He didn’t squeeze hard enough to bruise in front of witnesses, but he used exactly enough pressure.
My tray pressed against my thigh. The service floor kept moving around us.
Gennady’s thumb shifted once over the inside of my wrist. “You feel that? A small thing. A man doesn’t need to raise his voice to stop you.”
I checked his hand, then his face. “Let go of me.”
The two men with him went quiet.
Gennady held for another breath. Then he released me with a little shove, as if I’d been the one lingering.
“Better,” he said. “You’re learning to ask.”
My wrist burned where his fingers had been. I turned before my face could betray me and walked to the bar with my tray tucked tight to my body.
The bartender glanced at me. “You okay?”
“I need booth six’s Beluga and a club soda for the rail.”
He glanced past my shoulder. “That booth giving you trouble?”
“That booth always gives trouble.”
He started the order. I flexed my fingers once below the counter, then stopped. Gennady had eyes everywhere in this place when he wanted them. Fear was one more thing a man like him could spend.
By the time the floor manager cut me, it was after one. My dress clung to my skin. My feet hurt so badly each step felt bright and sharp. The dining floor had thinned, but Gennady remained in the reserved booth with one man left beside him and half a bottle on the cloth. He hadn’t eaten most of the food. It sat thereshining under the lamps, more money abandoned in caviar and bread than I had in my coat pocket.
I took my tips to the back and counted quickly in the staff room. The total wasn’t enough. It was never enough. Cash flattened under my palm. A five with a torn corner. Three twenties. A stack of singles damp from someone’s drink. Rent had already eaten most of last week. The gas bill was late. Petya’s mistake had teeth.
Tamar came in while I was shoving the bills into the pocket inside my bag. She shut the staff-room door behind her and kept her voice low.
“He’s waiting near the rear exit,” she said.
My fingers went still on the zipper.
“Of course he is.”
“Use the front.”
“The floor manager will stop me if I go through the dining floor with my coat on.”
“I’ll walk with you.”
“No.” I pulled my coat from the hook. “I’m not giving him two women to corner.”
Tamar checked the door, then me. “Nadia, listen to me. If this is about Petya’s debt and you need real money fast, there are people who arrange private contracts.”
The air seemed to drop a few degrees.
“What kind of contracts?”
Her face tightened. “The kind no one says out loud at work.”
“Tamar, I need you to say it.”
“I’m not telling you to do it. I’m telling you because Gennady isn’t the only monster with money, and some monsters pay with witnesses instead of dragging girls into offices.”
My stomach turned. “That’s supposed to be better?”
