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Hmm…
We spend almost all of our Saturday in bed, curled up in each other’s arms. We stop dredging up the past and live in the present. We kiss, tease each other, play truth or dare, goof around in the shower like kids, order an entire cart of room service, and watch first Dune then La La Land, savoring every precious moment.
It’s a day filled with laughter and tenderness, and it rekindles our connection. There’s hope, too. The hope that this second chance will be the one, that nothing and no one will ever separate us again, will ever tear us away from each other.
Never again.
17
Alma
Monday morning. A new week begins. My schedule is packed, but I can’t seem to get Vadim out of my head. Or stop imagining his lips pressed against my mouth. His intense gaze locked onto mine. The smirk that never stops challenging me. This man is a drug I’ve never managed to quit. One I don’t want to quit. Why would I? He’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.
With him, I move forward, not quite knowing where I’m going. I don’t know if we’re officially together, or even if our relationship is exclusive, as he claimed he wanted it to be. I’m putting those questions off until later. I promised myself not to rush him.
Today, Lily is my priority. My sister, who is still living with me, starts her internship at King Productions this morning. I had to drag her out of bed a little over an hour ago and practically haul her into the shower. The queen of lounging around and sleeping in wasn’t happy about this, but I did it for her own good. It was either that or being forced to move back in with our dear parents, Edward and Marie Lancaster.
My mind goes back to the heated conversation I had with them a few weeks ago.
“It’s high time your sister did something with her life, Alma!”
“Find her some kind of job, would you, sweetheart?”
“It’s up to Lily to take that initiative, not me. She knows she can ask me for help.”
“Alma, you’re ambitious and successful, just like your brother. Your sister is different. She needs a good kick in the backside if she’s going to develop an interest in something other than herself!”
“Dad, what century are you living in?”
“Alma, he just wants what’s best for her.”
“And what she wants is to become a fashion designer, not a production assistant.”
“I don’t care, I just want her to do something with her life! She can become a costume designer in the film industry!”
“You have to go to school for that…”
“Of course you have to go to school! We’ve been trying for years to get her to enroll in fashion school, but Lily the dreamer prefers to ‘live one day at a time without worrying about tomorrow’! I mean, what a philosophy! She’s going nowhere, drifting from one thing to another. It’s up to you to straighten her out, Alma. You’re the only one she listens to.”
“Straighten her out?” I repeat. “Oh, this just gets better and better…”
“Edward, calm down, you’re all red in the face.”
“I’ll calm down when my daughter gets her act together!”
“Well, it’s been a pleasure, but I’m going to leave you now. I have a fully capable adult woman to go ‘straighten out.’”
My father is not an easy man. Nor is he particularly warm. But Lily isn’t always easy to understand, especially for someone as rigid in their thinking as he is. The youngest in our family is a tornado. Lively, hilarious, intelligent… stubborn, scatterbrained, idealistic. She is capable of both the worst and the best. Two years ago, on a crazy impulse, she secretly got engaged to a bearded environmentalist and moved to Peru to raise llamas. Within a week, she called us to come and get her. My father hopped on the first plane to bring her back to Paris, and that very same day, he warned her: once, not twice. The next time she pulled a stunt like that, she’d be locked away for life… at Mom and Dad’s.
It took me several days to convince her to accept this internship. When she did, it was mostly to get me off her back—and only on the condition that no one would make her wear a stiff business suit or any other kind of “office uniform.” Lily’s style is every bit as flamboyant as her personality.
When the two of us arrive at King Productions this morning, my coworkers only have eyes for her. They’re captivated by her cheerful expression… and her purple-and-yellow, African wax-print dress, which she has paired with furry boots. Everyone already loves her.
***
I glance at my watch. It’s almost noon and, miraculously, Lily hasn’t caused any major incidents so far. Clarence, who has taken her under his wing in the distribution department, hasn’t asked me to intervene yet. Still, I’m standing by, ready to answer an urgent call for help at any moment.
I only ran into Vadim once this morning, as I turned a corner in a hallway. Deep in conversation with Maximilian Finn, all he did was throw me a playful, mischievous look, much too brief for my liking. I carried on walking, letting my eyes linger on the muscles of his back, visible beneath his beige sweater.
