Asia Vieira as my bride and wife

"Asia Vieira, listen to me," I began with theatrical solemnity. "I know what I have to do - I have to take you and go somewhere. Where I get this confidence from, I don't know. Maybe from my infinite naivety? But it seems to me that in the end you would be fine with me. Yes. Although, by the way, you see, I am such a - well, in a word, I don't want to do this."

I stopped, trying to comprehend my words, which seemed both too bold and too stupid. There were so many questions in my head, but no answers. In her silence, I felt some kind of invisible barrier. I tried to find something that could break it, but I didn't know where to start.

"I don't want to force you," I continued, feeling like every glance at her seemed to burn an emptiness in my chest. "As a result, all responsibility for my decision - let's call it that - falls on you."

I held back a sigh, trying to calm myself, but it wasn't enough.

"So, basically, it turns out that I'm a pig all around - if not on the right side, then on the left," I said, almost irritated, but realizing that I was making this situation even more unbearable.

I fell silent, unable to look her in the eyes. And only then, looking at her silence, I said, almost in a whisper:

"Yes, and I am perfectly aware of that. Excellent. But tell me just one thing: what do you prefer?"

Silence hung between us, and I continued to look at her, trying to catch even the slightest answer in her eyes.

I felt the tension that had been holding me down suddenly dissolve into thin air, but at the same time there remained a feeling of heavy uncertainty. I took another step towards her, but this time I wasn't going to wait for her answer. Everything had been decided, although not the way I would have liked.

"Okay, Asia," I said, not giving myself time to think. "I won't consult you anymore. Get dressed. Let's have breakfast and leave."

The words sounded like a decision that could not be undone, like a step into the unknown that I was pushing myself to take. Until recently, I could not imagine that I would find myself in such a situation. But here she was, this woman, this unclear, mysterious Asia, who forced me to act, not understanding what would happen next.

I turned around and headed for the door, but before I left, I looked at her again. There was still uncertainty and a question in her eyes, and this question would probably haunt me until the end.

"You'll still leave with me," I whispered to myself, more than to her.

And he quietly closed the door behind him.

Breakfast passed in a strange silence. The robot walked back and forth, serving us dishes, all his actions seemed empty and mechanical, even when he tried to add a little humor to this process. I said something absurd, joked, but the words did not cause laughter or a smile. Asia sat opposite, silent and cold, her gaze wandered somewhere in the distance, as if she was no longer here, not with this man who was ready to pick her up and take her away somewhere, to a completely unknown place.

I kept talking, something insignificant, about the weather, about how great the robot was, but it all sounded false. It seemed like I wanted to establish an atmosphere, but something was getting in the way, holding us back. We were both strangers to each other, even if we tried to force ourselves to behave differently.

Asia didn't respond to my jokes. I didn't know what to say to her. We sat in a room full of food, and the emptiness between us became more and more noticeable.

When breakfast was over, I stood up and suggested:

"Shall we go? Get in the car, I'll give you a ride. It's time to go."

She stood up silently. I don't know what I expected. Maybe some sign, a smile, words of gratitude. But her gaze remained the same, inexpressible.

The car drove us along the deserted streets, and I thought. My hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, as if it was the only thing I had control over. Everything else - I had lost. But at that moment, my thoughts did not leave me. I still could not understand what I had done. Had I gone far? Or, on the contrary, had I remained at the very beginning?

I had stolen my wife from her husband. Even saying the thought out loud was a blow. Ryan probably didn't even know I could be that kind of person. But did it matter? Asia was here, and in that moment, I didn't know what to do with it. Did I want things to go back to the way they were, or did I?

My eyes kept trying to follow the road, but my thoughts were distracted. She, Asia, sat silently next to me, as if her presence was something natural, but at the same time completely alien. I didn't know what would happen next. Could I change her life? Or was her future already written without me? Did she really want to be with me, or was this just a glitch, a moment of weakness?

Suddenly I felt the air in the car become thick and heavy. Horror. The responsibility for everything I had done fell on me like mountains I was not prepared to bear. But I kept driving, unable to turn back.

I was entering a village that seemed cut off from the rest of the world. The house I was approaching stood at the very edge, almost disappearing over the horizon. The area was quiet, absorbed in its solitude. The garden around the house looked a little abandoned, the bushes were eaten away by the salty air and time, but still retained their outlines, albeit with signs of a recent storm. The winds and waves seemed to leave nothing untouched. I saw shells lying on the ground, symbols of a past storm.

The roof of the house was slanted, like a flat hat turned to the side, creating a huge shadow, as if nature itself was trying to hide from the scorching sun. The neighboring house looked out from behind a hill covered with sparse bushes and seemed part of the same eclipsed world. Much was hidden behind this hill, it was no more than six hundred steps away, but it seemed that each of them would mean a lifetime, and the closer you got, the further everything went away.