10 | Avoidance

AS I SLEPT BESIDE JONAH, a chaste distance between our curled up bodies, my phone rang. Thankfully it was on silent, so the only evidence I had was was a low buzzing sound.

I snapped it up before the blue light of the screen could wake up Jonah, cradling it to my chest until it stopped. I didn't answer, because I knew. Somehow, I knew who it was.

Then the buzzing cut out, and all that remained was silence. I peered at the screen. Alexei. I'd saved his number last time he called. And it turned out he'd done so again, twelve more times while I was asleep. A jolt of nerves shot through my stomach. He struck me as the sort of person who always got what he wanted, and he seemed hell bent on getting me to answer his calls.

There were a thousand reasons he could be calling. He might want to dispose of me, to ensnare me into a meeting just so he could kill me. Or maybe he wanted me to sign some sort of a contract guaranteeing  my silence. Did...his sort of people have those? Like the official secrets act, but less official and far more weighty?

My half asleep brain ran over the possibilities feverishly until at last I had to force myself to stop. I put my phone on do not disturb and shut it in the top drawer of the night stand.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep that night. Little did I know, it was the first night of many that I would stay up because of Alexei.

**

Two weeks passed and I was still regularly receiving phone calls from Alex. I'd gotten pretty good at ignoring them, I'd admit. My phone was on silent almost all of the time, meaning that if i was lucky I wouldn't even realise he was phoning me.

Unfortunately, however, Alexei made it almost impossible to avoid his calls altogether. There was no pattern to them, no specific times that allowed me to preempt them. They came almost constantly, within the space of a couple of hours. Sometimes there would be a large gap between them of nothingness, letting me get my hopes up. It never lasted long.

During one of those particular times, I was at work. Lena and I were just about to grab a break when we stumbled upon Alex leaned against the reception desk. He was in one of his dashing suits, with the jacket tucked under one arm. Instead of crisp white, his shirt was light blue and pinstriped.

The moment she saw him Lena knew who he was. I had told her about what happened at the party (leaving out unnecessary details) and she even knew about his frequent calls that I was bent on ignoring.

"Grace," Lena hissed under her breath as I kept walking in a straight line past Alexei. I put my head down and glared at the floor. "Grace."

"Shh," I whispered back, shooting my friend an annoyed glare.

Unfortunately I was halted in my steps by a pair of smart, shiny shoes appearing in front of me. I looked up to find Alex.

"You've been avoiding my calls," he said and I blushed.

"I'm at work," I told him politely.

"And I'm a busy man. You've wasted a lot of my time." He didn't sound angry, but rather perplexed.

"I'm sorry-" I said too quickly. "I thought you'd have..." I couldn't even finish my sentence from embarrassment. Blanking someone virtually was easy, but in person it proved to be much more difficult. I didn't want to offend anyone; I just wanted Alex to leave me alone. "I thought you'd have got the message," I sighed.

"I got no message, because you didn't send me one."

"I know, but-" out of the corner of my eye I saw Lena try to sneak away. I grabbed her arm and hauled her back. "Not answering was the message."

Alexei checked his watch. "We need to talk."

"I'm at work."

"When you finish."

"I'm busy," I blurted, and my cheeks burned even brighter. I was a shitty liar.

A crooked smile ghosted across Alexei's lips, as though he was amused by something. Then his dark brows furrowed. The intensity of his gaze electrified my pulse. "You can't avoid me forever, Grace," he mused. His voice was light, yet there was something darker in his tone that I didn't fail to catch. It was musical and deadly.

"Well," I said a little breathlessly. I still hadn't let go of Lena's arm. "I can try."

Without looking back I dragged my best friend into the cafeteria, leaving Alex behind. The skin on my back prickled as I anticipated him following. I could hear my heart pounding, hoping that he would.

He didn't.

Half of me was relieved. And the other half...well. The other half didn't matter. The other half couldn't matter. I'd spent the better part of two years waiting around for Alex, and he'd never called. Now I was with Jonah.

"Okay," Lena started as I placed a plastic cup under the coffee machine in the cafeteria. "What the hell was that?"

"What?" I didn't look at her.

"That." She gestured back through the door we had just emerged from. "You spent years bitching and moaning about that man, waiting for him to call. Now he turns up to your work place and you completely blank him? I don't understand."

"There's nothing to understand," I said with a shrug. "I have a boyfriend."

"That doesn't mean you're not allowed to speak to anybody else of the male species!"

"I know." I threw a spoonful of sugar into my coffee. "I just don't want to speak to him, specifically."

"Why not?" Lena demanded and I sighed.

"Because."

"Oh no, no you don't!" I threw a lid onto my coffee cup and tried to walk away but Lena planted herself right in front of me. My jaw clenched. "You do not get to palm me off with 'because', I know you better than that, and something is going on here."

"Nothing is going on," I insisted and she groaned. "Seriously-"

"You might want to brush your teeth, Grace, because I can smell bullshit on your breath."

"I told you, I just don't want to see him."

"Yeah, and I don't want to marry Alex Turner," she snorted sarcastically and I rolled my eyes.

"Well, Alex Turner isn't-" I caught myself before saying something stupid but Lena's eyes narrowed.

"Isn't what?"

"Alexei," I finished lamely.

"No," she agreed, "he's not. Alex Turner is a lyrical genius and also the hottest man in existence, not a suit-wearing banker. But Alexei is your suit-wearing banker. That's how it was supposed to be, don't you see that? This is your fairytale ending, Grace. The prince has come back to sweep you off your feet, so how about you stop being such a stubborn arsehole and let him already!"

"I-I...Alexei isn't a prince." I shook my head.

"You are so impossible," Lena snapped, her voice suddenly becoming more acidic. "Do you know how many people dream of something like this happening to them? He is chasing you! How many men do that?"

In that moment I felt an urge to tell Lena the truth. The real truth, this time. About just how un-princely Alexei really was. About his involvement with guns and probably cheap hookers. I could still remember the lingerie clad girls clung to the necks of the men he was with. The poker chips on the table. The smell of smoke heavy in the air.

If only she knew.

"Lena," I sighed and she folded her arms. "Please trust me. He's not the sort of guy I should be calling back."

"You don't know that."

"I do. Really, I do."

"How?" she demanded.

I opened my mouth, about to tell her the honest to god truth, but I bit my tongue instead. I couldn't do it. If you tell anyone, I'll kill you. I knew that was what Alexei had implied two years ago at the cafe, but now even more had happened. I'd seen him shoot. Kill. I'd suddenly entered into a whole new world I hadn't signed up for.

"I need to get back to work." I manoeuvred around Lena and left her stood in the middle of the cafeteria as I exited.

I wanted to look back, but I couldn't.

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