The last phrase echoes in my mind. Todd meets my gaze from his spot in an armchair that's been dragged closer to the coffee table. A flicker of hope is in his face, one that troubles me.
Petr squeezes my hand once more. I don't know how he senses it when I'm worried, but he does. Our sides are pressed together again, his presence calming the anxious flutter in my stomach.
"I will inform you now that you shall lose," Anton says gravely and places a game on the table. "Prepare yourselves."
His delivery never fails to draw a smile from me. I really do adore Petr's father.
We spend the day in the family area playing games. The time passes so quickly, I'm surprised when it's dark and we're invited down for dinner. Petr rarely leaves my side and holds my hand the entire time we're seated with each other. He doesn't kiss me again, for which I'm relieved. My internal turmoil is nowhere near done; if anything, the battle is heating up, the happier Todd becomes.
Todd, Maya and I are driven home by Anton's driver after dinner.
For the first time in too long for me to recall, I go to bed feeling … good. I can't get over Petr's kiss or how natural it was being with him. I'm unable to quell the desire scattering my thoughts or the image in my head of Petr and me seated on the couch again, enjoying each other's company.
The sensations are so foreign, I don't sleep for half the night.
But when I do, it's not Petr's kisses I see in my dreams.
It's replaying memories of the last time The Monster caught us and how he almost killed Todd.
I awake near tears, my pain so raw, it's hard for me to stand until I calm myself.
I don't know how to stay in town and not be with Petr. I don't know how to leave town when being with Petr would be so natural, so easy.
I'm in too deep already, and I don't know what to do.