Foreigners in Belgrade

The phone rang and Annie heard Tom talking for a bit. Well, listening mostly. At one point he gave a whistle, as if in surprise or disbelief. When he finally hung up, he beckoned her into the bedroom and shut the door. Zora hardly seemed to understand any English; yet neither of them had ever fully shaken the suspicion that she was only pulling a fast one.

"That was Ricardo," Tom said, full of news. "They fished Miloz out of the Danube this morning--dead as a doornail. Apparently, word got back to the minister at Finance that someone was mucking around with his business arrangements. And I guess the guy's got more muscle and less patience than our two-timing prick must have bargained for."

So--that was that, Annie thought. She tried to summon some emotions, but she was too exhausted and confused to judge what the appropriate feelings would be.

"Do you think Ricardo planned it that way?" she asked at last.

Tom looked pensive. "The guy's certainly not a killer. But could he have steered things in that direction? It's possible. Ricardo isn't exactly plugged in to what's going on here, but with his clout and money he can still exert influence. ... On the other hand, it's also possible he was blundering around blindly, and we just got lucky."

On reflection, Annie decided it didn't really matter. What mattered was that she had induced Ricardo to act, and that action had saved them. The rest was minutiae. "Is that all he had to say?"

"Oh yeah--he also invited us on a dinner cruise tonight. Evelyn will be there."

Annie frowned. She could handle the men, but there was no way she wanted to socialize with Evie. Not after she'd betrayed her friend's trust so profoundly. "Why don't you go by yourself? I made such a fuss with Ricardo yesterday, you know? It'd be awkward."

Tom admonished her with a look. "Come on Annie--whether he was lucky or good, Ricardo stuck by us when no one else would. Stuck by you if I'm being totally accurate. We can't afford to give him the cold shoulder now."

"Fine," she sulked, "I just hope he doesn't rub our noses in it."

* * * * *

That evening, Annie chose a simple pantsuit and flats for the river tour. It may not have fit the occasion, but it did fit her mood.

They boarded S. S. Trajan down at the pier near the Kalemegdan. It was a squat, two-deck excursion boat, all tarted up for the event--a cheery island of light, that somehow made the urban dusk surrounding it just that much more grim.

Glancing around the deck for the Garcias, Annie bit her lip nervously, imagining a dozen ways this get-together might spiral into catastrophe. Then she heard the rich boom of Ricardo's voice behind them. "There are my two favorite kids. Glad to see you both still in one piece!"

The man went on talking as they whirled around to greet him. "Annie, you look like pure dynamite tonight! Why do you want to cover it up with a frumpy outfit like that?" Without waiting to be asked, he enfolded her in a tight, lingering bear-hug, one hand perilously close to cupping her ass. To be honest, it was... pretty much his normal level of inappropriate.

Next they switched off, the men shaking hands while Evelyn approached her. Annie's face felt hot, her muscles tense. Surely her friend would guess what she'd done--the guilt of it must be written in her bearing, or expression. But then... nothing happened. "I'm so glad you came, hon," Evie bubbled, offering a quick squeeze and a peck. "Ricardo says you've been under a lot of stress the past day or two. You'll have to fill me in on the details." Could she really be that oblivious? Was it possible she knew and just didn't care...?

Ricardo had booked a table at the fantail, and the inevitable plates of sausage were soon slapped down in front of them. Luckily their host also ordered a few rounds of beer to wash it down with.

The atmosphere was somber, and it wasn't long before the conversation turned to the topic occupying all their thoughts. It was a wide-eyed Evie who opened the can of worms. "Did you hear what happened to that man we had dinner with the other night? What was his name, Melo?"

"Miloz," her husband growled. "Miloz Katić. Fucking nightmare! One minute you're in business, the next minute your guy's sleeping with the fishes. Worse than running construction in Staten Island!

"Well, he may have had it coming," Evelyn put in, all gossip. "I called some gal I met who works at the US consulate, and she said he went by a different name back in the states. Mike Cotton, or something like that. And get this--he was suspected of murder! They couldn't prove it, but he married a girl, then she died mysteriously, and he pocketed the insurance money. The stench of it is why he ran back to Serbia. I told my husband he needs to choose his partners more carefully!"

"Well, you're not wrong there," Ricardo agreed.

Evelyn lowered her voice conspiratorially. "There's even a rumor that the woman's father came here to Belgrade, seeking revenge. Maybe he's the answer to whodunnit!"

