by Alexa Davis
"I don't know, Nat," I shrugged. "He might have been, but I don't think it was him this time. I think he's lost control of the younger ones and that's why he's cracking down on me and Kristov." I told her about my father's promise and my brother's visit to the shop.
"Man, that's fucked up, Max," she said shaking her head. "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know; what can I do?" I asked. "I'm going to run the shop for as long as I can, and then when things get unbearable, maybe I'll just disappear and never come back."
"I'd miss you if you did that," she said punching me lightly.
"I'd take you with me, if you wanted to go, Nat," I told her. "And, you know that."
"What, and leave all of this?" She grinned. "Nah, I'm good. Pop left me enough money to last me a lifetime and the bratán now know that I'm off limits. I couldn't leave Mama or Babi. How would they survive without me?"
"Good point," I nodded. "But still, the offer stands."
"And, I love you for that, Max," she said standing on tiptoe to kiss my cheek. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me."
I pulled her to me and held her tightly against my chest for a moment before letting go and heading into the bathroom.
"What do you want for dinner?" she called on her way out of the bedroom. "I'm thinking Italian. How does that sound?"
"Order whatever you want," I yelled. "I don't care."
I stood under the hot water for a long time, letting it pound on my head as I tried to figure out how I could extract myself from my father's plan to pull me into his business. I couldn't see a way out that would allow me the freedom I desperately desired. My worst fear was that I would have to drop everything and simply disappear, but I knew that if it came down to it, I would choose disappearing on my own terms over those of my father.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Lexi
When I arrived home after meeting with Peter, Viv was curled up on the couch snuggling Anna and talking to her about the latest issue of In Style. I laughed when I saw Anna sitting on Viv's stomach, patting the pages of the magazine as Viv rattled off the benefits of each skin care product listed in the article she was reading.
Viv was a makeup artist for a well-known line in one of the local department stores and she moonlighted with a number of theaters in the city. It was the perfect job for someone as social and outgoing as she was, and she had a mind like a steel trap, which made it possible for her to remember thousands of products and immediately discern which one was right for which person. It also made her an excellent person for me to run my lines with since she quickly recognized any mistakes and lovingly pointed them out to me. There had been times during college when I'd wondered if our roles should be flipped and that Viv should be the actor, but she'd reassured me that she had zero desire to be on stage. She wanted to be behind the scenes – not in them.
"Honey, I'm home!" I called as I walked through the door. Viv looked up and smiled as Anna chirped loudly and hopped up onto the back of the couch. I walked over and scooped her up, causing her to meow loudly before mushing my shoulder and drooling on it as she purred in my ear. "Wow, this is an awesome welcoming committee."
"And, dinner is in the oven," Viv told me as she set the magazine down and got up off of the couch. "You hungry?"
"Starving," I said. "We were too busy to take a lunch break, and then I got involved in some Josh drama and was too mad."
"Josh drama? Do tell," she said as she moved toward the kitchen.
"Let me change out of these clothes first," I called as I headed down the hallway to the bedroom. Anna protested loudly when I set her down on the bed. I laughed as I scolded her, "Oh behave, little one; I can't carry you around everywhere!"
When we returned to the front room, Viv had brought two plates loaded with ribs, potato salad, coleslaw, and cornbread out into the living room. She'd opened a bottle of zinfandel and poured two very generous glasses to go with the meal.
"Now, spill the details!" she demanded as she handed me a plate and a fork then sat down on the couch and dug in.
I spent the next half hour telling her everything that had happened that day, including the tension that I felt building between Max and me. Despite the stress of the call from Josh, I still couldn't stop thinking about how it had felt to be so close to my handsome boss. And I wondered out loud what he would be like without the suit on.
"You should find out, Lex," she urged. "I mean, how often do you meet a rich, handsome guy who owns a jewelry store? And, if he's smart, all the better!"
"Don't get so worked up about it, Viv," I warned. "It's just a temp job for a few weeks until he can hire a professional salesperson to take over. I'm not going to be around long enough for him to get attached to me, and I'm not ready to hop into another relationship. Hello? Josh just dumped me!"
"Oh please, Josh had been dumping you for years," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "You just chose not to see it. Now you're free, and I think that this boss of yours is the perfect guy to rebound with! I mean, he's handsome, rich, and he obviously likes you or he wouldn't have hired you for this job!"
"Viv, let's not go overboard here," I warned. "He hired me because he had few other choices. I was a poor substitute for a real salesperson, but I looked good enough to play the part. That's all this is — me playing a role for a guy who needs to run a business."
"Pshaw! He's going to fall head over heels for you before the end of your employment," she said. I raised an eyebrow and stared at her. "Okay, well, maybe not head over heels, but he's going to be smitten."
"You are an eternal optimist, Viv," I laughed as she held out a wet-nap for me to wipe my face with.
"I'm just a romantic dreamer," she countered, batting her lashes as she wiped her face. "I believe in true love and all the magic it entails."
"You're certifiable," I laughed. Anna hopped into my lap and patted my arm. I looked down at her and smiled as I picked her up and cuddled her, "And, you are a good, sweet girl! Spoiled, but a good, sweet girl."
