CHAPTER FOUR
EARLY THE NEXT AFTERNOON, Maybe headed to have her regular Friday lunch with her best friend Cora and Rachel at the tiny deli just a few doors down from the tattoo shop where they both worked.
Rachel had been up and out first thing that morning. She still had regular doctor and therapy appointments, though the frequency had dwindled and would continue in that direction.
But she was there, along with Cora, at a small table where a bottle of soda already waited for her.
Cora Silvera had been Maybe’s best friend pretty much from the first day she’d shown up at Whiskey Sharp and stopped by this same little deli for a soda before she went to work. Cora had grabbed the last orange fizz, but when she’d taken note of Maybe’s disappointment, she’d handed it over with a smile.
Then, it turned out she worked at Ink Sisters with Rachel and was related to Rachel’s mentor and new boss. In the next months she’d ended up being besties with both Dolan sisters.
“You’re my favorite,” Maybe said as she sat and took a swig of orange fizz.
“Of course I am. Why do you look so sexy today?” Cora asked. “Snug shirt to showcase the knockers. Red lipstick. The way your hair is standing up extra high. Are those streaks new?”
“Okay, so at eleven last night after telling Rachel the story of my date and talking about my undeniable thing for my hot boss, I decided to add them because I figured I finally need to see what it could be between me and him.”
“Well, I think the silver really pops against the red and I love it. I’m glad you had a shitty date so you finally allowed yourself to jump on Alexsei’s bones.”
“Penises don’t have bones,” Maybe deadpanned.
Cora giggled and Rachel just shook her head with a grin. “You’re a woman of loose morals, Maybe Dolan. By the way you look ridiculously hot and I’m thrilled you finally found a way to get around the whole he’s-my-boss thing. If you date a bit, have some sex and it’s meh, you two aren’t going to flip out. You’ll still be friends and coworkers. But I don’t know, he seems to look at you...really look at you. He watches the way you move. You have the hots for him too. So why not see where it goes because it could be something super delicious and hot? And to be honest, Rachel and I have decided we need to have sex with him vicariously.”
Maybe snickered. “I should never leave the two of you alone to talk about me.”
“This is totally true.” Rachel winked. “Too late though.”
They made some plans to meet up later and, buoyed by Cora’s opinion, Maybe bounced into Whiskey Sharp—after brushing her teeth and reapplying her lipstick—with a few minutes to spare before her first appointment.
* * *
ALEXSEI PRETENDED HE didn’t realize how often he found himself looking up at the door. She liked to work the late afternoon into evening several nights a week to couple her schedule to take advantage of the happy-hour-booze-and-a-haircut specials at the bar, which opened and began serving at four in the afternoon.
Smart.
She knew her clientele. Knew they enjoyed a drink after they left their jobs in the offices crammed downtown. It had been her idea to do the happy hour shave and drink specials they were now famous for.
He liked to see Maybe in the afternoons. Liked the way the sunlight would hit her while she worked. Essentially, he liked seeing her whenever she was around.
It was thinking of her that had gotten him through what had been a truly monstrously awkward late breakfast with his mother and aunt. There’d been posturing, as always, between the two sisters. Lots of passive-aggressive commentary. He and Cris had eaten and tried to talk around all the tension.
He frowned, thinking of it all over again, but this time when he looked up from his work, there she was standing in the doorway, always pausing just a moment as she came in like she greeted the walls and floors as much as everyone else.
Another thing that got to him. She seemed to love the physical space as much as he did.
She looked extra...that is, very whatever it was she exuded when she wore those pants. Maybe was a jumble of old and new in all the best ways. Hard and soft. She looked feminine and fierce and it set his heart pounding.
“Afternoon, class.”
Why he loved it so much when she was ridiculous and irreverent he wasn’t sure. But it was true anyway.
She glided around the shop, taking her coat off, touching base with their office manager and the other barbers until she stood at his station, a hand on her hip.
“I have no treats for you today. Sorry,” she told him with a pretty smile.
She was his treat. One he’d decided to let himself enjoy.
