Page 47
His words feel like a slap in the face.
Vadim stares at me for a long time. His steely gaze searches my drawn expression for some semblance of an answer.
“Go home, Alma.”
When I don’t react, he turns on his heels and walks back to his car.
***
What was that woman doing in his passenger seat?
Alone with my bowl of Chinese noodles, I try to separate fact from fiction, but I’m completely dazed. By this seemingly endless day. By my conversation with Raphaël. By the one with Basile. But above all, by the words Vadim threw in my face: “Not ready for me.”
If he only knew.
I’ve never been more ready.
I’m half asleep on my couch, the TV on and the Friends theme song playing in the background, when the doorbell rings.
If it’s him, I swear I’ll never let anyone come between us again.
Never again!
It is him standing on the other side of my front door, in that Important Man suit of his, his tie undone and one hand running nervously through his hair.
“May I?”
His voice has softened, and he’s no longer looking at me as though I’m the enemy. So, I nod and motion for him to come in. I close the door behind him and follow him into the living room. The same living room where we made love, drank each other in, and found each other again not so long ago.
“No one else.” Sitting on my couch, his arms stretched out behind him, legs crossed, Vadim says those words as if he repeated them a hundred times on the way here.
“Excuse me?”
“You + Me, nothing else.”
I stare at him, my heart beating wildly.
“No more flings. No more seeing other people. No more flirting with anyone else. We’ll keep our relationship secret, but I want us to be exclusive. I won’t share you, Alma.”
Those are the words I had secretly dreamed of hearing.
“Vadim, there’s no one else but you. But that’s because it’s what I chose, not anyone else.”
“Perfect,” he says with a smile that flusters me.
He stands up and moves closer to me, but I slip away just as quickly.
“Wait, why ‘secret’?”
“Because our relationship concerns only us, Alma. Not the company. Not the press. Not the Lancaster clan.”
“No outside pressure,” I think aloud. “No having to answer to anyone. That works for me.”
“And this Raphaël… What does he want with you?”
“He’s been out of my life for a long time. He and I are in the past.”
“Does he feel the same way?”
