The day worsens. In the afternoon, she has a chemistry lab, and my fuck, if Zeno believes faking this class is possible, he has another thing coming, considering all the hands-on work.
Thankfully, the professor pulls me aside and takes pity on me, explaining she understands, says I can sit by the side and observe or wait in the hall. Preferring to remain in sight of Serafina, I take the offer of a chair.
Throughout the day, Serafina speaks to no one, keeping her head low. She doesn’t seem to look at anyone to strike a conversation, like she’s shy.
During the lab, I find my attention on her more than it should be, considering her boyfriend isn’t around. She’s a conundrum, going against everything Zeno described her as being, which aligned with her social media. Other than a few verbal punches, she’s been—dare I think it?—pleasant. In many ways, Iwantedher to be a pain-in-my-ass so my wonder could be sated.
When we return to the dorm that late afternoon, Serafina mutters something about getting a head start on an essay a professor already assigned and disappears into her room until supper.
Supper passes quickly, and she sits alone, making me wonder what happened to her friend. She barely looks my way until we’re back inside the dorm, where I take up my work again, striking up a text conversation with Dimitri.
Serafina eventually claims her spot on the couch, only instead of turning on the TV, she twists my way. My attention remains on my laptop even as her eyes burn into my cheek.
“What are you always working on?”
Something you probably shouldn’t know about.“The man who kidnapped you?—”
“Vanessa’s uncle, Ivan Volkov,” she interjects, voice soft.
“Da. He’s taken off to Canada. His son, Dimitri—you would have briefly seen him the day we came for Vanessa at your brother’s villa—is searching for him. I’m doing what I can to help from here.”
She stares at my laptop for three seconds before pursing her lips. “Which is?”
“It was tracking his phone, but he got rid of it, so now I’m searching for a list of criminal groups in the city who may be willing to help Dimitri.”
“Huh. That wasn’t what I expected you to say.”
And then, she does somethingIdon’t expect and scoots closer.Tooclose, her knee only a couple inches from my thigh. Peach and vanilla demolish my senses and my will. If it was physically possible for a brain to immediately forget everything it knows, then mine is very close to doing that.
“So, you’re actually working? Like the kinds of things you’d be doing if you were home.”
“If you’re asking about jobs outside guarding the Cosa Nostraprintessa, thenda, I do other things.”
She scowls. “Told you, I’m not a princess.”
“Good translation.”
“It’s like you think I’m dumb or something.” She scrunches her face, her hand coming up to feign brushing hair back when she’s actually trying to block herself from view—something I don’t like. “You wouldn’t be the first,” she mumbles, stabbing the knife into my gut a bit deeper.
“Dumb? After experiencing today, you are anything but dumb. The content of your classes is crazy. I apologize for my comment, because that isn’t what I think of you at all, and if anyone has said shit like that to you in the past, send me a list so I can take care of them.”
If only I didn’t mean that.
Her hand slowly drops away from her face, but strands still shield some of her. “Thanks, Lev,” she whispers. “I’m sure it was terrible. Especially having to work on this couch, rather than your set-up at home.”
It’s terrible.“It’s tolerable.”It’s worth it.
When she lowers her head onto a crooked arm propped on the back of the couch, I return to my task and feign focus. Sheshifts until there’s only an inch now between us, and studies the Toronto Police Service’s records, a system I hacked a week ago.
“It’s weird,” she murmurs after a moment. “Looking back, I never imagined being in this scenario. The first time I saw you was when you all came for Vanessa, but it doesn’t feel like it. The kidnapping feels like the first, since I blocked the other instance out. It didn’t really count, since we didn’t talk.”
When Zeno captured Vanessa, he took her to his villa outside of Rome, but Anastasia, Dimitri, and I, along with a few men, stormed the place to save her.
“Sorry about that,” I find myself uttering, even if I’m not sorry for saving Vanessa. Serafina, by shitty coincidence, was taken to the mansion by Zeno so Vanessa could see the extent of Ursin’s villainy and got caught up in the fight. “Was that your first time with a gun pointed at you?”
“Would have preferred it to be my one and only, but we both know how that went.” She snorts, gauging my humour, but I don’t react.
“Were you scared?”
