by Jade White
She grabbed some sort of vase Will had purchased and set on a table that hugged the corner between Mike’s room and her room. Gripping it in her fingers, she was right to judge it was heavy and that it would do some significant damage. As she headed to the stairs, she could see the lights were on downstairs and that there were shadows moving in the burning light. As she slowly crept down the stairs, she could smell something burning on the stove and she wondered what these people were doing. Mike had to be asleep and Will was still gone at his work. Who could that be?
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was hunched over and heading into the kitchen when she caught sight of the intruder. He walked over to the stove and was doing something with his back turned to her and that was when she let out a heavy sigh and lowered her weapon. The sound of her sigh startled the intruder and he turned around, wearing an apron and holding a knife he was using to cut herbs.
“Christ, Oksana!” Will cried, his eyes wide in horror as he held the knife all wrong if he were going to try and defend himself.
She smiled and shook her head at the sight of him as he quickly blinked and his mind darted back to what he was doing. She suddenly realized how incredible the kitchen smelled and she looked at everything Will was doing. The man was cooking up a storm, everything from browning Italian sausage and ground beef to sautéing vegetables for the sauce that he was making. He turned back to his work of adding the herbs and spices to the sauce before he turned and took a swig out of the wine bottle he’d been using in the sauce and turned to look at her.
“You scared me to death,” he said, his eyes landing on the ornament in her hand and he shook his head. “Were you going to bludgeon me to death, Oksana?”
“I thought you were a thief,” she said, shaking her head.
“Well, thanks for watching our back,” Will said, chuckling as he went to work. He looked up and stole a glance at her and she felt flattered by it before he nervously went back to work. “I’m sorry if I woke you. Mike went out with a couple of friends and I thought it would be a good chance to make some dinner before going to bed. He always gets angry when I wake him up cooking.”
“Does the smell make his stomach growl?” she teased, walking into the kitchen and taking a perch on one of the stools on the island.
“Fun fact,” he said as he stirred the sauce. “You don’t actually smell when you sleep. But no, it’s the banging and all the noise I make while I’m cooking. Thankfully, he needed a beer and a good laugh with some friends. Mind if I asked how badly he blew it with you?”
She looked at him and tilted her head, not sure what it was that he meant by that. There was nothing she could think of with him blowing it. “What do you mean?”
“When things don’t go Mike’s way, he tends to need a drink,” Will chuckled as he adjusted his glasses and looked at her. “I’m guessing he tried to make a move and it didn’t go so well.”
“Not really,” Oksana shrugged. “He didn’t seem that interested in me, honestly. He was watching some kind of cartoon when I went for a walk and that was about it.”
“What?” Will laughed. “He was watching a cartoon?”
“Yeah,” Oksana nodded. “I don’t think that Mike likes me very much.”
“Well, I can assure you that he’s crazy about you,” Will told her with a smile.
He tested the sauce and then held out the spoon for her to test as well. She smiled, leaning in and wrapping her lips on the spoon and making sure that she didn’t lick the spoon like she had been taught. As she tasted the sauce, her eyes widened in approval. Was there anything that Will couldn’t do? That was something she had come to really respect about the man.
“We both are,” he continued. “You’re the most attractive woman we’ve ever seen, objectively speaking. But, Mike tries very hard to be someone that he’s not. He has this image of himself and that image is kind of his guiding star. He makes terrible decisions with it.”
“What’s you’re guiding star?” she asked, looking at the night world beyond the windows and wondering if the city was still awake for them and interested in coming out to play. She wanted to go out there and do something, but she also wanted to eat this sauce Will was crafting. It was incredible tasting.
“I don’t know really,” Mike shrugged. “I just try to do right by the people I know. I don’t want people to think ill of me. Maybe to a fault. What’s yours?”
“Happiness,” she said with a smile on her lips and a shrug. “Every decision I’ve made has been done in the name of happiness. I don’t think anyone should do anything that doesn’t make them happy, even if it’s hard. Sometimes choosing happiness is the hardest decision.”
“Sounds nice,” Will said as he wiped his hands and started to combine the last of the ingredients and made the sauce come together. “Is that why you decided to put yourself out on a mail order bride website and see who was interested in you? Sounds very dangerous and very bold.”
“Maybe,” she shrugged. “But it’s paid off well so far. I’m in America and I got to meet you, Will.”
“You got to meet me,” Will chuckled. “That’s something I never thought a beautiful woman would ever tell me.”
“Mike told me you don’t have much luck with women,” Oksana probed, feeling like she might be pushing it too far. Will looked up at her and smiled, his cheeks flooding with red that clearly told her that she’d hit a nerve with him. She didn’t like the idea of embarrassing him and backpedaled as quickly as she could. “I think they’re all fools. You’re a wonderful man.”
“Thanks,” he said, not buying it for a second. “Well, it doesn’t surprise me Mike tried pulling that. Did he tell you about how we’re leaving it up to you in order to pick who you end up with?”
