Page 133 of One For my Enemy

“Uh, yeah,” Eric confirmed. “Very much so.”

Lev grimaced. “And Marya knows that, doesn’t she?”

“Hm? Yeah. Fuck, Marya knows everything.” Eric tipped his head back. “Sometimes I think she can read my mind.”

“It’s not that complex in there; even I can read it. You want to fuck Sasha. You want to fuck Marya.” A shrug. “Easy.”

Eric’s mouth twitched into a smile.

“I’m also hungry,” he added. “So joke’s on you.”

Lev glanced down at his half-eaten pad thai.

Then he slid it over on the coffee table.

“If you just found out the love of your life was alive,” Lev said slowly, “what would you do?”

Eric picked up the Thai food, squinting at it.

“Depends,” he said. “Why’d she die?”

“Because your parents made a deal,” Lev said. “You died. She died. That was supposed to be the price of peace.”

“Fuck, man,” Eric said, lazily picking up a piece of shrimp with his fingers. “I’d kill my parents first, I bet. Then I’d probably bring her flowers or some shit.”

Oddly, it was Marya’s voice that rang through Lev’s mind.

Someday, when you replay all your little questions knowing what you know, you’ll feel silly for even asking.

Consider it a favor.

“Yeah,” Lev said. “That makes sense.”

He paused for a second, considering his options.

“I have to go,” he said, and Eric waved a pair of chopsticks at him.

“Do it, bro,” Eric said, which wasn’t necessarily the pep talk Lev had wanted, but wasn’t totally unwelcome. “Good luck.”

Lev rose to his feet, shaking his head.

Then he slid through the air, pulling back the space between them.

V. 15

(Long Story.)

Sasha had been sitting on her bed when she dialed Eric’s number, which was in her phone underDouche-Tool Moneybags.She stared at the call log for several minutes, wondering how it was possible that a call made in a moment of extreme loneliness and the vast, empty tides of insecurity could have possibly resulted in something so…

She couldn’t actually decide what it was.

The phone rang in her hand, an unknown number lighting up the darkened room, and she raised it warily to her ear.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hi. Sasha. So listen, here’s the thing.”

She inhaled sharply.

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