by Blake Haugen
Persephone held her giggles as Vanya quickly looked at her, then at the bikes outside, and finally at the pile of goods in his hands. She let a small one escape when he harrumphed loudly and put most of it back. The black shoes were one of the last things he held. Right before he put them down, he halted as if struck by an idea.
“Jennifer!” he called out to the sales girl, “I have question for you.” Vanya sauntered to the counter, making sure to lower his voice an octave.
“Yes?” the brunette chirped. She was the perfect urban retail worker; chipper, hip, attentive, and hot. Jennifer beamed up at Vanya and Persephone watched their exchange from the corner of her eye. She was surprised at her lack of jealousy. Maybe it was the fantastic day they were having, or maybe it was the fact that Vanya thought he was working the girl when in fact it was the other way around. Persephone got the feeling that Jennifer knew all about sales and was about to land a big one.
“Do you happen to have a delivery service?” Vanya asked with his most winning smile.
“No, I’m afraid we don’t, but… ” Jennifer hesitated.
“Yeah?” Vanya urged gently.
“I’m sure we could get it shipped to wherever you like. We can just send it out with our online store orders.”
Persephone interjected as Vanya’s eyes lit up in triumph, “Oh, no, you clotheshorse! Don’t make her package all your stuff. We can just come back!”
“She said they could pack it up! I’ll cover shipping!” Vanya protested. He lumbered over to a mannequin wearing a charcoal colored wool bustier dress. Its herringbone silhouette wasn’t unlike some of the dresses in Persephone’s closet.
“Look, I want to get this for you, too. It’s kind of your style. Imagine how sexy you’d look in it. It’s kind of got that tweed, naughty, nice librarian thing going for it. It’s pretty awesome.” In taking time to touch and admire the dress he had spotted earlier, Vanya lost a little of his focus.
“Vanya, somehow, I’m feeling like that’s more of a find for you than it is for me,” Persephone smiled in spite of herself. Her goofy guy was in rare form today. She was thrilled that she had banished the stressed out man from the previous evening with only a night of kinky lovemaking and a trip to a high-end consignment shop. She snickered up at him, hand on her hip, and awaited another silly rebuttal.
The ring of his telephone interrupted Vanya when he opened his mouth to respond. The sound was louder than usual. It was not a ring she recognized. Vanya’s brows knitted as he pulled his phone from his pants pocket.
“Hey, в чем дело?” he replied into the phone, setting his items down on the counter, “Дa. Почему? …Сейчас.”
He pulled the phone from his ear and covered it with his hand. “Go to the dressing room. I’ll bring the dress back for you to try on. Go now.”
Persephone noted the tone in his voice, and she stepped toward the mannequin to retrieve the dress. Vanya would have none of it. He had brought the phone back to his ear, but halted when he saw she wasn’t doing exactly as told.
“Percy, dressing room. Now,” he spoke softly.
Persephone could tell he was trying to be civil about it. She made her way back to the dressing room and slumped down on the sitting stool. She could still hear him with the person on the other line. His tone was cautious and he was asking a lot of questions. Perhaps it was Mikhail he was talking to; she deduced it was either Mikhail or Lina.
She sniffed in annoyance. This was the second time Vanya had shut her away in some room while he ‘took care of business.’ It was endearing – sort of. Right now, she felt rather silly just waiting for him to retrieve her. A minute later there was a soft knock at the dressing room’s door. Persephone hopped up and jerked it open, ready to give Vanya a withering glare.
However, she found a meek Jennifer on the other side. She held out the dress to Persephone tentatively. “Hi, I brought this back for you.”
“Thanks,” Persephone mumbled, taking the garment. It was a nice dress, but she didn’t give a flying fuck at the moment. This hiding away thing wasn’t doing it for her. She pondered over confronting Vanya about it. What would he say? What would she say for that matter? Persephone got the idea that he would just laugh if she told him she’d like to hold her own from now on whenever danger loomed. It even sounded dumb when she went over it in her head.
