By my rough calculations, I had to find a job in five days otherwise I would be living on the streets. The hotel I had picked wasn't exactly the cheapest, but it was the safest. In every town I went to, I had that issue; that dilemma. I could either slum it in some sleazy motel and lay awake at night listening to the hooker next door make some money, or I could fork out for somewhere a little bit more up class and not worry about sleeping on a bug infested, disease infested mattress.

I had spent the entire afternoon trying to find a job. I was pretty much willing to work anywhere. I had pretty much worked everywhere. I was a great waitress, I was a great barmaid, I could clean, I could cook, I could stock shelves. I was pretty versatile, which was great if there were any jobs going. But there wasn't. There was absolutely nothing.

Most people had been pretty nice to me. They took my number and said they'd call me if anything came up, but I knew as soon as I stepped outside my number would end up in their trash can. I sighed, glancing up at the darkening sky. It was edging towards evening, which meant most places where about to close up for a day.

I was going to go into one more place – a bar just down the street – before giving up for the day as well. There was no point fighting a losing battle. If nothing came up them I would just have to move onto the next town. I walked down the street until I got to the bar and pushed the door open, before entering.

The room was dimly lit, making it hard to actually make out most of them room. That said, I was able to judge the place the moment I walked in. It was pretty seedy and sleazy, but I had been in worse places. Plus, this was probably the type of place that would be willing to hire me.

At nineteen, I wasn't even supposed to be in a bar, let alone work behind a bar, but I had found that most places like this didn't care what age you were. All they wanted was a pretty face, and not to sound vain or anything, but I had one hell of a pretty face.

I walked towards the bar, careful not to make eye contact with any of the customers. I perched on a bar stool and waited for the guy who was serving a group of middle aged men who were currently checking me out to finish dealing with their order. A couple of minutes later, he sauntered over. "And what can I do for you?" he asked, in what I guessed was supposed to be in a seductive voice. It wasn't. It was pervy. The guy was like, forty odd.

I shuddered, but forced a polite smile. "I was wondering if there was any jobs going?"

"Hang on, I'll go talk to the boss and see what I can do," he told me with a wink. Again, I shuddered, part of me praying that there weren't any jobs going. I had worked in some pretty bad places. I had worked in some right dives. And I had been perved on before. But that didn't mean I enjoyed it. I was already planning on getting back to my hotel room and getting a nice long shower so I could scrub this memory away.

A minute or two later he reappeared, looking downfallen. "Sorry sweet pea," he told me, leaving me to wonder when, in our five minute long acquaintance, we had acquired cutesy nicknames for each other. "No can do, I'm afraid."

"Oh, that's a shame," I replied dryly, although I think my sarcasm was lost on the barman. He was about to reply, but someone else at the bar called out for his attention, giving me chance to escape. I spun around and took a step forward, wanting to leave this not-so-lovely establishment before I caught anything, but instead of walking into an empty space, I walked into a wall.

Or should I say body. I stumbled slightly, but quickly regained my balance. "Sorry," I muttered, although not really meaning it. I mean, what kind of weirdo stands right behind someone? It was creepy. I looked up at whoever I had walked into, expecting it to be some creepy old guy, but instead, I was pleasantly surprised. "Well, well, if it isn't Dimitri Belikov. I say, we must stop running into each other like this," I told him chirpily.

"Oh, hey," he replied lamely. Inwardly, I grimaced. It wasn't exactly the greeting I was expecting. I was more hoping of something along the lines of 'You're hot. Want to have dinner?' but no, all I got was 'Oh, hey'.

"Here I was, thinking that we had shared a real special moment together this morning, and all I get is 'oh, hey'? I'm hurt, Dimitri Belikov. I'm deeply hurt," I said jokingly, but yet again my sense of humour seemed lost on him. I don't think he appreciated my quick, witty remarks.

Again, an awkward silence descended on the pair of us, as Dimitri tried to think of something to say in response to my comment. I couldn't blame him really for faltering; I wasn't exactly a normal person who he could have a normal conversation with. "What are you doing here?" he asked, choosing, in the end, to completely ignore my comment and move the conversation on. It was a pretty wise choice, I had to admit.

"I'm waiting for you to offer to buy me a drink. It's the least you can do, you know, seeing as you did nearly kill me this morning," I told him, not thinking that he would actually agree to it. After all, even though I had only spoken to him twice, both times were awkwardly awkward. He probably wanted me to disappear and leave him in peace, and although that seemed like an alright plan, he was too pretty for me to leave the bar and spend the evening sitting in my hotel room, completely alone.

To my surprise, and possibly to Dimitri's surprise as well, he replied with, "What do you want to drink?"

"Whatever you're having," I replied, not too fussed to be honest. I wasn't actually a massive drinker, partially because it was illegal and partially because I was reckless enough without adding alcohol to my system.

