What the fuck happened last night?
“Uh-huh. Do you remember everything, from last night?” I asked, resisting the urge to scold him.
A flicker of a grimace crossed his face. “Yes, Anastasia.”
“Really? So you know that I know...everything,” The words come out slowly, carefully. Surely if he knew I knew everything, that’d make me a liability and less worth keeping around? “You remember that you told me everything?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Just checking so that I can move on with my life, sure that you’re not going to kill me because I know too much.” I nodded, my heart pounding painfully with anxiety that I couldn’t quell.
Nikolai looked at me over the rim of his coffee cup. “What if I had lied and said that I didn’t remember last night at all? What would you have said?”
I shrugged. “I probably would have messed with you. Told you that you looked familiar, asked you if we’d met before. Then, at least in my mind, you would’ve been compelled into telling me the truth.” I paused, thinking about the other scenario. Would I have worked it out? Possibly, possibly not.
“But in all honesty, you looked familiar at the funeral. I might’ve never pieced together that you were the one that threatened my father on the night of my sixteenth birthday. But in my defense, a lot about you was different back then.”
“Not as much has changed as you would think.”
My head tilted to the side as I contemplated his words. “Maybe you don’t think so, but I can see it.”
After this morning’s heavy conversation with Nikolai, I figured I didn’t wanna bother him again. Not so soon anyway. So, instead of asking to take Achilles out for a walk - to which I expected him to say ‘no’ anyway - I went about seeking Achilles out.
I snuck around to the back of the house, where I’d found him last night and sure enough there he was, lounging in his bed.
“Achilles, you wanna come outside with me?” I cooed as I leant down to scratch behind his ears. I stood and unlocked the sliding door causing his little ears to perk up. “Come on, boy.”
He followed me obediently. I couldn’t fault Nikolai for that, he’d certainly trained Achilles well. After shutting the door behind us, I started down the paved pathway.
* * *
“There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you,” Heather scolded. “Mr King has invited you to have dinner with him this evening.”
Hmm. Intriguing.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you’re his house guest, I’d imagine. Be ready for six o’clock,” she said before she turned on her heel and walked back up the path.
By six, I was long done with Achilles’ walk and I deigned to put on some smarter clothes for dinner this time. I sat down at the long table and pondered what sort of conversation to make.
“Has work been busy?” I meant the word ‘work’ as lightly as possible. Not because I didn’t think that Nikolai worked hard, I’m sure he did, but it couldn’t exactly be classified as ‘shop assistant’.
“Anastasia,” he chastised, causing me to turn with a thorough what the fuck expression. It was only a question. “Why are you asking?”
“Oh please. I don’t care about any of that. It was my way of asking where your brothers have been, I guess.”
He made a ‘hmming’ noise as he lifted his newspaper to continue reading. I put down my fork as I tried again to gain his attention. “Nikolai?”
No response came. I sat staring at him from across the table in absolute bewilderment. What the actual fuck? “Hey. I’m talking to you.”
Again, no verbal response came just a turning of his page. What a strange, strange man. “Well, fine. I mean, since you’re not listening to me...I don’t particularly like Heather, the toast that you made me is too brown for my liking and I shower naked.”
I continued on as I started eating around the evil toast sitting on the very edge of my plate. What could possibly draw his attention? I wracked my brain. A sudden thought came to me.
What would draw the attention of any man?
Aside from flashing him right here, there was another possibility. Something I could definitely play on, his emotions. I already knew first-hand just how temperamental he could get.
