Wait. He wasn’t even coming sightseeing with me? Was that blocked-out section of his itinerary just for me?
But before I could say anything, he was heading out. I wanted to grab him, tug him back into our room, finish what we started last night—but I was barely dressed and in no state to go running after him. Instead, I had to watch him leave, the door slamming behind him.
When I turned back, Oksana was wearing that same big smile on her face, her hands clasped together.
“What should we do today?” she asked. “Stefan to take you wherever you’d like.”
I studied her, the wheels in my head turning. “What is it that you said to Stefan when you first arrived?” I asked. “Pree-vyet?”
“Oh, you’d like to learn Ukrainian?Duzhe dobrey.” She winked at me. “That means ‘very good.’”
“And pree-vyet—is that hello?” I prompted.
“Yes,” she confirmed.
I was confused. That wasn’t the first thing she’d said to me. “Then what does dobrey-dyen mean?”
There was a pause. “That also means hello,” she said. “Just…more formal.”
I understood. She had greeted Stefan with the more familiar form of ‘hello,’ which meant they were informal. Friendly.
I felt a twinge of jealousy. How friendly were they, exactly?
“The rest of it was just me asking how he was,” Oksana said with a wave of her hand. “He told me he was doing well, just very busy.”
I nodded, but I was only half paying attention.
“Why don’t you get dressed?” Oksana said, clapping happily. “I will love to show you my beautiful city.”
It was an offer I would have appreciated the day before, but now I was mostly just annoyed. With Stefan. Again.
“I don’t need a babysitter, you know,” I said, my tone more bitter than I intended.
Oksana’s smile faltered, as if she didn’t quite know how to respond.
“Stefan would like me to spend the day with you,” she finally said. “He’s a good man. He cares very much for you.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” It was hard to believe that Stefan cared about anyone other than himself. But clearly my derision wasn’t acceptable, as Oksana shook her head passionately.
“No, no, no,” she said. “He is averygood man. A very good boss. It is my great joy to give him…how do you say…favors?”
I stared at her, hoping that this was just another example of the language barrier. That when she said ‘favors’ she didn’t mean the carnal kind.
Oksana put her hand on her chest, over her heart. “I owe him a debt,” she said.
This surprised me. What exactly did she owe him? Money? Or something more intangible? How did a man like Stefan, so cold and distant, earn the devotion of someone as beautiful—and seemingly nice—as Oksana? It only made me want to understand Stefan better.
So even though I felt bitterly jealous over the idea of spending the day with a woman who felt great joy in giving my husband ‘favors,’ I also had a feeling that I would get more information about Stefan from her than from the man himself. Maybe I should just look at this day as a fact-finding mission.
Besides, Oksana was so friendly, surely it wouldn’t be that hard to get information out of her. With that goal in mind, I pushed aside my frustration and discomfort. Quickly, I showered and got dressed, prepared to spend the rest of the day grilling her for details about my extremely private, extremely closed-off husband.
We took advantage of the room service breakfast I had already ordered and then headed out. At first, I was so in awe of the buildings and the charming, old-world vibe of the neighborhoods that I forgot my initial plan and just enjoyed myself as Oksana drove me around the city.
It wasn’t that much different from my first round of sightseeing in Vienna. We drove past castles and museums, all ornate and exquisite. Oksana explained what each one was and gave me any information she could recall about their history or what they were currently used for, and then she showed me Castle Hill, where the famous Buda Castle sat, housing some of the city’s most respected museums, like the National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum.
I wished we had more time and could visit all of the attractions we passed, but Oksana assured me that she was giving me a comprehensive overview of the best Budapest had to offer.
“Besides, we don’t want to be stuck inside on a day like this,” she pointed out.
