“No, baby, listen to how I say it once again. Spa-si-bo.”

“Spastiba?”

“No, honey, it’s spasibo.”

“It’s so hard to pronounce.”

“I know, but you have to watch your tongue carefully, and then it’s very easy. Spasibo, pozhaluysta. See?”

“Pot halva… something?”

“Pozhaluysta. It means you’re welcome.”

That was all Tina had been hearing for the last two weeks. Bette’s firm had a new partner in the form of a big Russian company and she’d have to go on a business trip by the end of the year to evaluate the costs of new art works, shipping and the like. She was taking courses of Russian and, being the devoted linguist that she was, she couldn’t resist the urge to teach Wade a couple of common words and phrases. That resulted in hours of Russian speech all over the apartment.

“Bette, I think Wade has to do his school homework first and then let you torture him with your own personal Advanced Classes of the Russian Language.”

“You’re next, do you realize that, Ms. Kennard?” Bette grinned smugly.

“Oh yeah? And why is that, Ms. smarty pants?”

“There are plenty of reasons. Like, for example, imagine… We’re having dinner with the girls and suddenly you and I start speaking Russian, exchanging a few phrases. The conversation at the table stops, everyone gazes at us, we finish and start eating again. Then Alice asks me, ‘Porter, what was THAT about? Made up a language of your own?’”

Tina chuckled. “How about something more mature?”

“Hold on, I’m not finished yet… Everyone’s interested. We explain we were speaking Russian; at that, Alice will inquire if we’ve purchased a Russian mail order bride. Eventually, we’ll explain that we’re using it, so that whenever… ehh..” she looked at Wade, “whenever we feel like getting really close, we speak Russian, using different lewd words, so that nobody else can understand just what exactly we want to do to each other.”

Tina scratched her leg and yawned.

“Genius plan.”

“Thanks. Still working on it.”

“Very good,” Tina stood up stretching. Hours of paper work at the table had taken its toll on her, her back was slightly hurting. “I’m mighty tired and I’m going to bed, you guys.”