Rogue Hearts

“You’ll live without a compliment,” Erik said.

“If you ate all of Mom’s cooking, I can’t promise you’ll be so lucky. I’m starving.”

“The dinner will be ready soon,” Mrs. Rusak said.

“Everything smells delicious,” Victoria said. Her stomach didn’t turn, which made her hopeful she could actually enjoy a regular meal without getting sick.

“Thank you, dear,” Mrs. Rusak said. “Why don’t you two get your things settled then come back down and join us. Erik, Sam, will you both help me set the table and carry the food to the table?”

“Yes, mom,” Sam said.

“Sure, Mrs. Rusak,” Erik added as they both followed her into another room.

“Let’s take our stuff upstairs to my room. Do you want to come up with me?”

“Miss a chance to see your childhood bedroom? How could I pass that up?” She followed him through the house until he led her up a wide staircase. The place was larger on the inside than it looked on the outside. As they climbed the steps, she saw family pictures on the walls. From private school photos and graduations to family group pictures, the images made her want to get to know Andrei’s family more and learn about his past.

When they got to the second floor, they went down a long carpeted hallway that looked beautifully furnished with wooden tables, lamps, and more pictures mixed with art. Even though everything looked expensive, it felt homey and comforting as Victoria walked through the house.

Andrei stopped at a closed door, and Victoria almost ran into him from looking around them as she followed.

“Why’d we stop?” she asked.

“Promise you won’t judge me too harshly when you see inside. I haven’t changed it much since I left for college years ago. Kind of nostalgic.”

“Andrei, open the door.”

“Just know I warned you.”

With his warning, she expected bats to fly out and attack her. She took her time going in, and the inside of his room shocked her. Instead of finding posters of bands and hot swimsuit models, there was a lot of art on the walls. This wasn’t like the commercial pieces she’d seen moments before lining the hallway. The pieces that hung had a more personal feel as if they were done by a local artist.

“Your room is awesome. It’s so big and spacious. I was thinking it was going to be atrocious or something from the way you talked about it.”

“My mother probably came up and sorted things out, so you wouldn’t think I was a pig or something,” Andrei said. “We have a housekeeper, but sometimes Mom still insists on doing things herself now and then.”

“But your apartment always looks amazing.”

“That’s because I have a maid,” Andrei said as he smiled. “Comes twice a week, although she complains that’s not enough for the damage I can do.”

Victoria chuckled. “Does that mean she needs to come every day if I moved in?”

“It probably wouldn’t hurt. Wait, does that mean you’re accepting my offer to stay with me?”

“Let’s just say I’m thinking it over. That’s it. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Too late for that. My hopes are up and aren’t coming down until I get an answer.” He squeezed her shoulder.

Instead of answering him and disappointing him in the fact that she still wasn’t sure it was the best idea, she moved out of his arms and over to some of the pictures.

The drawings varied in nature. She recognized some New York buildings and landmarks. Most of the others showed drawings of the physical body like hands, feet, the brain, heart and other images that almost looked like they were taken from medical books. What had her interest the most were the artistic drawings of food arranged in creative ways on plates and different arrangements of kitchen items so they created art within art.

One was a simple drawing of female figure, and the detail of her muscles and skin were so realistic, she found herself moving closer to it. She could see the lines of the back and limbs although the face was hidden since it was the back of a woman. At the bottom she saw a signature that made her pause over it longer than she would have without seeing it: A. Rusak.

“Did you draw this?” she asked, moving closer to see the signature.

“I drew all of them.”

Victoria took in the entire wall before looking around the room and noticed the same signature on all the drawings. “Wow. You’re amazing.”