“I’ll tell him tonight when we have dinner. But in 2 days, I want to be far away from New York City…”
Chapter 2
“Why do you need to go early?” Julian whined in a whisper. They hadn’t sat at their table for 15 minutes before he started complaining. He complained quite a bit, Virginia noticed. She let him know on the way to the restaurant that there was something she wanted to talk to him about.
“I’ll only be gone for a month,” she hissed in a hushed tone. There were tables within earshot, and Virginia didn’t want to draw any attention to them.
“Yeah, but before it was like two weeks,” Julian pouted. He looked younger than he was when he did that, and he was only 22. Virginia let out a long sigh. Julian was such a beautiful man. Chiseled jaw, flowing blonde hair, and striking gray eyes; his career could have skyrocketed by now with the right agent.
“I know…look, there are just some things that I need to take care of,” Virginia lied. She wasn’t prepared to tell him that she just needed an escape for the sake of her sanity.
“I get that…how do we not have our drinks yet? Waiter?!” Julian yelled at the gentleman who had taken their orders not too long ago. He was two tables away, but Virginia could sense his embarrassment from where she was sitting. She was embarrassed herself. Virginia quieted Julian down with a shush and wave of her hand. A few heads had turned. Seeing Julian when he didn’t have his way was like watching a child have a passive aggressive tantrum. Anger didn’t suit him. This was all too silly. “You’d think they’d be giving you better service based on who you are.”
The waiter, of course, had recognized Virginia right away. He even offered them a bottle of wine on the house. Virginia did quite a bit of charity work, and she had worked with the owner of Del Posto, Joe Bastianich, for a number of charity banquets. She could have anything and everything she wanted on the menu without having to bat an eyelash at the bill. If she asked nicely enough, she even had the finances and the pull to buy Del Posto out; as well as several other restaurants in the city. But restaurants were never her thing. Virginia was building a fashion empire. She had more than enough money to do it. But she was bored with America. She was setting her sights on Europe, and Russia was the perfect place for her to start.
“Our drinks will come in a sec. Can’t you see that he’s busy?”
“Yeah, I guess. I’m just a little antsy babe, I’m sorry. I didn’t get that Ralph Lauren campaign like I wanted. They didn’t want to go with an unknown,” Julian made air quotes when he said ‘unknown’ and scoffed. “Can you believe that? I had all of Macy’s and Ross last season, and they didn’t even recognize my face. They went with that American Horror Story asshole.”
“Evan Peters?”
“Yeah. He’s a total tool.”
“I met him. He’s sweet. A very humble guy,” Virginia said, hoping that Julian would take the hint. “But I’m sorry you didn’t get it. I know how much it meant to you.”
Julian swished his blonde bangs out of his face. He wasn’t even looking at her now. He eyed the waiter’s every move, but continued to lament about how the fashion industry wasn’t fair. How does one go from being an unknown to a known if they didn’t get the opportunity? And other boring questions. Virginia tuned him out mostly, but she didn’t mind staring at his face. Julian was absolutely gorgeous…and he was even better looking without his clothes.
“Couldn’t you maybe…make a few calls,” all of a sudden Julian was staring at Virginia. He was turning on his charm with a smile. He took her by the hand and gently brushed her slender fingers with his own. “If you pull some strings I could get that campaign.”
Julian’s gaze went from perturbed to adoration without much effort. His gray eyes flashed in the dim light of the restaurant. Virginia melted when he looked at her. This was the face she had been wanting to see all night; this was the face of the man she knew that she had to have just over 2 months ago.
“I can’t do that sweetie, you know that. There are so many other options and campaigns for you. What you really need to do is get an agent who doesn’t swindle you. Talk to Leonard Bozeman, make a few calls and a few friends at your next parties. You need to also maybe get a little haircut. You could have a new edge about yourself. You also need…”
“You talk about what I need to do a lot,” Julian replied rudely. “Pretty sure I already have my mom to boss me around.”
