Chapter 14 #2
I’m always surprised by how sweet Sasha can be, and every time he shows me this side of himself, I know he’s giving me a precious gift, something special that he only reserves for me.
It’s a great feeling, and I’m still riding the high from it when he turns the corner and I see the apartment I grew up in at the end of the street.
Suddenly nervous again, I feel my palms start to sweat when Billy’s truck comes into view.
I’d been secretly hoping someone might have a plumbing emergency this evening, but luck is evidently not on my side when it concerns my stepdad.
Sasha parks on the street, but before we go in, he turns to me and says, “Have you learned how to say I want in Russian yet?”
“Yeah,” I say, angling my hips so I can turn and see him better.
“Let me hear it.”
It embarrasses me to fumble my way around words that he speaks so effortlessly, but I ignore that feeling and say, “Ya khochu,” trying really hard to make that kh sound like the Scottish ch sound.
He winks at me. “Very good, krovinka.”
I blush at his praise, making him grin before he says, “Now try this. Ya khochu uyti.”
He pronounces it slow for me, and I try my best to mimic what sounds like yah kha-choo oo-yee-tee. I say it a few times, and when I feel confident with it, he reaches out and runs his finger along my jaw.
“You’re very sexy when you speak Russian. I love hearing it come from your lips.”
“I don’t speak it very well,” I say, but he shakes his head.
“You already speak it better than your dipshit of a professor.”
I laugh and ask, “Is he really that bad?”
“Yes, but I also hate him because he wants to fuck you, so that might be coloring my opinion.”
“He does not want to fuck me,” I try to tell him, but he just shakes his head.
“Yes, he does. I can see it in the way he looks at you, and I don’t like it.
” His thumb gently grazes my bottom lip.
“I just taught you how to say I want to leave. If at any time you want to get out of here, just look at me and say that. I’ll have you out of there in less than a minute, krovinka. No questions asked.”
I turn my head and kiss his finger. “You’re the sweetest man on the planet, Sasha.”
He laughs and leans in to kiss me. “For you, Cyn. Only you.”
I’m still smiling when I get out of his Jeep and interlace my fingers with his as we walk up to the front door.
The last time I was here feels like a lifetime ago.
I haven’t been back since the supper from hell that I shared with my mom, and I’m really hoping tonight goes better.
I told her I was bringing someone I wanted her to meet, but whether that means she’ll be on her best behavior, I have no idea. You never can tell with her.
Sasha squeezes my hand when I ring the doorbell, and before my mom can answer the door, he leans down and kisses my forehead. “You’re not alone, Cyn. I may not know everything that’s going on here, but it doesn’t matter. I’m here with you, and you’ll never be alone again, krovinka.”
I wrap my arms around him, pulling him in for a tight hug, and when the door opens, that’s exactly how she finds us. Her daughter snuggled up to a big bad tattooed guy. It could be worse, but judging by the shocked look on her face, she doesn’t think so.
Straightening up, I say, “Mom, this is Sasha.”
She’s too stunned to say anything so Sasha holds out a tattooed hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Nancy.”
I look up at him, because I never did tell him her name. He gives me a quick wink and then shakes my mom’s hand. As soon as he lets her go, his arm is back around me, pulling me close, reminding me that we’re in this together.
“Hi,” my mom finally says. She’s clearly still stunned but she steps aside so we can come in and then she gives me a quick, perfunctory hug before we follow her into the kitchen.
“Who’s this?”
I cringe when I hear Billy’s cruel voice from behind us. Sasha feels me tense and gives my shoulder a squeeze before his hand slides up to cup the back of my neck. We both turn to face him together, and I briefly think about laughing when I see how much bigger Sasha is than my angry little stepdad.
“I’m Sasha, her fiancé.”
“Fiancé?” I hear my mom ask as she steps past me to stand next to Billy.
“I just asked her today,” Sasha tells them, even though we both know he didn’t exactly ask so much as state it as a fact.
“I didn’t even know you were dating anyone,” my mom says. I thought maybe she might find her way to being happy for me, but the annoyed look on her face and the tight line of her smile makes it clear she won’t be popping open the bubbly anytime soon.
Billy just makes an annoyed grunting noise and scowls up at Sasha. “I thought you were supposed to ask a girl’s parents for permission first.”