However, he did grossly underestimate her ability to defend herself. Even so, she was in the dark about whatever it was that made Vanya send her away. She really had no choice but to trust him. The other options were leaving him or acting like a stubborn idiot – neither of which appealed to her at the moment.
“Are you going to be okay?” Jennifer asked, interrupting Persephone’s thoughts. “We can go right out the back if you need to. I can call someone to get you. I can distract him for a bit if you want.”
Persephone was instantly touched. This chick, who didn’t know her at all, was offering to smuggle her away from Ivan Kirillovich Pravdin. It was incredibly sweet and Persephone suddenly had the urge to buy the whole store if it meant that Jennifer would get a decent commission.
“No, I’m fine. I just have a very paranoid boyfriend.”
“Should I be worried?”
“I don’t think so? Maybe. One never knows,” Persephone hedged. “We’ll be out of here pretty soon. I’ll just try this on so we can move out.”
Persephone moved further into the dressing room, effectively dismissing the caring sales representative. It was too cold to try the dress on. She didn’t feel like removing two layers of clothing just to pass the time while she waited to be collected.
It was another three minutes before Vanya opened the door to the dressing room without bothering to knock. He looked calmer than when he had sent her back, but his stiff movement betrayed his unease. He quietly asked, “Are you ready?”
It was a dumb question, Persephone decided. She was still squatting down on that stool, dress in hand. Of course she was ready. Ready to leave, ready to get a fucking explanation, she thought.
“Yeah,” she replied evenly. She moved past him and made her way to the counter to pay for her gloves. She set the dress to the side, feeling a little guilty that Vanya had made Jennifer remove it from the mannequin. She quickly paid and moved aside so Vanya could buy his items. When Jennifer finished ringing him up Vanya reached for the dress and Persephone stopped him by grabbing the hem.
“No, you don’t get to fix this that way” she said brusquely.
Vanya looked down on Persephone reproachfully. He pulled the dress from her hand with ease, placed it Jennifer’s hands, and then motioned for her to continue her task. “If I want to buy you a dress, I can; I’m not going to force you to wear it. I was going to get it anyway. Would you like it if I told you how to dress or how to spend your money?”
Persephone pursed her lips. She was wrong. As much as she hated to do so, she relented.
“Alright, I’m sorry; we can talk about it later.”
Vanya nodded in agreement and gave Jennifer his mailing information. The silence between them was filled with awkwardness, and again Persephone felt guilty, this time for burdening Jennifer with their relationship problems. They hastily thanked her and left the shop.
They went to lunch at an Austrian bakery and then biked down the boardwalk until Persephone complained that she wouldn’t get any of the reading for their upcoming classes done tonight if they didn’t leave the city soon. Once their things were packed away and the bikes were secured to the newly purchased racks on the car, Vanya sped them back to campus.
As they drove, Persephone perused his features. He was stern and seemed to concentrate on the road more than his driving required. It was not the expression she expected to see after a day filled with lovemaking and gallivanting around the city. The incident in the shop had ruined that.
Persephone had never actually returned to campus from the city with Vanya before. He always traveled alone on those weekend trips he dreaded
so much. He would sometimes call her on his way back to campus, telling her how happy he was to return to her and giving a timeframe for his arrival. Depending on how desperate he sounded, she would prepare a special dessert or wait for him at his apartment using the code and key he’d recently granted her. At the moment, he didn’t seem in a desperate hurry to get home at all. He was preoccupied by some problem – some problem that was even more troublesome than whatever happened on his weekend trips.
Since she had never been invited, and the trips were almost always preceded by a hasty phone call in Russian, Persephone assumed he was dealing with one of his family’s businesses. These Russian phone calls almost certainly came from his father or his cousin, Mikhail. She only knew of this cousin because she remembered the tall, raven-haired hunk from the day he’d come to campus and stumbled into Professor Pearl’s lecture.
