“Sadie?” Etta’s voice came through the intercom. There was quite a lot of noise, a clunk, and then Etta was back. “Roman is here to see you.”
“You can send him back,” Sadie replied.
Lothario grunted and rolled on his back, falling from the beanbag chair. Seeming to sense that she was having an internal crisis, he stood, did a full body shake, and wandered toward her.
He eyeballed her right foot in that way he did before starting an affair with leather pumps.
“Don’t even think about it,” Sadie said.
Lothario sat next to her foot instead, draping himself over it.
“Good boy. Always go for foreplay first.” She scrubbed at her cheeks with her palms.
Sadie was in a full life-changing-decisions crisis and there was a chihuahua seducing her shoes.
“Everything okay?” Roman asked, leaning against the doorjamb.
“Fine,” Sadie replied, putting on her very best fine expression. The one that involved a hearty smile and burying her feelings.
“That’s not your fine face, sweetie.” Mom moved her attention from Luke to Sadie. “Anyone can see that.”
“I got a job offer from a firm in Chicago,” Sadie said, specifically avoiding Roman’s gaze.
The mood shifted, a new vibe coming from him that Sadie hadn’t felt before. Intense heat that wasn’t about intimacy.
“There’s a Chicago job?” he asked.
“What’s in Chicago that you can’t have here?” Mom asked. “There’s lots here that you can’t have in Chicago.”
“Vhat you need is more business. Hire one of those men on the corner with the arrows pointing to the building.” Babushka pushed past Roman, inserting herself right into the situation. “It vill bring lots of clients.”
“They’re making me an amazing offer…” Sadie’s words trailed off as her gaze lifted to Roman.
“So you’re giving up on this?” He gestured around the room, but she was pretty sure he meant to add himself in there, too.
“Just reassessing,” she said, her voice sounding stronger than she felt. “New opportunity means changing course.”
“Sadie, why don’t we all grab a coffee?” Mom asked.
Sadie shook her head. “Roman and I have an early dinner date with one of his friends.”
“Then why don’t you two talk for a little bit before that?” Marlee suggested.
Marlee took Luke and they left quickly, Lothario on her heels as Mom shut the door behind them.
“Should we go?” Sadie asked, grabbing her purse.
Roman caught Sadie’s arm as she moved by. “There’s an answer here,milaya.”
Sadie moved closer to him, dropping her forehead against his shoulder.
“Is that another fancy Russian way of calling me a hooker?” she asked.
“No.” Roman chuckled. “This one I can say in front of my grandmother.”
“What does it mean?” she asked, searching his face.
She wasn’t totally sure she was ready to hear what it meant. Not yet.