Her husband grunted. "Yeah, that must be what happened. But look, the point is: it's a sign. Time to pull up stakes and get out of dodge. All of us."

Annie glanced at Tom, reading the conflict in his face as his dreams of success melted away. "I don't know," he said slowly. "Surely now that Miloz-"

Ricardo cut him off with a brusque shake of the head. "Just because we had absolutely nothing to do with the man's death doesn't mean it won't blow back on us. Belgrade isn't a place where they observe the niceties. We were in business with the bastard, and we can't know what danger that might put us in." He slid an envelope across the table. "I got us all tickets to Vienna. We leave tomorrow afternoon."

Tom still wasn't ready to give up. "I appreciate it, but it's not that simple. Annie and I sunk most of our money into this scheme. There's nothing back there for me."

Ricardo looked hurt. "Fuck Tom, you think I'd leave you in the lurch? I've been talking to my partners. The Balkans are a bust. We're cutting our losses and pivoting to China. So, I lined you up an analyst job, working for me in New York. Twice your old salary at Anders-Beaumont. Hell, you can start learning Mandarin on the flight home--I'll buy you a book."

* * * * *

After dinner, they were all a little tipsy. The men went off to discuss their visions for plundering the wealth of Hong Kong and Beijing. But Evelyn and Annie remained at the table, gazing off at the lights of the city--beautiful, now that they were viewed at a remove.

"We're going to be besties in Manhattan!" Evelyn beamed. "I'll help you get settled in. You'll like it--so much more going on than in Philly."

"But just yesterday you were looking at real-estate here..." Annie said, feeling events were moving much too quickly for her.

Evie looked puzzled. "Oh, you heard about that? It wasn't serious. Only... well, the agent was so adorable, I couldn't refuse him." The was an evasiveness about her eyes that made Annie recall Ricardo's suspicions.

"Anyway," her friend plowed ahead after a slight pause, "you don't think I ever intended to stay here, do you? I was happy to let Ricardo have his fun, playacting at being the globe-trotting entrepreneur. But I certainly wasn't going to allow either one of us to move to Eastern Europe permanently! Far too dreary."

Annie's lip tremored slightly. "Yes, that's exactly where I went wrong. I should never have allowed us to come here. Then none of this would have... I mean..."

Her distress brought out the mother-hen in Evelyn. "Oh hon, what's wrong? It's all going to be ok. You can spill it to Auntie Evie."

The urge to confess was strong. Annie couldn't confess everything that happened, of course, but some of it. Maybe it would lift her soul a little to tell someone else.

"You have to keep this between us, Evie. Not even Ricardo can know." Her friend raised a hand in oath of secrecy. "That man, Miloz? He was blackmailing us. Both of us. And he blackmailed me into..." Annie could hardly get it out through her sniffles. "Into... h-he made me have sex with him. And if he hadn't been killed, I just don't know w-what... And now, all I can think is how glad I am that he's dead!"

"Oh, you poor dear!" Evie shifted to put an arm around Annie, cradling the younger woman's head while she indulged in a few quiet sobs. "You know, I'm glad he's dead too," she murmured gently in Annie's ear. "The fucker earned it."

After a while, she lifted Annie's chin with a finger and held her gaze. "I want you to keep remembering that you're going to be ok. You're not the first or last woman to go through something like this. But we're stronger than they think. Fuck that asshole. He's history, and you're still here. So what you're going to do, starting now, is go right on living--and living well. That's your revenge."

Annie peeked back through her tears. "But... don't I need to tell Tom? How can I keep something like this-"

Evelyn gave her a stern look. "God no. Men are... stupid. They don't always see things clearly. Tom doesn't need to know this. And the truth is, he doesn't want to know. Leave it be."

Annie thought this was probably good advice.

* * * * * * * * * *

EPILOGUE

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Annie jogged along Bleecker Street toward the daycare, ponytail whipping vigorously, pushing an empty two-seat stroller in front of her and listening to NPR in her headphones. The June heat was almost unbearably muggy, and she was covered in sweat.

The reporter was saying that the UN armies had signed a new treaty with the Serbian government. It looked as if Belgrade was finally going to know some peace.

It startled Annie to realize that nearly two years had passed since she'd left the place. They'd certainly gotten out at the right time. Only a week after they caught the train to Vienna, that vile dictator Milosevic had taken his revenge against the pro-democracy crowd, beating them to a pulp beneath the clubs of his riot police. War had broken out soon after, and within a year, American jets were bombing Belgrade. They'd never really had a chance of making a life in that place--it had all been a mirage.