“Excuse me?” Virginia’s angry glare wrapped its claws around Julian’s face. She raised her left eyebrow in a way that she often had to do when someone was bugging her. It was her ‘don’t mess with me’ face.
“You’re always telling me what to do like I’m some child. You own your own company, but you don’t own me.”
Virginia slowly recoiled. Her raised eyebrow twitched a bit.
“I’m giving you advice on ways to maybe break into this industry the right way and not only are you shutting me down, but you’re insulting me?” Virginia’s voice was low, but the tone of it raised several octaves. “Anyway, I’m not making any calls to get you any campaigns that people don’t think you deserve. You want it bad enough…then work for it.”
It went against her principles to give any of her boyfriends any unfair advantage when it came to this industry. So many had used her for just that, and she wasn’t going to give in to any of their demands. She needed to know that the men she dated were in this for her, and not the benefits of dating her.
“Your drinks,” Virginia and Julian didn’t even notice the waiter back with their drink orders. He also had a bucket of ice, and a complimentary bottle of Dindarello Moscato. “Compliments from Mr. Bastianich. He hopes you enjoy your favorite wine.”
“Joe knows me well,” Virginia said. She had calmed down significantly now that the waiter was here, but nobody…nobody called her bossy without her saying something about it. Like Beyoncé she wasn’t bossy, she was the boss.
She flashed the waiter a dazzling smile, and she watched as he blinked rapidly and his movements became less sure. Her smile usually did that to people. It was one thing that she was a billionaire designer, but it was another thing to be stunning as well. She had a look about her that no Hollywood actress could match. She had a classic beauty about her heart shaped face, hazel eyes, and kissable lips. “Thank you so much. What’s your name?”
“My name’s Lorenzo,” the waiter said. He gave a slight bow of his head when he finished putting their drinks down.
“Well thank you so much Lorenzo. You’ve been very kind,” Virginia smiled again. She was apologizing, in her way, for the way Julian had acted earlier. Julian hadn’t said a word. He was already pouring himself a glass of wine. He didn’t make eye contact with Lorenzo at all.
“Thank you, Ms. Maxwell.”
“Please, call me Virginia.”
That made Lorenzo nervous. He cleared his throat, and stood still for a moment. “I…well, I’ll be right back with your orecchiette, and sir, with your pork and veal agnolotti.”
Julian smiled weakly as Lorenzo walked away.
“How are you liking my favorite wine?” Virginia asked. She ran a hand along Julian’s arm. He was now leaning back in his seat, taking intermittent swigs like one would with a beer.
“It’s a bit too sweet.”
“Well, that’s because you’re supposed to be having it with dessert,” Virginia said. She just realized that she sounded like she was a mother trying to teach her son something new. That made her frown. Julian didn’t seem to be much more than just a beautiful face right now. They had been having so much fun over the last several weeks, but maybe that was all this was.
Julian wasn’t someone Virginia could take out and dine with. He wasn’t someone who she felt was her equal. She had to constantly scold him and tell him to keep his temper in check. He was arm candy; a beautiful painting she had the luxury of being able to taste and touch. The emptiness she now felt was adding to how empty she was feeling from not have having eaten anything subst
antial all day. Her food couldn’t come soon enough. She didn’t think she would bother with ordering dessert tonight; she would just have the Moscato with her meal.
“Have you thought at all about what I asked, pet?” Julian asked. They had been sitting in silence for a while, not looking at each other. Julian kept having glasses of wine intermittently between sips of his scotch. Virginia stuck to her cocktail. Their food had arrived when Julian was on his third glass of the Moscato, but it wasn’t Lorenzo serving. Virginia suspected that he was waiting at another table.
“I have, and the answer is still no. You’re more than capable. You’re so good looking, Julian. You don’t need my help with this.”
Julian’s face turned angry once again, but he took a glance on the other side of the room and forced a plastic smile. He took Virginia’s hand and looked lovingly into her eyes. Bemused by his sudden reaction, Virginia looked around in the general direction of where his eyes had wandered to. There was a man a few tables away with a camera pointing right at them. Julian leaned in closer and brushed some of her curls out of her face. His face was conveniently turned in the direction of the paparazzo.
