by Lia London
Viktor noticed a faint glossiness on her mouth. His gaze drifted to her eyes, studying the effect of the mascara on her lashes. “Pay for the loser’s honeymoon,” he offered.
The lashes moved quickly, drawing his focus to her vibrant irises.
“What kind of honeymoon?” she asked. “An afternoon on the back nine watching you feed golf balls to the birds doesn’t count.”
Dev and Lars snuffled into their arms, and Viktor tensed.
“A cruise,” he said. “A week-long cruise anywhere in the world.”
Angelika’s pink cheek lifted, and she held out her hand. “You’re on. Wait.” She withdrew her hand. “You’re not already heavily involved with someone, right? No head starts.”
Confidence rolled into Viktor’s chest, puffing it out. She didn’t have a significant other, or she wouldn’t have worried. “Correct. We’re both starting from scratch.” He clasped her hand. “I have to get someone to say yes to a marriage proposal, or you have to get some poor skunk to ask you and you say yes. Winner informs the loser immediately.”
With her hand still in his, she narrowed her eyes. “Technically, mine sounds harder, but I’ll give you the handicap. You’ll need it.”
Angelika let go, leaving his hand cold and his cheeks red hot. As she strutted away, working her new hour-glass figure, he wanted to crash his head into a beehive. This was bad. This was so bad.
“This is good,” said Lars with a chuckle. “This is so good. I caught the whole thing on my phone, so there’s as many witnesses to this wager as you want.” He tapped his cell phone. “Want me to show you?”
“Nah,” said Viktor as blandly as possible. He didn’t feel like watching himself get shredded by Angelika’s sharp tongue again.
Angelika – fifteen minutes later
It took Angelika’s pulse a full ten minutes to normalize after her encounter with Viktor. He’d looked at her so intently it intimidated her into rash stupidity. “Crap, crap, crappity crap, Liz.” She nursed a drink and peered through the crowd to see the back of Viktor’s head. “What am I going to do? What was I thinking, taking up that bet?”
Liz, one of her old locker partners, chuckled. “You never could resist him.”
“What? Ew!”
“I mean resist one of his challenges,” amended Liz. “Though, if you ask me, he’s gotten cuter. Don’t you think?”
Angelika blinked slowly, resisting the urge to scream. “It wouldn’t have been hard. He used to be a spotty lizard.”
“Not now.” Liz took a sip of her drink and gave Angelika a knowing shrug. “Just saying.”
“Don’t go there.”
“I can’t. I’m married now. But you could.”
Angelika glanced one more time in Viktor’s direction. They’d stayed a good twenty yards apart since the wager, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to leave eye contact range. Why?
Viktor turned back in her direction, his eyes searching until they locked with hers. Did his cheeks flush? His sneer fell into place quickly.
“Nope. Not going to happen. We’ll kill each other.”
Liz shrugged and leaned into Angelika’s shoulder. “Okay, if you say so. But considering how you used to whine all the time how no one noticed you at home, you have to admit Viktor Giles never stopped noticing you all through high school.”
“We competed with each other. That’s all. Six out of seven classes together senior year will do that to you.”
“Uh-huh. It’ll do something to you.” Liz pointed in Viktor’s direction. “His butt’s sure cuter than it was.”
“He is a butt,” groused Angelika.
“You sound like you’re seven. Seriously. Look at him. He’s got shoulders now. I’m voting him Most Improved Looks, hands down.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Angelika couldn’t refute Liz’s comments, but what difference did it make? Romance would never happen with Viktor Giles. He was so in love with himself, he’d never notice anyone else.
Viktor – at the end of the night
Viktor yawned and leaned on the hood of Lars’ minivan.
“You enjoy being married?”
Lars smiled. “Most days, yeah. Tina’s awesome. She puts up with all my flaws and acts as if she loves me.”
Viktor released a sigh. “What must it be like?”
With a sympathetic frown, Lars punched Viktor lightly on the arm. “Dad still giving you trouble?”
