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“We all love you. No one wants to see you get hurt.”
“It’s more than that with my parents. They’re trying to save me from myself. They think I’m too stupid to make good decisions on my own.”
“You know that’s not it. It’s just that no matter how old you get, you’re still their baby. That’s just how parents are. Mine are no different.”
“I guess.”
Jess glanced at her watch and sighed. “Fuck. I have the opening shift at the shop today. I have to get going.”
“Ok, go to work. And for God’s sake, check your phone. You must have twenty messages from Fernando by now,” I said with a grin. “How’s he doing, by the way?”
She stood up and grinned, too. “He’s good. He misses me. And he’s sick of the ducks. I mean –”
“Ah ha!” I yelled, jumping to my feet. “See? They are ducks! And you kept trying to make them out to be something exotic!”
Jess rolled her eyes. “I misspoke. They’re not ducks. They’re just…something like ducks.”
I chuckled gleefully as I followed her to the door.
Once Jess went to work and I was left to my own devices, I began to wonder what the hell I was going to do with this week off. I reached for my phone and texted Dmitri. Hi. I have donuts. Want to come over?
He replied right away. Luring me with fried dough? As if I’d need coaxing to come and see you.
So you’ll come then?
I wish I could. But I’m working, was his answer.
I fidgeted with my phone for a minute, then shot the following message to Dmitri: Are you in the Russian mafia?
So much for assuming his innocence, right? I felt ashamed of myself for asking him that. Dmitri was no criminal. There was no way.
He sent back the following one word answer: Yes.
Chapter Seven
I had known there was a possibility. I’d always known that might be the case. But to see it actually spelled out for me felt like a kick to the gut.
Dmitri really was a criminal. I hadn’t wanted to believe it. But there it was, in black and white.
But how? He was so kind, so gentle. How could he be a ruthless, cold-blooded gangster? Was there some other side to him that I’d totally failed to see, because I was so love-struck?
My phone buzzed and I looked at the screen: But you already knew that, right?
I couldn’t answer him. I felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. I left my phone on the couch and went and sat on the steps outside my building, gulping fresh air.
Did it change the way I felt about him? Of course not. I loved Dmitri. I’d spend the rest of my life loving him, even after he went off and got married. Right now though, I just needed a minute to come to grips with this revelation.
A horn blared in the street, and I jumped as someone yelled, “Jamie!” My sister Maureen was leaning out the passenger window of our sister Erin’s minivan, waving at me. “We’ll be right there, we just need to find parking!” she yelled, and they pulled away to circle the crowded block.
Oh Christ. Apparently the intervention continued.
A couple minutes later Maureen and Erin came around the corner loaded down with stuff, Maureen’s yippy dog stuffed under her arm, each sister being towed along by one of Erin’s sons. Brody and Brennan were two and three, and complete terrors. I adored them. I smiled happily and went down the sidewalk to meet them, scooping both my nephews in my arms and planting big, sloppy kisses all over them.
“Ew! Quit it, Uncle Jamie!” Brennan yelled, and his brother echoed him. They squirmed wildly and I set them down, and then I grabbed some of the bags my sisters were carrying.
“Are you moving in?” I asked, noting the mountain of totes and shopping bags.
“Of course not. These are just some things for the kids – diaper bag, changing pad, snacks, toys, jackets, change of clothes,” Erin told me as she hung a couple bags off my shoulder.
Maureen adjusted her grip on her squirming dog and told me, “Carol wanted to come too, but she’s working. And you know she can’t miss work, what with Jeff unemployed and all.” Her construction worker husband had been struggling since the economy tanked.
I led the procession to my apartment and quickly scooped up my new clothes, throwing them on my bed and closing the bedroom door. In the two seconds I was gone, my nephews had started jumping on the couch, the dog yipping at them as he raced around the coffee table. I grabbed my phone after it bounced onto the floor and saw that Dmitri had called but hadn’t left a message. I needed to call him back, but right now I had a sister invasion to deal with.
