A/N: Thank you for all the amazing reviews, messages, favorites and follows. You absolutely make my days!

Without further ado, here is the next chapter.

Chapter 20

It was Saturday again. The school week was over in a blink of an eye, nothing major happened. Surprisingly I haven't got any further consequences for hitting Avery. She always glared at me whenever she saw me, but nothing more. Lissa and I haven't been in a fight with her again after this one incident. If I've known that she would keep quiet if I only hit her once, I would've done it a lot sooner.

As I sat next to Lissa eating dinner at our kitchen counter my parents joined us. "Hey girls, how was your day?" my mother asked while filling plates for herself and my father. Lissa immediately bubbled up with happiness and told them the exact same story she had told me minutes ago.

"Oh it was fantastic. Christian surprised me and we went to the aquarium. After that we had ice cream at the most amazing Italian ice cream stand. I swear I never had a more enjoyable date before." She gushed. Thankfully she didn't noticed the amused looks on my parents faces. Abe even rolled his eyes. "Happy to hear that your day was so amazing." He told her after a look my mother gave him, before turning to me.

"And your day Kizim?" shrugging my shoulder I didn't know what to tell them. My day had been the most uneventful one I had in weeks. "Nothing special. Since someone," I looked at my father pointedly, "had to ask my boyfriend to work this Saturday, we had to cancel our date. Since everyone else was already having plans for dates and such, I took my time and tidied up, did the laundry and cooked dinner. I chatted with Viktoria for a while and then enjoyed the sun in the backyard." If they were amused by Lissa's joyful date, they seem to pity me for my day, which, admittedly sounded depressing in comparison.

"How about your day, Abe and Janine?" Lissa asked them.

"We had a lot to do. The preparation for the party next weekend are still keeping us busy." My mother answered before she started eating.

"About the party, do you guys plan on bringing dates?" my father asked.

"Yes, if it's okay considering the party is already next weekend and you ordered the food weeks ago. But I would really love to bring Christian. This way the two of you can meet him as well." Lissa suggested.

"You know him already?" my mother asked me.

"Not yet. But we are going out tomorrow. Lissa, Christian, his aunt, Dimitri and I." I informed them.

They simply nodded.

"Of course you can bring him, Lissa." My mother assured her what was met with a brilliant smile on Lissa's face.

"Are you bringing Dimitri as your date, or should I give him a short notice invite at work on Monday?" my father's voice only sounded slightly grim. Over the last couple of days things had turned around and he actually made an effort to accept Dimitri as my partner.

"You're sure?" I asked hesitantly.

Nodding yes he continued eating. I walked over to them and hugged first my mother and then my father. "Thank you." I murmured and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

A grumble was his only reaction, but I saw the small smirk on his face.

At seven o'clock the doorbell rang and Dimitri came to pick me up.

"Hello Rose." He leaned down to kiss me. "Where is everyone?" He asked as no one came to interrupt our alone time. Usually when he picked me up, my father made sure to appear seconds later to 'greet' Dimitri.

"My parents are at Pavel's and Lissa is spending the night at Christian's." He nodded and we got to his car to drive to his place.

"Are you looking forward to the dinner tomorrow?" his question made me let out a frustrated sigh.

"Not really. I can think of at least a thousand better things to do rather than meeting my best friend's boyfriend and his aunt."

Beside me he was laughing at me. "Stop laughing and focus on the road." I told him, but he took my hand and kissed it, all the while his eyes were still on the traffic.

"It will be better than you think." This didn't reassured me, but there was nothing I could do about it now.

My thoughts wandered to the party coming up next Saturday. Baba's words rang in my head.

Next weekend they would be celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary. Since my parents even celebrated something as simple as a birthday with a lot of people, one could only imagine how gargantuan this party would turn out to be. When we finally got to Dimitri's apartment I told him everything about the plans, my parents' weeding and how their families reacted to me being on the way. As I got to the part about this being their 18th wedding anniversary, I could see the wheels in his head turning, doing the math. "I know, they got married when they found out I was on the way. And about five month after their wedding, I was born." I explained further.

"And thank God for that." He winked at me and leaned in to kiss me.

"Right?! How boring your life would be without me." I winked at him teasingly.

"You're so right. It would be quiet and peaceful without you in it." He teased back. I poked his side for this comment.

"Hey!" I exclaimed but smiled back at him. How I loved his smile.