Dimitri ordered two beers before leading me to a table in the far corner, away from the middle aged guys drooling over me. "Thanks," I told him, referring both to the drink and the fact that he realised how uncomfortable I had been standing in the middle of the bar whilst half of the room got an erection as they tried to peer down my top.

"It's okay," he replied with a shrug.

Not wanting the conversation to dry up or get awkward, I thought I'd try and act normal for a change. "So, tell me about yourself, Dimitri Belikov."

"Why do you do that?" Dimitri asked me suddenly, causing me to frown at his question. I knew I was pretty hard to follow, but I had no idea where that question came from.

"What?" I asked him unintelligently.

"Call me by my whole name. It's weird," he told me.

I gasped at his comment. It was most definitely not weird. "It's not weird. It's endearing," I informed him pointedly. He just laughed and shook his head in disagreement, but said no more. "Every great friendship has to have nicknames," I told him.

Again, he laughed. It was hard not to notice how delicious he looked when he smiled. He had one of those laughs that were addictive; it left you wanting to hear it again and again, like some sort of drug. "When did we become 'great friends'?" Dimitri asked, actually putting speech marks around the 'great friends' bit. I gasped at him again, dramatically putting my hand over my mouth as I mocked surprise and disgust at his comment.

"You can be so cruel with your words," I told him, trying to keep a straight face about it but failing miserably. I couldn't help but laugh. I had only met this guy earlier in the day, and yet here I was, having so much fun with him. It wasn't as if I wanted to be friends with him; the things I had in mind definitely weren't appropriate things you did with your friends. But I wanted him to like me. I wanted him to want me. "You're Russian, right?" I guessed; in actuality I wasn't too sure. I mean his name sounded Russian, and he definitely had an accent, but I had no idea where he was from. He nodded though, and I smiled, suddenly thinking of the perfect nickname for him. "Well then, if you don't like being called Dimitri Belikov – which, for the record, is weird seeing as that's your name – I will now refer to you as Comrade. Is that alright, Comrade?"

"Do I have any choice in the matter?" he asked me, cautiously. From the looks of it, Dimitri wasn't exactly the type of guy who had ever had a nickname, but that was all going to change now that I was in town.

"You're a fast learner. And no, you don't have any choice in the matter," I told him, smiling brightly. "Now, Comrade, tell me about yourself," I demanded.

Again, to my surprise, he did tell me about himself. He told me how his family – comprising of himself, his three sisters, his mother and his grandmother – had moved from Russia to America when he was a kid for a fresh start. He told me that he 26. He told me that he was currently working as a mechanic but that he didn't want to do that job for the rest of his life.

To my surprise, I actually listened intently to everything he said, without making a sound. Not one sarcastic, humour-filled comment left my lips the entire time. I wasn't exactly known for having a great attention span, but the entire time Dimitri was speaking, I was completely focused on him. Well, I was mesmerised by his lips at least.

"What about you, then? You're not from around here, are you?" Dimitri asked me, pushing his empty beer bottle away. One drink had turned into two, and two had quickly accumulated into four.

"I guess you could say I'm a drifter," I admitted. "I'm constantly travelling from place to place. Other than that I'm pretty boring."

Dimitri snorted quietly at my response. "Yeah, because you seem awfully boring," he replied playfully.

I rolled my eyes at him and shrugged. "Fine, I admit it. I'm awesome. But I don't want to ruin the allure. I like to stay an enigma," I joked, trying not to sound too pretentious, even though it was true. I was awesome. And hopefully, just hopefully, Dimitri was finding me extremely alluring.

"So I'm taking it you've only just arrived in town?"

I nodded, taking a sip from my drink. "Yeah, I got here this morning. I've got to say though, the welcoming committee kinda sucked. Some guy tried to run me over. I might just end up skipping town to be honest, because so far my experience here hasn't been great. I can't even find a job and if I don't find a job then there's no point of me being here," I admitted. The first part was supposed to be, yet again, a joke, but the second bit was said in all seriousness.

Even though I would have a lot of fun getting to know Dimitri more, it wasn't exactly enough reason for me to stay in town, especially seeing as I was in desperate need of an all too elusive job. No one was going to employ me. The country was in a freaking recession. If there were any jobs out there in the world, people were going to employ their friends and neighbours over some stranger who had randomly turned up in town.

"You're looking for a job?" Dimitri asked. I nodded, looking at him as if he was an idiot, because I had just said that I was looking for a job. I mean, I knew I was highly attractive and all, but that was no excuse not to listen to what I had to say.

"Yeah."

"Come with me," Dimitri said, standing up. I just watched him, completely confused as to how the conversation had gotten to this point.