“We had a family breakfast so Irishka was with me instead of loading you down with food.” She’d mentioned Maybe in front of his mother several times. Alexsei was pretty certain it was her way of encouraging him toward Maybe and probably also rubbing it in that she was able to give him advice on something his mother hadn’t known about until right then.
He expected to hear all about that at some point from his mother, who’d hoard it until she needed it as ammunition to lob at him.
Alexsei had, for long moments, wanted to tell her, wanted to share with her this delicious new thing he’d planned to pursue. It had been right there on the tip of his tongue but then he’d realized he didn’t know if he could trust his mother the way he did his aunt. Which made him sad, but he had only so much time for sadness.
“I love it that you call her Irishka. It’s very sweet. I haven’t had bread from a grocery store in years. I’m not sure I could go back now. How is your mother’s visit so far?” Maybe headed to her chair and began to set up.
“Fine.” She’d been annoyed to have to go to breakfast so early. If you could call 10:00 a.m. early and his aunt most assuredly did not. And his mother had insisted on a hotel downtown so they’d gone to meet her there where some sort of bizarre one-upmanship had begun between the sisters.
“How long is she here for?” Maybe asked.
“Three days. She needs to get back because my youngest sister has something, an event of some sort in Moscow. She’ll be there on a school holiday.”
“That’s right. You have two little sisters.”
He nodded.
“Too bad they’re not with her on this visit. This is one of those Seattle Novembers all the tourism guides will be using to sell vacations here for years.”
Alexsei didn’t know his sisters very well, though he and his brother certainly wished they did. They were far younger—fifteen and sixteen years—and products of his mother securing her place at the side of her third husband, who happened to be a gangster as well as a vulgar asshole.
“Have you given your mom a tour of Whiskey Sharp? I can’t recall ever meeting her in the time I’ve worked here. I bet she was so proud when you did.”
In the sixteen years since he and Cristian had arrived at SeaTac to move in with his aunt and uncle, their mother had visited six times. The last time she’d been in town, four years before, he’d driven her over, so proud to show off this business he’d begun to build.
She hadn’t bothered to do more than glance through the front window, comment on the neighborhood and get back into the car after telling him she hoped he had good insurance or could she give him a loan for a better location.
All he said was “She’s seen it.”
The understanding on Maybe’s face might have made him uncomfortable a year ago and it certainly did right then. Only in a way that was new. More intimate, therefore a lot more terrifying.
That was, he thought, what being with her would be like. She saw straight to the heart of things and of people. An attractive quality, but a fearsome one too.
Maybe’s client came in and she waved him her way, their conversation done for the time being, but she gave Alexsei a look over her shoulder that told him she saw through his bullshit.
And though she’d asked him more questions than usual, she’d understood he didn’t want to say more and didn’t push.
She didn’t have to really because he couldn’t stop thinking about her. She worked efficiently as always, flirting and laughing with her clients. As the afternoon stretched into evening, Whiskey Sharp filled up with people drinking and getting shaves and haircuts. The sound level rose but it never got so raucous he was worried.
In fact, he used it to hide behind as the time for him to leave for dinner at his aunt and uncle’s house approached.
Slower than usual, he cleaned his workspace and his tools as the light wisped into full dark.
“So.”
Startled, Alexsei focused on Maybe, who stood so close he could smell her. Today it was what he liked to think of as her autumn scent. He’d never say that aloud, naturally, but she changed up her products over the course of the year. In the summer she smelled of heady, luscious flowers and sometimes of coconut and mango. Autumn she was always spicy and rich.
“Hello?” she asked, getting his attention back from where he’d been imagining leaning in and taking a sniff.
“I apologize,” he told her. Why was she so close? He had no ability to be in a space where she was like that because it shredded the control he normally used to keep himself firmly in the friend category.
His breath was full of her. Of her scent. Her heat. The soft sound of her breath was suddenly the only thing he heard.
If he dodged, just a step in either direction, he’d put himself firmly back into that friend spot. He knew it to his bones that she’d assume he wasn’t interested and move on.
Instead he opened the door to more-than-friends. He’d decided to wait until his mother was gone to make his move, but he had no plans to resist now that the opportunity presented itself. “Is there something you need to tell me?” he asked.