Still, whether she liked it or not, Annie knew she'd always feel some connection to Belgrade. The connection wasn't entirely pleasant, of course. Even with the healing balm of time, her memories of it were littered with stark images of grime and corruption, betrayal and debauchery...

Yet, in the end, Annie couldn't entirely blame the city for what had happened. Factually, all the leading players in her melodrama had been foreigners in Belgrade--even Miloz (or, should she say 'Mike Cotton?') had been a product of America, more than Serbia. So maybe they'd brought the ugliness with them. Maybe that ugliness was always there, inside every person, and Belgrade had just teased it to the surface.

At any rate, whatever dark clouds lay over her memory of the place, Annie had to admit that their time there had produced silver-linings as well. For one thing, Tom was happy with his new job. To salve his ego, he'd persuaded himself that the Serbian gambit had been a big success. After all, he had landed in a better-paying gig at the end of it, hadn't he? Beyond the size of the paycheck, Annie judged his new position to be exactly the same as the setup he'd walked away from in Philly. But this didn't seem to bother him.

Spending time with the Garcias in New York wasn't as uncomfortable as Annie had feared either. Ricardo did continue hitting on her, and remained as handsy as ever, but his heart wasn't really in it anymore. Now that she represented a notch on his bedpost, his eye had moved on to fresh quarry. There were always associates with pretty wives that he hadn't fucked yet.

And although she and Evie remained an awkward fit, personality-wise, Annie valued the deeper friendship she'd developed with the older woman. Evie's experience, her no-nonsense attitude, and her joie-de-vivre made her not only a good sounding board, but tremendous fun to be around as well.

Then, of course, far beyond all such ephemera, came the two truly important products of their Serbian sojourn: Joey and Isabella. The twins had appeared in her life nine months after their return to the States--and they would never have existed if it hadn't been for that crazy detour through Belgrade.

Tom had been ecstatic about the pregnancy. It must have happened that night they got so drunk on plum wine, he'd raved. It was a fucking miracle! For Annie, however, those expectant months had been a trial. Morning sickness was a bitch, but what really nagged at her was the thought that her babies would pop out with skin too brown, or eyes too icy-blue, for her to possibly explain it.

But thank God, that hadn't happened. Oh, despite their tender age, Annie's penetrating gaze took in her children clearly enough. In Joey, she saw a strong, muscular build; a hint of slyness; and sun-kissed hair that she didn't expect to darken much as he aged; whereas Isabella had a nice 'Mediterranean' cast to her complexion, and a lush mane that was already deepening toward raven-black. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was that when her husband looked at them, he saw his kids--his miracle babies--so that now they were a happy family of four.

One thing that really surprised her about their new life in New York was how much better things had gotten with Tom. Now that they were back in a 'normal' environment, with their career pressures eased and the pain of childlessness lifted, they seemed in sync in a way they never had before. Annie loved being a mother--it felt like her calling, her purpose, and she embraced that. But she never found herself alone in it, as she had in social work, or in Belgrade. Parenting was a project Tom took seriously too. It made them into a team, and seemed to bring them closer every day.

Sex did remain a little meh. There were times, when Tom wasn't around and she was scrunched down under the comforter with her panties off, that Annie let her fantasies escape their leash. It wasn't so much Miloz, or Ricardo, that she dreamed about on such occasions. It was about having the back of her throat tickled in just the right way to orgasm. Or her vagina stretched beyond its limits, by a cock wider and longer than any she ever expected to see again... Mmmm...

Yet even so, she had no intention of straying. There were so many things in her life to keep her fulfilled, that she really didn't need to play with fire that way. She'd just keep working on Tom to loosen up some in bed, or modify his technique. Little by little, he was getting better.

Only... well, there was one other consideration. Lately, Annie had begun to feel the itch for Joey and Isabella to have a sibling. Maybe more than one. Not immediately, perhaps, but she didn't intend to wait long either. And it wasn't going to happen by itself.

Bounding up to the steps outside the daycare building and taking a sip from her water bottle, Annie perused the sprinkling of fathers mixed in among the crowd of housewives and business-moms waiting to pick up.

Yeah, she thought with a gleam in her eye, it was probably about time to start vetting candidates...

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END

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