I couldn't lie; I think I missed working at Buria more than I did at Guardianship Gym. I liked the upbeat, fast paced, steady flow of people. Plus, there was something comforting about the smell of beer and peanuts.
"I was starting to think that you left and were never coming back."
I looked over and shook my head, lifting a glass off the shelf and pouring a light brew from the tap.
"C'mon Joe. I've been working here for how long? I'm not about to just leave and not say goodbye. You're my favourite customer," I said with a smirk, setting the glass down in front of him, sliding the basket of peanuts towards him.
Joe Pruitt was a man in his late fifties with a big bushy beard and eyes hidden beneath thick eyebrows. He was a crab fisherman until a few years back when he injured his back during a bad storm on the water. He was one of the handfuls of 'shady' looking guys that came into Buria, but he was deep down a teddy bear.
"I would hope not. You're the only reason I come here. Nobody else can pour a draft properly except you and Yuri," Joe laughed, lifting his pint to his lips.
I shook my head and leaned against the bar. "I was off on maternity leave. I've been slowly coming back. For the last few months, I've been helping with inventory and ordering so that I could be home with my daughter and fiancée at night."
Joe raised his eyebrows and smiled behind his glass. "No. No-Baby-Hathaway is a mommy. Damn, I totally saw that coming," Joe joked, laughing deeply as he set the glass down. I shrugged and brushed my hair out of my face.
I took the slowness of the night with stride and chatted with Joe for a bit, leaning against the bar as we caught up. He told about how his youngest daughter was graduating high school this year, that he became a grandfather in the spring, how his wife was starting to learn how to cook Indian cuisine despite getting it wrong every time.
"What's your girl like?"
I smiled and tilted my head to the side. "Honestly, Joe? She's perfection. She is so smart for a baby. We say things like Dede or cup or Dumbo and it's like she knows exactly what those words mean. She always gets excited if I say Dede or Abe. When the front door closes at night, her head turns and waits, watching with these perfect little eyes for her father to come down the hall."
"You know when you look at one of your kids and they look up at you and it's like the world just feels complete?"
Joe leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest with a fond smile on his face. "I do. I think almost all parents feel that when they look at their children or grandchildren. They give us a different kind of love."
I nodded with a sigh. He was right. Even with Jenny I felt a different kind of love come from Sofia compared to Dimitri. I feel strong love from Dimitri but from Sofia, it's stronger, almost complete unconditional love from her. Love to the point where it feels like I could do no wrong in her eyes.
Love that I felt towards both of my parents when I was young.
I pushed myself up. "I'll be right back," I said to Joe when I noticed that the basket of peanuts was almost empty. Joe nodded and turned his attention to the T.V. above the wall as I headed into the back.
I moved things around in the cupboard and found a fresh bag of peanuts and dumped them into the basket. I sniffed the air and felt the mouth water.
"Oh, please tell me that those aren't Cajun fries," I moaned at Yuri, practically drooling where I stood. The smell of the fries woke my stomach from its silence and now all I wanted was those fries. Yuri smirked and pointedly put a plate with a cover on the island top before putting the rest in a basket.
"They are. It's not busy right now, bring this out with you. You can eat out there with Joe."
I raised my brows at him and chuckled. "What happened to no food at the bar?"
Yuri shrugged. "We aren't busy tonight. Don't worry about it. Besides, you look like you need a few extra pounds."
I rolled my eyes and placed a hand on my hip. "Oh really?"
Yuri smirked with a shake of his head. "Yeah. I'm not saying that you don't look good, you just look a lot thinner than usual."
I snorted and picked up the food and balanced it between my hands. "Thanks, Dad," I drawled. Yuri laughed and brought the food out. Joe's eyes were still glued to the T.V. when I came out, but they slid to me when I set the food down.