Viv smiled and then changed the subject. For the next hour, she told me all about the impossible clients she'd worked with during the day and the new job she'd landed with one of the theaters in Edgewater. We laughed about the things actors had in common with everyday folks who visited her counter at the store, and then we spent another two hours running my lines while Anna hopped between us, batting at the scripts.
"This is so dark!" Viv remarked as we ran through the scene in which Hedda encourages Eilert to commit suicide and gives him the pistol with which to do it.
"I know, but it's such an intimate look at the psychology of women in the nineteenth century!" I said excitedly.
"Nineteenth century, hell, it's the twenty-first century, too," she said as she looked at the next portion of the script. "This has every dramatic element of a good reality television show."
"Ibsen would turn over in his grave if he heard you say that," I replied.
"If he knew what a television was," she shot back and we both collapsed into a fit of laughter.
Two hours later, Viv and I called it a night. She had agreed to sleep over and do my makeup in the morning so that I looked flawless for the first day of sales at the store. I was grateful that she would be there in the morning to help me get ready and calm my nerves.
Anna, however, was confused and spent the night traveling between my bed and the couch, chirping happily at having two warm bodies to snuggle with.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Max
I woke up before dawn the next morning feeling tense and anxious about the store's opening day. I'd taken out plenty of ads in the daily papers and paid a great deal of money to online promoters to set up Facebook accounts and Twitter feeds and to get the Malin brand name out into the public. I was hoping that the grand opening would provide me with a chance to get to know the type of customers who would be shopping at the store and maybe even ferret out a few big spenders from the get go.
I knew tha
t if Papa got wind of an opening that was less than stellar, it would make him bolder in his attempt to force me back into the family business, and I didn't want to leave him even the slightest opening. I thought about Kristov's visit and wondered how I could help my brother while maintaining my own, separate identity. I knew he needed me much more than I needed him, and that his ability to succeed was now completely dependent on my willingness to come back and serve the family.
I quickly showered and dressed before drinking the coffee Natalia had set up for me the night before. She never stayed the night with me. She said she needed the space and comfort of her own bed, but I knew that it was also her way of keeping a safe distance between us out of the fear that one of us would get too attached. She was odd that way, but I loved her for her pragmatism.
I called my driver and told him that we were going to make a detour before heading to the store. He nodded and drove north to Babi's. I stopped at a small flower shop and bought her a bouquet of the mixed summer flowers that she loved before we reached her flat. Despite the early hour, she was already outside sweeping the walk. Many of her neighbors thought she was a crazy old lady, but I knew that part of the reason Babi swept was to keep an eye on the neighborhood kids. She didn't trust the gangs that ran in the neighborhood, but they were well aware that she was Vladimir Malinchenko's mother so they tended to steer clear when she was out. Babi saw her sweeping as a contribution to keeping the community kids safe from the violence that Russian gangs brought to the neighborhood, allowing them to hang on to their childhood for just a little longer.
Knowing how the gangs operated, I'd scolded Babi for being so reckless. That is, until she reached inside the pocket of the floral apron she always wore while sweeping and showed me that she carried a small pistol my father had bought for her. The handle was mother-of-pearl and there was a Russian orthodox cross etched into it. After that, I didn't worry as much.
"Good morning, Babi!" I called as I got out of the car and headed up the walk.
"Maksimka! What are you doing here? Doesn't your store open today?" she asked with a worried look. "Why are you here?"
"Babi, I have a problem," I said. I knew I was taking a risk in spilling the problem to my father's mother, but I also knew that if anyone could see a way out of this dilemma, it would be my grandmother.
"Come in and tell me what you need while I fix breakfast for you," she said as she climbed the porch stairs.
"I'm okay, Babi. I don't need breakfast," I protested.
"Pshaw! Everyone needs breakfast," she said, waving her hand at me. "Come upstairs while I cook and we will talk."
I followed her into the kitchen and watched as she poured me a steaming mug of coffee and then quickly whipped up batter and began making thin crepes, which she flipped onto a plate and urged me to eat while they were still hot. Watching Babi cook was like watching a tornado. You couldn't believe what you were seeing until it was all over.
"Eat! Eat!" she yelled at me as she flipped yet another perfectly browned circle out of the pan and onto the plate in front of me. "These don't keep, so you need to eat them while they're hot!"
I told her the story of my meeting with my father and the visit from Kristov as I chewed on the hot crepes filled with blueberry jam. She didn't say much as I spoke. She only asked a few questions and then went silent. When she had run out of batter and had flipped the last crepe onto the stack still remaining on the plate, she turned and looked at me.
"Maksimka, I know you want me to talk to your father," she began in a voice weighted down by family obligation and love. "But I'm not going to do it. Do you know why I'm not going to do it?"
"No, Babi," I shook my head.
"I'm not going to do it because your father is the head of this family and he has the right to make the decisions he needs to make in order to keep us all safe," she said carefully. "I'm not going to interfere with his ability to run his business."
