Chapter 5

"Romantic love is mental illness. But it's a pleasurable one. It's a drug. It distorts reality and that's the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw."

-Fran Lebowitz-

***

"Good morning, are you ready to go out?" Damian woke up to the knocking sound from his door, while he had set his alarm to eight, at exactly 7A.M Lana was already disturbing him with her early chirp. He was still dressed in his black t-shirt and shorts when she was already all dressed up in a complete winter outerwear.

It was typical in Russia during winter to wear layers upon layers of outfit to ensure maximum warmth during the extreme cold, so he could only imagine how long it took for her to get dressed, which meant she had woken up so early in the morning.

He had not even washed his face and his hair was still a mess as he had not applied any pomade, but she did not look bothered at all, instead, she asked him if she could come in because she knew otherwise, he would not have the initiative to do so.

Well, suppsedly he should have learnt from the previous day incident, but just to be sure. It was one of Damian's fatal flaw, he was quite insensitive, perhaps too much staring at a computer screen had made him oblivious to real life social interaction.

Since she asked, he could not refuse her, with a semi-heavy heart, he allowed her in and for the first time in a while she felt victorious. It had been a while since she had her favors granted by the people around her. Living on her own had been quite boring

"I'll get ready first, you try and make yourself comfortable." he said as he pulled out a towel from his suitcase and headed inside the bathroom. Lana thought it was the perfect time for her to explore his space. The apartment itself was not that large, it did not take long until she had gone to every room, which was impolite, but since it was Lana, she did not care.

He would never know anyway. Perhaps one of Lana's worst trait was her ignorance toward things she had set her eyes on. Once she decided to do something, no matter how inappropriate it was, she would do it. Because she did not care.

While she was walking to the kitchen, she realized he had not made himself any breakfast, and while he was taking a shower, she searched up the pantry to see what he had bought yesterday, to her lick, he had some flour and eggs ready.

He had stocked up enough that she could make him some pancake, she knew it might come across as rude to mess with other people's belongings while they were not there, but she could not help herself and the earlier they left the place, the more time they had to explore the city.

When Damian walked out of the bathroom, he was dumbfounded when he saw two plates of pancake ready on his dining table. When he asked her what she was doing, she told him she was fixing both of them some breakfast before they went as if she was doing him a favor, which she was.

As expected, he was a bit annoyed  because she dared to touch the things in his place without his permission, but for a strange reason, he could not get angry at her.  The way she looked innocently at her as if she had no guilt. Something about her smile made him held himself back from expressing any discontent and he had not even realized it.

"Is it good?" she asked as he took his first bite, he nodded. It was delicious indeed. She was a  terrific cook, the food she brought over to him the day before was also quite delicious. Scarlett could definitely learn a thing or two from her.

"About today, we will just take a taxi to get there, it should not take that long." that much he knew but he remained silent anyway. He finished his meal while she was still eating. It seemed like she was a rather slow eater, so afterward he washed the dish first as he waited for her.

After a while, they grabbed a taxi and headed over there, in his head, he knew it was much more convenient with her around because he did not need to take out his phone for translation every time he needed something. It was not as if he was going to take advantage of her, but hey, it was her who insisted on coming in the first place.

As they were passing by the Grand Kremlin Palace around The Red Square, he turned his head to face her, parts of her cheeks and nose were getting slightly flushed from the cold, yet it only made her appear even more angelic and innocent. Damian found her to be such a strange woman.

He had never understood women, but he knew a few types and she was one he had never  thought of getting himself involved with. He thought that if he was ever stuck with a woman, she would definitely be a sleazy tech or science woman, who always had her hair up in a ponytail and perhaps wore something like a lab suit or camisole.

Life is strange.

As promised, she was acting as his tour guide for the day, she started to explain to him the brief  history of the Kremlin and why it had become a notable attraction of the  city. He knew that there were not many fluent English speaker in Russia, therefore he was amazed by her fluency as she explained everything she knew in details, he could pick up some of her accent but it was nothing major. Of course he would never let her know. At the end  of her little tour around the area, she turned to him with a soft smile on her face.

