by L. L. Ash
I’d moved Grandma towards the chairs in the back eventually, forcing her to sit so her old bones could rest, but I held her hand there, standing beside her as I took Adele’s hand in my other.
It felt so...good, to have them both beside me, feeling the warmth of the only two people in the world who really cared about me.
After the end of service, Babushka told us we would join the group for the typical feast, and that I had to go back to the car to go get the dish she’d prepared.
I trudged back into the snow, zipping up my white leather and black fur-trimmed coat tighter around me as I went, pulling up the hood as the wind whipped against my face like tiny little needles.
Inside again, I saw Babushka talking to her friends, motioning to Adele who looked lost, but also smiling like she was trying to be nice.
“How has your health been?” one of Grandma’s friends asked, patting her hand.
Old people and their never ending, personal questions...
“Babushka, your food,” I told her, motioning to the bowl. “What do you want me to do with it?”
“The kitchen. You know the way, kot,” she waved me away and I motioned for Adele to follow me with a tilt of my head.
She nodded, waved and smiled at the ladies before moving around them to my side.
“Oh my God… Thank you!” she whispered.
I chuckled, leading her down the hallway to the makeshift kitchen and great room that housed the tables and chairs for the feast.
“This is all so different,” she said wide-eyed. “The kids all participated and the people who came in through the whole thing… Is that normal?”
I nodded.
“We’re a lot more laid back. We want church to feel like home. Nobody should feel shamed in their home. We should be comfortable so we can communicate with God better,” I shrugged. “At least, that’s the idea.”
She nodded slowly as we arrived at the great room.
“Ey! Sergei!” A voice hollered at us once we entered the room.
My head swivel until my eyes landed on my friend Iev and his pretty wife.
“Iev!” I called back with a smile. “I see you twice in one year? It must be the end of the world.”
He laughed and moved closer, the two of us exchanging a handshake before I kissed his wife on the cheeks three times, which was customary at this sort of thing.
“Oh, and you have a beautiful woman with you!” he blinked as if in disbelief.
“My girlfriend, Adele,” I gave Iev a look to tell him to go with it and he nodded, moving in to kiss her on the cheek.
Adele...tried. She moved her head but the kisses didn’t come natural. Luckily we were pretty relaxed and neither Iev, nor his wife, cared that she didn’t return the form of affectionate respect.
“And you are not one of us, are you?” Iev asked, quickly and rightly assessing that Adele didn’t belong to our church.
“Uh, no. But it’s been so interesting to be here. It really felt spiritual and uplifting.”
“It is a feeling as home,” Iev’s wife Natasha said solemnly.
Adele nodded before Iev motioned at me with his hand.
“Come, I have something to discuss. Let the women talk amongst themselves for a time.”
Ok. That didn’t sound good.
“I’m glad I saw you,” Iev said with rosy cheeks as we left out the door of the cathedral and stood on the porch in the cold. “Vishka asks a favor of you. He sent some people to your apartments but nobody answered.”
“I’ve been out of town,” I said simply.
He nodded amicably.
“He wants you to take on a client,” Iev said, snuggling deeper into his fur-trimmed coat.
“What?” my jaw dropped.
“She’s an Italian, I guess. One of the big boys’ daughters. He wants you to squeeze information.”
Mother of fucking shit!
“Iev… I-I gave up the other clients. I’ve signed on exclusively with Adele right now.”
His eyes widened.
“Why the fuck would you do that?” he almost choked on the words. “Vishka expects you to do this. You cannot say no!”
Just as my life was beginning to straighten out, here came this piece of shit wrench in my gears.
“I can’t. I’m under contract.”
That was only sort of a lie. I was under verbal contract at the moment.
“He doesn’t fucking care. So you keep it to yourself...do what you have to do. You do not want to piss off Vishka, Sergei.”
Yeah, I knew that already.
“Give me some time,” I sighed. “I’ll contact Vishka’s men when I’m ready to talk. I don’t want to talk about this at Christmastime.”
Iev rolled his eyes.
“He won’t be happy that you wait to talk to him.”
“He’ll just have to respect it, then,” I told him and left my friend in the cold air, my entire mood shot to hell.
Adele smiled when she saw me, then it dropped when she saw my expression.
“Not here,” I whispered in her ear and she accepted that quickly, turning back to Natasha to pick back up on the topic of cooking.
“Natasha said she’d send me her recipe for blintzes to make you sometime.”
“Ah, your favorite,” Iev said coming up behind me and slapping me a little aggressively on the shoulder while he grinned at our small group.
I held my tongue for the most part, choosing to shoot glances at Iev, who did the same as the women talked.
Babushka was intent on her friends as the meal was served, and we just went through the line after it was all blessed, then sat to eat.
I was so distracted the whole time, and I couldn’t shake the stares Iev kept giving me.
By the time we left, I was more than ready, and had fulfilled my obligations to the church and Babushka, who was tired by the time we left.
I gathered the bowl and held onto her arm as we left the cathedral.
“What is it?” Adele asked me as I got into my seat.
I didn't mean to sport the irritation I was feeling, but she picked up on it quickly.
