Page 38 of His Smile
“Yeah,” she nodded, vaguely trying to remember the scheduleTheodore had showed her when he spoke to her one-on-one that day. “Theodorementioned something about me having more shows when he tried to sweet talk meinto focusing on the pay raise.”
“Yeah, and what good is that for us?” Jason waved a hand inanger.
The frozen feeling in her stomach increased painfully withan odd sense of twisted hope. “So, let me get this straight are you saying…”
She could see the decision in his eyes, and the cold senseof hope in her stomach began to warm. “I’m saying if you walk, I walk.”
After her lunch with Jason, she stopped by her apartment towater her plants and to pack a suitcase with more than just two night's worth ofclothes. Yesterday on their way to the airport, Roman told her she could stayin his place while he was gone. At the time she didn't really focus on hiswords, her mind was to wrapped in his spellbinding kisses and burning touchcreeping up her shirt. Last night when she fell asleep alone in his bed, shenever felt more alone with her thoughts. The whole house felt vacuous andlifeless without Roman’s larger than life smile and piercing stare. Shecertainly did not see herself staying another night without him, that was untilher lunch with Jason.
Things were different now. Not only was her life about tochange, so was Jason's and somehow, she felt responsible for that. The addedweight of responsibility felt odd as if the full implications of the situationhad not fully set in yet. But she needed time to focus, time away from thecomfort of her normal life to make plans and get herself together and shedecided Roman's big empty house would be perfect for that. Rolling her luggageout the door, she locked her apartment. Hopefully, by the time she returned,she would have her future figured out.
~*~
It had been four days since Roman had left and she had beenable to talk to him only twice. The first time he called her he sounded tiredand slightly angry, his naturally smooth deep voice sounded intimidating on thephone making it easy for her to picture him in the role of leadership in hisorganization. He was still angry that he had to be down there, but he told herthat now that he was there and could see the problem clearly and it wasprobably best, he was there, though he still never made it clear what theproblemwas exactly.
"Just think of it as a merging of two criminalorganizations, and we are here to work out the final kinks,” he had said.
Whatever that meant, she thought and honestly, she didn’treally care. It was something Roman was lending a hand on due to the commandsof his boss, once it was over Roman would be back. Besides, she had her ownissues to worry about.
Today she was on the treadmill in Roman’s massive, state ofthe art gym over the garage. It felt a lot like one of those super, exclusiveprivate gyms for the rich and elite. The kind where the outside of the buildinghad no markings or anything signifying there was a gym on the inside, you wereeither rich enough to know about it, or you weren't. She could tell the spacewas designed by a man who worked outa lot, nothing was overlooked. Ithad everything: its own bathroom, hot tub, sauna, and steam shower. Theequipment mostly consisted of lots of free weights, which didn’t surprise herat all considering Roman’s massive body. Running on one of the two treadmills,she stared blankly out the large window ahead of her which sat directly overthe garage and looked out to the front of the house giving her a perfect viewof the sprawling manicured lawn. As she increased the speed on the treadmill,her thoughts were lost in that morning's various activities. She had sat atRoman's long kitchen counter as the dogs played at her feet as she made calls,sent texts, and drafted emails. She was casting the line to all the major dancecompanies, and it wasn’t a move to be taken lightly. The moment she pressedsend on her first email to a competing dance company, she had pretty muchshouted to the world she was leaving the Boston Ballet Company. Looking down ather phone as she ran, sweat dripping down her face, she saw another messagefrom Theodore come through, it had only been two hours since she sent out herfirst emails and she already had six unread messages, and four missed callsfrom the man.
“You should have thought about that when you chose Nadia,you dickweed,” she mumbled to herself.
Collars jingled behind her, catching her attention. Lookingback, she spotted Mosca walking through the gym door.
“Hey,” he greeted her quietly as he petted Genghis.
Not decreasing her speed, she focused back on the window infront of her as Mosca walked up beside her. “Hey,” she breathed heavily, as herfeet struck the conveyor belt in a steady rhythm.
“Roman texted me and told me to tell you he will be callingyou at eight tonight.”
"Yeah, I got his message," she could feel the burnin her thighs, glancing down at the display she nearly groaned. Not quite threemiles yet, she was so close. "I haven't had a chance to reply yet."
A beep to her right caused her to take a quick glance.Stepping onto the treadmill next to her, she watched Mosca increase his speedto match hers. Taking another glance, she realized the lieutenant was wearingworkout clothes; a pair of dark blue shorts and a plain white t-shirt with asmall branded logo. She had never seen the man wear anything other than pressedblack slacks and a button-down shirt before, it was odd to see him in suchcomfortable looking workout clothes.
"How is the search going?" Though she hadn'tdiscussed any of her current situation with Mosca, she knew he knew everything.
"I don't know yet, everything is still in the air atthis point. Just waiting for people to get back to me," her words wereterse over her heavy breathing, and she could feel her energy flagging.
“Don’t quit,” he urged, his own footfalls hitting loud andevenly on the belt as he ran. “You’re almost there.”
Normally, she was better than this, hell, normally she wouldbe the one racing him at breakneck speeds, but today her mood was weighing herdown. Pushing herself, they ran for another few minutes before the display onher treadmill finally flashed. Slowing to a much-needed walking pace, sherested her hands on her hips.
“You worried?” Mosca finally asked.
The constant thoughts of doubt she had all morning swirledin her mind as she envisioned the contacts she reached out to ignoring hercalls. What if no one picked her up and Theodore saw her attempt to leave as aslight on him and dropped her from the company?
Without saying anything, she just nodded.
"It's strange for someone like me to look at someone astalented as you be worried," he said nonchalantly.
Stopping the treadmill, she looked at him questioningly. Stoppinghis own treadmill, he got off and stood in front of her.
Tilting his head, he gave her a considering smile. “Youcan’t seem to see because you’re not looking at your life from the outside likeI am, but I can guarantee you Rahina, you are too talented to fail.”
Unshed tears threatened and stung in the back of her eyes asshe gave him a short nod and quickly turned to leave. She was surprised by thesudden motivational speech, but she realized as she headed down the stairs tothe main part of the house, she really needed to hear it.
Eight-o-clock arrived as she was lounging in the bath whenRoman called. Putting him on video, she held the phone close to her face andsmiled at the sight of him. Her heart clenched as his eyes found and focused onhers. He was beautiful.