“Yeah,” Oksana grinned, still not sure how she felt about that. “Aren’t you worried I’ll go with the one with more experience?”
“Not in the slightest,” Will said with an optimistic grin that gave her hope in the goodness of the world. There was something about him that wouldn’t be caged and wouldn’t be told to quit. She liked that a lot about Will. “Mike is a manager for a movie theater, he picks up desperate girls at the bars, and he pretends he’s someone that he’s not. I may crash and burn, one hundred percent of the time, but I’m doing it on people I believe in and I crash going for what I want. I believe if you’re meant to be my mate, then everything I do for you and all the work I put into this isn’t going to be wasted and blow up in my face. A romantic has to dream and I’m the biggest romantic you’re ever going to meet.”
“I believe it,” she said it as a compliment. “Do you have extra?”
“Of course,” Will said, dishing her up pasta and slathering it in the fantastic, rich sauce that tasted more amazing complete than it had just in its base perfection.
She looked at him while he ate and she wondered who these foolish women were that had abandoned him and turned their backs on him. They were fools and she had a mind to find each and every one of them and rub their mistake in their face.
“So what’s your master plan?” Oksana asked him. “Are you two just going to live life as usual around me? Or, are we going to go at this in turns? How did you figure this would all work out?”
“I already ran this by Mike,” Will said with a grin. “I think we should each pull out all the stops and go on a fantastic date with you to get to know you better, show you what qualities we have to provide for you, and see what kind of chemistry we have together. Once the dates are over, you’ll have a good idea of who you’re dealing with and that should help you make a reasonable and educated decision.”
“You think that one date is enough?” Oksana asked him with her eyebrow raised, devouring the pasta with ravenous delight.
“How do you figure?” he asked her, not sure what she meant by that.
“Well what if you’re both extremely good on your first dates,” Oksana proposed the problem in his plot. “But on the second date, you’ve got
nothing. If you play a really good, single game, then what’s to assure me you’re quality all the way through.”
“Fair point,” Will said, chewing his lower lip as he thought it over. “What would you suggest we change about it?”
“I agree with the date plan,” Oksana said with delight. “But, I think you should let me decide after we’ve actually lived life as well for a while. I’ll know what you are at your most fun and romantic, then I’ll also know what you’re like on a normal day as well.”
Will thought about that for a moment, chewing his bites long and thoughtfully while he stared at her. She smiled at him, feeling like she was such a let down for him, but as he began to smile, she knew that he liked the idea. If anything, she felt like it was going to be a boon to him more than it would be for Mike. Mike could probably bring a really fantastic first date out of his repertoire that would be more fun and more sexually charged than Will could. Mike’s Achilles Heel was going to be his lack of effort in normal life. While she watched him think, she knew Will was also making those calculations, coming to those conclusions on his own. She liked that about him. He was going to figure things out in the end.
“Fine,” he said with confidence. “I like your plan, too. We’ll wait two weeks for you to make up your decision, but we’ve got to do the dates up front. I know both of us have already made plans and we can’t really change some of them.”
“That sounds good to me,” she said, smiling at him.
It was strange he hadn’t made a move or commented on her attire. There was something about Will that made her feel like he was seeing things on a different level than she was. It was like he wasn’t distracted for a second at the fact that he could see her nipples right now or that she was in her underwear. That never seemed to bother him for a second. She really loved that. In front of him, she was an actual person. It felt nice to have that kind of power given to her from just his eyes. She could understand why someone like Will could easily win over a woman’s heart, but the fact that he could never keep it worried her.
“Well, we flipped for it,” Will said with a mild shrug.
It spoke volumes to her about his bitterness toward the whole event and that made her very aware of who had won that particular coin toss. She looked at him and smiled. It must have sucked to be the one who lost. She would have hated it, that much she knew for certain.
“Mike’s going to take you out tomorrow night and I’ll take you out the following night. Maybe we could alternate days after that until you can come up with who it is that you preferred going out with. Does that sound fair?”
“That sounds fair to me,” she said with a smile.
“Good, I don’t want things to look like one of us is getting preferential treatment,” Will said with a kindness in his voice she was certain that Mike wasn’t going to share with him. She thought it was extremely odd for a man like Will to be so interested in the equality of all of this. She thought about seeing just how much he cared, but she wasn’t interested in playing games with Will. There was something genuine about him that told her she didn’t need to put pressure on him like she had put pressure on Mike.
Will was the real deal, for better or for worse.
She stood up from the stool and walked around the island to where Will was standing, holding her bowl that he’d given her the amazing pasta and sauce in. She handed it to him, standing closer to him than he was ever comfortable with. She could feel the tension in his body, his muscles tightening, his ligaments freezing, and his joints locking as his breath grew shallow and sharp. She smiled at the physical reaction he had to her. She liked being around a man who couldn’t hide what it was that he was feeling. She couldn’t hide what she was feeling either. It made her feel like an equal. It made her feel powerful and strong. As she stood next to him, handing him the bowl, she could smell the herbs and spices wafting off of him and felt as thought she might almost feel the tremor of his pounding heart.
