She could hear the smile in his voice when he realized that it was her. That made her heart skip and her stomach flutter up to meet it.
“Yes it’s me.”
“Are you back in Russia so soon?”
“Oh. No, I’m not. I just wanted to call you. I wanted to see if everything with you was well,” she felt stiff. She didn’t know how to be without looking into his piercing dark eyes. The emptiness she had been feeling all week had resurfaced. It pushed the butterflies in her stomach back down, and now all she could feel was longing.
“Everything is fine. It’s a good thing you caught me. I was just about to leave for the day. Are you well?”
“Yeah, I’ve just been crazy busy here. A lot of shows and a lot going on.”
“I’m happy to know you had some time to get in touch with me,” Dmitri said. He was so sweet. She would spend the whole morning and afternoon on the phone with him if she could, even if she was at a loss for words.
“I really liked our time together. It was brief, but I had such a good time.”
“I liked spending time with you as well. I still reminisce from time to time. What was your favorite part?”
“To be honest, my favorite part was being in your arms,” Virginia said boldly. This sounded more like her. Letting him know how she felt may have proved to show how vulnerable she was prepared to be, but it also reminded her that she was always able to let someone know what it was that was on her mind.
“We share the same favorite paintings and favorite moments then,” Dmitri said after some time. Virginia couldn’t look at his face to even guess what it was that he could be thinking. She hoped that the long pause was because he was smiling, or searching for the right words to say to her. She wanted him to be as seemingly flustered as she had been whenever he had spoken to her and taken her breath away.
“I actually have a lot of work to do,” Virginia said, trying to casually play off the moment. She was giddy, almost intoxicated by the thought of being near Dmitri again. “But I have a few launches and shows coming up. You could maybe come to New York and take a look into my world. It’s the least I could do for having been allowed the chance at having a brief glimpse into yours.”
“I would like that very much Virginia, but I’m afraid that I can’t. I have a lot of work of my own. My agency wouldn’t allow it.”
“Maybe you could transfer to an agency over here,” Virginia didn’t care how silly she was sounding now. She knew she wanted to see him again without it having to do with work. She wanted to get to know him, and she could feel that he wanted the same thing.
“If I try to leave over the next year, then I’ll be fired. I am under a contract. As good as it would be to see you; I’m not sure that I can live off my paintings alone. I need this job to sustain myself. I wish they were more lenient, but I know they won’t be. Thank you for the invitation, but the only way I could be allowed to stay in your country without my work permit would be to get married,” he said.
Dmitri’s voice wasn’t as pleasant as it normally was. It sounded the way Virginia felt…defeated. The only bit of sunshine in the way that he sounded was at the prospect of marriage. But there was no way that he was serious…was there?
“Oh? You’d need to marry an American and your contract would be over?” Virginia asked more to herself than to him. It was such a far leap from where she was expecting her thoughts and the conversation to go. The idea of marrying someone she barely knew sounded so far fetched, but the idea of being close to Dmitri sounded like a dream coming true.
“Yes, that’s how it works. It’s quite a tricky situation. I wish there was more that could be done. A chance to be around you would be lovely,” he was flattering her.
They spoke politely for a few minutes, but neither of them pressed the issue of wanting to be close to the other enough to consider getting married. They were both feeling it, and they knew that the other was too. It was a different sort of happiness mixed with a different sort of pain. They were at an impasse, and neither was sure just what the other one felt or what they were willing to do in order to be closer to each other.
Virginia had so much in her life going for her, but the one thing she wanted most was eluding her. She had a gorgeous face and figure, unusual hazel eyes, beautiful chocolate skin, a personality that everyone wanted to be around, a warm smile, her own growing business, and all the money in the world. But right now, none of that mattered. None of it seemed important. The only thing she felt was worth offering were the stories she had to tell, and the world she could share with the only someone that she had a genuine connection with.
“I’m so sorry to cut this short, beautiful Virginia. I was on my way out when you called, and I can’t take up the company line. I’d like to keep in touch. I can take your number, and we can chat when we’re both free…and when we’re both awake,” Dmitri chortled a bit at his joke.
“I’d really like that,” Virginia said. She took down Dmitri’s number, and gave him hers as well.
“Goodbye Dmitri.”
“Good morning, Virginia,” he sang into the phone. “Thanks again for reaching out to me.”
“I’m glad I did. It’s so good to hear your voice,” Virginia said. She didn’t want the sound of his voice to go away, but he had said one more goodbye and hung up the phone. After all of that effort, she only felt a little better. It was as if she had dipped her finger to taste test the icing, but she would never know what even a slice of the actual cake was like.
She knew what she had to do. It was time to go back to burying herself in more work.
