Chapter 27 #2
The word assistant jogged my paranoid brain, reminding me that I had the perfect excuse to be seen out with him without raising suspicion.
I grabbed my coat, turned off my laptop and followed him out of the office.
We ended up at a small café two blocks over, mismatched chairs and a chalkboard menu, and he ordered without even glancing at it.
“You’ve been here before?”
“Once or twice.”
“With who?”
“Does it matter?”
“No.” I stole a fry off his plate just to watch his jaw tighten. “I’m just wondering if I’m about to get ambushed with work during lunch. You know that’s against employee rights?”
“I said it was to go over a few details and get fresh air, Genevieve, and I am a man of my word. I don’t have to resort to silly tactics to take a woman to lunch.”
He reached across the table and stole the fry back out of my fingers before I could eat it, which was somehow more intimate than if he’d let me have it, and I was still trying to figure out why my pulse had picked up over a French fry when a voice cut through the sidewalk noise on our walk back.
“Kazimir.”
I felt him go still beside me before I even turned around.
Svetlana stood behind us with a shopping bag looped over one arm, dressed like she’d planned to be seen from three blocks away.
Her eyes swept over me first, slow and assessing, before landing on him with a warmth that made my skin prickle.
“Svetlana.” His voice dropped into something flat and careful.
“I wasn’t sure it was you from across the road, didn’t know you came to this part of the city.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “And with company.”
“My assistant.”
She looked at me like she hadn’t accosted me in a shopping mall a couple of weeks ago. “Of course, Queeneth.”
“Genevieve,” I corrected.
She ignored me, continuing with her speech. “You must keep him very organized.”
“I do my best,” I replied with a tight-lipped smile.
The air around us had gone from playful to tense real quick, and it wasn’t the kind of tension that made you want to explore things, it was the kind that screamed at your senses and pushed your antennas up.
“We should catch up soon,” she said to him, her hand landing briefly on his forearm like it belonged there. “It’s been far too long.”
“I’ll have Nikolai reach out.”
It wasn’t quite a yes, but it wasn’t a no either, plus I didn’t miss how he never pushed off her hand or moved away from her touch.
Svetlana, on the other hand, seemed satisfied enough and finally turned to go, but not before her eyes found me one more time, dragging over my coat, my shoes, my whole existence, like she was pricing me.
Once she walked out of the cafe, the air loosened and oxygen rushed back into my lungs with a whoosh; however, my appetite already left with her.
“We should head back.” Kazimir said, already halfway up. “I have a call to make across time zones.”
I followed without questions, the encounter replaying in my head like a new scene would materialize to explain things if I thought hard enough.
We walked the rest of the way in silence. I wanted to ask who she was to him, really was, past the vague label of old acquaintance he always gave me. I didn’t.
Some part of me was afraid of the answer, and an even bigger part of me was afraid of how much I already cared what the answer was.
“You’re quiet,” he said as we reached the building.
“I’m thinking.”
“About?”
“Nothing.” I pushed through the revolving door before he could push further, because I didn’t have the language yet for the thing twisting in my chest.
Once inside, I made a quick turn to the right.
“Elevator’s this way,” Kazimir called after me.
“I need to go to HR.”
“What for?”
“Stuff I need to sort out.”
“I own this place, Genevieve. I’m pretty sure I’m a faster route to solving whatever needs you might have.”
I stopped, turning to look at him. “I’d prefer to handle this the normal way. Thank you.”
Without waiting for a response, I walked off. I caught sight of Sylvie casting me a stink eye, but a jealous receptionist was the least of my problems.
It was almost interesting how my life was simpler when I had less and was less known. Now, I was currently walking around the office with no sense of direction because my boss, who I decided to get involved with and foolishly fallen for, was leading a life I couldn’t seem to figure out.
I spent extra time on the lower floors before I was convinced my head was level enough to complete the day without letting my emotions win.
By the time I got home that night, the knot in my stomach had nothing to do with Svetlana anymore. I made it through the door and straight to the bathroom before Anna could even get a hello out.
“Again?” She was right outside the door within seconds. “That’s the fourth time this week, Genevieve.”
“Stomach bug.” I rinsed my mouth at the sink and avoided my own reflection.
“A stomach bug that only shows up in the morning and whenever food has a smell.”
The door creaked open. She was holding a small box like she’d been saving it for this exact moment. “I love you, but I’m done pretending I believe that.”
“Anna.”
“Just take it.” She pressed it into my hands. “If I’m wrong, I will never bring it up again. I’ll even apologize.”
“I have the implant. It’s not possible.”
“But you’ve also been having lots of sex and this is your second wave of unidentified sickness.”
My brows crinkled. “Second wave?”
“Yup.” She nodded, pushing the box to me. “The first was after your trip to Russia, remember?”
“Yeah, but it was mostly stress,” I replied, my voice shaky.
“Then you have no reason to be scared of this then?”
“Like I said, Anna, I have implants.”
“When did you get it put in?”
I opened my mouth to answer immediately and nothing came out. I did the math once. Then again, hoping for a different number and ending with the same digits.
“It might have expired,” I said quietly.
Her face didn’t move, which somehow made it worse than if she’d gasped. “Go take the test.”
I sat on the edge of the tub with the box in my lap, and for one full minute I didn’t move.
My hands were shaking by the time I got the wrapper open, and I thought, absurdly, of Kazimir’s hand closing over mine at lunch to steal a fry back, of the fact that if this test came back the way I was terrified it would, that man was about to become permanently, irrevocably tangled into my life whether either of us wanted it or not.
Three minutes felt like an hour. I stared at the water stain on the tile, at the grout between tiles, at anything that wasn’t the counter where the answer was waiting.
“Genevieve.” Anna knocked softly. “It’s been three minutes.”
I looked.
Two lines.
I stared at it, waiting for it to blur into one, waiting for my eyes to have played a trick on me. It didn’t change.
“Genevieve?” Her voice had an edge of panic now. “What does it say?”
I opened the door with the test still in my hand, and whatever she saw on my face answered before I said a word.
“Oh my god.” She pulled me into a hug I didn’t have the strength to return, her arms tight around me while my mind spun through every version of what came next.
“These things aren’t always accurate.” My voice sounded far away, even to me. “I need a real test. A hospital test. I need to actually know.”
“Genevieve, it’s a pretty reliable—”
“Now, Anna. Please.” I was already reaching for my coat with hands that hadn’t stopped shaking since the bathroom. “I can’t sit here not knowing. I can’t.”
She grabbed her keys without another word of argument, because she knew me well enough to understand that this wasn’t a conversation I could survive having twice.
The night of my mother’s death was the last time I’d prayed and also the last time I believed in any greater power, but tonight, as Anna swerved from lane to lane and the dome of the hospital became visible, I sent a desperate plea.