Page 27 of The Lies Between Lovers

“Not really.”

“Let me find one, then, and then I think I had better leave.”

She didn’t argue.

In fact, she didn’t even follow him out of the kitchen.

8.

Is he nervous?

As fast as the thought came into her head, Vera could have laughed it away from the absurdity alone. But it wasn’t all that ridiculous of an idea because the second time she peered through the clear strips between the frosted glass of her front door’s windows, she once again watched Vaslav take two steps on the path toward her villa before he hesitated in taking another, even glancing back over his shoulder where his white Rolls was still parked on the side of the street. It was the way he rocked on his heels, hands fisted into his pockets that gave away the truth.

She’d been right.

Vaslav was nervous.

He ended up placing the shrub in the small sunroom at the back of the villa, proclaiming it would have enough sunlight for the plant, but it also gave it lots of room to grow as long as she didn’t crowd it. Almost as soon as he found the new home, while Vera was still sitting at her kitchen table, Vaslav decided it was time for him to go.

So much for staying.

Yet, as she watched him hesitate on her walkway like he was reconsidering returning to her front door for a reason she didn’t know, Vera lost the lingering bitterness at his abrupt departure. She tried to give the man grace when he seemingly acted without reason or care. Just because he could deliver words with a cold callousness that stung didn’t mean he meant for it to hurt.

It was the emotional and mental whiplash he caused without even trying that left her battered like a flag in the wind.

Vera almost pulled her door open as Vaslav made his final decision as his strides came for her front stoop but stopped when he paused again. She had to move a bit to see the reason why—or rather, who he stopped to speak to.

Mr. Anatoly, her neighbor, leaned over the fence that separated their villas. With one hand on his cane, something she didn’t notice him using very often, and the other on the fence, he nodded at the man standing on Vera’s walkway. The two passed words between one another, and Mr. Anatoly even lifted his cane and waved the rubber end at Vaslav’s vehicle like he had something to say about that, too.

She might have let the two share their words without interrupting, but the scowl on Vaslav’s face as he was made to stand there and listen to the old man said he wasn’t pleased about it. Mr. Anatoly meant no harm; he just looked out for her when he could.

Pulling open the door, Vera poked her head out and called to the two men, “Is everything okay?”

At the same time, she heard Vaslav say to Mr. Anatoly, “Are you going to do this every fucking time you see me here?”

Mr. Anatoly glanced Vera’s way, but that didn’t stop him from replying, “I very well might, Mr. Pashkov. It just depends.”

“On what?”

Vera blinked a bit at the tone of the conversation, not liking what she heard. “Vas, did you forget something?”

The second time she spoke seemed to do the trick because he finally glanced away from her neighbor to notice her. Despite the tension she saw in his grinding jaw, he offered her something akin to a smile that she was sure was meant for comfort.

Except it wasn’t comforting.

Turning back to the neighbor, she was sure she heard Vaslav mutter, “Well, if we’re going to do this the next time, I’m sure you can wait for whatever you had to say, no?”

“Dasvidanyia—until we meet again, Mr. Pashkov.”

That was all Mr. Anatoly offered before he spun around using the leg of his cane and headed for his front stoop without a look back. Vaslav took an extra second to glower at the retreating back of the old man, and then he too stepped away from the edge of the fence. Before long, he was climbing the stairs of Vera’s stoop and standing in front of her door.

“Well, did you?” she asked.

A furrow formed between his thick, dark brows. “Did I what?”

“Forget something,” she clarified, shrugging. “Because you seemed pretty determined to leave about five or so minutes ago. You barely even said goodbye.”

Vaslav dragged a hand down his bearded chin while his sharp gaze drifted over her in a way that reminded her of a predator. “I don’t like your neighbor.”