“It’s not only Dad, but yeah. You know how it is. I’m never good enough in his eyes. Everything is so conditional.” His shoulders sagged. “I feel like it’s that way with everybody. Unless I’m winning, I’m worthless.”
“It can’t be that bad.” When Viktor didn’t answer, Lars added, “Maybe you could try not winning for a while. See who sticks around.”
Viktor scoffed. “Right. I’d lose everybody.”
Lars shook his head. “Not me.” He opened the door to the minivan, cuing Viktor to stand and say good-bye. With a teasing grin, he sang, “There’s always Angelika.”
“Dang it. No. She makes me feel sixteen again.”
Lars grunted. “You mean perpetually turned on?”
“What? No! I meant… Never mind.” How could he explain it? She frustrated him into a sweat, but he couldn’t resist the fight. Viktor waved good-bye. As he trudged to his car, hands in his pockets, he knew Angelika would be the last person who would ever love him if he stopped achieving. No one loved him as a person, only as a winner.
Slumped in his fully loaded navy-blue Tesla convertible, he pulled up the reunion website and opened the directory. He hesitated. Her name would be near the top.
His chronic loneliness pinched him, and he scrolled with his thumb to the sixth name on the list: Angelika Aldrich. Tapping in the number, he drew a deep breath and lowered the top of his car. Maybe the night air would clear his head.
“Hello?” Her voice sounded foggy.
“Annie?”
“Is this Viktor?” He couldn’t place the emotion in her tone.
“Yeah. Hey, I thought of something.”
“Did you think, Hey, it’s after midnight. I should go haunt someone?”
“I know you desperately need your beauty rest.” He gave himself a tiny fist pump for getting in a jab. “But before you go into an extended coma, I thought we should set some ground rules. Ways to make sure we’re doing this right.”
Angelika yawned into the phone. “Doing this right?”
“This whole getting engaged thing.”
“Oh.” She didn’t sound as cocky as before. Was she tired, or was she admitting she’d gotten in over her head? “Like what? We must stay within the human species?”
“You know…” He drummed his fingers on the dashboard. “I’ll give you this, Annie. You haven’t lost any speed with your comebacks. You made a good showing tonight.” Too good.
“I try.” Was there a smile in her voice?
“Are you in bed already?”
A beat of silence followed, and then she snickered. “Is this where you ask me what I’m wearing and try to get all sexy? I swear, Viktor, if you’re drunk or prank calling me…”
“No, no! I’m not…” He glanced at the address listed on the website. “I’m only about two miles away from you and thought we could talk for a minute about the wager.”
“You mean how you want to weasel out of it?”
Why did she have to know him so well? “Ground rules, Annie.”
“We’re talking now. Why do you have to come over?”
“Annie, I swear—”
To his surprise, she laughed. “If you stop calling me Annie, you can come over for ten minutes. After that, I’m kicking you out. I’m tired.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Angelika – a few minutes later
“You hate the guy, but you’re putting your makeup back on for him?” Gerianne snorted. “Whatever. I suppose you need the living room to yourselves for this midnight brawl?”
“Yes
, please. You know I don’t let guys in my bedroom.”
Gerianne lifted herself in a fleecy-clad cocoon and waddled down the hall with her paperback. “Don’t I even get to see this guy? You always have such… interesting boyfriends.”
“Not a boyfriend!” squealed Angelika, primping in the mirror. She decided against putting the party outfit back on. Jerkface would have to deal with her Betty Boop pajamas. Besides, they accentuated her curves. Let him drool over something he’d never get.
Headlights whipped across the front curtains. Summoning her most confident stance, she threw open the front door in time to see him walk up the path. For a split second, his mouth dropped open, and an exultant rush went through her. Though he fastened his standard indifferent expression in place and swaggered the last few paces, she’d seen enough to know he noticed she wasn’t a little girl anymore.
“Mr. Giles,” she said with mock formality.
Viktor’s demeanor returned to full teen hotshot mode. “Annie.”
