| |
––––––––
WHEN I WOKE THE NEXT morning, I knew something was... wrong.
I couldn’t put my finger on it for a second, and I lifted my head from the pillow, looked around, trying to work out if there was something obvious I had missed. The curtains were drawn, and the light that usually woke me was filtered through the heavy fabric. Maybe that was what it was...
It took me a moment to remember why I had drawn the curtain the night before. And then, I remembered – I had been in here, when I had heard something, something that had freaked me out enough that I had decided I wanted to stay under my covers all night.
Was it that? Some remnants of that memory floating through my head, telling me something was wrong when I knew there wasn’t? I was here, I was at home, I had nothing to worry about, and yet...
I climbed out of bed and peered out the window. Outside, everything looked like it always did, and I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I had less to worry about than I had the day before. Yes, it might have been tempting to give in to the fear that wanted to take hold of me, but I had money in that drawer that would keep us out of trouble for at least a little while. That had to count for something, didn’t it?
I got dressed, and headed downstairs to the store – or I was about to, when I noticed something that made me stop dead in my tracks. What the hell was that? The little table next to the door, the one that normally held all of our post and stuff, had been moved. I was sure of it.
Peering at the legs, I saw some marks in the dusty old carpet below that proved exactly what I had been thinking – it had been moved recently. But why? Did my dad do it, or something? Maybe he dropped his keys and needed to grab something from underneath it, I had no idea. I could ask him when I got to the store.
Still, I couldn’t shake that distinct sense of unease as I headed off down the street to the bodega. Something was off, and I hated not knowing what it was. My whole system seemed to be on high alert, and I wondered if it had something to do with the encounter I’d had with Andreas the night before.
It had been... strange, to say the least. And a little hot, too, though there was no way I was ever going to let his cocky ass know I had felt that way about it. Yes, he was a sexy guy, and there was something to be said for the power he had over me too, something that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, but still, that didn’t mean I was going to let anything happen between us.
Even if just because I knew he would take it to mean that he was the irresistibly charming lady’s man he so clearly thought he was. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of thinking he could have any woman he wanted, even though I was sure he could. I was too proud for that, and I was certain it would boost his ego in ways that he sincerely didn’t need.
I pushed my keys into my pocket and was about to go join Dad in the bodega when someone called my name.
“Nadia!”
I wanted to ignore whoever it was – I was too tired for this right now, for dealing with anyone who might have something to say to me, but I knew I wasn’t going to get away that easily. I closed my eyes, pulled myself together, and turned with a smile on my face to see whoever it was. But as soon as I set my gaze on him, my stomach dropped.
“Roger?” I muttered under my breath. I thought he would have learned his lesson after we had booted him out the night before, but judging by the earnest smile on his face, he wasn’t letting me go that easy.
“I thought I would stop by and see you,” he remarked, and I tensed up. Was this the cause of the bad feeling I’d been having before? It certainly felt like it. I had no idea what he thought he was doing here, or why he seemed to think I would be happy to see him after what had happened last night, but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had been so drunk that he hadn’t remembered, or perhaps he was here to apologize for the way he had acted? I couldn’t help but notice the dim shape of a bruise around his left eye, and I wondered if he’d wound up getting into more trouble last night after I had seen him. I sincerely hoped I hadn’t been the cause of it. I didn’t want to be the reason anyone got into trouble.
“Um, okay,” I replied, wrapping my arms around myself protectively. Something about the smile on his face seemed a little manic to me, and it was freaking me out. I didn’t like him here, so close to where I lived. He didn’t know exactly where I stayed, but still – he must have been hanging around long enough to see me come out of my apartment building. I shivered at the thought.
“Yeah, maybe I could get you some breakfast?” he suggested.
“I’ve already eaten,” I lied quickly. No way was I letting this guy think he had even the sliver of a hint of a chance with me. I got the feeling that he was the type to get his claws in and not let go for anything, even if he had been told no a hundred times over.
I wasn’t sure what it was about me that seemed to have gotten him so interested, but I needed to shut it the hell down. I put a smile on my face, knowing it was best not to piss guys like this off – once they had decided they liked you, it wasn’t easy to push them off that scent, and I had to go about it carefully and without putting myself in danger in the process.
“You got back late last night,” he remarked, sounding surprised. “I didn’t think you’d have time to eat anything yet.”
“Well, I did,” I replied. How the hell did he know what time I had gotten back last night? Had he been watching me? Had he been following me? My head was filled with questions, but I knew the only thing that mattered was getting him the hell out of here. He was being a creep, but I doubted he knew how freaky he was acting right now – he likely just imagined himself as this guy who was trying to be nice, and those were always the ones who caused the most trouble.
