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Then I’m in the SUV heading to Milos’s home.
I’m wearing a pretty silver velvet wrap dress that goes an inch below my knees that Milos liked, so I’m very careful as I slide out of the SUV. Once again before I make it to the door, it’s opened by a maid.
Within three feet of walking through the door, I’m engulfed in a cloud of Chanel Number Five and soft yet strong arms and being pressed against silk. She’s taller than me, probably five eight or nine to my five foot six.
“How wonderful to finally meet you. You will call me mother,” she mumbles in Russian.
“Thank you, Mother,” I whisper back in Russian. The words surprise me as much as they do her.
Pulling back, her hazel eyes are wide as a gentle hand cups my cheek. Milos is thirty-nine so she has to be older than fifty, but she barely looks it. She is timeless, somewhere between fifty and seventy. While she has a few wrinkles, they don’t diminish her in the slightest, only adding to her beauty.
She gave Milos her nose and her lips as well as his honey coloring. If Milos hadn’t told me her mother was from Ankara in Turkey, meeting her Ukrainian husband while she was a stewardess for a major airline. I would have thought his mother was from India or something. The woman is more beautiful than some of the Bollywood actresses I’ve seen. “Beautiful and speaks Russian. My grandchildren will be gorgeous and intelligent. I am blessed to finally have a daughter.”
“Mother, please stop manhandling my fiancée.” Milos is dry with a hint of smile to his words.
I turn to find him crossing the large foyer. His hand goes to the base of my spine, he presses a soft kiss to my cheek. I shiver at the electricity in his touch and the feel of his lips against my skin. “I warned you she was beautiful and perfect for me. You think I would lie to you?”
He told her I was perfect for him?
The older woman cackles. “In a heartbeat, you are your father’s son. However, you have brought me home a daughter at last, so I will forgive you all your lies. Soon you will give me many grandchildren.”
Blushing, I press back into Milos. Everyone was demanding babies. The doorbell goes off and the maid answers. A rather tall blonde woman so like the women Milos is usually with appears. Milos introduces her as the wedding planner.
She smiles up at him as if entranced. I freeze as I look from him to her. Milos is barely looking at her, but that doesn’t mean anything. Mother is leading the planner away into the formal living room. The hand at my back presses into me to get me moving, but I can’t.
“Kotyonok, what is the matter?” Milos frowns down at me.
“That woman.” The words come out of me in a whisper.
“Sara? What about her?”
“Is she one of your…” I can’t look up at him.
His hand is on my chin, bringing my eyes up to him. “You really think I would have a woman I once fucked help my fiancée plan our wedding?” Yellow runs over me, he doesn’t like what he finds. “Go home, Celia. I’ll let you know when I’ve hired another wedding planner.”
The dismissal is so abrupt it’s a slap in the face. I watch as he goes into the living room with an apology to the wedding planner. Her wide eyes go to me. Shame flares and I leave before I have to answer the question in her gaze.
The whole way home I cry. I had hurt Milos with my question, my assumption. Never for the life of me was I aware hurting Milos hurt me too.
Celia
The next morninga text comes through from Milos telling me I have the doctor’s appointment to remove the birth control implant at noon. A new wedding planner will meet with me at his home at three. I’m to bring the addresses of anyone I want to invite to the wedding so the invitations can go out.
Shit, I have like four people. One of them Sergei. I blush at how well Sergei knew me and how he would crow over how right he was. Even though it’s only been a week since I talked to him, it feels like forever after talking to him every day for years. I know he was going to come back to Chicago for the summer before going back to school. I don’t have his family’s address here in Chicago.
I text him I need his address for a wedding invitation.
My phone rings seconds later, it’s Sergei. “What wedding? Who is getting married?”
I roll my eyes, like he doesn’t know already. It’s kind of weird how well Sergei knows me. We met my first day on campus. I was in the co-ed dorms with him across the hall. While co-ed meant women and men lived in the same building, we didn’t have a mix of men and women in our rooms. Sergei was hilarious and a little too excited at finally being out as gay now that he was away from his family. His roommate hated him. My roommate was so standoffish she barely said hello. We became besties within a week.
Since Sergei’s family was extremely wealthy, Sergei managed to get a house off campus as soon as the first semester was over and begged me to come with him. He didn’t want me to pay a dime, I was going to be his cover for his family and his nosy brother, David, who would be around all the time. I’m pretty sure the cover thing never worked. His brother wasn’t around often and he looked like he saw everything clearly.
“I’m marrying Milos Levin.”
A squeal. “I told you so. Damn, that man does not have any patience when it comes to you. I’m still here dealing with packing to go back to Chicago and you have a ring on your finger.”
I study the ring. “And it’s fucking huge too, a twenty-two carat sapphire and I’m going to guess at least three carats in diamonds. Wait, you’re coming back to Chicago? I thought you didn’t have enough credits to graduate.”
