10. Kalinka Кали́нка
Tony sat beside me at a small table, eyes drilling into me. We were waiting for the show to start. I sighed deeply.
‘There it is!’ Tony exclaimed. I looked at him. He was sitting too close for my comfort. I could feel his warm breath cutting through the ocean air, drifting into our boardwalk restaurant from the shore.
‘There’s something in the way you sigh,’ he continued. ‘Like before, by the subway overpass, you seemed to yawn or something — so deeply, it made me feel like I myself was suffocating. It wasn’t just breathing. It was as though—’
A waiter arrived with our vodka shots. Thankfully.
‘To your health, Tony!’ I said, heartily, truncating the conversation. Maybe now you can stop policing my breath, I thought, politely smiling as I lifted the little glass, f
