I laughed. “He’s not my…oh never mind. Yes, I’ll show him.” She pulled the curtains back from the fitting room, revealing me to Andrei.
“Spider monkey…” he said, his mouth open. “You look like a girl!”
“I KNOW! It’s crazy right?”
He rubbed his face with both of his hands, like he was still astonished at the sight of me in a dress. I walked closer, turning so he could see the back. “I did good, huh? You can’t see anything,” I said, pointing to my back. He stood up to get a closer look.
“Only if you’re close and you’re looking for them. You can’t really see anything.” He looked me up and down one more time. “Boss is going to love this dress. It’s perfect for you.”
“You really think so?” I asked as I twirled in front of him.
He laughed as he grabbed my hand and twirled me again. “He’s going to spend the whole night dancing with you and nothing else.”
“Wait, what? There’s dancing involved?”
He laughed. “It’s a ball, spider monkey. What did you think there was going to be?”
“Not dancing. I did not bet on dancing.” I looked up at him, suddenly even more terrified of having to go to this thing. “Bubba! I don’t know how to dance!”
“Misha will teach you. It’s simple. He taught me,” he said as he placed a hand on my back, keeping my hand in his. He smiled down at me and lifted me slightly off the floor as he stepped around the small area in the dress shop. “See? You don’t even have to do anything,” he grinned at me.
“I can handle this. I can totally handle this. It’s your job to make sure that he does not break either of his arms before this event. I’m holding you personally responsible,” I said, trying to look at him as seriously as I could.
He spun me around one more time, then set me down and saluted me.
On the way back to the penthouse, Andrei’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at it. I heard him curse under his breath. He threw it on the console and rubbed his face in his hand. “Well, that doesn’t look good,” I said.
“Tori.”
“What now?”
“She’s asking if I’m coming to the house tonight for the weekend.”
“Soooo….why don’t you take this opportunity to ask her to come to the city instead? Make something up for why you can’t go back to the house. Blame it on me again. She can’t ha te me more than she already does, but then ask her to come here.”
He hesitated. I picked his phone up and offered to do it for him. He just nodded his head.
I can’t come to the house this weekend. Boss needs me here. Any chance you can come here instead?
I set his phone down and waited. There was silence until we got all the way back to the penthouse. We were in the elevator when she finally texted him back. I wanted to grab the phone from him to see her response, but I refrained. His face told me it was a good answer, anyway. He grinned when he read her response and hugged me.
“Relationship coach spider’monkey, what would I do without you?”
“Not get laid. Clearly.”
The door dinged, signaling that we had arrived at the top floor. He bent down and spread his arms for me to jump on his back as the doors opened.
“Oh, hell yeah, I totally earned this one,” I said as I jumped on his back.
The two guards outside the penthouse both gave us funny looks as he walked us down the short hallway to the penthouse. He nodded toward me, “spider monkey,” was all he sald to them, like it was a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Adrik was in the kitchen when Andrei walked in with me. “Where have you two been?” he asked, amused at me on Andrei’s back.
“I had to go to the dress shop to get my dress fitted. I made Bubba take me,” I said hopping down.
“Oh? All is well, then?” Adrik asked. He had tried to get me to tell him what the dress looked like, but I wouldn’t do it. He was mostly looking at Andrei when he asked the question.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.