Vanya #2
Biting my lip as he bent over to open the tree box, I took advantage of his distraction to slip out of the living room and change into my own black plaid pajama bottoms and a black shirt with the sleeves ripped off.
Kai looked up and grinned as I came back into the room, winking as he went back to stringing up lights around the apartment with Christmas music playing on the new bluetooth speaker he had splurged on.
Grabbing a couple of beers from the fridge, I pop the tops off and pass him one as we finish decorating together. Later, we curled up on the couch with his head in my lap, Christmas music playing softly in the background and the lights from the tree casting the room in a colorful glow.
Staring at the peaceful look on his face, the smile shining through the shadows flickering across his freckled cheeks as my fingers thread through his fiery hair, I feel excitement coursing through me. ‘I can’t wait to give him the gifts I had Zak pick up,’ I think with a smile.
I had noticed a few wrapped gifts in the closet and an envelope with my name on it. I had been wondering what he had up his sleeve after what he had pulled off for my birthday. I knew Christmas was gonna be good and I was glad I only had to wait a few days to find out what he had in planned.
I shake off the sappy thoughts and focus back on the moment when Kai shifts on the couch, wrapping an arm around my back and nuzzling into my stomach as he turns on his side. Kai will have to go back to work tomorrow, and I have to talk to Andrei about a job.
Ever since he started working there, Kai had been going on and on about wanting to introduce me to some chick named Maddy.
I wanted to know why he was so excited about me meeting her even as I cringed at the name.
That name still grated on my nerves and I don’t think I could ever call her that, but that’s a worry for another day.
Tonight, my only focus is my Kitten in my arms and carding my fingers through ginger curls.
‘I’m glad he didn’t have to cut these,’ I think as I sink into the feeling of his arm wrapped tight around my middle and his warm breath brushing across my stomach.
‘We’re pretty good at this. I love bein’ in this bubble with him.
Who knew we could have this outside of that beat up old van on the south side of Chicago?
’ I ask myself as we doze off on the couch.
We wake up hours later to sunlight streaming in through the windows. After showering, we head out to the balcony together with our coffee, enjoying the rising sun and a smoke before heading downstairs to the shop.
Looking over at him, I’m struck speechless by the coppery glow of his hair in the sunlight. Clearing my throat, “So, how attached is Madelyn to being called Maddy?” I ask as I exhale a cloud of smoke off the last drag of my cigarette before putting it out.
“Very. She once yelled at a client for calling her by her, as she put it,” putting his hands up, I cock an eyebrow at him as he makes weird ass air quotes around his next words, “government name,” he explains, crushing his finished cigarette in the ash tray as we stand to head inside.
“Fuck, I was afraid of that,” I sigh, “Guess I’ll just hafta figure it out.” I say. We make sure all the lights are off and lock the doors behind us as we leave. Pausing at the top of the stairs, I pull him into a kiss before we head downstairs.
∞∞∞
The shop is buzzing as we walk in. A big man behind the front desk looks over at us as the bell above the door rings, greeting us with a smile and a wave. Kai waves back and moves towards the desk, grabbing my hand and dragging me with him.
Pulling me in front of the man behind the desk, “Andrei, this is Dax, Dax, Andrei.” Kai says, making introductions before heading to put his lunch in the breakroom.
Looking after him, I turn back to Andrei and hold out my hand. “Drei. I just wanna thank you for this…” My hand is left empty as he interrupts me.
“It is Andrei. No one but Vanya call me Drei. No one!” he explains in a soft but stern tone.
Nodding, my mouth drops open to speak when I see a petite, fairy-like girl peek out of a doorway with a surprised look on her face from the corner of my eye. Turning to look over at her, I see Kai freeze just outside of the breakroom and I realize that the room has gone completely silent.
Clearing my throat, “Sorry, I didn’t know. Let me try that again,” licking my lips before continuing, “Andrei, thank you so much,” I finish, wiping my hand on my jeans before holding it back out again.
Staring down the 6’5”, thick, bear of a man, I wait patiently, ‘Please don’t tell me I fucked this up already. Vanya’s gonna kill me,’ I think as I wait.
Andrei smiles, reaching out to shake my hand. His large hand engulfs mine as he says, “Much better. Now, if you follow me.” Standing to round the desk, he hollers, “Maddy! Your apprentice here. Kai! Phones need answering. Get to work! Both of you,” without looking back as he walks away.
