“What do you want to watch?” he inquired, pressing the smaller remote control.
The lights, which had been bright and normal, darkened into an intense blue, with the ceiling borders giving a faint yellowish glow. It was beautiful. And intimate.
“We don’t want to start feeling guilty for seeing movies in the morning,” he remarked, dropping the remote beside him and picking up the other one.
“Youdon’t want to feel guilty,” I corrected.
“Okay, maybe,” he admitted, making me nod in victory.
“So…what’s it going to be?”
“What do you watch?” I asked as the television came to life.
“Nah, I’m a total slut when it comes to movies and TV shows,” he revealed, chuckling as he sat up. “I watch anything. Depends on who I’m watching it with, really.”
“Never heard of TV slut before,” I remarked.
“You have no idea,” he said, flicking through shows, his eyes not leaving the television screen.
I had a feeling there was something deep beneath his humorous chuckle, but I couldn’t place it.
I shouldn’t even want to.
“You don’t watch movies a lot, then,” I pointed out.
“No, I don’t.”
Why do you want to watch them with me, then?
“Hmmm, let’s watch something neutral, then.”
“What doyoulike to watch?” he insisted, turning partially to face me.
“I like romance—sweet, no headache romance,” I revealed, and he chuckled. “I like action, and I like thrillers. A bit of horror, too.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“What? I look so nerdy, you can see horror on my forehead?”
“Quite the opposite, actually,” he argued, a smirk on his face.
“Of course,” I mumbled, sitting back.
“Given the circumstances…let’s do romance. Hm?”
“Works for me.”
We settled on a Mexican-American romance movie that I hadn’t heard of before, and as the opening credits rolled up the screen, Mikhail sat back too.
He snaked his hand around me on the couch without actually touching me, not that it made me any less aware of his proximity.
“Whoa...now, this is a language I surely do understand,” he stated as the second scene rolled into the third, where the hero’s men were stacking a van with firearms.
“The description said he led a violent life, so I was expecting nothing different.”
“I definitely didn’t read anything.”
“So you’ll always be surprised.”
