"I was getting to that," Pyotr lies easily. Pushing himself up from the couch, he looks around the room as if to confirm it hasn't rearranged itself while he was mentally checked out. "I need to move all of this furniture out of the room so I can pull up the carpet. That's the first necessary step for turning it into a studio space. Normally it would be Andrey's job, but..." He shrugs illustratively. Andrey isn't here, of course; and Pyotr isn't going to be moving any settees or hutches with his stick-thin body.

"I actually would appreciate your help," he says, in a voice that is already too tired to be faking that note of earnestness. "Truly. It would save me a great deal of trouble today and in the future."