[Nikolai]
We got back to our hotel room in silence.
The drive had been tense and quiet, neither of us speaking as the landscape blurred past the windows.
I’d wanted to say something, to further apologize for earlier, to ask if she was alright, to bridge the strange distance I felt growing between us.
But the words wouldn’t come and I didn’t want to make an already bad move worse.
Isolde helped me out of my chair and into the bed, positioning me so I was facing the television.
Her hands were efficient, clinical almost, as she maneuvered my dead weight. Somehow, she wasn’t better at doing this than she’d been before.
Not unkind, exactly. Just… different.
I settled back against the pillows she’d arranged, trying to find a comfortable position.
I didn’t want to think about how depress