I laughed at the sound of excitement Joe made as he dug into his food. I dug in too and watched the T.V. with Joe as we ate. I looked over when the bell over the door rang and stood up straight. Two men in suits walked in, but I shook my head and shrunk back down to my food.
Joe looked from them to me with a raised brow. "Slacking off?"
"No," I said stuffing a few more fries into my mouth, "neither of them will mind if I keep eating. To be honest, the blonde one will try to steal my fries."
Joe knitted his brows together as I stood up straight and smiled, stepping onto the bottom of the open-faced cupboard so I could lean over the bar better.
"Did Sofia fuss when you dropped her off?" I asked Dimitri as he ducked his head down to give me a kiss. Dimitri brushed his hand over my jaw and shook his head.
"No. She was quite excited when I dropped her off. Practically squealing and tried to throw herself out of my arms to get to Abe," Dimitri said with a chuckled.
I hmphed and shook my head. "Beer?" I asked Ivan.
"What am I? Twelve?"
I snorted and poured a shot glass of tequila for Ivan and vodka for Dimitri. Joe looked between us and tilted his head to the side with a chuckle.
"So Comrade, Yuri said I looked like I could use a few extra pounds," I said, swatting Ivan's hand away from my plate before resting against the back counter so I could see all three of them.
Dimitri's eyes flicked over me as he sipped on his vodka and shrugged slightly. "I think you look amazing, Roza. But you have been looking a little thinner lately."
I narrowed my eyes at him and he raised his hands. "I'm sorry, but you've had that weird bug for the last two weeks, you've been throwing up for days, you lost a bit of weight from that."
"Ew, I'm drinking," Ivan groaned in protest, but Joe just laughed.
"I take it that you are the fiancée?"
Dimitri looked at Joe and smirked nodding as he stretched his hand out across Ivan. "Dimitri Belikov."
Joe wiped his hand on the knee of his pants before shaking Dimitri's hand. "Joe Pruitt. I've been coming here for years. I remember when little miss started here. She didn't even know how to pour a draft, it came out all foam," Joe replied, chuckling.
"Hey! I had literally never poured a beer in my life until that night."
Dimitri choked on his drink as he laughed, Ivan thumping him on the back. I shook my head and handed him a napkin once he composed himself.
"Really? Never poured a beer? How old were you?"
"Umm…" I said as I fidgeted, "Twenty-three?"
Ivan and Dimitri both gawked at me. "Seriously? Not even at a party?" Ivan asked.
I shook my head. "To be honest, I don't actually like beer. Never could get past the taste. I'm more of a wine and hard liquor girl."
"Oh I'm well aware. You are interesting under hard liquor," Dimitri muttered under his breath, to which I playfully smacked the back of his head, earning myself a panty-dropping smirk from him. I shook my head at him before filling up Joe's beer again.
I could feel Dimitri's gaze on me as I moved around behind the bar, putting things away as closing time approached. When I turned back to look at him, I found his eyes a little lower than I would have expected, but gave him a saucy wink regardless.
I mean, I couldn't expect him to not stare at my ass when my back was turned. I did the same to him all the time.
I closed the door with my foot as I juggled the boxes in my hair, puffing my hair out of my face.
Dimitri raised a brow at me as I set a few shoeboxes on the coffee table and plopped down on the couch beside him and Adrian. I smirked at the two of them and pulled one of the lids off the boxes.
"Rose, not all of us like shoes," Adrian chuckled.
"Good thing it's not shoes," I quipped back, reaching in and grabbing a handful of photos. Dimitri looked at the boxes again for a moment before pulling one towards him, smiling to himself as he looked over them.
"How did you get these?"
"I called your mother. How else do you think I got them? Lissa needed photos for some wedding thing, so I asked your mom to send me pictures of you when you were younger," I explained, flipping through a few photos of Dimitri as a baby. I smiled myself as I gazed at a photo of him as an infant, curled in Olena's arms.
