He didn’t see me until we were leaving. I was outside on the sidewalk and he saw me through the glass wall. His eyes got huge. I just looked away and giggled with my friends as the bus pulled up for us. He got home late that night and I was already in bed. Of course I wasn’t asleep but he didn’t know that. He tried to bring it up the next day at breakfast but I just brushed him off and said I didn’t care.

But I did care and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. He had time to spend with her, some prostitute, but he never had time to spend with his own daughter. Just picturing her there with my father made me so mad. The nerve. Taking him away from me. I mean, she wouldn’t be laughing if she was put in her place, would she? It would have served her right to have me come up to her, and she’d look at me, like I was going to ask a question, and then I’d take out a hammer, just a little one like the kind they use for reupholstering furniture, and give her whore head a whack and see how long she was able to stand up on her high heels then.

The police wanted to know how I hooked up with Sergei. That was the term they used, hooked up. I tried not to laugh.

I’d seen Sergei around at school. He kept to himself. He wasn’t much into school, really, just goofing off. He might be a loser, but he’s the best-looking loser around. He’s really tall and he was in martial arts for a while too.

One day my dad dropped me off after an appointment with the orthodontist and Sergei was standing by the school door on the side having a cigarette. You aren’t supposed to smoke on school property, but Sergei never cared about rules. I walked by and he smiled and then, with those big eyes of his, he winked. Well, I winked right back at him, with my head to the side all sexy, and just kept going. I know he turned and watched me walk away, so I made it worth his while.

I was grocery shopping with my father the day after and I saw Sergei in the parking lot loading groceries in the trunk of a car for this little old lady — his grandmother, he told me later. And then I saw him driving by when I was out walking the dog. I was just coming home and turned in the driveway when he went by. He waved. I stood there looking at him. At the last second, I waved, and then I turned my head as he gave me this big smile.

The next day I walked by the north corner of the school where he hung out with the guys who always got in trouble, and he was leaning there against the wall and gave me his lazy smile again. “Why are you stalking me?” I said. He just laughed. And all his friends started laughing. But his laugh wasn’t mean — he just looked like he thought I was hilarious.