The first thing that I could think of when I saw Dimitri Belikov standing on the doorway was oh no, Adrian. The sound of someone clearing his throat startled me. I looked to my side and realized was the one that had brought me out of my trance was Abe Mazur.
"Sydney, I trust you remember Belikov." Abe signaled for Dimitri to step into the room.
Dimitri stepped into the room and walked towards us, standing next to Abe. Which I thought was a very good idea considering Adrian looked like he was ready to pounce. I looked at Adrian and noticed him flexing his hand. The tightening in his jaw was enough of a sign to show he was extremely upset. I don't know why but every fiber of my being wanted to reach out to him at that moment. Why did this have to happen now? Just when he was started to get a hang of things?
"Sydney, is very nice to see you again."
I shook Dimitri's hand only to see Adrian flinch.
"Adrian," Dimitri acknowledged Adrian with a shake of his head.
Everyone in the room was quiet, except for Angeline, who was searching through Adrian's fridge asking if he had any goat milk.
"It is so nice to have everyone together again," said Sonya as she came out of the bathroom. "is something wrong?" she asked after seeing our serious faces.
"I need to get out of here," Adrian muttered.
When he tried to step away from me my hand shot out and grabbed his arm taking him by surprise, and he wasn't the only one. I looked at my hand as if it was some alien creature. Why in god's name had I just done that? Dimitri seemed a bit surprised by my reaction too but he dismissed it quickly. Abe, on the other hand, looked stunned. He kept looking back and forth from Adrian's face to mine, a knowing smile spreading slowly across his face. Adrian looked to where my hand touched his arm and then lifted his eyes to mine. In the time that I had known him I had never seen Adrian look so defeated. He was always so alive, and witty. Yet the pain and despair in those emerald green eyes were enough to last a lifetime. All that suffering in those eyes, I could almost feel my own heart breaking.
"Adrian, please don't."
The despair in his eyes gave way into anger. Too late I realized my mistake. He leaned towards me and whispered in my ear.
"Don't worry, Sage. This poor bastard is not going on a binge, so you don't have to worry about jailbait getting a hangover."
He shrugged my hand off his arm and stormed out of the apartment. With every step he took out of that room I felt worse. He thought I was going to say, please don't go get drunk. When what I really meant to say was please don't shut me out.