Page 40 of Solemn Vow

What was it again? This man is too distracting.

“Did the television arrive?” he asks.

“Yes!” I snap my fingers. Everything I’d thought about in the elevator suddenly whooshes back. “You shouldn’t have bought it. I want you to take it back. Or at least tell me what store you got it from, and I’ll return it. And the china cabinet, too. And the coffee table.”

“No.” He relaxes, slides his hands into his pockets.

“What do you mean, no?” One simple word and the man thinks the conversation is just over. He says no and that’s just it? Not on his life.

“I mean, no. I won’t take it back. If I want to watch a movie at your apartment, I don’t want to watch it on that little table thing you have,” he states.

“A movie at my apartment?” I sweep my arms out. “Why the hell would you want to come to my apartment when you live here?” I feel like little orphan Annie standing in this damn place.

Why would he ever want to step foot in my apartment again? Remembering him sitting in my little secondhand recliner makes me groan with embarrassment.

He tilts his head, like my words don’t make any sense to him. “What does where I live have to do with your apartment?”

I throw my hands up. “You’re purposefully not understanding. You can’t buy me a TV and furniture, Viktor. It was a nice thought. A generous one, too, but you can’t. I won’t take them.”

He chews on the inside of his lip for a brief moment. “You will. It’s there already. Done.” He turns and walks off toward a dining room. It’s only now that I notice the warm scent of dinner rolls and a rich beef sauce.

“You’re not listening.” I hurry after him. Beef Stroganoff waits for us on the table. My mouth waters. The vending machine bag of chips I had for lunch didn’t exactly fill me up.

“I heard you, I thought it over, and I said no.” He pulls out a chair for me, an obvious order to sit.

“That’s it, you just say no?” I stand several feet from the chair. I’m not sitting. If I sit, then I’ll stay, and if I stay, he’ll get more under my skin then he already has, and that is one of the worst ideas in the world.

I was lucky enough to get a wedding party session for this weekend that will help me get most of the money I need for Jimmy. But I need another side gig. Get more sewing jobs, or maybe even get a night job waiting tables somewhere.

“Yes. Sit.” He points to the chair.

I stare at him, at the sharpness of his jaw, the fierceness of his eyes, and then those full lips that are curling slightly inward. He really doesn’t like it when I don’t listen to him, but I can’t.

Why won’t he just understand?

“I don’t want dinner.” Even if it looks amazing and smells like heaven. If I stay, he’ll keep trying to run over me.

“I’m trying to ease into this, Marlena; you’re making it very hard.” He rubs the back of his neck.

“Ease into what?”

He cocks an eyebrow. “I know Jimmy’s blackmailing you.”

The man has wiggled his way into every facet of my life; did I really think he wouldn’t figure out about Jimmy within five minutes of my admission this morning?

“I don’t want you involved in it. I will handle it.”

“Fresh rolls, straight from the oven!” An older woman glides through a swinging door that must lead to a kitchen with a basket of homemade rolls. Steam billows from the basket.

She puts the basket down between the two plate settings and stands up straight. Wiping her hands on the spotless white apron, she grins up at us. A smile that quickly falls flat when her attentions sweep over to Viktor.

“Thank you, Mrs. Ivankova. That’s all for tonight.” He doesn’t even look her way. Those dark, steely eyes of his are glued to me.

“Dessert is in the fridge; chocolate pudding.” She gives me a small smile as though to sympathize with me.

“Thank you. It smells delicious,” I say to her, feeling the full heat of Viktor’s stare on my cheek. Once she’s gone, I take a slow breath.

“You’re mad.” I fold my hands in front of me. “You say you want to date me, but then you get angry when I want to take care of my own life. It can’t work that way, Viktor. I don’t work that way.” I have been on my own far too long to start leaning on someone now.

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