She stepped even closer to speak in his ear. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me out for drinks or something and you haven’t. And I want to go out for drinks or something with you so I’m going to move this along and do the asking because, God, you take forever to get to the point.”
Startled, he laughed, pulling her into a quick hug.
He shouldn’t have, because she felt so fucking good he got dizzy with it. And then he didn’t want to let go but it’d already gone into a little too long for friendly territory so he released her.
Maybe stepped back and the way she looked struck him in the gut. Eyes heavy lidded, a carnal smile on a mouth he wanted to kiss so badly the only thing stopping him was the crowded bar full of their friends and coworkers.
“I can’t. Tonight I mean,” he amended when her face fell. “I need to... I have dinner with my family.”
“Oh that’s right. Irena said something a few days back about that.”
“Tomorrow night after work.”
Her smile was back. “I’m off at nine. You can take me to eat after. Now, go give your aunt a hug for me. I hope it’s a good dinner.”
* * *
HE’D HOPED IT would be a good dinner too.
Continued hoping as he parked his car at the curb in front of the house he’d come to think of as home.
The little house Maybe and Rachel shared sat just next door and he allowed himself to look over as he headed up the front walk. So much outdoor light over there. His aunt had been annoyed at first, saying it was too bright. But after a while she and his uncle had come to like it, and feel it made their part of the neighborhood safer because it was so well lit at night.
The door opened before he’d finished taking the top step and his brother, Cristian, hurtled out, relief on his features.
“Thank God you’re here,” he muttered to Alexsei. “Mom has Seth cornered and she’s grilling him on his job. Auntie keeps glaring but not intervening. He didn’t bring flowers. I told him to bring them both a big bouquet but Mom’s a little bigger. Not a lot bigger but just enough. You know?”
“Take a breath, Cris. You need to breathe or you’ll pass out and then she’ll blame him for that too.”
“Fucking hilarious,” Cris whispered as Alexsei laughed. “He didn’t bring her any present at all.”
Ouch. “That’s unfortunate.”
He let his brother propel him into the front hall, where he hung his things in the closet and exchanged his shoes for the slippers always ready for his use in the house when he came over.
Alexsei blocked his brother’s way to get his attention. Cris could totally get off topic, especially when it came to their mother. “He’ll have to make that up as soon as possible. When you take her to the house tomorrow he needs to meet you both with flowers and chocolate and something stupid and expensive like a scarf with the designer logo all over it so everyone can see it. Have him tell her it’s to keep her shoulders warm on her flight back home.”
Cristian’s features eased as he smiled and this time there wasn’t panic at the edges. “That’s really good. I’ll even pick up the scarf myself. You know how he gets. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Thanks,” he repeated, “I knew you’d have an idea.”
Seth was a cop. He had that focus and drive that made him a very good police officer, but a sometimes forgetful or scattered fiancé.
It also made him really blunt. Which actually endeared him to the rest of their family. Hopefully their mother would follow suit after this misstep.
Alexsei clapped his shoulder. “If Seth’s going to be with you he has to deal with our family. And sometimes—hell, pretty rarely—that includes our mother. Anyway Irishka approves of Seth so you’ll be fine.”
He followed the noise to the huge kitchen and attached dining room. The heart of the house and the place he most often found his family gathered. The sideboard already held food but he knew there’d be way more coming.
Loud calls of welcome sounded as he and Cris were noticed and his aunt paused for a kiss as she passed by. He dropped off some booze and a few tins of the tea his uncle favored and poked around a little in the different pots and pans to see what was for dinner.
Fish with mushrooms, pork chops of some sort, cabbage rolls, rice and vegetables, his aunt went all out to welcome her sister to her home.
Polina had Seth on the hot seat near the sliding glass doors leading to the backyard. He appeared uncomfortable but not offended or upset. She caught sight of Alexsei and dismissed Seth, who tipped his chin in greeting and got out while he could.
Smart man.
“Mama.” Alexsei kissed both cheeks. “You look pretty.”
She smiled, pleased by his greeting.
“Are you giving Seth a hard time?” he asked in Russian. Truth was, Seth needed to learn Russian if he meant to stick around. The family constantly switched back and forth between Russian and English, usually at a high speed.