“Maybe another time, then,” he remarked. He sounded a little annoyed. I guessed I was fucking up the fantasy he had made about the two of us, where I would swoon into his arms and apologize for what had happened the night before while he got me coffee and learned my breakfast pastry order by heart.
I crossed my arms and didn’t reply. I knew he would read anything I did into the fantasy he was building in his head, and I just wanted him to go.
“Well, I have to go see my dad,” I told him, and I turned to walk away. I realized my palms were sweating as I left, my body trying to tell me that this guy was some seriously bad news, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself just then. For the time being, I could pretend he was nothing more than some idiot who thought he was being charming when he was actually coming off as a total creeper, and hopefully, he would stay at that level.
I didn’t give him a chance to say anything else. I would need to talk to someone at the club, make sure he didn’t make a habit of turning up there and trying to make me spend time with him. Hopefully, I would be busy training all the girls up and I wouldn’t have time for whatever shit he was trying to pull. But honestly, he was the last thing I needed, on top of everything else. Like there weren’t enough problems, confusions, and complications in my life already as it was...
I arrived at the store, and found Dad waiting for me. He had a smile on his face, that I wasn’t much used to seeing, but I couldn’t help but return it, glad to see him so happy.
“Good afternoon,” he greeted me, coming around the counter to give me a hug.
“What’s gotten into you?” I asked as I pulled back and looked him up and down, trying to figure out just what had gotten him in such a good mood.
“I’d like to take you out for dinner tonight,” he told me. “To celebrate your new job.”
My eyes widened. I was certain he had nothing but disdain for the new line of work that I had found myself in, but all at once, it seemed like he had unlocked something to brighten his mood.
“You’re serious?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Very.”
“I would... I would love that,” I replied at once. I couldn’t remember the last time the two of us had been able to spend time together that wasn’t under the heavy shadow of remembering everything that was happening in our lives at the moment – all the money stress, all the fear, everything that had come with it. I didn’t want to let anything get away from me, though, and I wasn’t about to allow him to spend anything on me that we couldn’t afford.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to – I mean, I know we don’t have much spare money...”
“It’s taken care of,” he replied. Okay, now this was getting even stranger. How could it be taken care of? We didn’t have a speck of extra cash to our name, even less so now that Andreas had come in and tried to take what little we had left. It wasn’t like we had money just kicking around.
“You sure?” I asked. He nodded.
“I’m sure.”
I took a deep breath. Maybe a friend of his had offered him a spot at one of their restaurants, or something like that – he clearly wanted to treat me, and I would be an asshole to deny him the opportunity. Finally, I smiled.
“That sounds lovely.”
“Wonderful,” he replied. “We’re leaving at seven. I’ll see you down here then?”
“Of course,” I replied. He wasn’t asking me to step in and help with the store? He must have been in a good mood. I wasn’t going to waste it – I headed back to the apartment to take a long bath, scrubbing the remnants of the day off of me, and took my time getting ready.
It wasn’t like I was dressing up for anything fancy, but I still wanted to make the very most of it that I could. My father had been kind enough to share this celebration with me – which was even more profound knowing he didn’t particularly care for the line of work I was going into – and I wanted to be able to switch off for a while and just spend time with him without worrying every second about what was going on or how we were going to get through it.
I picked out a long dress that skimmed my ankles and a pair of comfortable flats, glad I didn’t have to worry about stomping around in heels that would make my feet ache for the rest of the night, and I headed downstairs to join him. My father smiled as soon as he saw me.
“You look lovely, darling.”
“Thank you,” I replied, and I smiled back. Okay, there really was something going on here, because I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen him so happy. I almost wanted to ask what it was that had gotten him in such a good mood, but I figured he would have told me if he wanted me to know. Right now, he just wanted to treat me to a night out, and I wasn’t going to argue with that.
A car was waiting for us outside, and I climbed in, my mind racing as I tried to work out how my father could have afforded all of this. We were scraping cash together at the best of times, and now, all of a sudden, he seemed to have come up with enough money for us to go out with? It didn’t add up. I needed to get to the bottom of it. But I wasn’t sure how I could, without ruining the moment and getting in the way of his good time.
We were driven across town to a gorgeous Italian restaurant, and I slipped out of the car, staring at the glitzy gilding around the doorway and the well-dressed doorman waiting for us.
“Dad, you have to tell me,” I announced, finally. “How did you manage all of this?”
“A friend called in a favor,” he replied, touching my arm comfortingly. “Don’t worry, I’m not bankrupting myself for this.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m certain.”