Persephone hadn’t really caught up on as much of the Russian language as she would have liked, but she could read a person’s face and tone with ease. Vanya was tense, alert, and agitated when he spoke with his father and Mikhail. If the Russian phone call involved chiding and the name “Austin,” he was probably speaking with his sister, Lina. If the call was short, he was probably giving directives to someone at the jewelry shop.
Vanya didn’t really talk about his friends and family too much, but she now realized that was because she’d never asked about them. She just took bits and pieces of offhanded comments he made and put them together to figure out his relationships for herself. She recalled Vanya’s words all those weeks ago when he told her he wanted to escort her to Texas: You don't ask questions and I really appreciate that. If the time comes and I have to expose you to my family then I will, but for now, I want you nowhere near them.
Had the time come? Had they come near his family this afternoon? Persephone took a deep breath and dared to ask Vanya a question regarding the elephant in the room.
☐
“That was your cousin Mikhail on the phone at the bar last night, right?”
Vanya discreetly sucked in breath and hoped Persephone didn’t notice his tell. He didn’t even realize Persephone still knew who Mikhail was. He knew they had never been introduced, but couldn’t recall if she had seen him when he entered their Contracts class earlier in the school year. There was no doubt she was trying to figure out if there was a connection between this afternoon’s behavior in the boutique and last night at the bar. Vanya decided to keep his answer simple.
“Yeah.”
“Was that him or Lina on the phone in the shop today?”
Vanya sighed, “It was Lina.”
“Hmm.”
She didn’t ask more questions immediately, but Vanya could tell Persephone was stewing and calculating her next inquiry. There was a decision before him; how many of her questions was he willing to answer? Vanya tried to think of the harms associated with providing her a few details. She knew something Mikhail had done had caused him to worry. Really, the snooping detective wasn’t a big secret. He waited for her to speak up.
“So, did Mikhail do something to piss you off? Are you in trouble because of it? You seem tense and you were on edge last night, too.”
“I was in heaven last night,” Vanya replied, smirking. He couldn’t resist the opportunity to give her a little gibe.
“No!” Persephone grinned while swatting his arm. “You know what I mean; earlier last night. I’m trying to be serious right now.”
“Yeah, I know,” Vanya murmured and then paused. He looked ahead at the road, vexed that the setting sun was directly ahead. Taking a quick glance at Persephone, he opened up to her about Mikhail’s indiscretion and the detective riding his ass. He left out the bit about the arson actually being perpetrated by Mikhail and some of his acquaintances. He also omitted the fact that the owners of the burned down building were associated with the man that tried to kill them in their sleep some months back. Something told Vanya that Persephone had already put that together or didn’t deem it necessary to ask.
“That’s it?” was her reply after he finished.
“What do you mean ‘that’s it?’ The last thing my family needs right now is an investigation or audit. My sister is getting married soon.”
“But what I’m saying is this is basically police harassment. You should file a complaint on each visit he’s made and sue the city once they flake out on the complaints. File them under your maid’s name or something. It’ll be hella expensive, but from what you’ve said this guy’s bosses will be pissed at him for pursuing a charge that can’t stick. He’ll be out of your face in two weeks tops.”
“Wow.”
“What do you mean ‘wow?’”
“I mean that’s a great idea. I’m kind of jealous that I didn’t think of it first.”
“Dude, we’re in law school. You should have.”
“Well, babe, thanks for making me feel better about it. Jesus.”
“I’m just saying it’s kind of basic. I’m a little miffed that your family’s lawyer didn’t suggest it. I hope you’re not paying him a ton of money or anything.”
“We ought to just hire you, smarty.”
“Yeah, I’m sure your Dad would luuuvv that,” she retorted.
“I guess you have a point. I’ll call Mikhail and the lawyer about it.”