“Oh no.” She slapped her hand out to the door jamb, barring his entrance. “It’s Angelika if you want to come in.”
“Miss Angelika.” His chest pressed against her arm, tauter than expected, and she pulled her hand back.
“That’s better.”
Viktor paused inside the doorway, surveying the living room with his usual critical eyes. “Nice little place you’ve got here.”
“Are you calling it little?”
He leaned closer. “I called it nice. Don’t get Betty Boop in a bunch.” His eyes flitted to the most strategically placed cartoon, and the corner of his mouth lifted.
“Mrooaaaauuugghhh!!!” In a blur of fur and fangs, Chucho hurled himself at Viktor’s arm and began a lethal ascent.
“Chucho! No!”
The space erupted in yowls, screams, and reprimands as Angelika sought to extract her cat from his neck. Three seconds of chaos later, she pinned Viktor in place against the back of the couch with Chucho cuddled calmly in her arms.
“Wow, sorry about that.” She backed away, embarrassed by how entangled she’d become with Viktor.
“What the heck, kitty? What’d I do to you?” Viktor dabbed one hand at a slash mark on his neck and raked the other through his hair.
“He’s still edgy around people he doesn’t know. Sorry.” Angelika nuzzled Chucho and bustled him back to her room.
When she returned, Viktor had found his way into the kitchen and was blotting the scratch with a damp paper towel.
“Wow, here. Let me get that.” She fell into her automatic rescue mode and cleaned his scratches. Not until she located the Band-aids in her kitchen first aid kit did she realize how still he’d become. “Blink, idiot. You’re freaking me out.”
“I’m fine.” He glanced at her sideways with a lopsided smile. “You’re a regular lion tamer. What’s with the cat?”
Angelika saw his trembling hands and realized he’d been justly scared by the attack. Without fanfare, she prepped and placed a bandage on his neck. “I got him from the animal shelter. He’d been caught in some kind of trap, and the guy who got him out wasn’t very gentle. I guess he’s got kitty PTSD.”
Viktor nodded slowly, touching the place where she’d left the bandage. “Poor cat.” His gaze shifted to hers and softened a degree. “You were brilliant, though. He likes you, huh?”
She shrugged. “He feels safe with me, anyway.”
“Well, that’s something.”
They stood studying each other by the light of the kitchen stove, and Angelika noticed for the first time his eyes were only a shade darker than her own. They’d always seemed like beady black pits of cynicism before, but now she couldn’t sense any malice.
“I’m sorry I upset your cat.”
His comment surprised her, and she answered without thinking. “I’m glad he didn’t get your face.”
Instantly, the lazy-eyed smugness returned. “Oh, you like my face now?”
Angelika snorted and marched back to the living room. As if she’d ever admit anything like that to him. “I’m assuming you came over to do something other than terrorize my cat, so what’s going on? I believe you have two minutes left.”
“Oh yeah. You said ten minutes. Right.”
He stood framed by the arch leading to the kitchen, and the image gave her a flashback of the decorative arch for their senior prom’s photo op. Viktor had gone with one of the ditsier cheerleaders, of course. He probably didn’t want to look bad in his prom pics, so he chose someone pretty enough to distract attention from his gawky face.
But his face was different now. Same angles, yet stronger.
“Blink, idiot. You’re freaking me out,” he quipped.
Had she been staring?
“Sorry. I’m tired.” She yawned for good measure and pointed at the couch. “Go ahead and sit. We’ll start the clock now.”
He smiled and dropped into the far corner where Gerianne usually sat. “You do have a nice place here.”
Viktor
Viktor watched Angelika sit opposite him on the couch. This whole civil conversation thing changed everything about the way she moved. Gentler.
“What class did you have seventh period?”
Her question surprised him. “Huh?”
“The one period we didn’t have classes together. What did you take?”
“Oh.” He squinted into a memory file before pulling out the answer. “Something business-related. And you?”
“Teacher’s Aide in the Special Ed department.”
“Really?” He sank deeper into the cushion. “Is that why you went to prom with Neddy?”
