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After he ended the call and removed the headset, I said, “I hope it’s okay that I let myself in.”
“Of course. I was going to meet you up front, but I lost track of time. Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. Was that another client in Russia?”
“No, a business associate in Hong Kong. It’s mid-morning there.” He crossed the room to me as I set aside the bags and told me, “You look great. This blue suit really brings out your eyes.”
I grinned at him. “I dressed up because I wanted to blend in with my surroundings. It’s corporate camouflage.”
“You’re not the type of man who blends in. You’re far too beautiful for that.” If anyone else had said that, I’d think they were full of it. But Aleksei seemed perfectly sincere.
I moved closer to him, and as he tentatively touched my cheek, he murmured, “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me, too, and I brought dinner as promised. Are you hungry?”
“Very. I ended up working through lunch.”
“Well, then I really hope you like what I brought. Want to eat in here?” When he nodded, I moved the bags to the seating area. Then I took off my suit jacket and rolled back the sleeves of my pink dress shirt as I suggested, “You might want to get comfortable. This meal is fairly interactive.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll see.” He followed my lead by removing his jacket and rolling back his sleeves, and I unpacked several takeout containers onto the coffee table as I explained, “I went with Ethiopian food. It’s all about these amazing spices and sauces, and the thing that makes it fun is that you don’t use cutlery. Instead, you eat it like this.” I unwrapped a round flatbread that was kind of like a huge crepe and tore off a piece, which I used to scoop up a bit of lentil stew. “Will you allow me to feed you? It’s a sign of respect in Ethiopian culture.”
He ate the bite of food from my fingertips, and then he murmured, “It’s absolutely delicious.”
“I’m so glad you like it.”
“May I return the favor and feed you?”
“I’d like that.” He sat on one of the club chairs, and I perched on the edge of the coffee table, so we were knee-to-knee. “The bread is called injera,” I explained, as he tore off a piece, “and this stew is called kik alicha. I brought several dishes for you to try, and I thought I should start with the mildest.”
As he scooped up some stew and fed it to me, he said, “You’re very knowledgeable. You must eat this a lot.”
“Not often enough, but I like learning about different countries through their cuisine. Someday, I’m going to travel to Ethiopia and experience it all first-hand—the food, the people, the culture. It’ll be incredible.”
“I love your enthusiasm, and I know you’ll get there one day.”
I nodded. “I definitely will. I’m going to travel all through North Africa, starting in Morocco. Then I’ll work my way across the top of the continent and spend time in Egypt before eventually ending up in Ethiopia. I think it’ll be an incredible learning experience. I might even figure out who I am along the way.”
“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” he said. “To me, you seem to know exactly who you are.”
“Yes and no. I know who I am now and where I’ve been, but I don’t know where I’m going. I’m turning thirty at the end of the year. I can’t remember if I told you that, but it’s been a major wake-up call. Shouldn’t I know what I want to be by now?”
“Not necessarily.”
“How old were you when you figured out you wanted to go into finance?”
Aleksei tore off a piece of bread and fed it to me with some stew as he said, “It wasn’t really a choice. Like I said, I had to drop out of college to support my wife and child, and my father-in-law convinced a friend of his to hire me. He was a portfolio manager, and I’ve been working in the field ever since.” He quickly added, “I don’t mean to sound resentful. I was given a great opportunity, and I’m grateful for that.”
“What would you have done if you didn’t have to drop out of school?”
“I’d already convinced myself to be a business major, so I probably would have ended up doing something similar to this.”
“Why’d you have to convince yourself?”
Aleksei lowered his gaze and said, “I mentioned before that I grew up in poverty. The only way out was to get a good job, one where I could support both myself and my mother. She worked so hard, and I owed it to her to get my head out of the clouds. So, even before I became a husband and father, I already knew I had to be practical.”
