I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 66 - Never Tear Us Apart

To her credit, Lissa didn't even flinch.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Mazur," she said with her usual dignity.

"Abe, please," he said, shaking Lissa's hand. "Rose has told me so much about you, I feel I almost know you already."

"Then please call me Lissa, Abe," Lissa said, carefully stepping around the fact that this was the first time she'd even heard of him.

Rose shot Lissa a grateful look. "I have so much to tell you," Rose said, "and it's all so mixed up together. But I promise to go through it all." Rose put her arm around Lissa's waist, and she could feel her soften and return her hug. "I've been dying to talk to you," Rose confessed.

"Me too," Lissa said encouragingly.

They set out to walk across to the guest quarters where Kirova had arranged to meet the maintenance person who confirmed there were quite a few single bedroom units available.

"Most of them haven't been used for ages because our most frequent visitors are Royal Moroi who need a second room for their Guardians to stay in. Even in the busy graduation period, we never fill all the single bedroom units. The ones on the ground floor don't have kitchenettes. We could give you one of those if you want, although we usually keep that wing shut outside peak times as it makes less work for the cleaning staff. The ones on the second floor all have small kitchens and a little sitting area attached. If it's neither here nor there to you, it would be easier for us to allocate you one of those," the older Dhampir said with a twinkle in his eye.

Looking at him carefully, Rose could see he had been a Guardian. He was walking with a severe limp, so it made sense he'd not be able to work on active guarding duty any longer. He had a kind face and looked to Rose encouragingly. If Allsop was disapproving, this retired Guardian was obviously of the other bent.

"Whatever's easiest for you," Rose said giving him a grateful smile. "We don't want to be any bother."

"No bother at all," he assured her. After assuring Kirova he'd make all required the arrangements, she returned to her office leaving Abe, Pavel, Leslie, Dimitri, Lissa, and Rose.

First finding a three-bedroom unit on the second floor for Abe, Pavel and Leslie he walked to the end of the same corridor, opening a door with a flourish.

"It's a bit dusty I'm afraid, but I've always thought this was the prettiest of the single bedroom units. It's the biggest, too. It has windows on both sides, so it's lovely and airy, and those two sofas are both sofa beds. It's currently got a double bed in here, but as you can see the bedroom is plenty large. If you're willing to help out, we'll exchange it for the king-sized bed next door."

The unit was pretty. There was a fine layer of surface dust, but nothing a quick wipe down and a vacuum wouldn't fix. The door opened straight into the living space that, while small, still had room for two sofas and a wall-mounted television. To the left of that was a small extendable table with a couple of chairs and beside that a small kitchen. Not much more than a few cupboards, a countertop, a small fridge and a combined oven/stove it was enough. The bedroom was indeed large, with a double bed, an armchair, a double chest of drawers, a writing desk and chair. It could easily accommodate a king bed, so Rose graciously accepted the kind offer, and Pavel and Dimitri set to work moving the bed that was there out and the larger bed in from next door. With that accomplished, the maintenance Dhampir headed off, promising to be back later with a few additional things.

"Baba? I need to talk with Lissa. How about you settle in, see a feeder and I'll come see you in a few hours?" Rose suggested once the bed had been moved. She knew the conversation with Lissa would be involved, and she didn't need an audience.