was his treat. One he’d decided to let himself enjoy.
“We had a family breakfast so Irishka was with me instead of loading you down with food.” She’d mentioned Maybe in front of his mother several times. Alexsei was pretty certain it was her way of encouraging him toward Maybe and probably also rubbing it in that she was able to give him advice on something his mother hadn’t known about until right then.
He expected to hear all about that at some point from his mother, who’d hoard it until she needed it as ammunition to lob at him.
Alexsei had, for long moments, wanted to tell her, wanted to share with her this delicious new thing he’d planned to pursue. It had been right there on the tip of his tongue but then he’d realized he didn’t know if he could trust his mother the way he did his aunt. Which made him sad, but he had only so much time for sadness.
“I love it that you call her Irishka. It’s very sweet. I haven’t had bread from a grocery store in years. I’m not sure I could go back now. How is your mother’s visit so far?” Maybe headed to her chair and began to set up.
“Fine.” She’d been annoyed to have to go to breakfast so early. If you could call 10:00 a.m. early and his aunt most assuredly did not. And his mother had insisted on a hotel downtown so they’d gone to meet her there where some sort of bizarre one-upmanship had begun between the sisters.
“How long is she here for?” Maybe asked.
“Three days. She needs to get back because my youngest sister has something, an event of some sort in Moscow. She’ll be there on a school holiday.”
“That’s right. You have two little sisters.”
He nodded.
“Too bad they’re not with her on this visit. This is one of those Seattle Novembers all the tourism guides will be using to sell vacations here for years.”
Alexsei didn’t know his sisters very well, though he and his brother certainly wished they did. They were far younger—fifteen and sixteen years—and products of his mother securing her place at the side of her third husband, who happened to be a gangster as well as a vulgar asshole.
“Have you given your mom a tour of Whiskey Sharp? I can’t recall ever meeting her in the time I’ve worked here. I bet she was so proud when you did.”
In the sixteen years since he and Cristian had arrived at SeaTac to move in with his aunt and uncle, their mother had visited six times. The last time she’d been in town, four years before, he’d driven her over, so proud to show off this business he’d begun to build.
She hadn’t bothered to do more than glance through the front window, comment on the neighborhood and get back into the car after telling him she hoped he had good insurance or could she give him a loan for a better location.
All he said was “She’s seen it.”
The understanding on Maybe’s face might have made him uncomfortable a year ago and it certainly did right then. Only in a way that was new. More intimate, therefore a lot more terrifying.
That was, he thought, what being with her would be like. She saw straight to the heart of things and of people. An attractive quality, but a fearsome one too.
Maybe’s client came in and she waved him her way, their conversation done for the time being, but she gave Alexsei a look over her shoulder that told him she saw through his bullshit.
And though she’d asked him more questions than usual, she’d understood he didn’t want to say more and didn’t push.
She didn’t have to really because he couldn’t stop thinking about her. She worked efficiently as always, flirting and laughing with her clients. As the afternoon stretched into evening, Whiskey Sharp filled up with people drinking and getting shaves and haircuts. The sound level rose but it never got so raucous he was worried.
In fact, he used it to hide behind as the time for him to leave for dinner at his aunt and uncle’s house approached.
Slower than usual, he cleaned his workspace and his tools as the light wisped into full dark.
“So.”
Startled, Alexsei focused on Maybe, who stood so close he could smell her. Today it was what he liked to think of as her autumn scent. He’d never say that aloud, naturally, but she changed up her products over the course of the year. In the summer she smelled of heady, luscious flowers and sometimes of coconut and mango. Autumn she was always spicy and rich.
“Hello?” she asked, getting his attention back from where he’d been imagining leaning in and taking a sniff.
“I apologize,” he told her. Why was she so close? He had no ability to be in a space where she was like that because it shredded the control he normally used to keep himself firmly in the friend category.
His breath was full of her. Of her scent. Her heat. The soft sound of her breath was suddenly the only thing he heard.
If he dodged, just a step in either direction, he’d put himself firmly back into that friend spot. He knew it to his bones that she’d assume he wasn’t interested and move on.
Instead he opened the door to more-than-friends. He’d decided to wait until his mother was gone to make his move, but he had no plans to resist now that the opportunity presented itself. “Is there something you need to tell me?” he asked.
She stepped even closer to speak in his ear. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me out for drinks or something and you haven’t. And I want to go out for drinks or something with you so I’m going to move this along and do the asking because, God, you take forever to get to the point.”
Startled, he laughed, pulling her into a quick hug.
He shouldn’t have, because she felt so fucking good he got dizzy with it. And then he didn’t want to let go but it’d already gone into a little too long for friendly territory so he released her.
Maybe stepped back and the way she looked struck him in the gut. Eyes heavy lidded, a carnal smile on a mouth he wanted to kiss so badly the only thing stopping him was the crowded bar full of their friends and coworkers.
“I can’t. Tonight I mean,” he amended when her face fell. “I need to... I have dinner with my family.”
“Oh that’s right. Irena said something a few days back about that.”
“Tomorrow night after work.”
Her smile was back. “I’m off at nine. You can take me to eat after. Now, go give your aunt a hug for me. I hope it’s a good dinner.”
* * *
HE’D HOPED IT would be a good dinner too.
Continued hoping as he parked his car at the curb in front of the house he’d come to think of as home.
The little house Maybe and Rachel shared sat just next door and he allowed himself to look over as he headed up the front walk. So much outdoor light over there. His aunt had been annoyed at first, saying it was too bright. But after a while she and his uncle had come to like it, and feel it made their part of the neighborhood safer because it was so well lit at night.
The door opened before he’d finished taking the top step and his brother, Cristian, hurtled out, relief on his features.
“Thank God you’re here,” he muttered to Alexsei. “Mom has Seth cornered and she’s grilling him on his job. Auntie keeps glaring but not intervening. He didn’t bring flowers. I told him to bring them both a big bouquet but Mom’s a little bigger. Not a lot bigger but just enough. You know?”
“Take a breath, Cris. You need to breathe or you’ll pass out and then she’ll blame him for that too.”
“Fucking hilarious,” Cris whispered as Alexsei laughed. “He didn’t bring her any present at all.”
Ouch. “That’s unfortunate.”