Page 136 of Taken By My Grumpy Pakhan

“Thank you for coming.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I had a different choice.”

His head bowed slightly. “I understand.” He looked back up. “How have you been?”

“Alive,” I replied, not bothering to ask about him.

His demeanor didn’t shift one bit. “And the…” his eyes dipped, his expression softening into a question like he needed my permission to speak about the baby.

“The baby is fine.”

His chest lifted, his nostrils flaring a bit. Relief flashed through his eyes, slow and lingering.

“The office feels different without you,” he said after a while, turning his glass slowly on the table. “Rose keeps asking when you’re coming back. Caroline too.”

“I’m sure they’ll survive.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point, Kazimir?” The words came out sharper than I meant them to, and once they started I couldn’t stop them. “You want to bring me back to the office and have the amusement of watching me embarrass myself in front of everyone while you sit entertained? I should’ve known something was up with Nikolai and the chuckles.”

His jaw tightened and for a second I thought he’d deflect the way he always did, but instead something in his face shifted, sobered, like whatever wall he usually kept up had finally given out.

“I never enjoyed any part of that,” he said. “Svetlana and I were never together the way she explained to you. It was an arrangement born out of convenience to keep both sides of the family at peace. I never touched her, never wanted to. It was hardly real.”

“It was real enough for you to call me a warm pussy and for her to kidnap me. You were going to get married. What am I? I'm the other woman who came between you and your engagement, and now this shameful mistress is carrying your child—”

“That was before I met you.” He cut me short. “I never expected to fall in love with you, Gen.” His voice lowered to a near whisper and I hated how easily the confession shook me.

I reached out for the bottle in front of me, swallowing a large gulp of water in an attempt to appear unaffected.

“We were not supposed to become… this. I mean, you kissed me in an elevator and I assumed… I assumed you just wanted something casual. I didn’t know it would grow into this.”

Against my better judgement, I found myself seeing the angle of his argument, but even that was not enough justification for me.

“That voice record is old,” he continued. “Long before this meant anything, when I still thought this was a mutually beneficial hook up between a boss and an employee.”

“That was not—”

“I understand that now.” His voice softened. “But you can see how I would think of it as such.”

Luckily, the food arrived, giving me time to collect myself before I got lost in the logic of his explanation.

Kazimir, however, was not deterred by the presence of the waiters.

“I’m not asking it to change what happened,” he said. “I’m asking for a chance to be better than I was.”

I glanced at the young man who looked like he would rather be anywhere but here.

Kazimir reached out, taking the grape juice from him. “I’ll get that.”

He proceeded to serve the food and poured me a glass of juice.

“I’m not here for that, Kazimir.” I made myself say it clearly, so there’d be no confusion later. “I’m here to figure out how we raise this baby together. That’s the only reason I agreed to see you tonight.”

He nodded slowly, accepting it without argument, though something in his eyes told me it was a temporary compromise. “I understand.”

If the circumstances were different, I would’ve made a comment or two about how I never knew he could be this agreeable, but I was already upset at how much sense he was making and didn’t want to give him any more credits.