Page 20 of Sexting the Pakhan

And beneath them, new:Are you ignoring me already, Mystery Number?

A slow smile pulls at my mouth before I can stop it.

Stepan sees it and grimaces. “No.”

I keep looking at the phone. No fear in that message now. No embarrassment either. She’s warmed up. Settled into it. Testing how far she can go.

That interests me more than it should.

“You’re smiling,” Stepan says, sounding personally offended by it.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

I type before he can keep going:That depends. Should I be?

The answer comes fast:Only if you’re boring.

A laugh slips out of me, low and brief.

Stepan stares as if I’ve grown another head. “That bad?”

“Leave,” I say.

“Gladly.” He heads for the door, then pauses with his hand on the knob. “For what it’s worth, if she turns out to be law enforcement, I’ll be insufferable about it.”

I don’t bother answering.

When the door shuts, I look back at the screen and type:Then you’re in danger of disappointing me already.

She answers almost at once:That sounds smug.

That’s because it is.

The dots appear, disappear, appear again.

Okay. Maybe you’re interesting.

Interesting. It’s a small word. Still, it settles low in me with a quiet kind of satisfaction.

By the time I leave Veles, I’m still texting her.

The car ride home passes in a blur of glass and streetlights and short messages that keep sharpening the line between us. She refuses to tell me her name. I don’t ask again. I refuse mine too. That seems to please her.

She likes the anonymity.

So do I.

My driver pulls up beneath the tower, and I step out into the night with my phone still in hand.

Are you always this calm?she asks.

I glance at the screen as I cross the lobby.

No.

A pause.