by Celia Crown
Our dishes have been collected, and it’s time for dessert, but I didn’t want any. This meal is too fancy for my stomach, a simple dinner would have sufficed, and that was what I thought until this man stepped into the scene.
“I debated throwing my food or pepper spray. I’m not that picky either.” Victoria digs into her dessert with a two-legged fork.
Sebastian snorts; water enters ungracefully into his nose. Fyodor passes a napkin to him with a smile too friendly for my taste, but that could just mean that he’s always this friendly.
“We’re you two… close?” When Sebastian asks that question, he looked at me after to see if I would react to that. He asked a question that he knows I don’t want to know because the answer would either make my heart leap in joy or drop in despair and jealousy.
He’s really trying my patience tonight.
Victoria raises an eyebrow before glancing at Fyodor; amusement twitches on her pink lips while she hides it with the wine glass. I see it, and the pit in my stomach grows wider with dread and vile intentions of wiping the smirk off the man’s face when he steers his attention to me.
“Hm,” they both hums simultaneously.
Sebastian whines, stuffing his mouth with a large chunk of some fancy dessert. It comes in a glass cup filled with cream and assortments of fruits, and he’s already done with it on the last bite.
“So?” Victoria begins, putting down her fork and wiping her lips with the provided cloth. “What brings you back from the Maldives?”
“I find that absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
I pause, just waiting for other bullshit to fall from his lips. This man has been spewing out nonsense for the last hour, and this is the longest dinner I have ever had, and it’s grating on my nerves. My patience has been thinning the moment those vultures of women trapped me in their circle, and I was barely holding onto my sanity when their nails dragged across my skin.
“Did you run off with that Bohemian lady?”
The question from her sweet voice gets a look from me and Sebastian, who is more in displeasure than shock. I can’t put my fingers on it, but past experience tells me that the flirtatious side of Sebastian is inching towards the surface.
“We eloped, but we didn’t work out,” Fyodor answers with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulder.
“How sad.” There is no emotion on her face, just a simple plain canvas with her soft features. Understanding their complex relationship, I get a headache just by tying the pieces together to know that they have a vast amount of memories together.
Ones that fills in the missing seven years between Victoria and I. I’m bitter, and I start to resent this man for having things with her that I only wish I had.
“Be more sympathetic to my love life.”
“I’ll be sure to shed tears later.” Victoria pulls out her wallet, but the other man stops her with a pointed look.
“You’re just salty that you didn’t accept my proposal.” Fyodor takes out a credit card and waves the waitress over. She takes the card and the check with her; her steps are hurried and frantic while she occasionally looks back at us.
We do stand out in the middle of the restaurant with couples dominating the area.
“The last thing I want to do is to elope with a man who ate petroleum jelly.”
The more I learn about this man, the more I stop seeing him as this sophisticated businessman. In my eyes, he is nothing more than a fool and a dumbass, but he makes Victoria laugh.
He has some redeeming qualities.
“I had many phases in my life.” Fyodor takes the card back from the waitress as she blushes at the drop of his tone. A flirt that can’t be stopped, Fyodor continues to remind me of Sebastian, and it’s getting worse by the minute.
Sebastian is smitten with this man, and I should have known that when I first saw them together at the company conference room discussing details behind the closed door.
“I know. I have been there for ten phases in four years.” Victoria smiles, laughing gently under her breath.
The clashing of utensils and plates fills in the silence. I take another look at Vitoria. Her cheeks are pink, likely from the wine as she stands. We follow suit, I stick to her, and Sebastian sticks to him as our duty never stops even when nighttime falls.
The travel to the elevator is short, and I noticed that the hotel room reserved for Sebastian and Fyodor is near the top, five floors above ours and more towards the expensive side.
As the door opens, I step out first and look around the hall. It’s quiet as everyone had returned to their room for the night, only leaving the hall lights illuminating the doors.
“Sebastian, please go with Silas.” Fyodor holds the door open, and I immediately register the bad feeling in my gut. Sebastian has the same conflicted confusion as he questions why.
“Victoria and I must discuss a private matter.”
Victoria doesn’t object as she nods towards me. The dread in my stomach burns as my throat constricts. I don’t want her to go anywhere with that man, but I’m overstepping my boundaries if I tell her what to do.
“It’s alright, Silas. I will stay with Fyodor for the night. Don’t wait for me.” That is what she says, and it pisses me to no end.
I bite my tongue and nod in affirmation. Sebastian can only silently watch all three of us with that kicked puppy look on his face. His feelings aren’t the main concern as of now, but I wish he would say something.
Reflecting on that, I should have said something first as the door closes. What happened to being professional? Any other client, I would not have let them out of my sight to avoid any mishap.
“Well, I guess it’s just us homeboys for the night.” Sebastian sighs, groaning while he rolls his neck.
I turn away from the elevator doors, and it was harder than I wanted it to be, but it’s the harsh truth.
“Don’t call me that.”
