He sipped, but his tea was just as hot. He took the burn with more dignity than I did. “Electronics. It takes patience to create something beautiful.”
Neither of us looked at each other, but I knew he grinned too. I had to give him that; it didn’t take him many words to melt a girl’s heart. Not mine, of course, but someone’s.
Lights began coming on across the windows in the apartment buildings along the road.
“It’s getting dark,” I noted, and clutched my tea tighter to warm my palms.
He stopped me with a hand on my shoulder, guiding me to face him. “Katya, I want to take you on a real date.”
I hoped the soft light of the setting sun hid the coloring on my cheeks. There was no reason to say no, now. No reason but the little voice at the back of my head still telling me that this was too good to be true, and truth wasn’t this good.
“Why did you hurt that man on the bus?” I asked, the words already formed by the time I realized why I was asking.
When I was drunk, the memory seemed like some romantic gesture, but having Vitali be real and in front of me changed the way I saw it. The man screamed. Hescreamed. I was sure I heard the bones crunch, and the clawed mess moving under the still-unbroken skin would never be whole again. It was the hand he used to touch me.
“Why did you tell me you had no phone, Katya? You’re not going to lie to me.”
It was an audacious almost-question, but I buckled anyway.
“I won’t,” I said quietly, and the next thing I felt was the leather glove under my chin, pushing it higher with the gentleness of a wound spring. He made me look him in the eyes.
“What won’t you do, Katya?”
“I will not lie to you.”
“Then we will go somewhere on Saturday, and it won’t be pizza, because you don’t like pizza,” he said, gently giving my chin slack so I could nod in agreement. “Let’s find out what you do like.”
He had me at the podyezd the moment the street lamps turned on. Darkening, but not dark. This time, he typed in the code. He took me as far as the elevator, but did not go up. Instead, he leaned on the open doors that had no chance of closing on him.
“I’ll see you Saturday, Kotik,” he said, and reached over to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. My nerves screamed, knowing he was about to lean in and kiss me.
But he didn’t. He grinned and allowed the doors to fall closed. Just before the elevator took off, I heard the click of his lighter.
When Saturday came, Vitali did not show up.
* * *
About Russia
babushka— a grandmother
podyezd- an entrance to the stairwell in apartment buildings. Normally, these are metal doors and they are locked, only accessible via key or keypad. There is a button for guests to buzz the needed apartment to get let in
Fun fact about the double door system:Most Russian apartments had two doors installed, although the steel outside one was expensive at the time. The inner door would usually be wooden and padded for insulation and noise reduction. The outer door could be wooden as well (if you couldn’t afford the steel security door) and provide an extra layer of insulation as warm air got trapped between the two.
Fun fact about the first McDonalds:it opened in Moscow, Russia in 1990. Having one in a mid-sized city was very rare.
3
The Manhattan Club
“Nothing? Not even a phone call?” Elena gave me a scalding look as if that was somehow my fault.
“Nothing,” I repeated, stepping to the side as we passed a steaming grate on the sidewalk. I wasn’t about to ruin one of my three pairs of heels. “I changed my mind about him anyway.”
“Ooo—changed your mind.” She rolled her eyes. “Only took you a month. Those are boys playing games. You and I are too grown for games. Probably thinks himself the most handsome in town, doing whatever he wants. God forbid, ending up with a man like that and his borrowed Mercedes.”
I took a warm, wet breath in the shelter of my scarf to avoid the cutting cold in my lungs. It was still early and the clouds overhead didn’t inspire hope for when the sun came up.
