She bit her lip. He was probably right.
“It doesn’t mean you can manipulate me. And why are you drinking? What about your amazing solo career? Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“I can play the violin whether I drink or not.”
“You know what the trustees said.”
“Are you going to tell tales? Hey, little Lydia? Are you going to rat on me?”
“Perhaps I should. This isn’t good, Milan. You’re destroying yourself.”
“Nothing to destroy.”
“Oh, what rubbish! You have so much, and you just don’t see it. How can you sit there and say that?”
“You are fierce today, milácku. The mouse that roared.”
“Shut the fuck up! Stop drinking. Get sober. Get famous as a virtuoso. Sort yourself out.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He gave her a drunken salute and laughed, his head leaning sideways over his shoulder.
Lydia rose and snatched the bottle from the bedside table.
“This is going down the sink,” she said.
In the bathroom, she upended it, watching the potent liquid that was stripping her Milan down to nothing disappear through the plughole. The room stank of alcohol, so she pumped air freshener liberally over the basin.
Milan had made no effort to stop her and, when she came back into the bedroom, having tossed the empty bottle into the recycling box, she stood at the foot of the bed with her arms folded.
“Okay, Milan, this is how it’s going to be. You can’t look after yourself and you don’t seem to have the wherewithal or the self-discipline to kick the drinking, so I’m going to move in here.”
He made an effort to straighten his spine.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really. I am not going to stand by and watch you ruin all your chances, I’m just not. Because, despite everything, I love you and I want you to be happy.”
“Oh, Lydia…” He held out his hands, but she waved him away.
“This doesn’t mean I’m your girlfriend again. I’m not sharing your bed. I’m not going near you physically until this…phase…is over. Do you understand?”
“No sex?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I think this is my apartment…last time I checked…”
“You aren’t capable of acting like an adult, so I’m going to be, I don’t know, some kind of guardian or whatever, until you are. It’s that, or I tell the trustees.”
“You fucking wouldn’t.”
“I fucking would. Try me.”
“You know, I don’t think I want to try you. You are frightening me right now.”
Lydia smiled. She felt a surge of wonderful, powerful optimism. Amazing things happened when you found your strength. She was going to get Milan back on his feet and she wasn’t going to take even an ounce of crap from him this time.