*****
Virginia had spent the last two days without interacting with anyone. She came into the building early and met with fellow designers and clients, and then later locked herself away in her office to finalize some important deals. She normally went out for lunch, but for the whole week she decided to order some food and stay locked in her office. Her excuse was that she was too swamped to have time for anything other than all the work that she needed to do. Even though that was true, she also wanted to avoid other energies in her space. She was only prepared to handle herself and her own thoughts now. There was already too much going on around her, and now so much going on within her that taking on anything more would make her want to spend the rest of the week at home. She’d just let her team know that she would be working, and she knew that she would be; she was a workaholic after all. But today she wanted to take on just as much as she could and no more. She needed to relax her mind so that she had a chance to process everything that was going on around her. She wanted to be able to think and really focus on her work. She didn’t know what doing a bad job meant. It was either give it her all or…no, there was no other option for a woman like Virginia Maxwell.
“Sorry to bug you, V.”
Virginia was so enthralled by the work she was doing that she didn’t even notice Nancy had stepped into her office. Nancy had a cup of coffee in one hand and some papers with designs and color palettes on them. Virginia didn’t mind that there was more work to be done. It was more things for her to tackle without having to think about Dmitri.
Virginia held out her hands so that Nancy wouldn’t have to put the pages on the desk. She had been working diligently, and she was sure she would get all of this work done by the end of the day. Nancy handed her the papers and set the coffee down on the desk. Nancy bringing coffee in the afternoon meant that it wasn’t decaf, which also meant that they were in for a long night.
“So, how did it go with Dmitri?” Nancy said. Virginia frowned. Normally they would joke about Nancy purposely walking in for one thing when she was really there to get some juicy gossip, but Virginia’s mind was elsewhere, and she really wasn’t in the mood. Nancy frowned too when she saw the look on Virginia’s face.
“It’s obviously something that won’t work out,” Virginia said.
“Wow, V. This guy must have really done a number on you. I’ve never seen you get this upset over
someone before. Did he hurt you? Do I have to fly there myself and kick his ass?” Nancy had walked around the desk to comfort her boss and best friend.
She was right. Virginia didn’t remember ever feeling this way from rejection before. There was something about Dmitri that made her think about him all the time.
How was it that she felt so strongly about someone after just one day together?
Virginia responded with a weak smile. She shook her head to let Nancy know that Dmitri hadn’t hurt her, but she was still hurt nonetheless.
“He’s under a contract. I wouldn’t be able to see him for another year unless…” Virginia paused. She wasn’t sure it was wise to talk about something so ludicrous.
“Unless?” Nancy urged her to continue.
“Unless we get married,” Virginia said. She closed her eyes when she spoke the words and did a sort of wince. She didn’t know how Nancy would react. The fact that she was even contemplating it made her wince last a bit longer.
“So?”
“So…wadya mean so?” Virginia asked. That was the last word she expected anyone to say for telling them news like that.
“So, as in so what’s the problem? You obviously like the guy. It’ll bring him here, and you guys can see how things go. If you like each other, then great, you’d already be married. And if you don’t then you can just ship him right back,” Nancy said all matter of fact. “It’ll be like that Ryan Reynolds movie: The Proposal.”
Virginia laughed a genuine laugh for the first time that day. Nancy was so practical and so funny, but for some reason, the thought made Virginia laugh because Dmitri looked in some way like he could be related to Ryan Reynolds. That could possibly be one of the reasons why she was so attracted to him.
She couldn’t even believe she was entertaining the thought of marrying a complete stranger. Nancy made it sound so easy.
“I have so much to think about.”
“What’s there to think about?” Nancy squawked. She was a hopeless romantic and bona fide soldier of love. When Virginia had gone to her to tell her all about her time with Dmitri, she kept sighing dreamily and fluttering her eyes.
“I barely know him!” Virginia protested.
“And how else are you going to get to know him unless he’s here with you? You said so yourself, he wasn’t interested in your money or status. He cared about what you thought and how you felt. He went all the way to your hotel to tell you he liked you before he said goodbye. If that’s not like a romantic comedy, then I don’t know what is,” Nancy said.
Virginia sighed. She didn’t know what was going on in her head. Trying to distract herself from her emotions made her so proactive. She was on top of her work, and was already raking in new clients. She couldn’t shake the feeling of wanting to have someone genuine to share that with.
Virginia couldn’t deny that Nancy had a point. Virginia was moving up in her career, and she was almost 30 and never been in a long term serious relationship. Men either feared her or used her. It would be a shame to lose the first one who seemed to appreciate the person she was.
“Ok Nancy,” Virginia said finally. “I’ll do it.”
Chapter 5
Virginia was nervous. It had been another two weeks of working and anticipating. She was pacing around her apartment, and cleaned things that were already clean. She couldn’t keep her mind focused on anything.
She waited a few days after her talk with Nancy to give Dmitri a call with her decision. She couldn’t focus on work; she was too exhausted from the last few weeks. She decided to reminisce about her phone call with Dmitri as she paced. She needed to get her mind off being so anxious.
“I’ve been weighing the pros and cons about this,” was the first thing she had said when he answered the phone.
“About what?” Dmitri was genuinely confused.
“About us,” Virginia admitted. “I mean, I know there is no actual us. But there could be. I’m always so bold with my clients and with my work, but when it comes to relationships…I never seem to understand people the way I understand my designs.”
It had been so strange to be so vulnerable with a man she barely knew, but Virginia felt like she knew him better than she knew a lot of the people she interacted with on a daily basis. Dmitri had been genuine with her since they met.
