“You deserve better than I’ve given you.”
“I think the microwave was a lovely gesture. I’ll think of you every time I heat my soup.”
Again, he laughed, and the warmth in my heart grew.
“Do you like movies?”
“Hm?” I glanced up. “Of course.”
“I’m away for the next week, maybe week and a half. When I return, I’ll take you to the movies.”
“Alright…” I bit my cheek, hating that I had to ask. “But you’ll call?”
“I will, Kotik.”
* * *
The next day, I took a chunk out of my savings and went shopping for leather pants.
Elena met me at the market, and even before I saw her face, I knew something was wrong. She pulled the red scarf with green and yellow flowers too high, crushing her curls as she tucked her hair into its folds.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Well, hello to you too. It’s nothing.”
I shook my head, disappointed that she’d think I wouldn’t notice, and stepped close enough to yank the scarf down before she could jerk away. My fear stared back at me in the form of a purple bruise crawling across her skin like an ink stain, its corners feathering out into a dull blue.
“Oh God, Elena…” I whispered as she lowered her eyes and allowed me to examine it. “Who did this to you?”
“I fell—it was embarrassing enough, so let’s not talk about it. There was a patch of ice.” She pulled irritably out of my reach, but I followed.
“Elena.”
“Katya, please. Can we go?” she pleaded.
My fingers hovered over the bruise, but I lowered my hand in the end and let her pull the scarf up. Shopping for leather pants seemed silly now, but as we walked the rows of tents, her mood improved and so did mine. There would be time to talk about it later, when she wasn’t expecting a reprimand.
The outdoor market consisted of fifty stalls, some canvas cloth and some metal, each offering everything from baked bread to fake China-made shoes to expired make-up and bubblegum.
I stopped to browse through the sticker books for Maxim and ended up buying one featuring a slightly off-looking team of Ninja Turtles. The cashiers always appeared a little extra angry, like you were inconvenient to their sunflower-seed spitting gossip hour sitting between the haphazardly stacked crates.
“Why do you suddenly want leather pants?” Elena asked, trying not to seem too eager, but the message was clear.
I gave her an embarrassed shrug, pretending to be interested in a pair of open-toed sandals while my nose grew red with the biting chill. What was I going to tell her?
“Who did you see wearing them?”
Ah crap.
“We saw Ana at the restaurant,” I said. “She was with his guys. All the girls wore them.”
“You think that’s what he wants to see? Katya, come on. Bad enough you forgave him for the whole thing, now you’re dressing up for him?” She rolled her eyes. “What restaurant was it?”
Elena, the subject matter expert on all things expensive. I didn’t know how I hadn’t noticed earlier, but that thought brought attention to the gold earringspeeking out between her locks.
“The Labyrinth?” I said uncertainly.
“Hm… never heard of that one.”