She bobbed her head once. “He was the only senior in the class. I guess I’d helped him so much he felt attached to me.”
She kept surprising him. “That’s actually kind of cool. Not everyone in high school would have the confidence to do that. Senior prom is kind of a big deal.”
She hitched her shoulder. “Sure, when you’re eighteen.”
Viktor tried to remember the name of his prom date but shook his head when he failed. He needed to stay on task. “I’m thinking we should have a periodic check-in, maybe once a month or something. You know, to see how we’re progressing towards our win.”
“Win? You mean partner, spouse, love of our life?”
“Um. Yeah.” A sick burbling sounded in his gut. What had he gotten himself into?
“Because this isn’t just a competition, Viktor. We can’t be playing some poor sucker up to get to the engaged point and then dump them once we win.”
“Right. This is going to take a while.” Heat climbed up his neck past the scratches. “Besides the prize is a honeymoon cruise, and it can’t be awarded if we aren’t still together.” He swallowed at the realization. “This has to be real.”
Angelika met his eyes with earnest intensity. “Can you do real, Viktor? Can you go the distance?”
“I guess I have to.” His throat tightened. “If the girl is right. If she loves me.”
“Hopefully you’ll love her back.”
The tip of Viktor’s spine liquefied. This was getting too real.
Angelika – a month later
Angelika sighed. Ford Lyman had muscles to spare and a winning grin. His generous spirit had won her attention quickly, and they’d had many laughs together over the last two weeks.
As they pulled into the parking lot for the first Check Point Date, he leaned over and whispered, “Hey, I don’t suppose you could float me a loan for tonight? I’m a little strapped after that fundraiser thing.”
He’d played the hammer-the-bell so many times, he’d earned the Special Olympics over a hundred dollars, so Angelika smiled. “Yeah, sure. I can cover it.”
She followed Ford into the restaurant and immediately started scanning the room for Viktor and whatever date he’d dredged up. The door swung open behind them, and Angelika turned to see Viktor. His smile flashed genuine for a split second before he straightened and extended his arm to a
platinum blonde. “Hey, Annie—Angelika. Good to see you.” He held out his free hand to shake.
She took it, noting its warmth despite the cool reserve on his face. “Viktor, hi.”
“This is Darcie.”
Angelika smiled and shook hands with Darcie, noting her trim figure. “This is Ford Lyman. He’s a junior partner at Otis & Seward.”
The men shook hands, and Angelika relished the way they visibly sized each other up until she caught Ford also studying Darcie’s thigh tattoo.
They fumbled through pleasantries until the hostess led them to a square table near a glowing hearth. With four sides available, they ended up sitting boy-girl-boy-girl with Viktor to her right, his back to the fire.
“Are you going to burn up, sitting there?” she asked.
“He’s already burning up with his hot date,” said Ford with a snicker.
Darcie giggled—actually giggled—and Angelika shot Viktor a what-the-heck look. His face mirrored hers.
“I love your hair. Is it naturally that color?” asked Darcie.
Angelika felt Viktor’s eyes on her, so she answered politely. “Yes, it is. Copper penny since birth.”
“Super shiny.” Darcie tilted her head as if appraising Angelika. “Some blonde highlights would really make a statement. And you could—”
Viktor raised a hand with a soft laugh. “Darcie runs a beauty salon,” he explained. “It’s sometimes hard for her to get out of work mode,” he added with gentle emphasis in Darcie’s direction.
Angelika released a breath, grateful for his interference. “How interesting,” she offered, smiling at Darcie. “So, how did you two meet? Did Viktor come in for a mani-pedi or something?”
Darcie’s giggle rang in the rafters, and Angelika braced herself for a long evening.
“Hey, let me get this tonight, okay?” said Ford, swinging his finger in a loop to include all four. “I’m feeling the love. Get whatever you want.”
“Ooh, that’s nice of you!” Darcie snatched up the wine menu. “Thanks.”
Viktor gave him a thin smile. “You don’t have to do that.”