I took a deep breath and let it out. I had to trust him. I had to believe him, and that was the end of it. I slipped my arm through his, and promised myself I wasn’t going to ask any more questions about tonight. It was finally a chance for us to forget everything that had been happening and have a little fun, spend some quality time together as father and daughter. And God only knew how much we needed that right now.
We were led to a table inside, and I tried not to peer too hard at the people at the tables around us. All of them looked as though they could have walked straight off a movie set or a fashion runway, and I glanced down at my second-hand dress again, wondering if they could tell I didn’t belong or if I was doing a good enough job of pretending that I fit in.
“What can I get for you, sir?” the waiter asked my father. The menu didn’t even have prices on it; I supposed that, if you had to ask, the answer was that it was all too expensive for you. My father didn’t hesitate, though. Whoever was covering this for him, they must have promised to take care of every little detail and ensure that he didn’t have to worry about a single bit of it.
I picked out a pasta bake dish that I was sure would taste delicious, and I fidgeted at the table, hoping I didn’t look as out-of-place as I felt. Honestly, it was all just so much; I wanted to ask my father what it was he had done to earn a place at a table like this, but I knew that would have rather gotten in the way of his upbeat attitude. I wasn’t meant to ask, I was just meant to enjoy, and maybe it would do me good to remember how to let go and just have some fun this evening.
The food arrived, and it was so absurdly delicious that I took my time over every single bite – I didn’t want to miss a single taste of the flavors that spread over my tongue, and I savored each and every morsel.
“It’s wonderful food, isn’t it?” my father asked warmly, as he watched me enjoying my meal from the other side of the table. I nodded.
“It really is,” I agreed. “I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere this fancy before.”
“I brought your mother somewhere like this the night I proposed to her,” he remarked. I felt a warmth in my chest; it wasn’t often that he talked about my mother, and when he did, it usually indicated he was in a good mood.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, we had champagne, and I hid the ring in the dessert,” he remarked, his eyes clouding over for a moment as he thought back on all of it. I loved hearing him talk about her – I knew they loved each other more than anything else in the world, but sometimes, it felt as though my father was doing his best to forget that she existed, because the memory of her was too painful to comprehend. I loved these stories, when he chose to share them, the little details of their lives together that had existed before I had come along. They’d lived a whole lifetime before I was born, and I wished I could hear about every second of it.
“And she almost swallowed it,” he continued, shaking his head with amusement. “I had to stop her biting down on it and breaking her tooth.”
I laughed. I could imagine my mother, unthinkingly taking a bite out of her cherry pie or whatever it was, nearly swallowing her engagement ring whole before she realized the man opposite her was asking her to spend her life with him.
We finished our meals and lingered over dessert; I didn’t want to have to go back to reality after this, to the store and to that new job I had at the club. It wasn’t that I was utterly miserable in my real life, but God, this break from it had been something I had needed so badly, and I hadn’t even realized it until now. Sometimes, I just needed to forget the amount of stress that I was under.
A waiter approached the table with a bottle of champagne, and I was about to politely tell him he must have the wrong people because there was no way we could have afforded that – but he planted down on the table, and pulled out a couple of glasses for the two of us.
“I – did you order this?” I asked my father, and he shook his head at once.
“I don’t think so...”
“Compliments of Mister Salieri,” the waiter explained. And as soon as I heard that name come out of his mouth, my stomach hit the floor, and I felt like I was going to bring up every ounce of food I’d had since I’d arrived here.
I stared at my father for a moment. Wait, was this who had managed to get the table for him? Was this why we were here tonight? I looked around – this place screamed Andreas. It had his sense of style, his richness, his wealth all over at. And, as soon as I turned back to my father, I could tell from the look on his face that I had it spot on.
“Please tell me you didn’t let Andreas Salieri pay for dinner for us,” I muttered to him. I was begging him, silently, to tell me I was wrong, that I was talking crazy and I needed to pull myself together before I attracted the attention of the other patrons.
But he shrugged, looked away from me, and I knew there was no other way that he could deny it. There was nobody else he knew who would have been able to get him in to a place like this, and I was spitting, imagining Andreas booking us a table, knowing my father wouldn’t turn down the chance to treat me.
I slumped back in my seat as the waiter popped the champagne and poured us both a glass. I couldn’t believe this. The best night I’d had with my father in so long, and it had come courtesy of the man I couldn’t stand? Yeah, there was no way I was going to be able to handle this – I needed to go to him and make sure he understood that he didn’t get to call the shots when it came to my life.
I picked up the champagne and took a long sip. If I was going to have the nerve to confront him, then I was going to have to make sure I was at least a little tipsy. And to make sure I told him every little thing that I thought about him – whether or not it cost me my job. Because there was no way I was going to let this man get so involved in my life without a fight.