“Not here,” I told her in a quiet voice, meeting her eyes meaningfully.
She nodded and faced forward as we drove.
Babushka insisted we went in and that she'd make us more tea, but I just parked the car and led her into her house, telling her that we had to leave.
“It’s late, my kot. It’d be safer to stay here,” she said in Russian. “Even your girlfriend may stay here. My old ears won’t hear anything you do, anyway.”
Oh God…
“Babushka,” I moaned. “We’re not staying here tonight, and we’re not going to have sex on my childhood bed even if we did. That’d be weird!”
She grinned and patted my shoulder.
“I was young once, too,” she winked at me, then her face fell. “If you won’t stay, then I’m going to bed. Be safe, my little one.”
I nodded as her eyes turned to Adele, completely ignorant of our awkward conversation.
“Where is your fur and your hat?” she asked Adele.
“Oh, I don’t have any,” she shrugged with a smile.
“You wait,” she said, holding up a finger as she disappeared again.
We did, patiently.
“What is it, Serge?” Adele asked in a whisper.
“I’ll tell you at home,” I whispered back as Grandma came back into the room with furs stacked in her arms.
It was one of the jackets, and hats I’d bought her that she thought was just so ‘stylish’. In old Russian fashion.
“You will stay warm in this,” she held up the white fox fur set.
It was her favorite, but Adele didn’t know that.
“Oh my God… It’s beautiful!” Adele gushed and Babushka smiled.
“Then it is yours,” she nodded firmly.
“Oh no! I couldn’t...” Adele started, but I squeezed her hand.
“You will take it,” Gr
andma held up the heavy jacket and Adele gave me a look of shock as she accepted it, slipping it onto her arms.
The thing was top of the line, warm and soft as fuck. I went all out when I got it for her. Grandma had loved it so much she cried. And here she was, giving one of her most prized possessions away to my pretend girlfriend.
Despite the differences, and how traditional my grandmother was, she accepted Adele, and respected her. And this was proof.
“And to keep your head warm,” Grandma said, sliding the hat onto Adele’s hair, the white fur standing out against her dark locks.
“This is...” she started, but then stopped and just threw her arms around Babushka.
Grandma closed her eyes and accepted the hug before taking Adele’s face in her hands and looking her straight in the eye.
“You will be good to my boy, yes?”
“Yes, of course,” she nodded. “I care very much for him.”
“Good,” Grandma nodded, stroking the fur one more time before standing straight. “He deserves a good girl. You will give me many babies, yes?”
Adele choked.
“Babushka. We’re just dating,” I reminded her and she nodded, rolling her eyes and flapping her hand around.
“You are too old to date. You need a good woman and a good wife. She is a good woman. Make it so, kot,” Grandma said all that in English for both of us to hear.
For the first time in a long time, I felt my cheeks growing warm with a blush.
Evidently all it took to make a prostitute blush was to mention marriage and babies.
“I’ll consider it, Babushka. Now go rest. I’ll lock up behind us.”
She came to me first, giving me kisses on my cheek before turning to Adele and doing the same.
“I see you next Sunday with kot’s visit. Yes?”
Adele fumbled for a moment before giving into a smile and nodding, murmuring a breathy, “Thank you for everything.”
Finally, she said goodbye and wandered off into her bedroom.
“For fuck’s sake...” I murmured, digging for my keys in my pocket.
Adele laughed quietly, one hand on her blushing cheek as we stepped outside the door.
“Well, at least you’ll be warm,” I told her, finding her hand amongst the mass of fur. “Even if you do look a bit like a polar bear.”
Adele gasped and smacked me in the shoulder, my jacket taking the brunt of her fist.
“You’re such an asshole sometimes! This was such a thoughtful...wonderful gift.”
I kept it to myself that it had originally been a gift from me to Babushka.
Not going to lie… It did look pretty hot on her. Especially with her black boots framing a small sliver of skin between the bottom of the coat and the knee high boot cuffs.
“It’s ok,” I said, pulling her into my arms as we started walking back to the subway entrance. “I’d do you.”
She elbowed me and I backed off, pulling my own fur-lined hood of my leather jacket onto my head as I laughed.
“Oh, you’re totally acting your age now,” she hissed with a smile of her own on her beautiful face.
“Oh my God!” I almost shrieked, sounding just like a girl. “You mean I sound like a younger man?!”
She burst into laughter and curled into my arms again.
“Guess it gives you the best chances of keeping up with me,” she winked at me and I groaned.
My arm around her dropping lower just enough so that I could grab a nice handful of ass through the fur coat, squeezing until she shrieked, giggling again.
“Guess church and your grandma really do it for you, huh?” she kept teasing. “That your kind of foreplay?”
“You caught me, I’m secretly an exhibitionist,” I sighed, squeezing that sweet ass again.
She swatted me again, digging further into my arm.
We had almost made it to the subway entrance when we heard a faint clicking sound, like a person click, click, clicking their tongue to the sound of Adele’s heels clipping on the icy concrete.
I knew that sound.
It was a bad one.