‘Does he have eyes in the back of his head or somethin’?’ I think with an amused grin.
I trail behind Andrei, coming to a quick stop as Maddy pops up in front of me suddenly.
She’s shorter than me, her bubble-gum pink hair is pulled into a messy bun and she’s wearing combat boots with leggings and an oversized sweatshirt falling off one shoulder that reads, “I’m not procrastinating, I’m doing side quests” with a fire-breathing dragon flying between the words.
Rubbing my chin as I take in this tiny girl, I can’t help but wonder why Kai wanted me to meet her so badly. Cocking my head sideways, “Dax” I say, reaching out to shake her hand.
Eyeing my hand with amusement, she speaks, her thick french accent adding to the look on her face, “I know. Come on,” she says, rolling her eyes as she leads me to her work station.
I can’t get past the name and as she’s explaining things I just blurt out, “Dude, I can’t call you Maddy. I just can’t. It’s a long story. But I just…I can’t.”
She pauses, eyeing me, head tilted to the side, and asks, “Pute! Did you pay attention to anything I just said?”
“I was tryin’ to. But….Look, I wanna make a good impression. Andrei, Vanya, Zak…they all took real good care of me and my Kitten up there at the desk. I can’t fuck this up. So, just please, gimme anything to call you. Anything but Maddy.” I say, trying to explain without going into detail.
Rolling her eyes at me she crosses her arms over her chest with a deep sigh, “Look, what you call me is unimportant. What you learn from me is everything. So stop worrying over small merde. Putain focus!”
“Got it. I’m gonna call you Madz? That good with you?” I ask with a shrug and a small, unassuming smile while thinking, ’For such a tiny thing she has a lot of moxie and one hell of a hair-trigger attitude.’
Pinching the bridge of her nose, she groans, “Fine, if it will get you to focus, you can call me Madz. But,” pausing for a dramatic effect here, she smirks at me, “only if I can call you Scintillant. It’s a deal?” she asks.
“What does that mean?” I ask confused.
With a smirk she leans in like she’s telling a secret and says, “In American I believe it is Sparky.”
I chuckle at the nickname, responding, “Fine, that works.” Snapping my fingers, I rock back on my heels, looking around and ask, “Now, where do I start?”
Kai
I spent days fighting Tessa on skipping the Sullivan Family Christmas and about four days till Christmas she finally backed off.
With that fight won, Dax and I settled into a routine.
We have coffee on the balcony every morning before work and spend our nights wrapped around each other, making up for lost time.
And nothing beat walking through the door from class, tripping over his shoes and fussing about his clothes strewn about the apartment.
Everything was exactly the way it always should have been and only got better when the day before Christmas Eve, Andrei called us into his office to give us a gift from Zak, him and Vanya.
‘Who the fuck is Vanya?’ I think as we open the envelope.
Eye widening in shock and excitement when we find tickets to visit Mel in New York over the summer.
‘Two weeks? Just us? In a hotel room for our first vacation together?’ I think with excitement. As excited as I am for the summer, tonight was our favorite night. Take out and make out night is the perfect way to kick off two days in our own little holiday bubble.
It’s finally Christmas morning and after being woken up by Dax’s talented mouth, we finally drag ourselves out of bed and have breakfast. Hours later, surrounded by wrapping paper and gift bags, Dax and I snuggle up together on the couch surveying the mess.
Among the shredded paper, there are sketch books and charcoal pencils for Dax and notebooks and pens for me.
I have one gift left to give Dax and I’m nervous and excited all at once. He already saw the tattoo and fell in love with it, but still made me promise that any more tattoos would be done by him and only him. Deciding to bite the bullet, I crawled over the trash to grab the envelope.
I hand it to him as I sit in the chair across from the couch so I can see his reaction.
He reaches for it slowly, staring at me quizzically as I explain, “Just remember that when I did this, your Christmas had to be somethin’ I could send and, after your birthday, I wanted to do somethin’ special.
So I talked to Mel, and she suggested this. ”
Chewing on his lip, his eyebrow cocked, he stared at me as he carefully opens the envelope.
Reaching in, without breaking eye contact, he pulls out a stack of photos.
Finally, he looks down and I bite my knuckle as I wait for his reaction.
He stays silent as he flips through the five photos I picked, and the longer the silence stretches out, the more worried I become.