by Brie Paisley
I hear the door open and I turn around to see Viktor walking in. I watch him struggle a minute with the bags he’s carrying before I decide to go help him out. I grab the one out of his mouth and my eyes stay a bit longer than they should on his lips. I look away before he catches on and I shut the door for him.
“What did you bring her this time?” I ask. He has a bad habit of buying Gabbie things. Not that she needs them. This little girl has everything she could ever want.
“Nothing much, just a few new toys for her to destroy and a few outfits.”
“You know you don’t have to buy her anything.”
“I want to. There’s something in there for you as well.”
I roll my eyes at him knowing he doesn’t always just get Gabbie something. He has been getting me small things too, and sometimes it makes me uncomfortable. I tell him every time that he doesn’t have to get us anything, but he does it anyways. It’s a sweet gesture, one that I won’t take for granted. I start looking through the bags he bought and I see Gabbie’s new toys and her outfits. The outfits are freaking adorable and she will look like the cutest baby in the world in them. I find my gift in the last bag. I pull out the new iPod and I look up at Viktor.
“You shouldn’t have gotten this.” I turn to him with a smile on my face. I’m giddy with excitement he went and got me this.
“Why not? I know how much you love listening to music and this will make your workouts go by faster. Plus you said it’s easier to dance listening to what you want to listen to. Win, win.” He tells me with the shrug of his shoulders.
I can’t believe he remembered me telling him that. It was weeks ago. “Seriously Vik, how much do I owe you?”
He looks at me right before he takes a bite out of his bagel, and his eyes fill with that look I have grown used to. Lust. At least, that’s what I think that sexy look means. “What are you looking at?” I don’t miss his eyes staring at my mouth.
“You called me, Vik.”
“Yeah? Can I not call you that?” I say back while turning away from his intense gaze.
“It’s fine. And you don’t owe me anything. Think of it as an early birthday present.”
“You don’t even know when my birthday is.” I tell him while trying to hide my smile.
“So?”
I throw up my hands in defeat and shake my head. I don’t even know why I bother trying to argue with this man. He never gives in. Ever. He reaches around me to grab his coffee and his arm slightly touches mine. We lock gazes and he grins a mischievous grin. I pull away and walk around to the other side of the island to put some distance between us. I hate it when he does that. I love it when he does that.
Why does he affect me so much?
I watch him go into the living room and he sets his food down to pick up Gabbie who’s since started to wail. She always knows when Viktor’s here. He talks to her in Russian and she instantly stops crying. I walk and sit beside him while he holds Gabbie close to his chest. She tries very hard to grab the bagel he’s eating. She grunts and kicks her little legs, but she quickly gives up when she doesn’t get it after a few times.
“By the way, your new iPod has music on it.”
“I wish you wouldn’t have done that. I don’t like when you buy me things,” I say to him as I grab Gabbie out of his arms. I take a peek at him, wishing I didn’t sound so harsh saying that. I’m just so confused on how to feel about all of this. A part of me loves it when he brings Gabbie and I things. But that other part, doesn’t want to get further involved.
He sighs letting me take her from him. He takes a drink of his coffee and watches me talk to Gabbie. She squeals loudly making me laugh. I blow on her cheeks and make her smile as I make a funny face at her. She loves it, and I could spend all day making her smile at me.
“I think you should let your mom and dad keep her the days you work. It’ll be easier.”
I look at Viktor and then back to Gabbie. I frown as I ask him, “What would I say? Oh I need you to watch your grandbaby while I go and take my clothes off for money?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Just tell them you have to go out of town to do some work for my other branch or something. You don’t have to explain it, Ava. You know they’ll watch her without question. When was the last time they actually spent more than a day with her?”
I think about that for a bit. Honestly, I don’t know when the last time that was. And I know Viktor’s right. I don’t have to explain it, but I still feel the need to tell them. Even if it is a lie. “I’ll call mom later and ask.”
