I nervously looked at the clock.
10 more minutes until it was seven. Or 19:00 as the email read.
I frowned. Why would the sender write 19:00... it either meant that they were from the army and used to using 24-hour time, or they were from a different country. Or maybe it was just some random thing that all threateners did, like the 'don't tell anyone about this or else' type of thing.
I looked again. There it was... 19:00.
I nervously stood up and walked to the window. How did my secret admirer know everything? He even knew about Alexander's fever and that happened just today. I almost wanted to whimper and cry, but I couldn't. I had to face this.
I stood in front of the window, curiously looking out to see what the show would be. So far, it was silent in the streets below. Nothing was out of place or seemed different about the streets. I waited for a while longer, but there was still nothing.
Suddenly the door opened, and I whirled around.
I put my hand to my heart, and let out a sigh of great relief.
"Alexander. My Lord, you scared me."
"I'm sorry. What were you doing?"
"Oh, you know, just took a little break and wanted to look out at the city. Did you need anything?"
"Yes. I need to go home. Let's go."
I nodded and followed him out the door and into the elevator. He made no efforts to hold my hand or wrap his arm around me, so I simply kept my hands to myself.
When we got home, I forced Alexander to sit on the couch once more while I made him another cup of tea and brought out the medicine. As soon as he was done, he left the room without a single word uttered.
I lay down and wrapped myself in the same blanket that Alexander was cuddled into this afternoon. The smell of him filled me, and I brought it closer to my face, and smelt the blanket again and again. A few tears escaped my eyes, but I quickly forced myself to stop crying.
Nothing had happened today, and I stood at that window for at least 10 minutes. This was either some awful prank, or it was just a test, and I was scared. I was scared to see what would happen. The person clearly had information on both me and my husband, and they were watching us very closely. Extremely closely.
A part of me wanted to tell Alexander, but I also wanted to solve this on my own. That was probably the stupidest idea ever of course because I'm sure he would know what to do.
My eyes watered up again, but this time I was not able to stop and cried for a few moments.
The secret admirer was right; they knew how to send gifts without ever being noticed or traced. That was scary because if you can deliver several bouquets of flowers, you could definitely send dangerous weapons that could easily be hidden and transported.
I felt a nauseous feeling again and rushed off to the restroom, and again, just in time. I groaned and slid down against the wall. Oh, this was all not good, not good at all.
I walked up the stairs. Alexander stopped me at the top.
"Are you alright, Maria?" He asked, touching my face.
Suddenly, I felt that little fire tingling in my heart at the touch of his hand. I smiled to myself. That fire was still there. It was just very rare that it would light up.
He wiped away the tears.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Turns out you're not the only one who's sick." I said with a sigh.
He raised an eyebrow, clearly waiting for an explanation.
"I threw up a couple times today, but I'm all good. I just need some rest, I'll be fine."
"You don't need to show to work tomorrow; I can go myself."
I was about to thank him for the generous offer, but thoughts about being alone and weak in the house terrified me when I knew there was someone who could easily harm me. I was suddenly very afraid and wanted Alexander near me.
"No! I already feel better, don't worry, by morning, I will be feeling as good as new."
"If you say so."
He walked off and I almost wanted to call out to him and rush after him and hug him and tell him all about the situation by I just left to my room and fell asleep as silent tears began to fall.
As soon as my eyes opened the next morning, that feeling was there again, and I knew what to do. I rinsed my mouth to get rid of that awful taste.
'Great. The day hasn't even started and I'm already starting it off awfully.'
I quickly got ready into a long, tight black long-sleeve dress with a green vine drawn along the length of the dress, with white flowers. I paired it up with black stilettos and green earrings. Depressing days call for depressing outfits.
Soon, Alexander and I were at the office. He kissed me on the cheek and left towards his office as I left towards mine.
I opened the door, and once again, I found a large bouquet of flowers. I stomped my foot.
Why did the creepy threatener have to be so nice about it?
The flowers were gorgeous. The pale pink, yellow and purple roses mixed wonderfully with the light orange and lilac colors. It was a beautiful life-filled bouquet that unintentionally brightened my day, no matter how awful this threatener was.
