I was waiting at a booth when Raven arrived the following week. "Hi."
He eyed me for a moment and slid into the booth before grunting at my general direction with a scowl.
"I'm sorry. Do you want me to go into the kitchen and come back?" I gave him just as hard of a scowl as he was giving me. "Don't make me use your name." I threatened.
His scowl deepened.
"Evg..." was as far as I got before a large hand crossed the table to cover my mouth.
"Enough. Sorry. I'm a durak podonok."
I frowned. "What's that?"
He took his hand away. "Durak podonok.... An idiot jerk." He gave me a slight smile and shrug. "Today has been no good. You don't deserve my attitude, kohoetka... sweetie."
I brightened. "Kohoetka..." I tried. "Is that really like how we say sweetie or did you just call me dessert?"
He laughed. "Perhaps." He said before motioning to what was sitting on the table between us. "What is all this?"
"Well, I got the cookbook you suggested." I said, patting the Russian cookbook on the table next to me. "So, I couldn't help but be a little curious and I made a few things out of it so that you could help me translate the recipes into Russian but also so that I'd have a better idea of what they are supposed to be like."
He raised an eyebrow at me when I poured him a cup of tea and pushed the small dish holding orange marmalade towards him. "Orange?" He asked.
"And orange spice tea. I read about it..." I shrugged, my cheeks turning slightly pink. "That sometimes jam or jelly is used to sweeten the tea."
"Da. Is good." He seemed pleased as he sipped the tea first before adding a little marmalade to it. "What else did you make?"
"Well. I wasn't sure if this would be considered a fruit cup or not so I may or may not be offering it to you because you didn't actually tell me what you meant by that yet." I said. "It's a fruit compote. I realize slightly out of season because it is summer and usually you might eat it around Christmas."
He chuckled. "Not fruit cup." He reassured me. "Fruit compote is xopowo... fine." He said before spelling the word for me to write down. He pointed out each of the fruit and gave me their name so that I could write it down. He reached for a piece of the Easter sweet bread I'd made. "Ah, kulich. My favorite khleb." He explained the meaning of the word for bread and the one specifically for the sweet bread. "Also... hospitality is khlebosol'stvo..."
I blinked at him and tried to repeat it.
He finally gave up on me, repeated it more than once before spelling it for me. "Khlebosol'stvo uses the words bread and salt for a reason. You always offer guests bread and salt."
"Cool." I said, writing it down. We talked and ate our way through the things that I'd made and I rolled my eyes at him when he suggested things I should make for next week. "Borsch? You want me to work with beets?"
He grinned. "Da. Lots to do with beets." He rattled off a string of dishes that I could only widen my eyes at. He was my personal Bubba straight out of Forrest Gump only he was naming beet dishes instead of shrimp dishes.
"Okay. Okay." I laughed. "You win. Lots to do with beets next week. Maybe some rye bread too."
His eyes gleamed. "Cobepwehhbin." He said.
"Perfect." I recited back to him with a grin.
He clapped for me. "Da. Very good. Xopownn ypok."
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.
"You're welcome." He said, stepping back.
"Oh. Take the bread. Please." I said, running over to the counter to find to-go containers so I could send it all home with him. "And the compote as long as you're sure it's not a fruit cup."
He grinned at me. "Da, not a fruit cup. Not same." He shook his head as I packed up the food and gave it to him. "I can't wait to taste your borsch." He said.
"We'll see how you feel about that next week." I said, walking him to the door.
He headed to his truck, turning and giving me a wave before he put the packages in the cab and went around to get behind the wheel. I waited until he drove away before I went to our booth and cleared away the dishes and packed up my cookbook and notebooks and headed back into the kitchen.
"How'd it go?" Luke asked, leaning against the door jamb to the office.
I grinned at him. "It was great." I said, setting the books down and taking the dishes back to the dishwasher. "I'm learning a lot."
"That's always a good thing. I'm sure North will be pleased, well, as much as he can be, about how well the two of you are hitting it off."
"He doesn't seem to get along well or at least that's my impression based on how he seemed to feel about North."
Luke laughed softly. "Jess, Jess, sweetie pie, baker of all the sweet things... you remember what North was like when he got here, don't you?'
I frowned slightly. "Mostly. He didn't talk to anyone and was usually very sullen if he had to talk to you."
Luke nodded. "Well... we went off to camp that first year he was around and he had a serious run in with Raven at the shooting range that year. He's lucky we didn't end up bring him home in pieces at that point. They've never been friends at least not close friends. More like a grudging I don't hate you as much as I seem to sort of friendship."
"That actually makes a lot of sense." I said. "I guess it's a really nice thing North did for me in arranging it."
Luke smiled. "It took a lot out of him." He said before going back into the office to check the schedule for today.
"Hey Luke..." I waited for acknowledgement before continuing. "How likely do you think I'd be at convincing Gabriel to cut all my hair off?"
There wasn't an answer until he poked his head out to look at me. "How short?"
I motioned to somewhere up close to my ears. I was considering a really short pixie cut.
He shook his head. "No way. He won't do that."
I made a face. "Darn. I need more than just a decent trim but if he isn't willing to consider a shorter cut..." I huffed a sigh. "It would hurt his feelings even more if I was to go get my hair done somewhere else."
"That it would." Luke said, coming over to stand right next to me as I flipped through the book I'd been writing down frosting ideas in. "What about color?" He asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you've got these caramel highlights in here. What about doing wide streaks of a color? Something a little fun and funky. . . "
I blinked at him and my eyes widened. "Oh. That's a great idea." I said. "Hot pink streaks could be just what I want to look different enough to help me get over him."
He eyed me for a long moment. "Still getting over him?"
I blushed and my mouth snapped shut. "You didn't hear that from me." I stated.
"Aw, sweetie." He tugged the end of my ponytail and leaned in to kiss my cheek. "We should give you a weekend off and let you have a girl's weekend with Sang. Just the two of you."
"That sounds like it could be fun." I said before turning and hugging him. "Thank you, Luke." I said, words muffled against his shirt. "You seriously have always been my favorite brother."
He laughed softly, wrapping his arms around me to return the hug. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "And you've always been my favorite sister."
"I'm apparently your only sister." I said.
"Details, details." He waved a hand.
I laughed and gave him a tight squeeze around the middle. "Thank you."
"You're always welcome, Jessie." He said, kissing my forehead before he let me go. "Now, what have you learned about our Russian friend that I can use to torment North with?"
I laughed again and moved away from him to mix up a buttercream I'd need for a chocolate cake. "I'm not sure I can tell you. Raven was pretty clear on the fact that I wasn't to speak of certain things."
He made a face. "all right, all right." He said. "I'll leave you to your work."
"Thanks, Luke."