“I wish you wouldn’t have waited until two days before you’re supposed to start. The first day is going to be a lot to take in.”
“Are you trying to talk me out of it?” I say to him and raise an eyebrow.
“You signed the contract already, remember?” he says taking Gabbie from me. I sigh and cross my arms. He’s right and I hate that I know that. It’s his fault for kissing me and making me rush into signing the damn thing. I get up ready to get out of the house and away from Viktor. The longer I’m around him, the urge to touch him or kiss him becomes unbearable.
“I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Alright. It’s no rush.”
I nod and grab my gym bag and walk out the door. I really need the gym today and I can already see Viktor’s face on the punching bag ready for me to blow off some of this steam. That man gets under my skin like no other person I have ever known before.
When I get back home from my workout, I’m tired and sore. I knew I shouldn’t have pushed myself so hard, but I see the payoff from it. Although, I haven’t really let myself look in the mirror, afraid that I’m fooling myself in thinking that I’ve lost all the baby weight from having Gabbie.
I walk inside and I set down my bag by the door. I get a little worried when I don’t hear Gabbie or Viktor. Normally when I come home, I can hear him talking to her or playing with her making her laugh. In the living room, her toys are scattered everywhere. The bags he brought earlier are still on the kitchen island, along with this coffee cup and I see crumbs from his bagel. I sigh knowing now I’ll have to pick up after both of them. I swear Viktor is a child himself. I walk up the stairs and when I don’t see them in Gabbie’s nursery, I start to really worry. Viktor has never taken her out of the house and I don’t think he would without telling me. It may just be that I’m still new at this whole mother thing, but I can’t help but to worry.
I check the guest room and when I see they’re not there either, I go into my room. I open the door and I see both of them. Viktor is laying on his back, hand behind his head with Gabbie on top of him. He has his hand over her little butt and I know she’s passed smooth out. I smile seeing them and when I look up, I see Viktor watching me.
“Hey.”
“Hey, how was the workout?”
“It was good. Why are you in my bed?”
“Seems this is the only place she would take a nap. It’s alright, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. She just never sleeps in here.” I try and look somewhere else. Seeing him in my bed, with my sweet baby girl is really hot. How can something so simple be so sexy when he does it?
“She didn’t want her nap today, so I thought I would try something new.”
I nod and say, “I’m going to shower. You mind?”
“No, go ahead. She just went to sleep, so I’ll move her to her crib in a little bit.”
I don’t say anything while I quickly grab some clothes to take into the bathroom. I can’t look at Viktor laying on my bed anymore. My mind is playing out hot, sexy, and mainly naked scenes of us on there. I don’t look at him holding my baby girl either. Seeing them together makes me want things that I cannot have. Surely Viktor doesn’t do the things he does on purpose? Oh who am I kidding, I know he does. I can tell he wants more, or he did want more, but I can’t give it to him. Malcolm leaving is still too fresh and I don’t think it would be wise to hook up with my boss. Not to mentio
n the fact that I have a legally binding contract saying nothing can happen between us.
I take a quick shower and when I come out fully dressed, my bed is empty. I walk to the nursery seeing Gabbie asleep in her crib. I smooth her hair out of her face, and give her a kiss on the forehead. It still amazes me how much she resembles me. Her hair is the same dirty blonde as mine. Her nose and cheeks are the same. Even her little body is the same as mine and I know she will keep that small frame. The only difference between us, is our eyes. While mine are a dark shade of blue, hers is just like her fathers. Sky blue. I sigh, hating she has his eyes. At least that’s as far as the looks with her dad goes. Not that he’ll ever know that.
I grab the baby monitor and slowly close her door. I walk down the stairs, thinking of what I want to cook for lunch when I literally run into Viktor. “Sorry,” I stammer out and try to walk around him. He of course doesn’t let me pass. I slowly look up to his gaze, and I swallow hard. Why does he have to be my boss? Why do I have to like him this way? “What do you want, Vik? You can go now.”
