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He took a deep breath in, exhaling loudly. “You were right. About Tori. She’s almost destroyed me. I’m going broke because of her. I can’t pay my rent. She doesn’t seem to understand that I need to flirt with the women at the bar to get tips and that’s all it is. I might be an asshole when it comes to women, but I don’t cheat.”
“Have you broken up with her?” I asked.
He shook his head no. “I’m scared to. I don’t know what she’s going to do. She’s gone completely unhinged a few times at the restaurant. Like the rest of the kitchen staff ran away because they were scared of her.”
“Has the owner seen this?” I asked, trying to get him to see the solution himself.
“No. You know he rarely comes in,” he said.
“He’s noticed your sales have dropped at the bar, though,” I said. He nodded his head. “Talk to him. Tell him what’s going on. He’s going to side with you in this situation. You bring in more money than Tori. You’re the asset, not her. Get him to come to the restaurant and then goad her into exploding. He’ll see it and fire her on the spot. He’s a reasonable man. Use that to your advantage.”
I could see the pieces click into place in his head. He looked at me. “Sephie, you’re a genius. I knew you would know how to fix this.” He moved like he was going to hug me, but Andrei and Misha both stepped further in front of me, preventing him from getting closer.
Andrei looked at Max, crossing his arms across his chest. “She warned you months ago this was going to happen and you didn’t listen. You chose a crazy woman over your friend. You’ve always chosen other women over Sephie. You’re going to live with those consequences from this point forward. The next time you come here, you’ll be escorted out of the building.”
Max looked to me, a hurt expression on his face. “Sephie…” he said, his mouth open in shock. He was expecting me to argue with Andrei. When I didn’t, he was shocked.
I sighed. “Max, you can’t keep treating me like this. I’m not going to continue to give you solutions to all your problems when I get nothing in return from you. I can’t. I have too much else going on right now. If you want to be a real friend to me, one who doesn’t ditch me for the latest fuck, then we can talk. Until then, I can’t keep doing this. I won’t keep doing this. Andrei is right. You need to live with the consequences of your choices or you’re never going to learn.”
Max went from shocked to angry in a split second. It surprised me how quickly he changed. “You think you can ditch me now that you’re giving it up to some rich guy? Like you’re somehow better than me now?”
“You mean the same fucking way you’ve ditched me over and over again? Now that the tables have turned, you don’t like it so much, do you? You’re not going to just wait until I come back around the same way I’ve waited for you how many fucking times?” I said. My anger was now fully present. “You think you can come here, interrupt my day, get the answers you need to fix the problem that I warned you about only to have you ignore it until it became a major problem, and just continue to treat me like shit and have me take it?” I had stepped between Misha and Andrei as I was talking. Max was surprised at my outburst. He’d never once seen me angry. As soon as he took a step back, it fueled my anger. I knew I had him on the run and my anger wouldn’t stop. I kept walking toward him as I was talking, knowing he was scared. “You seem to forget who the fuck I’m giving it up to, Max. You will leave this building and you will never return if you want to remain alive. You’ll be lucky if I can convince him not to have you killed after he finds out about this and he will find out about this. You did this to yourself. You will live with it.” I stopped, knowing Andrei and Misha were right behind me. They were both prepared to pull me off him, if necessary. Max was lucky that my hands still hurt. I wanted to punch him.
Without taking my eyes off Max, I said to Andrei and Misha in Russian, “Can you please get him out of my sight?”
“Gladly,” they both said as they stepped around me, grabbing Max and pushing him roughly toward the doors to the building. I watched as they shoved him out of the building. I was trying to breathe deeply to help myself calm down, but I knew I was about to lose it. Everything from this week was about to catch up to me all at once.
Andrei and Misha walked back in, both smiling. I knew they were happy they finally got to throw him out of the building. I couldn’t help but smile at their expressions. Misha wrapped his arm around my shoulders as I turned to walk back to the elevators. I managed to keep it together until the elevator doors closed. I felt the angry tears start to fall on the ride back to the office. Both Andrei and Misha noticed, looking at me concerned.
“Don’t cry, gazelle. It’ll be okay,” Misha said, as he squeezed my shoulders.
I tried to laugh, but it came out more like a cough as I was trying to hold back the tears. “I’m not upset. I’m fucking pissed. I wanted to punch him, but my hands still hurt,” I said, pulling my hands out of my sleeves, reminding them of my bruised knuckles.
They tried to hold in their laughter, but they couldn’t. I looked at the relief on their faces and couldn’t help but laugh with them. I sighed. “You guys helped me finally see him for who he really is. I don’t want to put up with that anymore,” I said, pulling my hands back in my sleeves.
Andrei pulled me to him, wrapping his giant arms around me, holding me tightly. “I’m so proud of you, Sephie.” I stayed quiet for a moment, trying to relax, trying to keep the shaking that had started from getting worse.
“You’re my favorite, Bubba. Don’t tell the others,” I said. He chuckled. I noticed that Misha didn’t argue as the doors to the elevator opened. That’s new. I slid my arm through Misha’s as we walked back into the office, knowing there was something bothering him.
Chapter Seventy-Three
Adrik
Sephie walked back into the office with Andrei and Misha, the rest of us looking at them expectantly. She walked straight to me, taking her place in my lap once again. I could tell by the look on her face that it did not go well. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tightly, wanting to protect her from anything that could make her anything but happy. Instead of asking her for the details, I looked to Andrei and Misha for a recap of what happened.
They were both trying to hold in their laughter. Andrei spoke first. “I would just like to take a moment to state once again how happy I am that Tori is not a part of my life any longer. But the good news of this week is that Max won’t be coming here ever again.”
Viktor, Ivan, and Stephen all looked to Sephie, surprised. My expression matched theirs. Misha looked to me, a sly smile on his face. “It was impressive. Max was mad that he was made to wait in the lobby, so it didn’t start well. It went downhill from there, basically.”
“What did he want?” Ivan asked, watching Sephie’s face. I could almost watch his anger envelope him as he looked at her. She was clearly upset, which meant Ivan was ready to end whatever or whomever was the cause of her being upset.
“He wanted Sephie to fix his life like always. He said Tori is destroying his life, but he wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to get rid of her on his own,” Andrei said. He looked to Sephie, completely flustered, adding, “I mean, the solution was so fucking obvious and he had no clue until you gift-wrapped it for him.”
“Solution for what? Getting rid of Tori?” Viktor asked.
Misha nodded his head. “She asked him if he’d broken up with Tori yet, after he told her that he can’t afford to pay his rent right now. He said no because he was afraid of her. Apparently, she’d scared the kitchen staff a few times after she’d lost it.”
Ivan laughed. “I knew she had it in her.”
