A Death in Denmark by Amulya Malladi

Author:Amulya Malladi [Malladi, Amulya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

The air between us was cooler than the wind around us, despite the temperature being in the mid-sixties and us driving two hundred kilometers an hour. I had turned on the heat a hundred kilometers ago, so that my hands wouldn’t get cold. Leila had wrapped herself in what looked like a cashmere shawl and had closed her eyes. We didn’t talk until we checked in and got into our suite.

“Do you feel like dinner?” I asked her.

“It’s three in the morning, Gabriel.”

“And?”

She sighed. “Good night.” She went inside one of the bedrooms.

I guessed she’d chosen which room she wanted but she’d been hasty. I had the better view, I discovered. She had a view of the Berlin Television Tower while my room faced the River Spree and the Berlin Cathedral.

The suite had a living room and two bedrooms with their own bathrooms. I didn’t know about Leila’s bathroom, but mine came with a bathtub that I looked longingly at. We were here for two nights, and I didn’t know if I’d have a chance to use it. The last time Leila and I had been in a bathtub was in a hotel in Prague, where we’d gone on one of the many long public holiday weekends in May. I shook the memories away. Ilse would tell me that this was normal, and I should remember those times without judging the present. Well, good for Ilse, I thought, but she wasn’t in a fucking suite with Leila in the next bedroom. A bedroom with a bathtub. A bedroom with a bed. Leila on the bed.

She’d said she wasn’t over our relationship. I had waited ten years to hear that, hadn’t I? But now that she had said it, I didn’t know what to do with it.

The sex had been amazing. I couldn’t remember a lover with whom I had enjoyed sex as much as I had with Leila. Or maybe it was the memory, enhanced because of emotions, of feeling she was the one who got away.

I unpacked. Hung my clothes on hangers; put my underwear and socks away in the dresser. I always emptied my suitcase, even if I was staying for just a night in a hotel. I took a shower and got into bed naked. I checked my messages and there was one from Ulla, telling me she was safe in her friend’s summerhouse, asking me to be careful. There was a message from Clara, telling me to have a good night, to take care of her car, and to be careful; and one from Sophie, telling me that she really liked Luc and Big Bo and that I should be careful.

I was sure I’d have trouble falling asleep because of the woman next door, but I surprised myself when I quickly and easily fell into a dreamless sleep.

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