successful, or less complicated.
For once, she had been allowed to be herself.
Chapter Three: The Friendship Nobody Expected
Yuki returned to the beach the following afternoon.
She told herself she wanted to enjoy the scenery. She also told herself that there