“So what are you saying Virginia?” Dmitri’s voice filled Virginia with warmth and hope.
“I’m saying that I’d like to give this us thing a shot. It’s scary, and you’d have to go halfway around the world,” Virginia couldn’t believe she was actually going to do this. “But I was wondering if you would be willing to…to…”
Virginia couldn’t finish her sentence. She had always wanted a big wedding, and a dream husband, and to be married in a dress she designed herself. Now she would have to give that up just to see if the man she was interested in could be the dream man she had always wanted.
“Marry you?” Dmitri finished her sentence for her.
“Would you?” Virginia said shyly. Her face was getting hot, and she covered it with her hand, even though he was on the phone and Dmitri wasn’t there to see her.
“Well, I would need to bring my paintings. Not sure where I could have an art studio,” Dmitri laughed.
“I have a few spare rooms in my apartment. It would be wonderful to see your work,” Virginia couldn’t stop blushing if she tried.
“I can’t wait to show you,” Dmitri said.
“So are you saying…?”
“Yes, Virginia. I would like to marry and get to know you,” Dmitri said. He laughed another sweet laugh.
And that brought Virginia to this moment. Pacing around her giant living room and rearranging things here and there. She had bought some wine, and ordered some food from an expensive catering service. She had no idea what Dmitri liked to eat. She didn’t know a lot about what he liked or didn’t like, and yet she was marrying him.
Nancy was thrilled, and told Virginia to call her for any wedding plans. She really wanted to meet Dmitri. She was excited to be a part of the wedding. Dmitri and Virginia had decided to go to the courthouse to get a few papers signed and make as little fuss as possible. There was no point in getting fussy when neither of them knew what the other wanted on a wedding day. They also didn’t have any time. They had 3 months to get married, or Dmitri would have to go home. Virginia was so busy she wouldn’t have time to plan a wedding so fast either.
Virginia’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. She spun to face the door so fast she almost got vertigo. Her stomach had switched places with her heart, and both were about to leap out of her body. Her legs were gelatin.
Virginia collected herself almost immediately.
“This is silly Virginia. Get a hold of yourself,” she said under her breath.
She had met him before. She knew what to expect. She knew how to handle herself in any kind of situation. She was a social chameleon. If she could make Jimmy Fallon laugh, then she could certainly get over being reacquainted with her would be husband.
Nancy had to remind her sometimes that she was one of the most beautiful and powerful black women in the whole world. She channeled that confidence in the way she swung her hips and walked towards the door.
Virginia opened the door of her apartment, and the sight of him nearly took her breath away. He was more handsome than she remembered. Now his hair wasn’t gelled back; it fell limp and almost covered his eyes, but he had it swished to the side. He had grown a bit more than a five o’clock shadow, and he was in a button up red shirt and black pants. His dark eyes lit up when he saw her.
All he could muster was her name, and he pulled her in by her waist and kissed her lips passionately. Virginia’s insides caught fire and she allowed herself to melt into him. He really did care about her as much as she did about him.
She was obviously going to have to give Nancy a raise.
*****
It took 2 more days for Dmitri’s things to arrive
. In that time they had spent almost every moment together.
Being a gentleman, he opted to sleep in the guest room until they were both comfortable with each other. He was so full of life when he wasn’t supposed to be working for another person. They talked about more than just art. They wanted to get to know each other as much as they were able to in the next few days. Dmitri arrived on the red eye flight on Friday night, and he and Virginia decided to get married on Tuesday, which happened to be a public holiday.
Dmitri talked about his childhood and his older brother. His brother was in Australia and lived on a sheep farm with a wife and child. They wrote to each other often, but they hadn’t seen each other in about 4 years. They both had different schedules, and Dmitri didn’t have as good a relationship with their mother as his brother Viktor did. His mother was a beer heiress, and though she did pay for all of their schooling, she wasn’t really a mother to them. She was a means of getting financial help, that Dmitri did not complain about, but she was also an alcoholic who had never really gotten over his father leaving her.
Virginia’s mother was a show biz mom who wanted to have her children become famous by any means necessary. Her father was always busy, but he shared her mother’s vision of having a famous family. Her mother Tina, pushed Virginia, her older brother, and her 2 younger sisters too far. Her brother Troy was reckless. He had a short lived rap career and managed to get about 2 and a half hits on the charts. After an awful car accident, he retired from rapping and decided to produce instead. He lived a much quieter life on the West Coast and gave other people the spotlight.
Virginia’s sister Maralynn was on her way to becoming an actress but it never worked out. She tried out for a reality show and her life later revolved around drugs and partying. Virginia had to send her to rehab to set her straight. Maralynn was still trying to make it and ride on her sister’s coattail, but Virginia only ever helped her if she had to take another trip to rehab or a therapist.
Virginia’s youngest sister Jade was a designer too. She had a humble bathing suit and jewelry line, but mostly kept to herself. She was the one that Virginia was closest with, because she was the one who was all about the love of her work, and not about the potential fame that came with it.
Carry My Baby Page 18