"Do you have any other question?" He was not exactly interested in history, art or any of the sort so for him, what she had been saying for the past fifteen minutes was completely useless. However, he wanted to ask her something that he had been questioning since the previous night.

"Why do you like to hang around me so much?" he eventually gathered the courage to ask her the question. Since the first time he met her he had been wondering why the woman seemed so comfortable around him, despite only knowing him for a short period of time.

"Hm? That's an interesting question." She replied as she put her hand in her coat. They stopped and turned at each other. Her fluttery green eyes appeared  brighter than usual.

"It's because you are one of the few men whom I can talk to who did not try to flirt with me. It makes me feel more safe and comfortable around you because I know you would not try to do anything funny." her answer appeared obscure to him. It took him a minute to fully comprehend what she had just said.

Was she being overly confident or was she telling the  truth? Though he would not doubt her if it was the latter. The way she admitted it was so pure he solemnly thought she was just being honest.

"Now, to be able to get a tour inside the palace we need to get ourselves some ticket, do you want to go in or would you prefer to take another walk around this area. Both are fine with me." he thought about it for a moment and he was not really interested in seeing the palace, but one  building he would love to visit was none other than the famous icon of Moscow.

"Let's go to St Basil Cathedral." He was Christian by birth and atheist by belief, unlike his sister who still practiced Christianity, he was not someone who believed in the existence of God, however he had to admit that the belief in religion had produced some of the most astounding creation of mankind, from grand churches, temples, to religious monuments. He knew  if Scarlett was with him, she would definitely appreciate the architecture.

Lana who was born in Russia had been an orthodox since birth and her faith still had not changed since she moved to the states and back to Russia, however she was not the most religious woman either, since she had spent more of her times with science and technology like her late father than at the churches with her mother. Despite having lived there for four years, she still had not visited the place so while she was taking him on a tour, it was a tour for herself as well.

As they were walking down the hallways full of religious paintings on the wall, she had asked him about himself. Such as what he did for a living, what his hobbies were and the things he liked and dislike about himself. The last question was simply to awkward for him to answer, so he only answered the first two questions, he did not want to reveal too much of himself to a stranger, especially since she was technically still a stranger.

"I work as an IT engineer, mostly dealing with computers and stuff, and as for my hobby, I like reading and technology, but on the side, I also learn martial arts." his professions enhanced her curiosity toward him.

She had not revealed it to him yet, but she herself was very fond of those two matters, for her they had a connection to the past, of course Damian was born a genius, while she was clever, but was not a genius, still, she was full of wit and quite the fast learner, it became her greatest advantage in her escape from Vincent a few years ago.

Vincent. The name alone sent shiver down her spine, he was the last person on earth  she would wish to meet. She had to get rid of her thoughts of him before  it ruined her present moment. Though Damian was not fully comfortable with her, he did enjoy her company throughout their walk around the cathedral.

The luxurious golden and amber filled rooms were astonishing, he had seen many people took pictures from the outside, but he had no idea what the inside was like until he witnessed it himself. He felt like he was warped in another dimension, everything around him was so opulent and magnificent.

As they walked, they kept on chatting about some random topics, she had tried to keep the conversation light and refrained herself from bringing up heavy subjects, she wanted both of them to enjoy themselves without getting into a heated argument about the most irrelevant things.

Damian himself had started to feel grounded to the present, he no longer allowed his mind to wander off to other places, as he wanted to truly enjoy himself and the moment he had. The place was too astounding to be missed.

Though he had little clue which was more mesmerizing, the building itself or the woman he had by his side. She had asked him so many questions about himself in such a short period of time, and he was willing to answer them, yet he had no idea who she was beside her name, he could not bring himself to ask either, because he thought their meeting would only be short term. In a few days he would return to the states and never saw her again.

At least that's what he thought.