Hope you liked the show;)
I'm glad you waited at that window.
Feel better, Mrs. Vasilievna!
P.S. You should leave the office by 16:45. This will be the last time I add the obvious ending: Do Not Tell Anyone. You don't want to find out if you don't do what I say.
I groaned. Great. At least the flowers were simply breathtaking. I decided to keep them, but of course, throw out the note.
Throughout the day, I would ask Laureli and Amy to constantly bring me tea, so that when I would beg Alexander to leave at four forty-five, it wouldn't seem entirely suspicious. The tea did help, but as soon as the smell of food from lunch reached me, my stomach went all awful on me and I fled to the restrooms.
I decided I had to get out of there and went to the lobby. At least it didn't smell like food down there. I sat the couches and looked around at all the people who were busy with their jobs. At times like these, I would be thankful that I was married to one of the top 50 richest men in the world.
Soon, I returned to my workplace. I wasn't able to get much work done; however, becuase a knock interrupted me.
"Yes?" I asked my husband.
His eyes immediately zoned in on the beautiful bouquet.
"From the office, but mostly Amy and Laureli. They knew I'm a little sick and they wanted to cheer me up."
He seemed to like the explanation because his eyes went back to mine.
"I brought you something."
He opened up a bag of food, and of course, just the smell alone flipped my stomach upside down and I rushed out the door.
When I returned, Alexander was sitting at my desk, slowly spinning in the chair, and so I sat at the chairs placed directly in front of the desk.
After a moment of silence, he stood up and leaned against the table with both hands. "You lied."
I stammered... "About what?"
Now, I knew I'd been lying a lot so I needed to know which lie exactly I needed to say the truth about.
"You said you felt better. You clearly don't."
I breathed a sigh of relief. That wasn't even considered a lie at this point.
"No, I do feel better. I only get sick when I smell the food. Otherwise, I'm all good." I smiled, "You have nothing to worry about."
"You've been having people bring you cups of tea the entire day. You're not in any better shape." Alexander frowned, clearly slightly disappointed with me.
"Okay, okay fine. Maybe I don't feel the best. But I don't want to be left at home alone. I have nothing to do and I'm alone." I admitted.
He sighed and sat back down. "You should have just said that."
"I didn't want to disappoint you," I admitted again.
Wow, what was wrong with me? I usually never admitted such things but now I was letting him know how I felt about being his wife and having all these responsibilities.
Well, I hadn't said everything, but he was an incredibly smart man, he would realize everything else attached to that sentence.
"Maria. You're my wife, and if you feel sick and don't want to stay alone, I will understand that." He walked over to me and took my hand. "I do care for you, I'm not a heartless man. However what I do not tolerate is staying home because of laziness or boredom."
I smiled at him and closed my eyes. I knew he cared for me, I knew that very well. He just showed it much differently than the normal man. I always felt that he was embarrassed or uncomfortable to show affection as well.
"Let me finish a few things and we'll be out of here in a few hours." He left the room and I smiled.
Well, that took care of the next assignment the threatener wanted me to complete.
Soon, after a few very productive hours, Alexander and I were on our way home. It was only 4:30. I climbed into bed as soon as I got home, and I heard Alexander leave to his room.
I almost fell asleep, but my phone rang and I answered.
"Hello, Mrs. Vasilievna. Sorry to bother you."
"What did you need, Laureli?" I yawned.
"There has been some gentleman asking for you. Said he needs to speak with Mrs. Vasilievna directly."
I looked down at my phone. It was 4:47. The damn threatener arrived to check if I was still there.
"Oh. He was very determined to speak to you, but after I let him know you were gone, he seemed to accept that answer and left without another word. I just thought you might want to know."
"Oh, well thank you, Laureli. Let me know if he ever comes again."
"Of course. Oh, wait, another thing. He said you know him. You met at the evening gala, and he has a deep Russian accent."
I gasped. No way.
"Right! I remember him! Well, if he ever bothers you again, just let him know that I don't speak with my husband's clients directly. Thank you very much Laureli. Have a good day."
I hung up. No way. I had met him before... but there was no way. No...
But of course, there is always a way.
Now, what did he want?