"Okay, Babi, I understand." I was disappointed that there was no one in our family strong enough to stand up to my father and convince him that making me become part of the vory v zakone was a terrible idea. I would have to find another way.
"However." The word hung over the table like a cloud of hope. "However, I will talk to the priest at my church and see if he can work it into the sermon."
I looked at my grandmother with wide eyes because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My Babi, a Russian orthodox Catholic who went to church every morning and twice on Sunday's, was going to ask her priest to intervene in a mafia family's business. My father would have a fit.
"Babi, I don't think that's such a good idea," I said hesitatingly. "I don't think Papa will like it, and more than that, I don't think he'll even hear it!"
"Oh, he'll hear it all right," she told me with a twinkle in her eye and a smile playing around her lips. "He'll hear it from all the babushkas over on the West side who come here for mass on Sundays. They'll take the message back and pound their own kids over the heads with it and those kids are parents of kids your age, and they are cronies of your father."
"Babi, that's so crazy, it might just work," I said, looking at her in amazement.
"Oh please, give me a break, Maksimka," she said waving me off with feigned disgust. "How do you think we made kids behave in the old country before all this technology made your brains soft?"
I laughed at her admission, took a swig of coffee, and got up. Babi quickly wrapped up the leftovers and put them in a neat container for me.
"Thank you, but I've got enough for lunch," I said looking at her confused.
"Not for you, Maksimka, for your poor driver who is out there starving to death in the car!" she scolded as she smacked my behind and then patted my cheek. "You have so much to learn."
I leaned down, gathered her in a tight hug, and held her long enough that I felt the emotions begin to well up inside me. I understood my grandmother's feelings about family and loyalty and I didn't dispute the fact that they were essential to the continuation of the family tradition, but I couldn't bear the thought of being trapped by an outdated notion of loyalty and I didn't want to be caught in the deadly business that my father dealt in. Not even for my Babi.
"Remember, Maksimka," Babi said as she pressed her hand against my cheek. "Ty nasha radast."
"I know, Babi, but I don't feel like I can make anyone very happy right now," I said as I walked to the door. "I'll keep trying, though."
She smiled at me as I looked at her over my shoulder, and then she turned back to the sink and started to do the dishes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Lexi
I chose another form-fitting wrap dress, this time in emerald green, to wear for the store's grand opening. Viv did a smoky eye and neutral lipstick before pronouncing me drop dead gorgeous and then told me to leave my hair down. I questioned her judgment and told her that I was going to work, not a nightclub, and that the smoky eye was dramatic enough as I pulled my hair back into a loose bun at the nape of my neck.
I didn't own any really nice jewelry and I didn't feel like today was the right day for my bold fakes, so I slipped on my watch and the necklace that Max had given me on my first day and decided that the makeup and dress would have to do. Anna was beside herself as she chirped and hopped around the bathroom while I got ready. Viv laughed when the kitten tried to jump into the shower with her, but fell backwards onto the soft bathmat. Anna haughtily marched out of the bathroom, humiliated by her ordeal, but was quickly soothed with a fresh bowl of kitten food and a snuggle under my chin.
An hour after we'd woken up, Viv and I exited the apartment and headed in opposite directions. She told me I looked like a knock out before she turned and headed toward Michigan Avenue. I walked to the El stop, this time certain that I'd grabbed my wallet. Ten minutes later, I got off the train at Wabash and headed to the store. As I descended the stairs from the platform, I ran through the list of all of the things I'd learned about gems and jewelry. Max had been good about tuto
ring me as we worked, but my brain felt overloaded with the information on top of the words I had to remember for my audition, and I felt nervous about trying to sell.
When I buzzed the office to be let in, I noticed that the name of the shop had been painted on the window in large gold letters. It looked classic and simple, and when I pushed open the door and stepped onto the sales floor, I got a rush of excitement as I realized that this was what our customers would be seeing for the first time today. Large glass cases stood at attention and shined brilliantly under the chandelier lights hanging from the ceilings. Everything in the cases sparkled and dazzled under the lights and I inhaled deeply as I took it all in. The sales floor looked like a wonderland of exotic jewels and metals, and I instantly knew we were going to be a hit.
"Lexi, are you okay?" Max called from the back room. "What's going on?"
"I'm coming!" I called as I quickly headed toward his office and set my bag down in the corner. "Where are you?"
"In the store room getting the diamonds," he answered. "Come help me, please?"
When I entered the storeroom, I gasped. Max was wearing a navy blue suit that fit him like a glove. His dress shirt was a shade of blue I'd never seen before and it matched his eyes perfectly, making them even more mesmerizing than usual. He'd let his hair go a little wilder than usual, giving him the look of a thoughtful artist. I was rendered mute and couldn't look away.
"Um, good morning," he finally said.
"Good morning," I replied as I stared up at him, unable to tear my gaze away from his handsome face.
"Are you ready to sell today, Lexi?" he asked in a voice that made me shiver.
"Uh huh," was all I could manage in response before he handed me a stack of display boxes that contained our diamonds.
"Why don't you start putting these out on the floor and I'll bring the rest out to you," he said as he turned back to the safe and began pulling out more cases.