He scoffs, “Fine, two single men five feet apart because—”
I dare him to finish that sentence when I raise a hand to smack the back of his head. He hollers in pain, and no one comes out to see what happened, but we feel everyone’s eyes on us through the peephole on the doors.
Nosy fucks, I think with a growl.
I open the door to our room, still somewhat clean even after Victoria had unpacked everything from her suitcase. I didn’t ask her to bring me anything, but she insists on it because she said she doesn’t want me to smell on the third day.
It’s clear that maid service had been here; the beds are made, and the bathroom is stocked with new towels. I scout the room out of habit, searching for cameras, microphones, and anything that could be a threat to Victoria.
Physically and privacy-wise. She’s still the one paying for this contract, and I’m not going to disappoint her with carelessness.
I take a shower first, scrubbing off today’s exhausting feeling away while angrily glaring at the wall with water running through my eyes. My thoughts fly to Victoria again, and I can’t help but wonder what the private matter is.
The main possibility is sex. That is a given because of the presence of a man and a woman in a hotel room, discussing private matters as an excuse, and making sure that no one bothers them by telling their bodyguards to leave them.
Another possibility is that they are having a business conversation or a private one depending on the content.
Fuming rage bites into my mind, and my fist connects with the wall before I can stop it, and a yelp of shock comes from the room where Sebastian is scrolling through his phone.
He’s no doubt stalking Fyodor on any media network. I haven’t heard his name before, but I rarely care about anyone unless it’s research on my clients before the job. A celebrity can walk into our company with their name and accomplishments printed on their clothes, and I wouldn’t be the wiser of their popularity.
As long as they aren’t difficult and pay me for the service, I couldn’t care less about what they do.
I get out of the shower; a scowl etched heavily on my lips as I rub my hair with the towel. It doesn’t dampen my frustration and the massively conflicted emotions raging through me.
When I walk out of the steaming bathroom, Sebastian holds his clothes in his hand and raises an eyebrow.
“We need to have a discussion about private matters too.”
“No.”
He huffs, stepping around me to the bathroom. “We need to address that jealousy of yours. It’s not healthy to bottle it up; you have to release the evil energy, or you’re going to grow horns.”
I fling the towel at his face, and he sputters with his tongue sticking out. He glares at me, but I match him with a more ferocious one. I can control the severity of my glares, and it’s made my life easier than letting people know how vexed I am.
Not two minutes later, Sebastian comes stumbling out and face red from the shower. I sit on the bed, researching this Fyodor man, and everything comes back as normal. No red flags are raised, but my heart still wishes there is an excuse to get Victoria away from his room.
She belongs in this room with me and without the third wheel Sebastian.
A tremor in my hand rocks the small words on the scene. My eyes widen at the thought and I immediately shake it away.
Focusing on memorizing the information of Fyodor, I list all the things that had been made public knowledge.
He’s the typical rich boy that grew up in a mansion with a maze for a garden, private tutors and private schools, and a leg up in the world that boost up his wealth even more. He never had any struggles in his life, and he has always had his family’s name and money to save him, but that’s the only information I have found on the internet.
Not everything I read on the internet is true, and I could use my access to get into Sebastian’s files so I can look at the information he gathered on Fyodor, but I trust that Sebastian would have told me if there was something off about Fyodor.
He would never put Victoria in harm’s way; not even infatuation can put a blind on his eyes.
“Well, lover boy?” Sebastian taps his foot on the ground.
I click my tongue. “What?”
“Aren’t we going to talk about the elephant in the room?”
“We aren’t,” I dully say back.
“Bottling up your feelings isn’t healthy,” he starts anyway without any regards to what I just said. “They’re consenting adults; they can do whatever they want.”
“I know they are.” It’s hard to admit it. I’m in this cloud of denial, and it’s tearing my mind apart with the endless scenarios in my head as to what is going on five floors above us.
“Maybe if you’d talk to Tori, you wouldn’t be so miserable.”
“I’m fine,” I ground out, hand gripping my phone.
“Believe it or not, I have been in love too. I know exactly where you are right now, and it’s not fun to let those thoughts be your friend.”
Sebastian says he’s in love every other week because one of the women suits his taste more than others. I take his words with a grain of salt as he’s just unbelievable.
“I know you’re in love with Tori; it’s so obvious that only she doesn’t see it and you just choose not to see it. You’re hurting yourself in the long run, and she is hurting too. Tori looks at you as if you broke her heart.”
She broke mine. I want to say. “You’re seeing things.”
“If that’s what you think, then you have no use for sight.” He plops down on the chair, facing me with a groan, rubbing the back of his neck to relieve the crack between his joints.
“Have you tried talking it out?” His suggestion is outrageous.
Of course, I haven’t. I’m a coward that only likes to run away from the problem because the only time I faced it head-on, it was disastrous and landed me in this position with her.
“Ah, you didn’t,” he comments, sniffing and shuddering as his hair is still wet. “Every minute you’re here, debating and shutting yourself out of the opportunity to be with Victoria, is resulting in the loss of all the possible chances you can be with her.”
