Island Has Ghosts

Chapter 15

Angela left and carelessly left the door unlocked, but Vsevolod knocked just in case, then called out:

"Angela?"

Without waiting for an answer, he walked from the hallway into the room and saw that everything in it was just as he remembered: a blue-and-white striped dress thrown on the unmade bed, a high-heeled sandal lying in the hallway, his own gym bag on the banquette near the dresser. Before the 'excursion' Vsevolod tried to find a second pair of sunglasses to replace the broken ones, but he couldn't find them. On the dresser, next to his dead cell phone, there was an open cosmetic bag lying on its side, and lipsticks, mascara, pencils were spilling out of it in a multicolored assortment. Angela wasn't known for her neatness, but it hadn't bothered Vsevolod until now. Now the sight of the scattered things was irritating. He went to the dresser, put his cell phone on charge, closed the bottle of perfume and only then noticed the first difference in the preserved picture. There was no bouquet! But there was an imprint from the bottom of the vase on the polished surface.

Vsevolod put Angela's dress away in the closet, noting with satisfaction that his own clothes hung as he had left them. He pulled a plaid blanket off the chair and covered the ruined bed with it. Gotta get in the shower, shave, finally brush his teeth with toothpaste and toothbrush instead of cinders, wash under hot jets of soap and water. And then call the front desk to order something to eat, but not wait until he was blissfully asleep in bed. He grabbed underwear, clean jeans, a T-shirt, and a hooded sweatshirt from the shelf, but he was distracted by the sound of a key turning in the lock. Vsevolod instantly turned around and saw Angela loaded with bags.

"Are you back already?" She asked and threw the shopping bags on the bed. Then she sat down next to him and began to unbuckle the straps of her sandals as if nothing had happened. What surprised Vsevolod the most was not the lack of reaction to his appearance after a long absence, but the fact that Angela was dressed the same as on the day of the 'excursion'. She had packed a suitcase full of dresses and sundresses, so that during the five days that they were going to spend on vacation, not once to repeat the outfit.

"Can you believe I found a boutique alley in this dump? Well, not boutiques, of course, but with stores where shoes, belts and handbags - author's work. And in another store I was even luckier! I found a dress that you can't find in all of Moscow! The seller assured me that it was sewn in a single copy. Cost like an airplane wing, but it doesn't matter. I'll show you!"

Angela rustled the bags, and Vsevolod, amazed, couldn't even find anything to say to her. He was absent for several days, and she not only did not organize the search, but also acted as if nothing had happened.

Angela belatedly sensed something was wrong. She looked up from the bags and asked in surprise:

"What are you doing? The excursion was disgusting? So I said there was nothing to do there! It's in the middle of nowhere, what could be interesting here? I don't know why I came here! It's amazing, it's a miracle there are stores here."

"You don't have to go shopping!" He couldn't take it anymore. It came out abruptly, Angela clapped her false eyelashes resentfully, pouted her already puffy lips.

"Didn't you notice anything?"

"What was I supposed to notice? " Angela shrugged her tanned shoulders and automatically adjusted the slipped strap of her sundress. Her gesture, slow and languid, had turned him on before. But now, for some reason, it left him indifferent.

"Oh, my God," Angela wrinkled her thin nose. "You're as dirty as if you'd been in a swamp! Where have you been? And your clothes...You haven't changed them in a week!"

She pulled away and even pushed aside, away from him, the bags of precious dresses and shoes.

"Angela," Vsevolod began quietly, trying to hold back his irritation, "I've been away for a long time. Didn't you notice that?"