I start with a nice slow pace, warming up, and Dmitri is beside me. “Cute kid. Single parent?” he asks.
“Yeah, her biological father isn’t in the picture.” I glance at him before returning my attention to the sidewalk as I head for the nearest park, a little more than two miles away. “What about you? Any kids or a wife I should know about?” I ask.
I’m surprised that he returned to my porch and my apartment after regaining his memories. Why not go home?
“I’m single,” Dmitri says, and offers a smile. “I don’t usually get tied down.”
I laugh under my breath. “You make it sound like commitment is a bad thing.”
“It’s just not for me,” Dmitri says, clarifying his position.
“Don’t worry. I wasn’t going to propose. It was just one night,” I say. One fabulous earth-shattering night, but I can handle being celibate again. It’s not like I haven’t had plenty of practice over the years.
He jogs beside me in stride, our feet hitting the pavement in unison. “Where’d you go last night?” I ask. It’s none of my business, but I still ask, wanting to know where he disappeared. If he’d gone home, he hadn’t changed clothes.
“I used to work in a nightclub. I went back to see if one of my colleagues knew anything about the shooting.”
“And?”
“Nothing,” Dmitri says.
There’s a heaviness in the air, and while I don’t know him very well, I can’t help but wonder if he’s lying to me. But why would he lie? What would he gain from it?
“Did you go home?”
“I did not,” he says, but doesn’t further elaborate. He jogs faster. It’s more of a sprint as I work to catch up to him.
If he doesn’t want to talk about it, I won’t push the issue for now. But he can’t stay with me again, not with Allie in the next room.
“So, I need a favor,” I say, glancing at him.
“Here we go,” he mutters. I jog into the park; the trees canopy over the path, making it much more comfortable than the sun beating down on us.
“Allie, my daughter, has never met any of my boyfriends.” I leave off the part that I have had no boyfriends, no relationship, no conquests with men since she was born. It’s too embarrassing to talk about. He’ll probably think I should have been a nun or something.
“Why is that?” Dmitri asks.
“I don’t want to parade men around the house, bring them into her life when they’re not going to stick around.”
“Fair enough.” He slows his pace, and I do the same to stay alongside him. “What’s the ask?”
“You two met last night, and she thinks you’re my boyfriend. I couldn’t tell her otherwise.”
“Because you don’t want her to think less of you?” Dmitri guesses.
“I don’t want her thinking that casual sex is okay. She’s thirteen, young, and impressionable. She asked to meet my boyfriend and wants to come out on a date with us.”
“Boyfriend?” His voice catches in his throat.
“I know, it’s a big request. She thinks we’re dating, and I don’t want to confuse her, but if it’s too much, I can tell her that we broke up—”
“No, I’ll do it,” Dmitri says, interrupting me before I can ramble further.
“Are you sure?”
“You saved my life. It’s the least I can do. What’d you tell her about us?” Dmitri slows, and I do the same.
Maybe he shouldn’t be running several miles. He was just in a coma. “There’s a bench not too far. We can walk over and sit for a while if you want.”