“That’s ok darling. We can talk about it later,” Julian said through his teeth. His smile was so wide and so phony that he looked like a living doll. The beautiful man that Virginia thought she was falling for was no more, and in his place was another opportunist with chiseled abs.
“We…kind of already talked about it,” Virginia yanked her hand away like she just touched something hot. “I thought you were different.”
“What do you mean? I am different. Just look at me,” Julian said.
“That’s not what I meant. I’m not some meal ticket for you to…..Forget it. I’m not even hungry anymore,” Virginia had only taken 2 bites of her food, but she was ready to go. She wanted to be far away from Julian.
“Wait, V!” Julian started to call after her. She was storming away rather abruptly. She didn’t care if she was making a scene. Julian was the one who was so concerned about who it was that saw them.
“V! Who’s gonna pay for this?” Julian wailed. Virginia stopped dead in her tracks and started laughing. She wheeled around to face Julian who was terribly confused by her sudden fit of giggles. Virginia calmly walked back to the table and reached into her purse. She pulled out a thousand dollars and placed it on the table in front of Julian.
“This is for dinner, and for your cab, and for you to never call me again. We are so over. But this,” she picked up the bottle of Moscato, “this I’m taking with me.”
Virginia grabbed the bottle of wine, which was already almost halfway empty, and left the restaurant. She walked out into the night and took a swig of the wine straight from the bottle. She was gonna hail a cab and finish it before she got home. She had some packing to do. Tomorrow, she was going to Russia. She didn’t have any business there for half a month. She’d spend the first half of it avoiding the public. Virginia wanted two weeks of rest where no one could bother her and where not many people knew her name; she would make sure of that anyway. Her trip couldn’t come soon enough.
*****
It had been a long flight to Moscow. It wasn’t that much longer than from New York to London, but if you’re awake for the entirety of an almost 10 hour flight, it seemed like an eternity. Even though she was a celebrity, she still had to spend time in the airport. She spent most of her night packing her own things. She had a maid at home to help, but she was asleep by the time Virginia drunkenly stumbled into her two-story apartment.
Virginia didn’t so much pack as she did pick up a few racks of clothes and shoes and stuff them into large bags. She didn’t even know what she packed, but it didn’t matter to her. She had the luxury of being able to buy an entirely new wardrobe while she was away.
After her flight, and checking into the hotel under a code name, she stayed in bed for the first day and a half. She checked her emails, but didn’t answer them unless there was some degree of urgency [which most of them were], and she ignored calls from everyone except for Nancy.
“So? How is mother Russia?” Nancy asked in her imitation Russian accent. Virginia was sitting in her bathrobe surrounded by ice creams, gelato, wine, fruits, and cheeses. She was usually a health nut, but right now she didn’t care about anything.
“Russia’s great from my hotel room. I haven’t done much exploring. I pretty much have everything I want in here. There’s a heated pool on the second floor of my hotel room, a hot tub on the balcony, and access to all the gay porn I want.”
Nancy laughed over the phone. She didn’t want to spoil Virginia’s rest to talk about work. She wanted to lighten her friend’s mood.
“So you absconded to the Kremlin just to lock yourself away in a penthouse suite? What about an adventure? Don’t you wanna explore the city? You can get a head start before your first big show. That’s in less than 2 weeks remember?”
“Nanc, the Kremlin is one place, and I haven’t even been there…”
“Whatever. I saw Mission Impossible Four.”
Virginia laughed before putting a spoonful of butter pecan ice cream into her mouth and continuing.
“I just want to be where people don’t know who I am. Everyone seems to want something from me rather than just wanting to be around me for me. So, I absconded in order to get some rest and some me time.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to explore?”
“Yep.”
“Sure sure?”
“Nancy…what did you do?” Virginia put a spoonful of strawberry banana ice cream in her mouth next. She reached over to grab some kiwi slices, and waited for Nancy to speak. The line was silent, but she knew that she was still there.