“Do you want me to go?” I open my mouth to say yes, but the stupid words won’t come out.
“I thought so.” I roll my eyes and push my way past him. I don’t know why he’s acting this way. It clearly says in our contract he cannot touch me, or have any interaction with his employees, but yet here he is. Tormenting me.
“You do realize you’re breaking your own rules,” I tell him making him stop following me.
“YA ne mogu s soboy podelat'. Ty moy soblazn.”
“Viktor, you know I don’t speak freaking Russian. What did you say?” I hate when he does that, but damn it. I love it at the same time.
He shakes his head as he says, “It’s nothing. I’ll pick you up Thursday to take you to the club. Be ready early, so Margo can show you around. I’ll be by tomorrow to watch Gabbie, so you can keep your appointment with the salon and the spa.”
“Who’s Margo? And thanks, I guess,” I say, but he ignores me and walks out the door.
“Ugh! Why me?” I say to myself. I try not to think too much about what just happened. I try not to worry what he said in Russian. He tends to do that a lot when he doesn’t want me knowing what he’s saying.
I walk over to the fridge, trying not to worry about Viktor. I have more things to worry with than him. Like what I’m having for lunch. I grab a yogurt and some fresh berries. I sit down on the stool at the island and eat my food, still trying not to worry over Viktor. It’s useless to keep him off my mind. No matter how hard I try, he’s always there. He’s like a rash that won’t go away. The annoying kind.
I finish eating and put my dishes in the sink. I lean against the counter, wondering again what he said before he left. I should learn Russian. I push myself off the counter and walk over to my gym bag. I grab my phone and try to Google it. I must not be doing something right, because the things Google’s telling me, well I don’t think it means I’m a house plant of some sort.
I give up on Google and I make the call to mom. I really hope she doesn’t push me into telling her about the details of why I need her to keep Gabbie for four days. But I don’t know anyone else to call, or anyone that I trust to watch her for that long.
“Hey, honey, I was just thinking about you.”
“Hi, mom.” I huff out.
“Everything okay? You sound like something’s bothering you.” How does she know?
“I’m fine, mom. Hey, would you mind watching Gabbie Thursday through Sunday?”
“Of course I will, honey! I miss seeing my grandbaby.”
“That’s great, mom. You’re really helping me out. Would you like me to drop her off Thursday afternoon, or do you and dad want to come up early that morning and we can have lunch?”
“We can come up to see you and have lunch. That will be nice! Oh Jeff,” I listen to mom telling dad the plans for them to come over Thursday. He doesn’t really say much like mom does, but I know he’s just as excited to see Gabbie as mom is. They love her just like they love me. Well, they might love her more than me.
“Mom? Mom!”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. What were you saying?”
“Nothing, mom. I just need to go so I can make sure I have enough diapers and things like that for Gabbie. I can come pick Gabbie up on Monday.”
“Alright, honey. We will see you Thursday. I love you.”
“Love you, mom. Tell dad I love him too. Bye.”
I hang up with mom and I go into the living room to pick up the mess Viktor left me. I finish with Gabbie’s things and I make my way back into the kitchen to clean up his breakfast. I toss his empty coffee cup and bagel crumbs into the trash as I tell myself over and over that he isn’t getting to me. I take the bags he brought and take all of Gabbie’s things out and put them away. I sigh once everything is clean and now my mind is free to wander back to Viktor. I keep telling myself I have to close myself off from him. He’ll bring me nothing but trouble and it’s just better this way between us. The thing is, no matter how many times I say this, I can’t help but want him.
After leaving Gabbie with Viktor the next day, I make my way to the day spa and to the salon. I’m not really sure what to expect from the spa. I’ve never been to a spa before, and I’m sort of nervous about it. I almost called mom and begged her to come with me. I knew I was scheduled for a waxing. The thought of someone seeing my full bush then ripping all my hair off down there makes me cringe.
