Jessica's Fate

Chapter 43

I beamed at him for gifting me with a good job comment. "So, I gotta know. Did that hurt?" I asked, pointing at his lip ring.

He shrugged. "It wasn't the most painful of the ones I have." He waggled his eyebrows at me.

"Did that one hurt?" I pointed at his eyebrow piercing. He shrugged. "Ah, again, not the most painful you have."

He shook his head. "North would put my ass in slink if I tell you where the other is."

My eyes went as wide as saucers. "Seriously. Omg, Raven, why in the world would you do something that crazy?" I could honestly only imagine just where that piercing was. Not that I wanted to visualize it but holy shit. The Russian had balls.

Apparently of steel.

He shrugged. "Needed to fit in." was the only comment he made.

I studied him for a long moment. "I get that." I said lightly. I wasn't going to push him on just what sort of a group he needed to fit in with if he had THAT kind of piercing action going on. I didn't need to know.

"Why we do this?" He asked.

"Do what? Teach me Russian?" I asked, taking a sip of my own tea. I had to admit, the orange marmalade was actually really nice in the tea. He nodded, eating another piece of fruit out of the fruit compote. I huffed a sigh. "North didn't tell you anything?" he shook his head. "I just wanted a distraction. I can't get my head out of my relationship with Zack. I don't know why he didn't think we could talk about things. Without a chance to fix it, I just don't even know what went wrong."

He tilted his head to study me. "Durak." He muttered

I smiled. Idiot was kinder than Raven would probably like to be towards Zack but if we talked about him and it didn't drive Raven to go kill him and hide the body, then this was going to be just fine. "I worry that I won't find anyone else that I like that way again. And I spend a lot of time alone in the kitchen when I'm baking. I can just barely manage to not text him. He was pretty clear about wanting a clean break before I sent him away that day."

He shrugged. "He is still young. A durak but young." He said finally.

"So, this is an added distraction. I think knowing the language will come in handy if I want to hire a Russian baker at my business or just simply if I want to add Russian traditional recipes to my menu." I said. "In about 3 years, I'll be in Paris. Excursions over to Ukraine or Russia are offered and it would be nice to know the language if I wanted to visit."

He smiled and finished his tea. "Good reasons to learn." He said. "You learn fast. This will be fun for me as well. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to without needing to look up words."

"I look forward to that day as well." I said.

"I like you." He decided. "If you want, you can call me Evgeni. But not around anyone else. Just the two of us, okay? Da?"

I beamed at him. "Da. Da, Evgeni."

He checked his phone and looked up apologetically. "I must go." He said.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Going to be late for SpongeBob, Evgeni?"

He rolled his eyes at me. "No. well maybe. I have to go pick up my wife."

I blinked at him. "I didn't know you were married."

"Long story. Will tell some other time."

I slid out of the booth as he did. "Okay. Some time." I nodded, finding myself surprised to be wrapped up in a hug. I finally reached up and hugged him back, kissing his cheek. "Thank you for today's lesson." I said.