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archetypal every couple, two lovers determined to squeeze a lifetime into a single afternoon. Tatiana,<br />
when she beheld the drawing, suspected that the artist turned them away because he was not skilled at<br />
drawing faces, but she only nodded and smiled.<br />
Pleased with her tacit approval, Konstantin poured the last dregs of the wine into his glass and<br />
handed it to the artist, who bowed with great solemnity before drinking. Their last bits of chicken and<br />
potato were tossed to the cat. And then they watched as the street artist wrapped brown paper around<br />
the drawing, crisscrossing the bundle with twine. Layer after layer, making a loop large enough to<br />
serve as a rough handle. Konstantin paid him, and Tatiana paid the café bill, and then he stood and<br />
held out his hand to her. After a moment of hesitation. Tatiana took it. He slipped his other hand<br />
through the loop of string and they left the café, the carefully wrapped painting brushing against<br />
Konstantin’s leg with every step he took.<br />
They have done everything a man and woman can do to one another. They have done things that<br />
Tatiana previously had not known were possible, things she believed might stop her heart and rip her<br />
soul from her body. They have broken every law of god and man and likely ruined each other in the<br />
process, but the one thing they have never done together is walk a city street hand in hand.<br />
The Café of the Revolutionaries<br />
3:30 PM<br />
Among the thousands of people taking no note of Konstantin Antonovich and Tatiana Orlov<br />
walking through the streets of St. Petersburg were three men who also happened to be sitting at a café<br />
table. It was a far humbler place, lacking artists and flowers and even the rustic charm of a napping<br />
cat, and beer rather than champagne was the order of the day. They had sat there for hours, so many<br />
that the serving girl had long despaired that they would ever vacate the table for the use of more<br />
prompt and generous patrons. But at least the length of their meeting had given enough time for the<br />
discord between them to settle and for Vlad to regain his confidence in the face of the more<br />
experienced men.<br />
“The place where we hold her must not be too comfortable,” Vlad was saying. “It must be a
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