“How has she been?” Dominic finally asked, breaking the silence.
“She seems to be happy about being away from Nikolai and Natalia so…maybe I can convince her to attend to her problem.”
Dominic didn’t respond for a while before finally stating tersely, “What you said to her was out of line.”
Dmitri immediately knew to whom he was referring. His back stiffened promptly and his jaw tightened in distaste at the turn of conversation. He had purposely blocked her from his mind by placing his entire focus on his work and Nadia’s recovery. But the nights without her were starting to get to him. He could admit wholeheartedly that he missed her.
“It is none of your concern, Dom.”
His brother laughed humorlessly. “You made it my concern when you humiliated her in front of everyone in the hospital. I won’t condone what she did, but you know that she never intended for any of this to happen. I’d be quicker to believe that it was Nadia’s own fault that she wound up with a concussion than that Sasha purposely caused it.”
Standing up to put distance between them, he turned to Dominic with a cold glare. “And how the hell do you know what she is capable of? You don’t even know her!”
“It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Sasha doesn’t have an evil bone in her body. The woman worships the ground your ass walks on and it is clear as day every time I see her look at you. I saw her literally crumble into herself as you coldly told her she was unimportant to you.”
Dmitri scoffed, “I never said that.”
“You didn’t need to.” Dominic boldly met his glare. “You don’t deserve a woman like that, Dmitri. She is too good for you.”
“…I was angry,” Dmitri said with less ferocity. Dominic’s words were simply reinstating the doubt he had been hiding from since he walked away from her. Then, he had been too angry to recognize it. “I told her not to interfere. You’re telling me you would forgive your woman if she boldly went against your wishes and caused harm to Nadia?”
Dominic took in a deep breath before groaning in absolute frustration. “I am so sick and tired of everyone treating Nadia like a fucking China doll. It’s been the same way since she was born. You always say how our parents are too up their own asses to realize what is wrong with her but you do the exact same thing. You coddling her all the fucking time is just as much of a problem as them ignoring her disorder. Don’t you fucking see that?”
He stood up and began to pace back and forth, trying to calm his beating heart at the years of pent-up vexation. “She is not a little girl anymore, Dmitri. And she is definitely not the innocent victim you always view her to be.”
Dmitri shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if she is or isn’t, she is still my sister. And it is my duty to take care of her.”
“Not at the expense of other people you love.” When Dmitri didn’t protest, Dominic knew even more so that it was true. Dmitri could adamantly deny it all he wanted, but he knew deep in his heart he had made a mistake. “What are you going to do about Sasha?”
Dmitri returned to the couch, and settled his head between his large hands in despair. “What can I fucking do?”
Sasha entered the floor after taking deep breaths to calm her racing heart. This was it. It was now or never. She walked toward the front desk with her head held high and her resolve reaffirmed at the sight of his office door. Jeremy looked up at the sight of her in surprise. Her absence the past few weeks had led him to assume that Dmitri had finally cut ties with the short black girl. He knew her to be very sweet but it still shocked him that his boss would go so far off the tracks from his usual type. But judging by the determined expression on her face, he knew this wasn’t going to be an afternoon delight.
“Hello, Sasha! Long time no see. How are you doing?”
Sasha smiled in greeting. “Hello, Jeremy. Is Dmitri in for lunch?”
“Umm, yes. Let me ring him up to see if he is able to see you.” He reached for the phone on the side of his desk.
Wanting to catch Dmitri off guard, Sasha shook her head, “No worries. I’ll just walk in.” Ignoring Jeremy’s protest, she passed the front desk and pushed the door open despite Jeremy’s shouts for her to stop. She wasn’t surprised to find Dmitri at his desk working through his lunch hour.
At the sound of the door opening, Dmitri looked up from his computer and his jaw dropped in shock at the sight of Sasha standing before him. “Sasha? What are you doing here?” He slowly sat up and made his way to the other side of his modern glass desk, cutting the distance between them.
For a second, she felt hesitant and vulnerable being before him again after so many weeks since their break-up. But she knew she had to be here, for her own well-being if nothing else.
“I tried staying away. After everything you said. But…”
Seeing where this was going Dmitri immediately began to shake his head. “Stop, Sasha. You-you shouldn’t be here.”
At that, her eyes narrowed and he was a bit taken aback by the hostility she directed at him. “No, you’re going to listen to me. Don’t tell me to stop talking. I came all this way for a reason. I need to say this.”
There was a moment of silence between them, his way of accepting her terms.