Chapter Nineteen
Adele
“Oh fuck...” Serge murmured beside me, his body tensing immediately.
“Hey,” a voice called out, three men stepping out of the shadow nearby with dirty grins on their faces as they look me up and down. “How you doing, baby?”
I shrank into Serge’s side and he moved in front of me, putting his body between me and them.
“Better move homeboy, or you’re going to get cut,” the one who was speaking held up a knife, flipping it around.
I watched Serge’s body transform. Felt it transform against me as he bent his knees just a little and put his weight on the balls of his feet, preparing for an attack.
“What do you want?” I suddenly spoke up, not sure what the hell I was thinking by speaking to these men and encouraging them.
“I want your purse and those pretty pretty furs,” the man winked at me, face shrouded in shadow, though it didn’t hide the wicked gleam staring back at me.
“You’re not getting anything,” Serge growled, voice low and dangerous.
“I don’t think you see who’s holding the knife, idiota!”
“Try it,” he growled and the man’s face fell into an instant glower of hate.
I shrieked.
He lunged forward and Serge slapped the hand away, spinning the man until his arm was around his neck in a sleeper hold.
Prying the knife from the man’s hand, he held it up, speaking in Russian.
Both men looked at each other, confused, but scared out of their minds.
They took off, leaving their companion in Serge’s arms.
Not but a few seconds later the guy collapsed onto the ground and the air turned deathly still.
Serge tossed the knife, landing it blade-first into the wooden fence beside the man’s head before putting his hand out to me, a grim expression on his face.
“Let’s hurry and get out of here,” he sighed, pulling me along.
We ran down the slick steps into the subway station where no train was in sight yet.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, not sure if I should be angry or impressed at the sudden show of brutality from my pretend boyfriend.
“What?” he ground out, checking his phone to make sure the train was still coming in a few minutes.
I just stood there, gaping at him.
“Please, now is not a good time. Those assholes can come back any second with their buddies.”
He looked over his shoulder and up towards the steps we’d just come down.
Now my stomach was in knots at the thought of them returning.
The familiar rumble and grind of the train approached and I found myself relaxing a little.
It might have been the middle of the night, and we might have just almost gotten mugged, but I was with an incredibly strong, and evidently street-smart man who could handle himself.
Not too many people were on the train when we got on, but there were enough that I felt safer. And the moment I began to feel safe again, my body started shaking, hands trembling so bad I couldn’t make them calm down.
He noticed.
Of course he did.
He took my hands in his and looked me in the eye.
“We’re ok, malishka. Put it out of your mind. We’re ok...”
I started to cry then, and he pulled me into his chest. My mascara was probably running onto his white shirt but he didn’t move. Didn’t care about his shirt. He only cared about me, making sure I was safe, and making sure I was comforted.
“Are you ok?” I asked him finally. “He didn’t get you with that knife…?”
He shook his head.
“That’s far from the first time I’ve been threatened on the street, malishka. I know how to handle them. We’re ok. We’re almost home, then I’m going to get you into bed and warm you up, and I’ll even make you tea to help settle y
our nerves.”
“I don’t have tea,” I admitted.
“Really? We’ll have to change that if I’m moving in,” he gave me a half smile and that settled me.
If he could smile, then we must have been safe.
After we got to our stop, we sloughed ourselves up the steps and down the street a quarter mile until we got to my building.
Once inside the front door, Serge was already pulling off the fur coat and hat, then my wool coat underneath.
“Come,” he whispered in my ear, leading me up the elevator, keeping me in his arms the entire time.
Upstairs in my bedroom, he took me by the hand again and pulled me into the bathroom where he continued to take off my clothes.
Slowly and delicately his fingers moved on each piece, zipping down my dress and slipping the sleeves off my shoulder until the thing fell to the floor, then moving behind me to undo my bra, dropping that, then my panties, next.
“Get in the bath,” he said as he turned the water on, dropping one of my bath bombs into the water.
It spread the smell of roses through the air, and pink dye through the water.
“I’ll be back up with something in a couple minutes.”
He stepped up to me and took my cheek in his hand, pressing his forehead to mine.
“You’re ok, Adele. I promise you, you’re ok.”
I nodded and he left the room.
Teeth chattering in the chill of my bathroom, marble beneath my feet freezing me from the bottom up, I decided to get in the bath and let it fill around me.
The water sent me to shivering harder, my entire body trembling with it as my teeth clinked and my skin erupted in goose bumps, until the heat began to seep in.
Slowly, from my toes, up my ankles and over my calves the tub filled until I was wrapped in a warm blanket of water, easing my anxiety with each passing moment.
Serge eventually came back, just in time to stop the water before it overfilled.
“Drink this,” he said softly, handing me a fat mug filled with sweet, brown liquid.
“Hot chocolate?” I asked, and he nodded.
I didn’t even have hot chocolate. Where did this come from?
“Found some chocolate bars and cocoa powder in your pantry. Mixed in some milk and sugar,” he explained, answering my unasked question. “Since you didn’t have tea, I figured this would be the next best thing since coffee will just keep you up.”
