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She moved it on my plate with her chop sticks, and I thanked her.
“Hey, you were right, Enzo. This restaurant is amazing.” It was one of those fancy Japanese fusion places, where they made the sushi table-side. “I love sushi, I think it’s my favorite food, but I can’t eat it alone.”
“Why not?”
“When I’m alone I just look at the rolls and imagine the fish screaming.”
Well, that made me look up from my plate.
“Oh, wow. You’re a weirdo.”
“Shut up, Nucci, I’m being vulnerable here, telling you all my secrets.”
“Oh, Katja, you shouldn’t tell that to anyone.” I raised my glass of sake, toasting her weird secret.
“You’re one to talk. You eat calamari. How isn’t that weird?”
“I’m Italian, we eat everything that comes from the sea.”
“I guess I can’t judge. Russians eat some pretty messed up things. I mean, if you went to our kitchen right now, you would find some pig fat in the fridge. It’s so hard to find here in New York.”
“And it’s getting weirder. Why the fat?”
“Dad makes Ludmila bake him bread sometimes and she uses the lard for the dough.” Every time Ludmila’s name was associated with Popov in a sentence, it made me hate his guts even more.
“Huh, so Alexei Popov is a lard man.”
“And an ass man.”
“Excuse me?” What were we talking about again?
“On women. He’s always talking about ‘the ass on women’ and likes to brag to his friends about Ludmila’s, umm, back.”
I nodded absently and rubbed my chin. I promised Ludmila that we’d lay low for as long as she needed it, and that I would take whatever I could get with her, but every day it got fucking harder to control myself. When I heard things like this I wanted to get to Popov’s house and take her away.
“Enzo, are you ok?”
“Yeah. It pisses me off when you say things like this. I was raised to respect women.” And I fucking did. I treated my hook ups with more respect and decency than Popov was showing his fucking wife. Everything I’d heard about him was only adding to his punishment.
“I can see that. It’s nice to spend time around you. I used to think that all men were like my dad, and I really wished to be a lesbian. Thanks for giving me hope.”
Oh, pretty intense talking there.
“I’m not doing anything, Katja, just being a friend.” She was a cool girl, quirky and fun, and she obviously needed a friend. I told her from the beginning that I wasn’t looking for anything more, and she strongly agreed, but thinking about Ludmila’s message, I had a need to reinforce it.
“A good one.” She covered her face with a napkin and yawned. “Maybe we should get going. I need to catch some sleep.”
“Sure, let me get the check, and I’ll drive you back.”
“Hey, maybe I should get this one. You always pay when we go out.” See? She just wanted to be friends.
“Katja, just get your purse and go to the car. I’ll be there in a second.”
When I dropped her off, I parked at the curb and didn’t go up the driveway this time.
“Thank you for bringing me back.”
“No need to thank me, Katja.”