I flipped through a few more and chuckled at baby Dimitri in the bathtub, a cheeky smile on his face. I peaked up to find Dimitri and Adrian looking through pictures too, setting the ones they liked on the table.
I stiffened for a second when I can across a picture of Dimitri and his father. He must have been a toddler in the photo, but you could see the coldness in his father's eyes. I quickly stuffed that photo into the bottom of the box.
I snorted a laugh as I held up a picture of Dimitri as a child in a dress. I turned it towards Adrian and couldn't hold my laughter anymore. Adrian choked on his drink and took the picture from me to look at it better.
"Oh God, you were what? Eight? I actually remember this!" Adrian chuckled.
Dimitri shook his head and kept flipping through the photos in his hand, stopping every few to look at them. I smiled at him even though he couldn't see it, and picked up another handful of photos. I smiled at one of a young Olena, seeing so much of her in Dimitri. I flipped the photo over and read the date on the back.
"Hey? You were born in '87, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
I held out the picture to him. "Your mom was pregnant with you in that picture."
Dimitri looked at it and looked at the date. "How can you be sure of that?"
"You can see it in her cheeks, they're fuller than in a few other pictures from a month later," I said softly. Dimitri smiled and set the photo back in the box, kissing my cheek before returning to his stack. I flipped through a few more before coming to a stop.
I always had a hard time thinking of Dimitri and Tasha together as a couple. Like there was part of my brain that physically couldn't imagine it. But looking at the picture of twenty-five year old Dimitri with his arm wrapped around Tasha's shoulders made it easier.
It was also hard to think that once upon a time Dimitri loved her. But the look on his face in the picture proved that he really did love her. And then she screwed the pooch.
"When's this from?"
Dimitri frowned as he looked over the picture. "It was in Baia. Right before things started to go downhill. Her changed in clothes and hairstyle should have been a factor. She always had long hair until things started to fall apart. She started cutting it short because it made whoever she was seeing happy."
I frowned and pulled the photo back and started to move through the photos when Adrian pulled the photo of them from me. I peeked at Dimitri to find him focused on a few photos of his sisters before looking back at Adrian.
Adrian had an odd look on his face as he looked at the photo before he tucked it under his knee. I furrowed my brows but figured it'd be better to wait to ask him.
We worked through the boxes, and every few or so Dimitri would explain the photo to me. There were a few that I put aside so that I could have copies made. Ones of Dimitri as a kid or of him and his family. A few were of him as a teenager, all legs and just starting to fill out.
"Look at you, little heartbreaker," I chirped, fanning myself with the picture. Dimitri just shook his head. I chuckled and went to get up with Sofia started making noise in her crib, but Dimitri beat me to it. I watched him walk down the hall to check on her.
I took the moment to turn to Adrian.
"What is it?" I asked referring to his reaction earlier. Adrian looked like he wanted to puke.
"I know why I couldn't place Tasha when we saw her at the store."
"Oh?"
"Last time I had seen her, her hair was short like that. And I saw her the night Dimitri and I went to the bar to celebrate. After Dimitri left."
I frowned at him and furrowed my brows at him before sitting up rod straight. "Oh God."
"Please don't say anything yet," Adrian pleaded, "I…I need to process this."
I sank back into the couch and nodded my head, promising quietly not to say anything until he was ready. Adrian cleared his throat and gave his head a shake before going back to the photos, neatly stacking the ones we picked out and putting the rest of them back into the shoeboxes.
DPOV
I really was starting to get concerned for Rose. The stomach bug that had been going around was still knocking her down. The idea of eating sometimes was too much for her. Like today. I offered to make grilled sandwiches for her and Adrian for lunch, and she grimaced at the thought.
I managed to get her to eat some soup, but that was about it. Lissa had the same thing for a week, but now that it was week three, I was worried.
"So you two are getting married in January? That's only five months away. Can you pull a wedding together fast enough?"
I stretched my arm out on the back of the couch and slipped my fingers into the hair at the back of Rose's neck.
