25

Yuliya could feel a blush start to creep up her neck so she put her hand there to hide it. "If you're trying to flirt with me, it's failing pretty miserably. Do you think this is something that your prospective partner wants to hear? Could you imagine anything less romantic than telling someone you can offer them nothing? The words should be in the opposite direction where you make me think I'm the only person that you'll be seeing for the rest of your life."

As she said the words her breath caught. Vasko always told her over the phone that she was his only one. Now that she knew that she was one of several her brain burned at the though of him.

"I'm not going to lie to you as a relationship shouldn't start with one. I've struggled a lot with relationships in the past so the conclusion that I have drawn is that I cannot love a second person."

"I'm so confused when it comes to you." Yuliya had been overwhelmed with so many emotions tonight that she had buried down deep.

"I said it once before so I can keep trying to say it in different ways until you get it. I have tried to love people outside of my family and have found that I don't want to devote myself to it. People are so silly in love that I don't want to pretend that I will be silly to you."

Yuliya looked at him with worry as she couldn't help wondering whom had hurt his heart to a point with which he had decided to shield himself. The monotone with which he was speaking chilled her as well. But such talk was no always the way that he described. "You're right I did work at a strip club for a long time so I know why men will come there. But even in such an environment you do see the dancers go home to be wives and mothers to men who love and support their profession. There is a somebody for everybody, my friend. It's inevitable that you will find your lobster too and you'll scuttle off into a sunset room."

"I've had sex with a lot of people, but that doesn't mean that I was in it for anything more than the physical release. Love is hard. I won't do that."

Yuliya pulled her hand off her neck and her flush bloomed to her face. "You . . . you're saying a lot of things without really understanding what they mean. I can see that money isn't an issue to you as you have siblings with it and I'm sure a glorious job where you don't even have to check your bank balance. But if you really don't care that I'm still very much in love with my ex husband and won't easily open up to you, why would you think marrying me will fix anything? If we think about things logically marriage is a complicated legal and social arrangement that has a lot more drawbacks than it does benefits."