“I honestly had no idea you were this rich. I mean, I knew your family was rich…” He looks back at the pool. “But this completely blows my mind.”
“If you think this is impressive, let me show you the liquor cabinet.”
I lead him to the room I designated as my bar. The custom cabinet fills one whole wall. It took four men to carry up the pieces and assemble them. I press a button and the wooden doors begin to slide apart on an invisible mechanism.
Anderson’s eyes grow wide when he sees my extensive liquor collection. “I’m speechless…”
“What would you like?”
He chuckles. “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”
“Vodka it is.”
“I’m surprised it doesn’t come with a bartender.”
I grin. “I actually asked my staff to give us time alone.”
Anderson snorts. “So, you do have a bartender?”
“My staff multitasks.” I nod for him to sit while I pour our drinks.
He studies the room with a solemn expression.
I’ve never seen him like this. Normally, the cattleman would have cracked at least a dozen jokes by now.
I walk over with the drinks and hand him one. Grabbing a jar of pickles, I tell him to sit with me.
“I feel like a fool,” he confesses as he takes a seat.
“Why?”
Anderson shakes his head. “I’m just an everyday schmuck and this whole time I’ve been hanging with a legit aristocrat.”
“That’s why I liked going to college in America. No one knew who I was, so I was accepted on my own terms.”
He sighs. “Yeah, I probably would have avoided you had I known—afraid of offending your social sensibilities and all that.” He looks around the room. “But, damn, man. I’m just starting out and you’ve got everything you could possibly want.”
“Nyet. I do not.”
He looks at me with a pained expression. “I’m sorry. I know better than that.”
“I would give all of this up in the blink of an eye if it would bring Tatianna and my mother back.”
Anderson’s eyes fill with compassion.
While I appreciate his concern, there is no need for it. “Gde lyubov, tam i gorya net.”
He shakes his head. “Unlike Thane, I haven’t studied Russian.”
Putting my hand on his shoulder, I tell him, “Where there is love, there is no grief.” I hold up my glass to him, “So, here’s to friendship, vodka, and getting hammered.”
“Hear, hear!”
As I ply him with alcohol, I start to see the old Anderson emerge. The moment he brings up his family in Colorado, the jokes start flying.
“My dad is famous for saying, ‘Always drink upstream from the herd, son.’”
I laugh. “That’s sound advice.”
“People think cowboys are simple folk, but they’re full of all kinds of wisdom.”
“Like what?” I pour him another shot.
“‘If you treat a woman like a racehorse, she’ll never be a nag.’”
“We Russians have a similar saying, “‘Don’t drive the horse with a whip, drive the horse with a ruble.’”
We clink our glasses and down our vodka.
He grins as he shares more cowboy wisdom. “‘Never miss a good chance to shut up.’”
I nod. “‘He cannot speak well that cannot hold his tongue.’”
We throw back another shot.
He takes out a dollar bill from his pocket.
“‘The quickest way to double your money…?’” Anderson holds it up. “‘Fold it over and put it back into your pocket.’” He carefully folds it and slips it in the front pocket of his shirt.
Going with the money theme, I share a favorite saying of mine. “‘Don’t have a hundred rubles, but have a hundred friends.’”
“Amen!” Anderson responds, clinking my glass with his before he downs it.
I suck down mine and refill our glasses.
He raises an eyebrow. “My pop told me the only good reason to ride a bull was to meet a nurse.”
I burst out laughing. “I bet you met plenty of nurses that way.”
“I did!”
“I’ve got a Russian proverb that seems oddly appropriate. ‘Every family has a freak.’”
Anderson clinks my glass and chuckles. “Here’s to all the freaks in the world.”
“It is good to see you laughing, cattleman.”
He nods thoughtfully. “I haven’t felt like it for a long time.”
Since vodka has the power to open up the soul, I ask him point-blank, “What is going on with you?”
“I don’t know…” He frowns. “Everything changed after what Samantha did. You escaped to Russia and Thane followed you here, leaving me alone in that empty dorm room. I didn’t know what to do with myself. To be honest, I’ve never felt so alone.”
Anderson looks down at his calloused hands. “I couldn’t stand pretending things were okay when they weren’t. So, I did the only thing I could. I doubled down on my studies, but it felt wrong, knowing what you were going through.”
“What happened to me is not your burden to bear,” I tell him gruffly, moved by his admission.
“Horseshit!”
I look him in the eyes. “I counted on you to make it to the finish line unscathed. One of us needed to.”
He frowns. “Well, it’s been hell without you guys.”
“But you survived—all three of us did.”
Anderson’s frown deepens. “Everything has changed, Durov. We each carry scars now that can never be erased.”
“‘With loss comes wisdom,’” I mutter.
“I suppose, but I would never choose this.”
“Agreed, cattleman. Unfortunately, it is not our choice to make. The best we can do in life is to build on the wisdom we’ve gained through it so the scars have worth.”
Anderson pours me a drink. “You sure are a philosophical little fucker.”
I snort in amusement.
Holding up his glass, he tells me, “I vow to make everything I learned through this whole mess mean something for your sake—and mine.”
“You are a good friend, Anderson.”
“Well, you know what they say. The best friendships are built on a solid foundation of alcohol, sarcasm, and inappropriateness.”
“I’ll drink to that.”
After spending the night drinking with Anderson, I wake up the next day with a sense of renewed purpose.
As I do every morning, I look in the mirror and talk to Tatianna as I shave. “Can you believe we are here, eighty-five stories high? I’ll be honest. I never imagined owning something this grand in Moscow.” I lean in closer. “How I wish you were here to enjoy it, vorobyshek.”
I stand back and chuckle. “Of course, this isn’t your style. Is it? Your tastes are much simpler.” I nod to myself, thinking back to the time she told me she wanted to live in a cottage out in the country. “We planned to have a house full of children…”
I pause for a moment.
A wave of sorrow I am unprepared for washes over me. I reach out to her, placing my palm on the glass.