“There’s no underwear?”
“There is, but… I don’t know if I want to wear someone else’s panties.”
I tilt my head at her. “What makes you think something like that?”
“Your friend… Mikki. He said all this came from somebody named Maria.”
I have to stifle a laugh. “Maria’s Boutique in the city. The owner is Mikki’s little sister. It’s a store in front of a club. I’m surprised you’ve never been there. I hear it’s very popular with the kids these days.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, well, you can’t tell that by looking. I mean, everything is everywhere. No hangers or anything.”
“If you don’t like it, I can always have Mikki return this stuff.”
“No, no.” She reaches back into the car and pulls out a bra and panty set. “It’s fine. Really.”
We head back inside and she goes upstairs to get dressed. I sit down and make my phone calls, calling Iggy about Mikki andabout someone who could take care of the mess. When he picks up, he sounds out of breath.
“Interrupting my morning jog to clean up another mess,” he says sarcastically. “Beautiful. And what’s with Mikki coming to you instead of me? He’s too good for my stitches now?”
I have to laugh at Iggy’s fake indignance. “You’ll have to talk to Mikki about that,” I tell him.
“Bah. Tell him to come to me this afternoon. I need to double-check your work.”
“I’ll pass the message along.” He sounds like he’s joking, but he’s serious about this part. Mikki had better get his ass over there today.
Iggy promises to send over a friend of his that cleans crime scenes for a living as well as two of his nieces to take care of bringing the clothes in for Natalya after that. Then we banter a little more.“Leah keeps asking after you, you know,”he says of his wife.“Call her every once in a while.”
When all that’s done and I hang up, Natalya appears at the top of the stairs. The outfit she’s chosen, tight jeans and a white T-shirt that I can see the pattern of her bra through, looks really good on her. Her hourglass figure compliments this simple outfit, making something so rudimentary look like sex on legs. Her hair is up in a ponytail and she’s barefoot. Of all the thoughts that come to mind the moment I see her, I also think that she looks like she belongs right where she’s standing.
“That sounded important,” she says as she walks down the stairs.
“Somewhat. Somebody has to clean up this mess and take care of the clothes in the car.”
She tilts her head as she looks up at me. “You could’ve done all that.”
“Not likely,” I tell her. “Are you hungry? I can fix us something to eat.”
“That would be lovely.”
We go into the kitchen and start cooking breakfast while she sits at the kitchen table, tracing a finger along the pattern in the lacy tablecloth. “So, I guess you haven’t gotten around to doing any redecorating.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Whywouldn’tyou? I mean, I imagine you want to keep it all this way to honor your Pakhan and all, but don’t you want this place to feel more like… I don’t know, you?”
“Who says this isn’t me?”
I glance over at her to see her raising an eyebrow as she lifts up a corner of the lacy tablecloth. I chuckle.
“All right, maybe a little redecorating is in order,” I say. “When I have time.”
I bring the plates of food over to her. It’s nothing fancy, scrambled eggs, toast, and orange juice. Nothing special. She digs in hungrily, stabbing at the eggs with voracity.
“This is really good,” she says through a mouthful of food.
“Thank you.”
“Is this indicative of your cooking skill? Can I expect more while I’m here?”
