“Of course.”
Once Ann leaves the room, we all begin to eat. It’s a quiet affair, for which I’m grateful. I don’t really want to be interrogated anymore about my previous panic attack.
Sofiya and Dimitri exchange concerned looks and I choose to ignore them. The same age as me, Sofiya has always felt much more womanly than me. More mature, like she’s been through more in life. I know for a fact that I’ll never get to grow into a woman, partly because Dimitri will always protect me, and partly because it’s just a struggle to eat in the dining room with my family. If this is a struggle, then how can I ever expect to have a life outside of this house?
Once the meal is over, I immediately leave the table and head right back to my room before Sofiya and Dimitri can stop me. I need the comfort of it or I might die.
Alek
The smell of warm cinnamon is in the air as I enter the home of Maria Petrov, a good friend of mine. Her husband, Gregor, was one of my best friends until he passed away a few years ago, leaving behind Maria to care for their two daughters, Nina and Susanna.
“Alek,” Maria says with a bright smile, giving me a hug once I step over the threshold.
“It smells wonderful in here, Maria.”
“Good. My chef has been cooking all day to make you the perfect dinner tonight. It’s not every day you come over. The girls have missed you.”
“And I’ve missed them.”
Maria claps her hands together. “Girls, come here.”
Nina and Susanna appear in the foyer. At seventeen and sixteen respectively, they’re on their way to becoming women but I still see them as the little girls they once were.
“Hi, uncle Alek,” Nina says, giving me a hug. I helped raise them after Gregor died and when Gregor was still alive, I was always like a fun uncle to them. Even though they’re not my blood related daughters, they’re close to being so. They are my family.
Maria, who’s in her late fifties, had the girls later in life. She and Gregor had struggled to conceive for years and it finally happened and then happened right away again. She always calls them her miracle babies.
“Susanna,” I say, opening my arms. She rolls her eyes but gives me a hug too. Susanna was always one prone to attitude.
“Hi uncle Alek,” she mumbles.
“Your hair is blonde,” I say. “When did it become blonde?”
“When I was tired of being a brunette,” she says it like it’s supposed to be obvious to me but it’s not obvious at all.
“Your older sister has brown hair.”
“Well, I wanted to look different from Nina. So sue me.”
“I think it looks horrible on her,” Nina says. “She should have stuck to the brown.”
Susanna flips her blonde hair over her shoulder. “No. This makes me stand out. I want nothing more.”
“Girls, enough,” Maria says. “Alek is here to enjoy a meal together. Not listen to you fight all the time. Come along, Alek.”
We settle in the dining room and enjoy a three course meal. Nina and Susanna bicker amongst each other for the entire night. Maria looks like she’s going to die of a headache real soon.
The housekeeper, Sarah, comes to collect the plates when we’re finished eating. Looking at her gives me an idea. One that has come at the perfect time.
Nina and Susanna gladly go back to their rooms to be on their phones while Maria and I talk.
“Are you ok?” I ask her.
She rubs her temple. “I’m just tired. Tired of dealing with both those girls. They’re menaces. Spoiled rotten because of their father.” She shoots me a look. “And because of you.”
“Sorry.”
“When are you going to have kids of your own? You’re already thirty-eight. You should get on it soon.”
