9

Damn… but I’ve lied so much… The main thing is not to make it worse. And later, when she grows attached to me, I’ll figure something out…

“You know, there’s just one thing I’d like to clarify. A jealous husband or boyfriend isn’t going to jump out of the bushes right now intending to smash my face in, is he?” I approach the question indirectly, and the girl laughs.

“And for what? People don’t just smash faces for no reason. We’re just walking to a kiosk, and with a bunch of kids, no less. No reason for jealousy,” two sly brown eyes look at me mockingly, skillfully dodging the answer.

“Well…” I even get a little lost for words, which doesn’t happen often.

“No, there’s no one,” the brunette finally decides to take pity on me, laughing. “I haven’t been in a relationship for a long time.”

“Now that’s strange,” I look at the beauty cautiously. “How can a gorgeous woman like you not have a man around?”

“Well… there are men who want to be around,” Ann breaks our eye contact and looks ahead into the distance. “But no one’s really set on something serious. And having a child, and with my job… not everyone agrees to put up with it and share me with it.”

“Now you’ve intrigued me,” I admit, noting with annoyance that there’s very little distance left to the kiosk. The kids run a little ahead, teasing and fooling around with each other. They even try to mess with Kirill, but he keeps himself more restrained. “So what kind of job is that?”

“The thing is, I very often work night shifts, and men don’t like that, because they want me to spend that time with them,” the beauty sighs, lowering her eyes.

“And what do you do?” I ask directly, since there aren’t that many night professions.

“I often work as a nurse on the night shift,” the girl looks at me with a small smile. “It’s convenient for me that way, because during the day I can spend more time with my son. While he’s at school, I sleep, and after that all my attention is on him.”

“So you save lives! That’s cool!”

Of course a job like that can really affect any relationship. But I catch myself thinking that I’m ready to take the risk. Besides, she’s probably not disappearing to the hospital every single night, and we could spend time together during the day, and in general people can live with that and deal with it if they want to!

“Sorry for prying right away… but what about Kirill’s father? Is he involved in his son’s life?” I’ve always been used to asking what interests me directly.

“Kirill’s father…” the brunette sighs sadly. “A mistake of youth, and he’s not part of our lives.”

I almost shouted “Awesome!”, but realized my joy probably wouldn’t be appreciated, if not worse. But the fact that there’s no one on the horizon for Ann is a huge plus. Time to take the fortress!

When we reach the kiosk, the kids start examining the ice-cream freezers, pointing at them with their fingers and chattering loudly about who wants what. When the children finally choose their sweets, Ann and I decide to treat ourselves too. However, when my hand slips into the inner pocket of my leather jacket, I’m very surprised not to feel my wallet there. After checking all my pockets, I realize I’ve simply been cleaned out.

“Little bitch!” I growl to myself, remembering the girl who had so accidentally and innocently bumped into me.