Of course, traffic is light today, and I kind of wanted it heavy. I secretly pray for a traffic jam as I turn onto the busy streets of Nashville. I’m not looking forward to this. I’m not the type of girl who goes to get their hair, or nails done. Ugh. I wish I had fought Viktor harder on this part of the contract. I understand why he wants all of his girls to look clean and polished, but is it really necessary to rip my vagina hair off? At least I have another two hours before I go through my first waxing. I fear it will end up being torturous.
I turn my radio up loud, trying to get the music to calm my nerves. The more I think about today, the more I get nervous about tomorrow night. It’ll be my first night dancing, and taking my clothes off for money. I’m not worried about dancing in front of strangers. I used to do that all the time when I performed while I was a ballet dancer. What I’m nervous about is dancing naked … or topless. Viktor assured me that being full nude was not a part of it, but still. Men seeing me topless is going to be just as nerve racking. I know I have worked hard these past few months to get my body back in shape, but I would be lying if I didn’t worry about all my skin showing for everyone to look at. At least I don’t have to worry about my boobs leaking milk or anything like that. When I first had Gabbie, I tried to breastfeed her, but when I wasn’t producing enough milk, I started feeding her formula.
“Come on Ava, get your shit together,” I say to myself. It’s sad I have to give myself a damn pep talk.
I pull up at the salon and I sit in my car for a few more minutes looking around. There are a lot of cars parked outside and I see people walking in and out. This place looks really busy. I suppose it would be since it’s attached to five other shopping areas. The salon looks small compared to the other stores. There’s a boutique, a shoe store, a Chinese restaurant, some sort of music store, and liquor store. I find the arrangement of stores sort of random and out of place, but what do I know. Maybe the salon thought you could go buy a fifth of vodka if your hair cut was horrible.
I shrug my shoulders as I reach for my bag and get out of the car. I never called for this appointment and I kind of hope they tell me they don’t have me down. But knowing Viktor, he has everything taken care of. I turn and press the lock button on my keys, and I make my way towards the salon.
I push up my sunglasses on the top of my head when I walk inside. The place smells perfumery and like chemicals from the hair dye. I take a look around when I notice the lady at the desk is on the phone. From first impressions, I actually like this place and the homey fee
l. There’s a few chairs covered in nice fabric and beside each chair, they have placed tables with magazines and hair books. I take a seat and pick up one of the magazines, even though I’m not really looking at it, I don’t want to look lost like I feel.
“Can I help you, ma’am?”
I look up to see the receptionist talking to me. Did she really call me ma’am? Do I look old enough to be a ma’am? I walk over to her and move my bag to my other shoulder. “Yeah, I think I have an appointment today.”
“What’s the name?”
“Ava Walker. If not, that’s fine. I was told to come here, but I didn’t call to make the appointment myself.”
“Oh no, you’re right here. Viktor took care of everything for you. Come with me and I’ll show you to your stylist.”
I nod and follow her behind the swinging door. Why am I not surprised Viktor took care of it all? I bet he even paid for it. Knowing him, he told them to give me whatever I wanted. I just need a trim. I’ll have to make sure to tell him a thank you for this. I really don’t want to. I feel the more we talk, the more I’ll be tempted to do other things with him. That absolutely cannot happen.
I follow the receptionist through the maze of hair stations and soon she stops me. “This is Cara, she’ll take care of you today. If you need anything just let her know.”
I smile at the receptionist and thank her. She disappears back to the front and I set my bag down. Cara smiles at me and tells me to sit in her comfy chair. I do as I’m told and I look at her in the mirror. Cara is small just like me. She has long black curly hair with blue eyes. I wonder for a minute if she’s one of the dancers at the club. She definitely has the body for it, but then again, why would she cut hair if she did? She doesn’t say anything as she puts the black cape around my neck and then she leaves. I wonder what she’s up to. I look around for her, curious of what she has planned. I mean I haven’t told her what I want, or how I even want my hair cut. Weird.