They continued the drive in silence. This silence was more companionable. Persephone put on some songs that Vanya didn’t love, but tolerated for her sake. He was glad that she stayed awake all three hours of the drive and agreed to spend the night at his place. Usually, after a weird argument or disagreement, she’d pull away from him and stay at her apartment. He hated those nights. He always missed her presence in his bed and fell asleep devising ways to make sure she would be there the next night.
When they arrived, Persephone went to bed immediately. It gave him the opportunity to make some phone calls without alienating her. He knew she had picked up on some Russian words like спасибо, пока, and other simple stuff, but it was obvious she was more attuned to his conversations than he originally thought. She could tell to whom he was speaking just by his tone and demeanor; Vanya was awed with her skill. He never spoke Russian to her outside of lovemaking, and she hadn’t expressed an interest to learn the language. He had thought it annoyed her to sit around and listen to him speak in a language she didn’t know, but apparently, his love was quite the little investigator.
The thought of an investigator brought Mikhail to mind. As Vanya proceeded to call his cousin, he stopped himself and decided to call his sister first. He wanted to get more details on their close call this afternoon. Thankfully, Lina picked up after the third ring.
“Hey,” she said casually. Lina had a way of sounding noncommittal about everything. Her perpetual air of coolness repelled most people. Lucky for Vanya, he had been resilient in his quest for her friendship. Although she still thought of herself as the superior, more mature older sibling, they had worked out a strong, loyal camaraderie. It was that camaraderie that prompted her to call him earlier that day when she spotted him and Persephone in the window of the boutique while lunching with their father.
“Hey – do you think he saw anything?” Vanya replied.
“You’re not beating around the bush, are you, eh?” she continued when he was silent. “No, I don’t think so. I’ve stepped outside on a lunch with him before to take a call from a school friend. It’s plausible that I would do so again.”
“You have friends?”
“You’re boring me, Vanushka.”
“Alright, alright, but really though… you don’t think he thought anything was up?”
“I don’t know. You never know with Papa. He could have seen you two while I was outside talking. I was standing in front of his table, but he’s a sharp man. If you care this much or think it will be that much of a problem, you should just tell him. We all know how much he loves secret relationships.”
“True, but you yourself said that you couldn’t hav
e gotten this far with Austin if you hadn’t kept him from Papa. I still think now is not the time. I don’t think there will ever be a time.”
Lina snorted, “Well, no shit. He’ll never really like any woman you bring home. I still think you should break it to him though. As long as you end up having a son that looks like him, he’ll be satisfied.”
“Well, that probably won’t happen with Persephone. I can’t imagine him getting excited about brown babies. Besides, you can have kids,” Vanya protested.
“Yeah, but I can’t have kids with the last name Pravdin. I mean, I guess I could, but Austin is not that progressive and neither am I. Pravdin-Kittredge is too much of a mouthful. As long as you’re alive, there’s still hope for little Pravdin boys to roam the earth once again.”
“You’re forgetting the twins.”
“Papa loves the twins, but they aren’t his. Besides, the word is out on Yulian. No sane woman that valued her vaginal health would touch him with a ten foot pole.”
“Yeah, and Mikhail –”
“ ‘– would drag himself to the lower depths of the deepest levels of hell before he let a child chain him down.’ I know,” she quoted drolly. “We’ve all heard the story.”
“Ha, I can’t wait for him to knock up some girl too stubborn to get… ” Vanya paused before mentioning the unmentionable, “to let him off the hook.” There was an odd, short silence after the allusion to abortion. It was a tasteless joke, and he immediately regretted it. Vanya heard some rustling in the background. He was sure it was Austin wondering what they were talking about after hearing his name and then silence a few sentences later. He briefly wondered how much Russian the man knew and if he planned on learning it for his future wife. Thankfully, Lina let Vanya’s comment roll off her back.
“Alright, well, Austin is growing weary. I need to go. Just don’t worry about it. If you care about your pretty princess, you should tell Papa you’re in a long-term relationship with a black woman. It’ll save you a lot of grief later on.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking ‘no’ on that one. Why do you call her that anyway?”