“Nothing! Nothing. Just…sorta hired an agency to have a guy show you around the city in a private car, that’s all,” she said in a single breath.
“Oh Nancy, you didn’t!”
“I did too. You need to have some fun. You need to discover things other than good looking people and amazing clothes. Get to know the world without it being for business! Also, you might wanna hurry. I told them to pick you up at 2 your time.”
Virginia looked at her diamond encrusted Michael Kors watch. It was just after 1, which meant that it was 5am in New York. What was Nancy still doing awake? Virginia was going to ask her, but Nancy already cut her off to let her know that she was going to bed soon.
“It’s been a busy night here. Taking care of as much as I can. I’ll let you know if it gets too much. I’ll probably call crying for you to come home. It’s called the Polezno Agency. I gave your guide the name to use for your hotel. Have fun, and play nice. I’ll talk to you later!”
Nancy hung up before Virginia could say another word. She always talked really fast when she wanted Virginia to try something new that she wouldn’t otherwise have if not for Nancy’s coaxing.
Virginia looked around at all of her desserts. She obviously wasn’t going to be late; that wasn’t her style. But she wasn’t going to let this ice cream go to waste. She’d put it away first, then shower, and get ready for whatever strange shenanigans Nancy had already planned for her, even if she was a million miles away.
*****
“Shug Avery?” a voice from the front desk asked. Virginia was just about to put on her shoes when she got the call from downstairs.
“Yep. Is my ride here?” Virginia asked. She put the receiver on her shoulder so that she could buckle her sandals.
“Yes he is. Would you like for us to send him to your room?”
Virginia wasn’t comfortable with a stranger knowing what room in the hotel she was in. She was in the biggest suite, of course, but the person didn’t need to know that.
“No, that’s ok, I’ll come down in a second. What’s he wearing?”
“Oh. The gentleman is in an all-black suit.”
“Thank you,” Virginia said. She had buckled both sandals when the person from the front desk hung up the phone. She was just about to s
tep out when she noticed that her towel was still wrapped on her head like a long spiral. She yanked it off and let her curls flow free. Her hair was still a bit wet from her shower, but it was a nice warm day. It would take no time to dry.
Virginia gave herself a final look in the bathroom mirror. She had on lace white shorts with a silk pair of undershorts, and a stylish black jacket with silver buttons and silver studs on the collar. She was wearing custom Ray Ban transition glasses, and her large Michael Kors leather tote bag was from a special gift package from an award show; it was a set with the diamond encrusted watch.
She topped off her outfit with a floppy sun hat. It covered most of her up, and she hoped she’d blend in enough so she could explore Moscow incognito. She was worried her sense of style and the fact that she was black would make her stick out like a sore thumb. Virginia flashed herself her signature smile and turned so that she could see herself from the back.
“Alrighty V, let’s get this tour over with,” Virginia said to herself. She stepped out of her suite and onto the elevator. A lot of different thoughts were dancing around inside of her when she went down.
She hoped there wouldn’t be a language barrier, because she only knew how to say ‘do svidaniya’; that was only because she had seen that cartoon Anastasia when she was a young girl. She was obsessed with couture dresses even from that cartoon. She was sure she had designed an outfit inspired by the navy blue dress the cartoon character wore to the opera. Virginia smiled at the silly daydream. She also hoped that she wasn’t too casually dressed. She just remembered that the person from the front desk said that her guide was in an all-black suit. She calmed her nerves down; it was probably his attire for work and nothing more.
There was a part of her that was anxious, and she wasn’t sure why. She kept telling herself she was nervous about being in a country that she hadn’t been to before, or that it could be what she was wearing, or not wanting to be seen…but she realized she was nervous about meeting her tour guide. It was odd for her. Virginia was a social monarch butterfly. Anywhere that she spread her wings brought followers, and fans, and love interests everywhere. She didn’t know this person from Adam. So why all the nerves?
Take My Hand: BWWM Romance Page 17