“If you’re going to win this, Will,” she said softly to him, her voice low and comforting as they both held on to the bowl, “then you’re going to have to let go of your fears and dive in." She leaned in and pressed her lips softly to his cheek that was prickly with his fresh shade of stubble from the day. When she pulled back, she looked at his wide eyes and smiled at the expression that was on his lips. He was blown away by this. He was absolutely stunned and completely floored by the fact that she had just kissed him. “You paid a lot of money and it was your idea to make sure I came here. I’m not going to forget that ever. I hope you don’t either.”
She turned from him and headed back to the stairs and climbed them slowly, feeling his absence and wishing that he would've followed her up those stairs. In the depths of her mind, she could picture the two of them kissing in the darkness of her room, his hands exploring her body for the first time, reveling in the new things they both were experiencing for the first time. She could see all of it. Truthfully, she wanted it. It was a confusing set of emotions that were running through her, taking hold of her and making her feel like she had no idea what was happening in her life. How could she be so lucky? How could she ever get so lucky?
Both of them were so incredible, so amazing that she didn’t know what she was going to do. She liked the mystery, excitement, and forwardness of Mike, but also that it was tempered by a heart that was better than he wanted to let on. On the other hand, Will had a genuine honesty that made him transparent and beautiful in his vulnerability and his clear intentions. Sure, there might not be much of a dance to the beauty of Will, but there was a pureness there that was so refreshing and so inviting. She didn’t know which was better? She didn’t want the pressure of choosing. She already knew she was going to hate this.
As she walked into her bedroom, looking at her reflection in the glass, she knew she had put forward all the effort she could to make herself attractive and alluring. There was nothing more she could do. The rest was up to them. The rest was going to be in their hands to see how they liked her and could wow her. If they were both interested, then that was all that was left for them to do. It was time for them to make their moves on her. She relished the anticipation, but there was something extremely terrifying about all of it. She wanted to smile and to fade away into their romance.
Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day. She wanted to see how Mike would recover from what he had done today. Would he adjust his approach and try to be less passive and disinterested or would he try harder to seem like the cool guy who just didn’t care all that much? No matter what he chose, she was going to be excited to see him nonetheless.
* * *
Oksana could hardly sleep for the rest of the night. In fact, she’d mostly just slipped under her sheet and looked up at the ceiling, feeling the whole world consuming her. The thoughts of the day were something she couldn’t escape; there was just far too much excitement in her life for her to actually close her eyes and feel sleep settle in her mind. It was like she found herself as a child again on the eve of Christmas, waiting for the hours to pass until she could throw off the covers, rush down to the presents, and spend the morning with her family. She felt all giddy. It was a strange feeling she didn’t quite know how to handle.
When the clock read four in the morning, she was certain both Mike and Will were asleep, softly snoring in their rooms, enjoying what she could never have. Throwing off her sheet, she threw her legs over the side of the bed and opened her wardrobe, which held all the clothes she had right now, except for her underwear and socks that were in the chest of drawers.
One of the few sets of clothing she had now were her workout clothes and she pulled them out, deciding since she didn’t have a gym membership yet, she could always go running. That was something she could do no matter where she was. Pulling off her tank top and standing in only her panties in the cool of the room, she grabbed her sports bra and pulled it on. It was like everything was getting squished and constricted by the tight, familiar cloth. It was the fee
ling of security. She changed into underwear was more appropriate for working out and pulled on her tight workout pants. Pulling her pale blonde hair into a ponytail, she looked at herself in the mirror and decided it was fitting. She looked cute enough to turn heads, hopefully Mike or Will’s, if they ever woke up.
She pulled on her socks and put her shoes on, standing up and stretching as she tried to get the cramps and stiffness of lying in bed for too long out of her body and to get limber for the jog. She quickly made her way out of the bedroom and closed her door softly, not wanting to wake either of them while they were sleeping. Making her way downstairs, she grabbed a banana and peeled it, sitting in the silence of the down stairs and pondering its quiet beauty.
The house was more than she had expected and honestly, it was the thing she loved most right now. Sure, Will and Mike seemed like good guys, but she wasn’t too thrilled about having to decide which of them she was going to spend the rest of her life with as a mate. In fact, it was gnawing at her, terrifying her, wondering what she was going to decide was the final factor for her. Was there going to be one thing that really made up her mind for her or was it going to just be a coin toss in the end?
As she thought about it, pondering with every chew of her banana, she thought it was still probably too dark to go running, but she noticed that there were other people out and about this early in the morning. There was a couple walking quickly and a woman walking her dog. There were several joggers that passed by the house and she smiled at the activity of this city. It was like no one actually slept here. She was going to love this more than she had ever loved Ukraine. She hadn’t even really gone to the beach yet. What was she going to do when she finally got the chance to start exploring everything?