Sasha doesn’t come right out and laugh, but I hear the amusement in his voice when he says, “Why would I do that when Cyn has a brilliant mind? She’s more than capable of deciding her future for herself.”
Billy smirks at the nickname. “Cyn, huh?”
“That’s what I call her,” Sasha says. All amusement is gone from his tone, and whatever Billy sees on his face has him shaking his head and muttering a “Whatever” before going into the kitchen.
We follow him, but not before I see the scowl my mom is giving me. I’m used to that look. It’s the way to go, Cindy. Billy’s pissed and it’s all your fault look.
I’m not at all surprised to find Billy’s hand on the fridge door when we walk in.
It’s an unconscious habit. He’s pissed and he wants a beer.
I can see the war on his face, the way his hand is wrapped too tightly around the handle, and the tension that runs along every inch of him.
It doesn’t matter that there’s no longer beer in the fridge.
That knowledge doesn’t make the craving any less real.
After a few seconds, he gets his shit together and opens it, grabbing a Coke instead of the Bud he’d rather be drinking. He doesn’t offer one to us. He pops the top and goes to sit at the table while my mom gets a large ham out of the oven.
Jesus Christ, Mom.
As if she can hear me, she puts the ham on the counter and says, “Don’t worry, Cindy. I made you a big salad, and I didn’t add chicken broth to the mashed potatoes.” She glances up at Sasha and rolls her eyes. “My daughter, the only vegetarian to gain weight.”
While my mom laughs, fully expecting Sasha to join in, he becomes deathly still beside me, and when he speaks, his tone is very different from the one he uses with me. “You talk about your daughter like that?”
My mom’s laugh dies a quick death, and for just a second she has the sense to look ashamed, but then she shakes it off and says, “Cindy knows I’m joking.”
“You’re not joking,” Sasha says, refusing to let her brush this aside.
“You’re trying to make fun of her, and you’re trying to make her feel small, and I don’t like that.
Cyn is gorgeous, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, but the truly rare thing about her is that she’s just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. ”
He pulls me even closer and adds, “I’ll be having a salad with her, because I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit here and fill my stomach with ham while she’s gnawing on a cucumber slice and a bowl of mashed potatoes.”
“Hey,” Billy says from his seat at the table. “You can’t come in here and be rude to Cindy’s mom.”
“I wasn’t rude to her. You have no idea how polite I’m being right now,” Sasha tells him as he leads me over to the table. He pulls a chair out for me while the two of us dive head-first into let’s get this the fuck over with mode.
Billy ignores him and takes a cigarette from his front shirt pocket, but when he reaches for a lighter, Sasha growls, “Don’t even fucking think about it.”
“Excuse me?” my stepdad asks with the cigarette dangling from his lips.
“She has asthma,” Sasha says, absolute disbelief coating his words. “Did you smoke in front of her when she was living here?”
“None of your goddamn business,” my stepdad says.
When I look over at Sasha, his jaw is tense and I can tell he’s trying really hard to not reach for the knife that I know is resting against the small of his back right now.
I put my hand on his thigh, smiling at him when he turns to look at me.
The tension softens when he meets my eyes, but I know it’ll be right back as soon as we break eye contact.
Trying to salvage this as much as possible, I smile at my mom when she brings over two bowls of salad and tell her it looks good. She puts a full plate in front of Billy and then sets her own down before taking a seat.
After a few minutes of awkward chewing, my mom asks, “So, Sasha, what do you do? Are you a student?”
“No, I work for my family,” he says.
Curious, my mom keeps going. “What do they do?”
Sasha shrugs and stabs a cucumber with his fork. “A little bit of this and a little bit of that,” he says, keeping it as vague as possible.
Billy snorts and grabs his fork. “I think that’s code for unemployed.”
Sasha lowers his own fork and looks over at him. “No, that’s code for we’re independently wealthy, and I don’t need to work a 9-5 job to make ends meet.”
My stepdad takes a drink of his Coke and then looks at me. I try not to cringe at the hate in his eyes. “I guess that means you’ll be quitting school. What a waste of fucking money that was,” he scoffs. “Couldn’t even make it two full years.”
There’s a loud clatter as Sasha’s fork hits his bowl.
He takes a breath, forcing himself to be calm before he says, “You’ll get every goddamn penny back, I can promise you that, and Cyn isn’t quitting anything.
She’s brilliant. She can do whatever the hell she wants, and I’ll be right by her side cheering her on while she does it. ”