Chapter 4

In truth, Yuri wasn’t always that patient. A couple of days later he finally gave his wife a dressing-down for the fact that she did absolutely nothing around the house while he was at work, not even taking out the trash. Annette assured him that of course she did take out the trash, and that today was an exception — she’d simply forgotten because she’d been teaching a yoga class on Skype. As she spoke, she absent-mindedly tugged at her top, pushing out her chest ever so slightly.

She knew her husband, knew his weaknesses, and understood perfectly how to get to him. Oh, Yuri, never trust anything you hear when it’s said next to a woman’s breast ... Fascinated by his wife’s curves, he argued for form’s sake a little longer, then waved it off and said, “Fine, we’ll see.” The best part came the next day, when Annette forgot about “always taking out the trash” again! She only remembered when she saw her husband’s brisk figure hurrying toward the building outside the window. There was no time to get dressed. But Annette would never agree to lose a bet with her husband. So, just as she was — in nothing but her underwear — she grabbed the garbage in the kitchen and rushed to the door.

In the hallway she remembered that she was about to go into the stairwell barefoot. Going back for slippers would take too long, so Annette slipped on a pair of pink heels that matched her lingerie and fluttered out the door.

She was sure there was no one in the stairwell. Before stepping out, Annette had glanced up and down the corridor. How could she have known that right behind the open door, pressed flat against the wall, stood the building’s immigrant janitor? This time he had planned another disgusting little prank with the peephole, to leave his mark there so that next time Annette looked through it, she would see what he had done — and, in his animal mind, to “mark the territory,” the lair of the female he wanted.