The next day was Tuesday. That meant two things: a day off for JJ and Panda, and a full day in for me and Kirill. While the store closed to give rest to most of my workers, we had to appraise, take stock of and put on the shelves the new merchandise.

In particular, I had to work on my store’s website. I had been taking off the bought items, but hadn’t had the time to put in all the new ones. I didn’t even photograph them yet.

So I brought out the camera my dad used for this and tried my best in being a professional photograph, while Kirill looked up a brand on a brass figurine I bought from a flea market. As always, he brought his own laptop for work, which was nice. Both of us worked in the store’s main hall, where the lighting was the best.

As I made photos, I kept throwing glances at Kirill. He was completely sober, and visibly free from the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal (as he told be when I asked him earlier, he was visiting a doctor for a while, and that helped a lot).

I still could see the sorrow etched in the deep lines of Kirill’s face. From what I knew, Kirill drank to drown his grief, and from what I saw, that grief was still there. JJ cured the symptoms, not the cause, but the most I could do is to advice Kirill to take a part of the salary I was paying him and bring it to a psychotherapist.

Not that I would. First, it wasn’t really my business. Second, I was sure that Kirill had enough other people who gave him that advice. Third, I knew very few things more annoying than unasked advice.

I was making photos of an antique oak nightstand when a doorbell on the store’s back door rang. I frowned. I didn’t know if JJ was out or not—he was so quiet that I never noticed his coming and going around until the bastard spook me again—but I made a copy of the keys for him.

Besides him, a very few people would use the back door, most not even thinking about it. Avarice always came from the front. Panda would’ve messaged me first, and my grandparents would’ve called. Rita was working right now. That left…

“Someone is ringing the doorbell,” Kirill stated the obvious, turning in the sound’s direction.

I frowned. “Let them.” Damn. I should’ve asked JJ to stay around.

When the ringing didn’t stop, repeating with the unceasing stubbornness and ignorance towards the obvious fact that people inside didn’t want to open the door, I became one hundred percent sure that it came from Andrey. He was like a ram—dumb and stubborn and ramming into my door.

I grit my teeth and just as stubbornly continued to ignore the buzzing.

“Are you sure, Diana?” Kirill looked at me with concern. “Whoever this is, if they are so insistent, it must be important.”

“Important for them, not for me,” I spat. “I know who this is, and I know I don’t want him inside.”

The ringing lasted for several more minutes before finally stopping. I let out a sigh of relief when that happened, but it was short-living. Andrey didn’t give up—he just changed his position.

A minute of blessed silence later he was ringing in the front door, and now that I couldn’t ignore. From where I sat, the sound was simply way too loud. It was designed to be heard from the second floor, after all.

With a groan, I put my camera away and stomped towards the door. As soon as I unlocked it, the ringing stopped, and I wrung it open.

Just as I expected, behind the door stood no one else but Andrey. He still wore T-shirt and jeans, but different this time, though the style stayed the same. Just as his glower.

“What part of ‘closed’ do you not understand?” I asked him before he could say a word.

As I had said before, best defence is offense. Though, right now it was mostly my ire talking.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but paused. Then, to my confusion, he sniffed the surrounding air. By reflex, I did the same, trying to find out what did Andrey smell, but found nothing unusual. Fresh air from the outside, old things from the inside.

“What are you doing?” I asked, but Andrey ignored me.

He kept sniffing as he stepped inside the store, completely ignoring the fact that I was standing in the doorway. As much as I didn’t want to, I scrambled out of his path on reflex. The same reflex that causes you to jump out of the way of an upcoming truck unless you want to get isekaied.

Inside, Kirill stood up from his seat at the counter to walk up towards Andrey. “Young man,” he said, frowning. This was the strictest and harshest tone I’ve ever heard from that soft man. “You almost walked Diana over! This was very rude.”

Andrey ignored him too, keeping sniffing the air with the same laser-point focus. I knew that until he finished, I and Kirill would be, at best, brushed away. Plus, whatever he sniffed out, it made his face even darker than it was before.

I decided that while he was distracted, it was the time to make an emergency call. I took my phone out of my pants pocket and as quickly as I could find JJ in my contact list. He picked up only a single ring later.

“Ma chèrie?” his voice sounded from the other side. “This is—”

I interrupted him, my voice quiet and hurried. “Come to the store, right now. Please.”

I ended the call immediately after, just in time to see Andrey standing in the doorway that led towards the rest of the building. From there, he turned towards me, his light grey eyes blazing with fury.

“Diana… Who the hell are you living with now?”