“I was wrong,” she finally said. “I was wrong about many things. For one, that you ever took me seriously. Took our relationship seriously.” He opened his mouth to respond but stopped once she continued, “But, most importantly, I was wrong for interfering in your life. I had no right to do that and it took me some time to finally acknowledge my mistake out of pride, but I’m over you. And I can see now that my feelings clouded my judgment.”
Dmitri didn’t know what to say. She was over him. Or at least she was confident enough to tell him to his face. He knew he should be happy about this. He always disliked women who didn’t know how to let go. But, for someone who supposedly deeply loved him, she had moved on quicker than he would have at first assumed. In fact, she had moved on quicker than he had.
“I-I…” he was quite literally stumped as to what to say. Should he tell her how much he was missing her? Should he tell her that he was wrong as well? That everything he said had been out of a displaced anger that he now completely regretted?
Sasha ignored his attempt once again and continued on. She needed to get everything out so that she could leave. So that she could finally close the door on this part of her life. A life that was spent loving everyone with all her might only to find out that in the end they didn’t consider her worthy enough to love back.
“So I apologize for what happened to Nadia and I hope that she gets the help she needs and fully recovers from her concussion. I know you don’t wish to see me again and I fully understand that but…know this: I was never- as you so insensitively put it-‘trying to squirm my way’ into your life. Maybe we got our wires crossed a bit but I had been under the impression that our relationship meant something to you, that there was the possibility of a future for us together. And when it comes to people I love, I fight to hell and back to see them happy because I know what it is like to be given false love. Everything I told you about my life, you turned around and used against me, to hurt me. I know now that the man I so desperately loved was never there to begin with. You are and have always been the same shallow bastard that looked me over in the restaurant. You had every right to be angry, but you had no right to use my past against me.”
At his silence, she scoffed in disgust and turned away from him. Before leaving, she said in farewell, “Have a nice life, Dmitri.”
His fists clenched at the finality of the door closing behind her. He fought with every breath in his body not to run after her. Not to beg for her forgiveness. Dominic had been right; he couldn’t go after her because he knew she deserved better. Better than him. And so he let her go.
Coming Soon
I hope you enjoyed Sasha: The Wallflower. Look for Part 2 of Sasha and Dmitri’s story in January 2016! Here is a sneak peek:
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sp; She walked into the room to find Dmitri standing with his hands behind his back and a warm smile. Instead of returning his amiable greeting, she crossed her arms in an intimidating stance with a raised brow.
“What are you doing at my place of work?”
Dmitri deemed it best not to respond to her line of questioning just yet and instead held out his gift to her. “I’m hoping that this one won’t get thrown away.”
Sasha stared at the bouquet of red roses in wonder. “H-how did you know?”
He chuckled slightly. “I didn’t. But judging by the way you’ve reacted to me every time we’ve come across each other, I guessed that maybe they wouldn’t be well-received. I’m hoping after last night, these will at least last an hour.”
Taking the flowers from him, “Don’t kid yourself.”
To her surprise, instead of being insulted, Dmitri merely laughed harder. And her heart responded in kind. She had missed his laughter. It was a rarity, even while they dated. Anytime she had been able to get it out of him, she had felt like the most special woman in the world. It was a gift she was grateful to receive. Sasha took the opportunity of placing the roses on her desk, with her back turned to him, to compose herself. It was becoming harder each time they met to pretend he had no effect on her. Would the time come when she would be completely vulnerable to him again? What would she do then?
“I came to ask you out for lunch.”
“No ploy to get me there. I’m shocked.”
Once again, he didn’t respond to her sarcasm. She was starting to find it hard to look at him, however. Despite her curt responses, he continued to look at her warmly. And, dare she believe, his eyes seemed to glow with something stronger than mere affection as they rested upon her person.
Before she knew it, he was standing directly in front of her. His long fingers traced the softness of her forearm before becoming entangled within her own palm. It was the simplest expression of affection and it had her yearning again for what they had. They stood there for a short time that seemed much longer as they got lost within each other. Their surroundings disappeared as Sasha found herself studying his handsome features.
She remembered lying with him and exploring the planes of his face with the soft pads of her fingers. Her eyes would always wind up entranced by the curvature of his lips and the bleak darkness in his eyes. They had always been hauntingly beautiful. And, now with the soft creases at the corners and the more refined lines, she found him even more breathtaking.
“It’s your choice. And I’m not going to take that away from you,” he finally replied gently. The air became tense again as they battled their need for each other.
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Sasha: The Wallflower (The Wallflower Series Book 1) Page 17
