“One drink a day turned into two. Two became three. Then the nightcap became the five o’clock drink and the five o’clock drink became the way he started his mornings. I came downstairs to make some breakfast one day and he was sitting at the kitchen table with a six pack of beer and a plate of eggs.” I stop short and take a deep breath. “I knew he had a problem long before I admitted it to myself.”
“It had nothing to do with you,” Kolya intones. It feels like the first time he’s spoken today. His voice has a rough-hewn, just-got-out-of-bed quality that makes me shiver. “His disease was not your fault.”
I feel my breath catch at the word. Disease. It sounds so, I don’t know… binding, I guess. I don’t know why it’s a shock hearing him say it, when I’ve known as much for a long time now. “H
