“Why are you not in your husband’s room?” She asked, and I froze.
That was a good question. The truth was, I could share that room with Dmitri. I could access my things there, get dressed there, and do everything a wife was supposed to do within those walls. But sleeping in the same bed with him, knowing what hadhappened not long ago, was a different conversation entirely. So I chose to spend the night in Cole’s room, and I needed a reason that didn’t involve explaining any of that.
I turned to Cole, and I was shocked to find his eyes wide open. “Cole asked me to stay. He gets scared at night sometimes.”
Cole looked at me. “I did?”
Grandma turned and looked at me. That face told me she didn’t buy any of that. “I will stay with him then.” She moved toward the chair beside his bed. “Your husband must be waiting.”
“Grandma, what I mean is—”
She pressed two fingers to her temple and closed her eyes. “My pressure. Please. I don’t like to argue at this hour.”
I stood there for one more second, then picked my phone off the table. “Alright. Goodnight.”
I closed the door behind me and stood in the corridor. From inside the room, Grandma’s voice came through clearly. “She is not a good liar.”
Cole laughed.
“Sleep,” Grandma said. “Don’t mind us.”
“Grandma,” Cole’s voice dropped. “She is a good person.”
“Of course, she is. And so are you.” She paused. “How are your studies going?”
I exhaled and left, going to the third floor I had been avoiding. The entire floor was quiet as if Dmitri had left.
During the dinner, Grandma did most of the talking, pulling stories out of the air about Dmitri’s past. Dmitri sat through it, allowing it as if he wanted me to know. Eating together felt normal, a dinner that only a happy family would have.
But when Dmitri’s phone rang and he left to answer it, things shifted. He sat through the rest of the dinner, checking his phone, everything closed off. He was a hard man to understand.
I pushed the bedroom door open and turned the lights on,expecting Dmitri not to be there, but I stopped, a gasp leaving my lips.
Dmitri sat in the chair by the window, a glass resting in his hand. He sat in the dark, making me assume he wasn’t in the room.
“I thought you left,” I said, because it was the first thing that arrived.
He looked at me for a moment. “You want me to leave?”
“No. I mean,” I breathed. “No.”
I looked at the bed. Would sharing it with him lead to something far more than what we did in that closet?
“I’ll take the couch.” I turned to leave the room.
“Get in bed,” he said.
“You should take it. You were here first, and it’s your room, so it only makes sense if you do.”
“What do you think will happen?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I laughed, the kind that came out slightly too quickly. “Nothing at all.”
“Get in bed, Inna.”
I looked at the bed, then back at him. This was going to be a long night.
“Okay,” I pointed at the bathroom. “I just need to get ready for bed. I do this every night. It’s not specific to tonight. Everyone cleans up before bed. It’s a normal thing that normal people do, so don’t read into it or think I’m preparing for anything because I’m absolutely not. I’m just—”
