Chapter 36
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX
Sia
So um, Maxim wasn’t joking about attending school. In fact, he was in quite a few of my night classes. When I asked him about it, he said it was for his biology degree.
What. The. Fuck.
As it turned out, he wasn’t joking about that either. He attended every night session and even weaseled his way into my study group. It couldn’t be helped considering I had my group at my house.
Which was his house.
It was his house, and I hadn’t even asked him to be in the group. My friends had and what was ironic as fuck was Seth had become his complete fanboy. Maxim had scared the shit out of him that first night of classes, but it didn’t seem to be the case after that.
I think Maxim being brilliant had something to do with that.
It was something the whole class saw rather quickly. Maxim was the first to raise his hand and command the room. He was just as comfortable there as he was directing his staff at home or at work.
I had no idea when he found time to actually go to work since the majority of his time seemed to be with myself, in my classes, and with my friends.
Even still, I tried to ignore his presence most of the time, but that was obviously hard. Maxim commanded any room he was in. The girls giggled all over him when in conversation either with him or about him, and the guys in my classes wanted to just chat with him. If anything, for his brilliance. He was very intuitive when it came to the biological sciences which shocked the hell out of me. He was such a violent man, dangerous…
But he seemed to be smart too, and I caught sight of him in the funeral home’s embalming room one day. Another thing I’d been doing during Maxim’s time away was trying to earn my keep. I knew I was his paid employee, but I was also eating his food and just playing with Polly all day. I needed something outside of school so I asked Val if there were any jobs at the funeral home. I thought being around Dr. Barinov would be nice, and well, I knew for a fact Maxim wouldn’t be there.
At least, he hadn’t been.
He was there now. Though, he wasn’t every day. Often, he was just surveying his staff and the general operations of the business, and though I’d chosen to work at one of his funeral homes that had less traffic, he still came around sometimes.
He was around today, and his hands were in his pockets as Val signed to him. He hadn’t known I was in the room sweeping at first but not for long.
Those steel gray eyes hit me like a ray gun, and once they were on me, they stayed.
Jesus.
He still affected me, his attention lingering during the majority of his conversation with Val. She was actually working and hadn’t noticed his attention veered during her signing.
I certainly had, my head down while I continued to sweep. It didn’t matter I didn’t look directly up at him. His masculine scent filled the air and warmed my blood without the contact.
I hate this.
I really did but continued to sweep. I decided being in the same room with him was too much so I made the decision to take my sweeping to another room.
I stayed quiet in my little corner for a while, sweeping, but eventually, Val came in. I waved at her, and she waved back even though she was in the middle of a conversation. The conversation gratefully wasn’t with Maxim, but he wasn’t far behind her in his own conversations. He had a pack of men with him in suits. He was nearly always surrounded by others when I saw him. Like at school, he was constantly commanding attention and people listened.
I could see Maxim and his group from behind the dark caskets I was sweeping under. I was used to that by now, caskets and death around me. It seemed to always follow me since I ended up in Maxim’s world.
Eventually, I made it over to Val who had ended her conversation and was now writing something down. I stopped sweeping. “Does Maxim have any degrees?”
I would normally sign to her, but still didn’t know a ton. I learned new ones every day but my confidence with what I did know wasn’t always there.
Val, of course, understood, and when she looked up, she had a frown on her face. I assumed due to what I said.
I shrugged. “Just wondered.” I mean, he was really smart in my classes. Like really smart.
“ A few, ” Val signed, then took out her phone. She typed on the screen for a second. After she finished, she showed me, and I nearly dropped my broom.
“ He's got a degree in applied mathematics ,” the screen displayed. After swallowing, I started to say something, but then Val took the phone back.
She showed me the screen again. “ Then there’s his master’s degrees in both electrical and aerospace engineering. He also has a doctorate in physics. ”
“Physics?” I croaked, and Val nodded before typing again.
Good God, there’s more.
There was more, and she typed for a while before showing me her screen once more. “Mmhmm. He's done some studies in psychology too. Oh, and I believe he also has a film degree. He likes old films.”
She then put her phone away like she literally told me nothing of note.
He has a degree in film too? What the actual fuck?
If this man didn’t already surprise me, he certainly was now, and I couldn’t help looking in his direction once more. He’d moved on to another part of the room with his group, and though they were speaking to him, his attention had again veered to me.
Maxim’s nod was subtle in my direction. It was like me being there meant nothing, and this was just a normal casual occurrence for us.
It blew my mind how he could just do that. He was constantly there. He was always around me and in my world but at the same time gave me space. He never forced conversation with us but constantly made himself available. Like he just wanted to be around me or something.
I refused to believe that and certainly didn’t let my heart go to that place. If I did, I felt something but it was hard not to with this new information Val gave me. Maxim was basically brilliant and definitely didn’t need to go to community college.
He’s going to school for you.
Val lifted her hands. “ Why do you ask, jellybean? ”
It took me a second to realize she’d been watching me watch Maxim.
Her eyes narrowed. “ Sia? ”
She’d given me my name in sign language, something she said her community did. I’d loved what she came up with. She did a soft flow of her hand around her face for my name.
“ Just wondered ,” I signed, spelling it out, and she smiled. I defaulted to the alphabet when I didn’t know something, and Val waited patiently until I finished. “ Do you know where he went? ”
Val cocked her head, her expression curious, and I stopped signing.
I chewed my lip. “When Maxim was gone, do you know where he went?”
I didn’t want to actually know where he’d gone. I guess in a weird way I just wanted to know him. I wanted to know something about him, anything , and he certainly wasn’t very giving with himself.
I wanted to know why he cut me out of his life.
Of course, Val couldn’t answer that in a simple question, and obviously didn’t know what I actually meant. Her expression was more than confused now, and I felt silly for asking. Before Maxim left, he’d wanted to be private about our relationship. He’d wanted to talk to Lettie about it first.
I wasn’t sure that would ever happen or even if I wanted him to at this point, and I didn’t want Val to know about us for my sake now. I didn’t want to acknowledge what we had. It hurt too much.
Val typed on her phone once more, and if she knew anything about Maxim and myself, she didn’t let on. She simply showed me her phone. “ I have a feeling you know I can’t tell you that. ”
She was always professional when it came to her boss. Even with me despite how close we’d gotten.
Nodding, I looked away but glanced back when she waved her hand in front of me.
She showed me her screen. “ But I can say it was the last place he wanted to be and the last thing he wanted to do. ”
I was shocked she told me that much. She could be just as secretive as Maxim and never did expose any part of his life.
She did today for some reason and exchanged a glance between Maxim and myself. I once again looked over at him, and this time his focus had returned to his group.
It was something I noticed before making myself sweep another room.