man. “You know what he’s doing ain’t right!”
“Clem!” I shout, careful to stand more than six feet away. I can’t be sure what kind of social distancing Clem has been practicing. And pregnant as I am, I can’t risk getting any closer.
“What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” I demand from the veranda.
Clem turns on me, his face furious as if this whole situation is somehow my fault. “It took me this long to figure out where he was keeping you.”
“He’s not keeping me,” I answer. “I’m living here with him. We’re engaged and planning to get married.”
“Yeah, I heard! It’s all over Instagram. I got all kinds of folks calling me, but I didn’t know how to answer them because I was the last to know!”
I let out a breath, both annoyed and not shocked at all that Clem’s making this all about himself. “Well, now you know. So can you please leave now?”
Clem flinches. Probably because I’ve never used a dismissive tone with him before, but then he glares and says, “Naw, naw. That wasn’t part of the deal. It was just supposed to be for a few days. That’s what he said.”
I open my mouth to tell him to go again, only to stop when the potential meaning of his words drops down like an IRS levy. “What do you mean that wasn’t part of the deal?”
“I don’t know. What do I mean?” Clem’s angry gaze switches from me to something over my left shoulder.
Or someone.
Someone who says to Clem, “Think very carefully about what you say next.”
“Or what?” Clem asks Cheslav, drawing himself to his full football height. “She’s not going to let your boy shoot me.”
No, I wasn’t, but… “What did you mean by ‘the deal.’”
Again Clem looks to Cheslav.
And suddenly he doesn’t have to tell me what he meant. Suddenly, it’s very, very clear. Oh my God….
The ocean is no longer still and placid behind my brother. It’s now inside my head, crashing with the realization. “You didn’t owe him money. You two planned this.”
I know I’m right when Cheslav, who’s never failed to look me straight in the eye before averts his gaze.
“Krasotka…” he starts.
At the same time, Clem calls out, “It was all his idea, sis! He knew I was desperate for some dollars, and he’s the one who took advantage.”
“How much?” I ask, looking at Clem over my shoulder. “How much did it cost for you to agree to whore your sister out?”
I guess my brother must have a tiny kernel of shame inside his body. He shakes his head, refusing to answer.
But Cheslav says, “Fifty thousand dollars.”
The number hits me like a punch to the chest.
“But you were smart enough to lie about that,” I guess, turning back to Cheslav. “You made it a number I couldn’t possibly hope to pay back in under a month.”
Cheslav jerks like I’ve slapped him. But he nods, confirming my guess.
And then there’s only one question left. “Why?”
“I…” Cheslav looks at the roof of the veranda. Then the sand. Then finally back at me. “I saw you, and I fell for you. I told you truth about that. But the thing is, you didn’t see me. I was in the box seats for last Carolina Bobcats game of the decade when they brought all ten of 2010s Princess South Carolinas out. There were ten women on stage, but the only princess I saw was you.
“At halftime, I went to find you, and you were with your brother. He was telling you about all the guys on his team who wanted to hook up with you now that you were no longer cheerleader, and it wasn’t against the rules. You reminded him about how you don’t date athletes…”
Cheslav grimaces like the memory still pains him somehow. “I knew then it would be impossible to get you to give me a chance without some finessing. But Rustanovs do not give up, and we are very good at coming up with schemes to get what we want. So I made deal with your brother. I thought few days would be enough. It wasn’t. The small ember inside me from the first moment I saw you… it became fire. And I had to find you again. Convince you to be with me.”
“So you planned this from start to finish,” I say when he falls quiet. “And I’d believed every moment of our supposed romance. I went against every practical instinct I had to convince