Now all I had to do was to continue reading about Russian literature, and wait till the weekend.
* * *
After breakfast on Saturday morning, Ellie told me she had some shopping to do and she would be back mid-afternoon. I had my own plan in mind, and set out for an expedition of food shopping.
Ellie came back around five that afternoon. She was carrying another shopping bag. This time I recognized it as being from the vintage clothing store. She took the bag back to her room and came out and said, “What would you think about going out for dinner someplace? I’m pretty hungry, and I don’t really feel like having us spend a lot of time cooking.”
Although I had just gone out grocery shopping, I was happy to wait until tomorrow to get into cooking.
We went to a restaurant near my apartment that had good food, with at least some emphasis on healthy. We both ended up ordering dinner salads. I think we both wanted to keep it light, since we had the evening ahead of us. That said, we did end up sharing a bottle of wine with our salads. I don’t know if that counteracts the healthiness of the salads, but whatever. It felt good.
I wouldn’t say that we rushed through dinner, but we didn’t exactly linger either. When we were done we headed home, and each of us went to our own bedrooms to change.
* * *
I hadn’t added anything new to my wardrobe. I had been too focused on studying Russian literature. And I suppose that sending Lara the note was a pretty big deal too.
I went out to the living room to wait for Lara. I’d been waiting a while when I finally heard the bedroom door open and close. Then I saw Lara come into the living room.
This time, she was not wearing the burgundy dress. She had bought another vintage dress, low-cut this time, in a shade of blue that matched her eyes. And she was wearing bright red lipstick that totally got my attention.
“You look lovelier than ever tonight, Lara,” I said.
“And you look as dashing as your note,” she replied.
She led me over to the space near the speakers and turned on another waltz. I was much better this time, in fact I was almost feeling graceful. I felt the romance of waltzing with her, of holding her and moving with her. And, of course, the whole time I was feeling mesmerized by her face and her eyes and her lips.
I was glad that we were dancing. I doubted I would’ve been able to utter a coherent sentence.
We danced one more waltz, at the end Lara stopped. She pulled me forward to her and kissed me, first gently so I felt her lips against mine, but then I felt her tongue in my mouth and we were both kissing each other passionately and urgently.
She stopped for a moment, and said, “Yuri, I have been waiting for this evening. I have been wanting you for so long, and tonight I must be with you.”
* * *
She took my hand and led me down the hall to her bedroom. She opened the door and let us in, and then closed the door behind her. The room was dimly lit, with two small lamps whose flame-shaped bulbs flickered like candles. When I looked around, I saw a large movie poster for Dr. Zhivago hanging on one wall.