At that moment it made it easier to be frank, but it would always be used to get around him until he figured out how to fend for himself. And he’d learned from Maybe just how much people hated being talked around like that.
She made a sound. “He wants things. He needs to give them to Cristian, not the other way around.” Then she tossed out a not-so-nice slang term for cop he’d heard from her husband more than once.
Alexsei shook his head. “No. That’s not it at all. He’s got ambition. He’s a detective now and good enough at it that he recently got a promotion. He’s responsible. Stable. He loves Cris.”
“Cris can do better,” she said, disdain heavy in the words. “A businessman. A pilot. Not a cop.”
“And Cris loves him. He wants to take care of your son. And your son wants his mother to be supportive of his choices.” He shrugged a shoulder and she gave him a look, but allowed him to close the topic.
His uncle came in and called for everyone to come to the table. Seth settled in next to Cristian, looking a little glazed over, but mainly all right.
Alexsei’s mother sat in the chair he’d been holding out for her and then he grabbed the place to her left, between her and his uncle, across from his aunt. For that one moment it was nice to see them all there. His very large family all talking, catching up, laughing and bragging.
Irena had gone all out, preparing not just two salads, but four. He knew she wanted his mother to see how well she took care of the family. Even if things were complicated between his mother and aunt, they were sisters. There was love there, regardless of anything else.
After the salads came some soup. Mushroom, Alexsei’s favorite. He winked at his aunt, knowing she’d made it for him.
The main dishes, the sides, more food and more food until three hours and countless plates of food later Alexsei had to admit defeat and push himself back, away from the table before he gave in to his aunt’s urging and ate even more.
They settled in the living room just beyond and once everyone had quieted down, Cristian stood and held a hand out Seth’s way. “Mom, Seth and I bought a house. We thought it might be nice to drive past and see it tomorrow on the way back to the airport. We don’t close for another thirty days, but you can see it from the outside at least.”
“You aren’t married,” Polina said to Cristian.
“We’ve been trying to get things in order before we decide to get married. Seth’s family wants to be here for any ceremony and so we want to do it at least a year from now.”
She made a sound and then told him in Russian, “He’s pretty, but you’ll support him then? Is that how you want to live? He should be taking care of you, not the other way around.”
“I know you’re uncomfortable with us being gay,” Seth began, knowing enough to understand the conversation was about him but not getting what the actual problem was.
“You know?” Polina narrowed her gaze and took Seth in. “I only met you yesterday and you know me so well? Cristian is who he is. I don’t care about gay or not gay.” She made a movement with her hand, sweeping it away.
“What is the problem then?” Seth demanded.
Alexsei wished very much that he’d taken his uncle up on that shot he’d offered just before they’d walked out of the kitchen. This was going to be a long, horrible scene. He could taste it.
Irena made a sound with her tongue that didn’t bode well for his brother’s partner. She told Cris to handle his business and then began to address Polina in short bursts of Russian.
Seth had an uphill battle. They all enjoyed his company and clearly he made Cristian happy, but he wasn’t Russian. Strike one. Not entirely insurmountable. Far worse though, he hadn’t greeted Polina in a way she expected and then he’d been short with her. Bluntness was an art form in his family, yes, but you didn’t fuck with your mother-in-law like that. At least not from go. She didn’t care that Cristian was gay. But she very much cared about status and Seth hadn’t respected it.
And the worst thing of all to Polina was that Seth worked for the authorities. Her whole lifestyle at that point was supported by things not lawful even in Russia.
His brother sent him a pleading look and Vic groaned at his side.
“You need to let them handle this,” he muttered to Alexsei.
“He loves the guy. What am I supposed to do?”
“You’re supposed to let Cris handle it. If he wants Seth, he has to do this. If you get in the middle, they’ll both be upset and dissatisfied. No matter what you do or say.”
“Like some sort of dystopian future? I leave them to fight to the death?”
Vic snorted. “If he can’t fight for Cris and Cris for him, it’s not meant to be. If you step in too early she’ll never accept Seth. At least give them another five minutes. No one’s yelling or crying.”
“Yet.”
“Yet may be as good as it ever gets with this family, Alyosha.”