"Would you accompany me to the party? I know it's rather on short notice. Baba wasn't too keen to invite you after our break up, so when they send the invites during this time they intentionally not invited you." I got to the point of why I told him about this thing to begin with.

His surprised look made me uneasy. He would say no. It was just a few weeks ago that we got back together and not that long ago that my parents found out about us. And it had been disastrous. Why should he want to come with me? Silly of me to even suggest it.

"Of course, I would love to. But do you consider it wise to take me to that party after how your parents reacted? It's their party and I wouldn't want to ruin it." His answer made me smile. Things like this made me fall in love with him in the first place. Yes, I was in love with him. There was no way to deny it and I even told him this more than once by now, but it always astounded me how deeply I felt for this wonderful man. Instead of agreeing to being my date, he thought about my parents first, to make sure they'd get to enjoy their wedding anniversary.

"Don't worry, comrade. I already cleared it with my parents. Actually they were the ones who asked me whether you'd be my date. If you wouldn't want to be my date, Baba would invite you separately and give you an invitation at work." I added, trying not to pressure his decision.

"No, there's no need for that. Of course I'll be your date. Nothing I'd rather do." With that he agreed to be my plus one.

Now I couldn't wait to go to this party. This would be our first outing as a couple. My family and my parents' friends would get to know about us and I couldn't wait for this to happen. This also meant that my friends would finally find out what I've been hiding from them. In the past weeks I haven't found the right way to tell them. Would they think badly about us, especially considering Dimitri was a little older than me. They were my friends, of course they were going to be happy for me. Weren't they?

The next day came quickly and we would meet for dinner with Lissa, Christian and his aunt.

"Come on Roza, or do you want to be late?" Dimitri's voice boomed from the kitchen counter. I indeed wanted to be late, or more precisely I didn't want to go at all. But I promised Lissa, so I put on my big girl pants and exited the bathroom.

"Let's leave, before I change my mind." He chuckled, took his keys and his wallet and followed me to his car.

"Smile." He told me as I sat down next to him. I couldn't deny these eyes such a thing so I gave him a smile I reserved only for him. "That's better." Giving me a peck, he started driving and we parked at the restaurant what felt like seconds later. The drive took about six minutes to get there, but Dimitri's company captured me and time flew by. He was in a joking mood and told me his favorite jokes from when he was a little boy.

His joy was infectious and I couldn't help but laugh, even though these jokes were horrible.

"'Жук жужжит над абажуром, Жужжит жужелица, Жужжит, кружится.' This means 'A beetle is buzzing over the lamp shade. A ground-beetle is buzzing, Is buzzing and is flying around in circles.'" He explained laughing. "This was one of my favorite tongue twisters growing up. Or 'Поезд мчится скрежеща: ж, ч, ш, щ, ж, ч, ш, щ.' Which translated means 'A train is going on a high speed making squealing noises: zhe, tche, sh, shtcha, zhe, tche, sh, shtcha.'"

Hearing his laugh was like an instant mood lifter. "You were a very funny boy." I teased him. "I bet your jokes as a child weren't that much better." He teased back. Poking out my tongue I exited his car and we walked for some minutes hand in hand towards where Lissa and a guy with raven black hair were waiting in front of the restaurant.

"Rose." Lissa waved at me and I smiled at her. "Hey." I hugged her before making introductions. "I'm Rose. You must be Christian. This is my boyfriend Dimitri." Shaking his hand hesitantly, he nodded at us. "Nice to meet you."

"Shoot, I forgot my wallet in the car. Roza, I'll be right back." Dimitri excused himself. Some moments later I kept looking around and wondered where his aunt was, until I heard a female voice behind us.

"Lissa. Christian. I'm late. Sorry, but traffic was horrible." She came over, hugged the two of them until she turned around towards me. "Hi, I'm Tasha. And you're Rose, right? Nice to meet you. Where is your boyfriend?" She asked without giving me time to react. She seemed nice and even with these scars on her cheek, she was beautiful. "Hello, nice to meet you, too. My boyfriend will be here any moments, he just forgot something in the car. Let's get inside and we'll wait there."

She nodded and we got inside the restaurant. After we got seated, Tasha told us about something that happened at her work place some weeks ago. Dimitri took an awful lot of time to get back here. We already sat here for 10 minutes, waiting. The more I got to know Tasha though, the more I liked her.