"Seriously? You think I'm going to go for a wander through the night with you, even though you've already tried to kill me once today?" I said jokingly, as I got up and followed him out of the bar.

Dimitri turned to face me. "I think I might be able to help you get a job," he told me, waving down a cab for us.

"Okay...and what would this mysterious job entail? I'm up for most things, but I refuse to do anything too kinky," I informed him teasingly. It was kind of true. I wasn't exactly ready to sell my body for money, but I would basically do anything else as long as I got paid. What can I say? My morals were questionable at times.

He just rolled his eyes at my comment and spoke quietly to the driver of the cab who had just pulled up in front of us. "Shut up and get in the taxi, Rose," Dimitri basically ordered me. I complied, only because he then, very gentlemanly like, I hasten to add, opened up the car door for me.

The car journey only took five minutes or so, in which we chattered aimlessly between ourselves about nothing in particular. It was kind of sickening sitting that close to the guy though, if I were to be completely honest. Not only did he look great, he smelled great as well. It just wasn't fair. How could a person be so perfect?

All too soon for my liking, the cab pulled up outside yet another bar, but this one looked a lot less sleazy than the last. For starters, it was properly lit, which was always a nice sign. Dimitri got out of the car and paid the driver whilst I stumbled out after him, completely ungraceful. Like I had said, I wasn't that big of a drinker, and so the four beers I had consumed had gone straight to my head. I just hoped that whatever job Dimitri had in mind for me didn't need me to be sober tonight, because I was definitely a little bit drunk.

We walked into the bar. Dimitri turned to face me, telling me to "stop right there," before walking up to some guy stood behind the bar. He looked like the same age as Dimitri, and the way they fondly greeted each other I guessed they were good friends. Well, I hoped they were good friends. For all I knew, they were gay lovers, which although was totally fine by me, was kind of a bummer considering all the dirty things I really wanted to do with Dimitri.

Whilst they chatted away, I took my time to look around the place. It seemed nice enough. It seemed more than nice, actually. It actually looked like a proper business. Music was gently blaring from the speakers as customers chatted away to each other over drinks and food. Most of them looked respectable as well.

I looked back at Dimitri and his friend, who was looking at me curiously. I sighed, knowing that he was probably judging me to. I knew how the situation looked. I probably looked some random, pretty girl who had charmed Dimitri into finding a job for her. But believe me, if I was going to charm Dimitri, it would involve a king sized bed, not job hunting.

Dimitri beckoned me forwards, and so I walked up to the two men, giving a slightly awkward wave. "Rose, this is Ivan. Ivan, this is Rose," Dimitri said, introducing us.

I mocked saluted Ivan for some strange reason that I didn't fully understand myself. "Hey," I said brightly, trying to seem normal and sane. From experience I knew people were more likely to hire you if you didn't seem like a complete whack job.

"Dimitri says you looking for a job?" Ivan asked. I nodded in response. "I might be able to help, I suppose. I'll give you a trial run and we'll see how you fare, okay?"

I grinned like the total idiot I was. "That seems like a plan to me."

"Great. You start tomorrow. Now, if you're not going to buy anything, get the hell out of my bar," Ivan said, half joking about the last bit. Well, I guessed he was joking. He had a serious glint in his eyes that made me doubt whether or not he was just kidding.

Ivan walked off to serve a customer, leaving me and Dimitri standing awkwardly close. In fact, I could feel his arm brush against my side. Not that I minded. In fact, I could get used to being this close to such a god. But suddenly Dimitri took a step back, glancing at his watch. "Well, I should get going," he informed me, edging closer to the door.

I grabbed hold of his arm, feeling a spark of excitement jolt through my body as my skin touched his. "Wait, I just want to say thank you. You really didn't have to do that for me. I'm just some random girl who you nearly ran over, and you've been nothing but kind to me. You're quite the knight in shining armour, Comrade," I told him affectionately, standing on my tiptoes so I could place a chaste kiss on his cheek.

Personally, I wanted the kiss to be anything but chaste, but I knew that trying to maul his mouth off with my tongue was probably moving a little too quickly. Plus the kiss was actually quite nice. My lips softly brushed against his cheek, lingering at the side of his own lips before I pulled away, smiling brightly. "I guess I'll be seeing you," I said, walking away before I did something completely stupid, like rip his shirt off and do him in the middle of a packed bar.

I smirked to myself, knowing that by the end of my time here, I was going to have Dimitri right where I wanted him; in my bed. I was going to make it my own personal mission to make him mine. It was the only thing I wanted. It was the only thing I cared about. And if there was one thing about me, it was that I always got my own way.

AN: I'm having such a blast writing this that I thought I'd write another chapter already. I forgot to say this last time, but seeing as it's kinda blantantly obvious, y'all probably worked it out already; this is an all-human story. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I will see you around next time.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN VA!