The screen on my phone shuts off, leaving a black screen reflecting my face and it’s a damn hideous sight. I’m not the impassively grouchy Silas that everyone knows me as, but the reflection shows a vulnerable man who’s hurt and scared.
I am scared. I’m so scared of letting her into my life and into my heart again that I choose to shut her out before the inevitable happens.
I’m sick of being a coward, always thinking of the negative aspects of the outcome if I confront her again and face the origin of this broken friendship. I have nothing to lose just by asking her one more time, and it would be the last before I put this to rest and end that chapter of the anguish in my life.
Avoiding the problem won’t make it go away; it’ll only grow and grow until it turns into a monster that I have no ability to conquer.
I stand from the bed, finding my shoes and ignoring the voice of the other man in the room. The room key is in my hand and digging into my palm with vigor as I approach the door. Sebastian yelps and stumbles behind me with his shoes smacking loudly on the patted flooring.
“I like a man of action, but shouldn’t we call first to see if it’s appropriate to go up?”
I glance over at my shoulder. “What are you afraid to find?”
He cocks an eyebrow back at me, straightening his body while dropping his foot down. “What are you afraid to find when one of them opens the door? You can’t go back if you find incriminating evidence.”
I thought about it in a short amount of time from the bed to my shoes. It’s not a long time to think and develop my solutions if I do find them a bit preoccupied, but I have also given it a thought that Victoria is a single woman.
She is independent, beautiful, and possesses a charm that lures me in.
I’m prepared to face the fact that they are intimate. Just the word has my tongue digging into my teeth, and I bite down on it to draw pain; it doesn’t wash out the throbbing in my heart.
I’m a jealous, possessive, and irrational man. I don’t want her, but I don’t want anyone to have her. I do want her, but I also don’t want anyone to have her either.
The ride in the elevator and the travel to the door with the number on Sebastian’s keycard is too short, way too short for me to gather my fraying nerves.
He knocks, and I wait silently, focusing on the dark eyehole. The door opens to a disheveled Fyodor, and he lets us in without any question. My stomach has tied a knot by itself, coiling tightly with disappointment that what I had conjured up in my mind was true.
I just had to jinx myself.
Dumbass, I chide mutely in my head.
“Sweetheart, let’s turn up the heat. It’s going to be cold tonight; the temperature will drop even lower than yesterday.” Fyodor’s voice echoes after the locked door.
I look over to the bed; it’s messy and rumpled with Victoria hiding under the covers. “You went skiing in a speedo during January.”
“I’m Russian.” Fyodor gives an explanation that is too simple.
“That means nothing, you reckless loaf of skin.” Her muffled voice shifts when she pops her head up. Her eyebrows curl, and the glossiness in her eyes suggests that she’s exhausted.
Papers are scattered on the desk and on the chairs too, but everything else is in the right place. Nothing out of the ordinary, and I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding.
“Actually, I have been working out. Do you want to see?”
Victoria doesn’t look at him. “I rather not.”
“We’re about to retire for the night,” Fyodor says as he slides into his side of the bed. “Stay if you wish, gentlemen.”
“No one sleeps on chairs or the floor,” Victoria warns with her face hidden into the blanket.
Sebastian’s eyes dart from one place to another, and he takes a step to Victoria, but I pin him in mid-step with a scowl. He shrugs a
nd asks for permission with his eyes, and Fyodor opens his cover with a smile.
This is so wrong. It’s a two-bed hotel room and four people are sleeping in here when there is an empty one registered under Victoria’s name.
I don’t feel comfortable leaving her here, but I can’t find it in me to wake her up. Pushing aside any feelings, I slide in the cover with her, and she doesn’t seem to be awake enough to know that it’s me when I lay stiffly.
Her small hand searches for mine, fitting my arm around the curve of her waist, and she presses her back to my chest. This easy movement is done under subconsciousness, and it means that she’s done this to Sebastian too.
Lucky bastard, I bitterly curse at him. It’s going to be the last time he’s going to be in the same bed as her; he needs to learn personal space with me as his teacher, or he won’t learn.
She shivers, curling deeper into the covers and I squeeze her tighter to me. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, but it feels right to have her in my arms.
I’m following pure instinct, and for the first time after a long break, I sleep without waking up.
Chapter Seven
Victoria
The contrasting temperatures on my face and below my neck do serious damage to my sleep as my eyes open. The curtains are drawn, but a line of light breaks through the heavy curtains while I yawn.
The arm around me tightens, and heat melts on my back, but it’s a warmth that makes my bones melt in coziness. I don’t remember Sebastian being this comfortable to sleep next to, that man fights in his sleep, and I would get a bruise or two on me that wasn’t there before.
He tried to change by tying himself with rope, and it was a disastrous moment when he woke up as he had almost strangled himself. Another suggestion was to have him sleep in my guest room, but there was nothing better than childhood traditions of sleepovers.
A twenty-three-year-old child is what he is. Without him, I would not have sleepovers. For one, my neighbors talk and gossip, and before I would know it, I’d be known as that one lonely lady with a cheating husband always on traveling schedule.