But that changed when Dimitri entered and I waved him over to where we were sitting.

Tasha turned around when he was a few feet away. "Dimitri?!" she exclaimed and ran towards him, wrapping her arms around my boyfriend. The three of us left at the table, exchanged perplexed looks. Apparently they knew each other.

"Tasha?" Dimitri sounded just as surprised as we all were. "What are you doing here?" He asked her. "I'm here to meet my nephew's girlfriend, her best friend and this best friend's boyfriend. What are you doing here?" It seemed like she hadn't caught up on the whole thing yet.

"Same thing." Dimitri stammered. "I mean, I'm the best friend's boyfriend, meeting with her best friend, the boyfriend and his aunt." Tasha's head instantly snapped around to look at me. It might just be paranoia, but I felt like she hated me and wanted me to drop dead this instance.

"Why don't we all sit down and order something to eat." Lissa tried to get us back on track. "Yeah, and Dimka, you have to tell me everything about your family and how they are doing." Tasha instantly took Dimitri's arm and guided him to sit next to her. It was my luck, but to her dismay, that this meant he also sat next to me.

"They are fine. Sonja is about to become a mother for the first time and Paul is doing amazing. He is turning 10 in some month." Dimitri started after he gave me a quick kiss.

"Already? Feels like he was born only yesterday when we graduated. I remember when Karolina was –" and with that she slipped into Russian. I sat there hostile while I listened to this woman talking to my boyfriend, as if the rest of us weren't there. To me it was obvious she was head over heels in love with him, but besides me, no one seemed to have noticed.

"How about we speak English, so everyone can understand and maybe change the subject to something more general?" Christian snickered and in this moment I became more and more fond of him.

"Sorry. It's just when you've been friends for so long and have so much to catch up on, it happens that you slip into your native tongue." She explained, to show me how much she had in common with him.

"Aren't you born and raised in America? So your native tongue is English, right?" I couldn't help myself, I started to really hate this Tasha woman.

"Roza, don't be so rude." Dimitri whispered to me. I simply gave him a dark look, which only darkened at Tasha's laugh.

"That's true, but I lived the last half of my school years in Russia and became fluent quite quickly, so it's like my second native tongue." She told me, while touching Dimitri's arm again. It took every ounce of self control I had, not to punch her right there and then.

"But they are right. We'll have to meet up another time and talk about everything I've missed. You haven't told me how Ivan is doing yet." She stopped talking as the waiter came with our food.

"Enjoy your meals." Lissa said and we started eating. I couldn't help but shoot daggers at Tasha as she continuously asked Dimitri something personal, while she only occasionally asked Lissa something. The whole reason of this meeting was for Tasha to get to know Lissa further, not flirting with my boyfriend.

"Long story short, Everyone is doing good. Ivan is probably the same as you've last saw him. I mean I can't imagine him being anything other than that goofball that sucks at the karting track." I interrupted Tasha's next question.

Everyone gave me the disapproving look, although Tasha was the one flirting with my man. "Excuse me please, I need to go to the bathroom." Without waiting on their answers I got up and left. Taking deep, cleaning breaths I watched myself in the mirror and immediately saw as Tasha entered the bathroom.

"Are you okay, Rose? I'm sorry if you misinterpreted the whole situation, but I was simply catching up with an old friend." Did she really thought I would buy this bullshit? I definitely wouldn't. When she registered that Dimitri was here with me, she showed me her true feelings in the look she gave me, so she couldn't fool me with her nice act.

"Oh cut the crap, Tasha. I know you want Dimitri and that you hate me for having him. You can be honest, I already have you figured out. But you should stop this, because I'm the one he loves. Stop trying to steal my man, you won't succeed." Instantly her face changed from the nice and concerned mask and into an ugly grimace.

"Okay, little miss know it all, than let me be clear about this. Dimka is and has always been mine. You are just a pretty, dumb, little girl and soon enough he'll realize that he's better of with a real woman like me." She stormed back out and I could only scream after her. "Don't be so sure about this!"

My good mood was over. How could this woman be so rude and still be Dimitri's friend. Could it be that she was a better actor than I thought or was Dimitri just blind for her true character.

Or maybe the incident with her brother and sister in law killing a lot of people, while almost killing her as well changed her? My inner voice tried to reason with me.

But even if this was the case, that was no excuse at all. Slowly I calmed down and made my way back to the table.