Chapter 35
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
Sia
Being around Maxim was…unnerving. I’d gone out of my way not to be around him, but he definitely made himself known.
He had a tendency to linger, leer. Especially when I brought people over. Apparently, I wasn’t allowed to have friends while he’d been away.
As far as I was concerned, he still wasn’t here, and that was one hundred percent his fault. He left, and I knew he was working, but he didn’t have to cut himself off from me. It was like I meant nothing to him.
Maybe you don’t.
This was a fear and a thought I wouldn’t let myself entertain. I did that and I got too in my head.
I also didn’t acknowledge his continued presence around the house which was far more now than before he left. It was like I saw him everywhere and at all hours. Often, he’d look on the verge of trying to make conversation when we ran into each other but then I’d go the other way. It was easy to do in his large house.
I thought he’d get the hint, leave me alone , but then, his gestures started. Every morning he was at the breakfast table with an expansive breakfast. There’d always be two place settings, and he’d be waiting at one. He didn’t even eat before I came into the room. He’d just be sitting there with his paper, waiting.
I always ignored him and though he stopped taking Polly out in the morning, he was always hanging out with her. I’d catch him playing with her or taking her on walks after he got home from work.
He even took her swimming.
He didn’t swim with her, but he did let her play in the lake out back. There was one further out on the property. Polly would swim while Maxim read a novel out there, his smile subtle on her. He probably was only hanging out with her more for my benefit, but I couldn’t deny how happy they both looked.
Nor how happy it made me that he was hanging out with her.
Things were actually the way they should be now. I’d trained my employer’s dog and now my employer had not only a handle on his pup but seemed to enjoy spending time with her. He laughed with her, and whenever he spotted me, he gave me a wave. He hadn’t given up trying to talk to me.
I told myself his gestures didn’t matter and each wave I ignored and interaction I avoided made that easier.
My evening classes became my saving grace.
Deciding to go back to school wasn’t easy for me. There was nothing easy about going back, but at least I knew Maxim wouldn’t be there. I could take a breather from life at the house.
I hadn’t wanted to go back to school initially, but with all the free time I had after Maxim left I figured attending classes in the evenings wouldn’t be a big deal.
No, it wasn’t one.
Shortened semesters had opened up in the fall, and once I got the instructor line up, I decided to give it a shot. I should be able to do what I wanted to do, and Maxim was right about one thing: I needed to start if I planned to graduate anytime soon.
My nights were quiet since I started school, and gratefully, without the brooding Russian god. I also started to make friends so time in class was really enjoyable.
I saw lots of familiar faces when I arrived to my class that night and took my same seat. Things were easy in my night classes and quiet.
Which was why this new arrival caused quite a stir.
A man strode into the classroom, and he was well over the age of your average freshman. This wasn’t uncommon with night classes, but what was had been the attention he got.
All the girls started immediately whispering when a tattooed god sat next to me instead of my friend Seth. We weren’t besties or anything, but we were the same major: biology. One didn’t necessarily have to pick a lane at community college, but it was smart for the associate’s degree. I planned to use that to transfer to a school that had a good vet program.
Seth would be forced to find a new seat considering Maxim sat next to me.
What. The. Fuck.
What the fuck indeed. Maxim Petrov… My Maxim Petrov folded his bulky body into a seat normally reserved for guys and girls a fraction of his size. He wore black down to his leather shoes, a messenger bag on his arm.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper-screamed, trying not to actually scream. Maxim placed his bag down and was currently lounging in his seat like him being in my class was a normal occurrence.
He sure acted like it was. He pulled a laptop out of his bag and everything, nearly acting as if he hadn’t heard me when his back touched the seat. A waft of his masculine scent hit me, his aftershave sharp, spicy…
He’s not your Maxim.
He’s not, and he finally regarding me when he lounged back. A lot of “who’s that” whispered around me, as well as a few giggles from fellow classmates.
Jesus.
I mean, I had to give it to them. He did look great today. His black button up revealed a sliver of his sculpted chest. It was chiseled, brawny. His head cocked in my direction. “I’m sorry, were you speaking to me?”
It was still jarring to speak to him. I spent most of my days ignoring him.
He was being cheeky and knew good and well he heard my question. Even still, he played the part, his dark eyebrows dancing.
My God, he’s… flirting with me.
He totally was, his arm on the too small desk and the flirting might have gone further had not Seth walked into the room a second later. Upon spotting a large man sitting in his seat, he took a step (or two) back. We didn’t have assigned seats or anything, but we all generally sat in the same seat. It was just routine, really, to sit with your friends.
Seeing my attention was on someone else, Maxim angled in that direction. He had his glasses on tonight too which made him look like a sexy daddy.
He is a sexy daddy.
Uncomfortable now, I shifted, and Maxim folded his arms in Seth’s direction.
“Is there a problem?” he asked Seth, the cheeky smile wiped from face. He pointed to the seat Seth stood in front of, the one Maxim himself currently sat in. He eyed Seth. “I’m new to this class, but I wasn’t aware people claimed seats outside of high school.”
What the fuck?
Maxim waited for a response, but Seth’s attention passed over Maxim to me.
Maxim frowned. “Why are you looking at her? I spoke to you so you should look at me.”
Right away, Seth did, and I wanted to scream.
Apparently not wanting any trouble, Seth lifted his hands. He nodded at me before finding a seat in the back of the room, and Maxim was snarling by the time he shifted around in a desk that really was too small for him. He looked like Goldilocks in the baby bear’s bed.
“What are you talking about this is your class?” I whisper-shouted again, but the arrival of our professor had me looking up. He gestured that it was time for class to begin and Maxim reached into his messenger bag once more.
He pulled out a textbook.
Needless to say, my jaw dropped.
He was serious about taking this class and opened his laptop beside the book.
“I mean I’m taking this class, malyshka . That’s what I mean by this is my class,” Maxim said, crossing his legs. He waved toward the front of the room. “Now, you better pay attention to our professor.”
I had no words, and our professor didn’t even appear fazed by the new arrival.
“I take it you’re the new student,” he said to Maxim, and when Maxim nodded my eyes bugged out. The professor nodded back. “Welcome to Biology 101, Mr. Petrov.”
Maxim thanked him, then glanced my way. He did so only briefly before sitting up straight…
As if he was about to take notes.
With the chaos of the new arrival passed, everyone else began to do the same. Everyone but me that is…
And it wasn’t because I couldn’t find my pen.