Page 3 of Bad Teammate
Dmitri chuckled. “Really? A child prodigy?”
“Prodigy isquitea stretch,” I demurred.
“Don’t listen to her,” Alina said. “She’s being modest. She won all sorts of competitions when we were young girls.”
“That’s so cool,” Kirill said. “I’m sure you still play, then?”
“No.”
“Oh.” His forehead furrowed. “Well, why not?”
“I quit,” I said.
“But …why? It sounds like you had talent.”
“Because.”
My coolness put an end to Kirill’s line of questioning. He looked to Dmitri for help, wondering where he’d gone wrong.
Dmitri pointed towards the back of the bar. “Look, they have a piano here. You should play for us, Katerina.”
I politely declined. “Sorry. I’m very rusty.”
Poor Kirill wilted like a flower.
After we finished dinner, the group split and we went our separate ways. On the subway ride back home, there was room for Alina and me to sit.
“Well, that sucked,” I said.
“Yup, that was a dud,” Alina agreed. “My bad. Dmitri vouched for him. He didn’t tell me that Kirill was the founding President of the Aleksander Nikolaev Fan Club.”
We laughed.
“Oh, well,” I said. “Kirill was doomed from the start. Sitting next to Dmitri, he looked like a little boy.”
“Right? Isn’t Dmitri sexy?”
“He is a handsome man,” I admitted.
“Oh my God. That’s it.” Alina stared right through me and spoke slowly, as if making a revelation. “An older man.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what you need—an olderman! It makes so much sense now.”
I laughed. “I can’t find any decent men our age. What makes you think I could find a decent older guy?”
“That’s exactly the point.Men calm down as they age.” She began to wiggle her fingers at me and deepened her voice, like a bad fortune teller. “I can see it in your future, Katerina! Someday very, very soon, you’re going to meet the man of your dreams!”
I played along. “Tell me, what does he look like?”
“Rich. Sexy. Older.”
“Wow.” I gasped sarcastically. “That was so descriptive. I can picture him already.” Commuters turned and stared at us as we broke into a giggle fit. “What else can you see, Alina? Can you tell me what he’s doing at this very moment?”
“Hold on.” She touched her hand to her forehead. “Yes! I see him! He, too, is looking for love at this very moment—he just doesn’t know it yet …”
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