"Yeah, that's enough time. My bride insisted she wanted to be married in the winter," I said, turning my head to kiss Rose's hair. Rose nodded and snuggled into my side.
"We already have a venue, and we are sending out invitations/save the dates this week," Rose added, tilting her head back into my hand. I shifted from running my fingers through her hair to rubbing the base of her head, smirking to myself when I heard the faint hum of pleasure.
"Are you going to invite your mother?" Adrian asked, "I just ask because from what you told me, you two have spoken twice since the charity dinner."
I looked down at Rose with a soft look. It was something that Rose had been going back and forth about in her mind. She was leaning more one way than the other but still hadn't made a decision. I had specifically left a seat available with the venue to be safe.
"I'm having lunch with her on Friday. I am going to extend the invitation then," Rose said after a moment with a deep breath, a small smile quirking at her lips. Rose peeked up at me and I smiled down at her, leaning in to press a kiss to her mouth. Rose relaxed a bit more into me and rested her head against my shoulder.
"I'm invited, right?"
I snorted a laugh. "Yes. I was actually hoping you'd be a groomsman."
Adrian smirked and nodded his head. "I'd be insulted if I wasn't. I didn't get to go to the last one."
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Rose leaned forward and shifted on the couch while she scrolled through her phone, no doubt talking to Lissa and Mia.
Rose ducked her head down as she read something on her phone, her brows furrowed as she chewed on her lip.
"What?" Adrian asked, leaning towards Rose. I tilted my head to read over her shoulder, but the angle was wrong so I couldn't.
Rose's brows were pinched together with concentration. "Just this article. Ralf Sarcozy, 29, charged with three counts of sexual assault. More victims have come forward. I don't know why, but I swear I've heard that name before," Rose explained, gnawing on her lip when she finished reading.
Adrian's eyes flicked to mine and then back to Rose. Since the revelation of that night, Rose said she hadn't remembered anything else. I didn't want to be the one to put the name to the monster that hurt her, but at the same time, she deserved to know. I already felt horrible by keeping that to myself for so long. I jerked my head slightly to Adrian and he nodded, not saying what was hanging in the air.
"What else does the article say?"
"Not much," Rose said with a frown, "just that when police arrived, they found photos, videos, and articles of woman's clothing. Jesus… that's disgusting."
"Sure is," Adrian said bitterly.
I couldn't wind down. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Adrian had left a few hours ago and Sofia had gone to bed almost an hour ago, and I still couldn't stop thinking about it. I looked at Rose where she sat at the island, flipping through her cue cards, humming quietly under her breath.
I can't keep this from her any longer, I thought to myself as I pushed myself off the couch.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I walked towards Rose and placed my hands on her shoulders, rubbing the sides of them as I kissed her shoulder. Rose hummed and leaned back into me, flipping through the cue cards in her hands.
I didn't want to tell her now, but I knew that if I didn't, I would lose my nerve.
"How much more studying do you have for tonight?" I asked, resting my cheek against the side of her head. Rose thumbed through her cards and shrugged.
"Not a lot. I don't want to overdo it. It's bad to study too much the night before a midterm."
I nodded and slipped my arms around her waist, pulling her tight against me. Rose finished reading the cards and set them down before turning in my arms, smiling softly at me. I gave a smile back but it was forced.
"You okay?" Rose asked with knitted brows, cupping my neck. I shook my head and rubbed my thumbs over her sides.
"There's something I need to talk to you about," I said tightly, making her frown. Rose nodded her head and I led her to the couch, pulling her to sit with me while I kept her hand tight in mine. I stroked my thumb over the back of her hand as I looked at the ring on her finger, trying to center myself before speaking.
"Remember that article you read this afternoon? About Ralf Sarcozy?"
Rose nodded her head. "Yeah. You were acting kind of weird when I mentioned it. Why?"
"The reason you thought you knew the name is because you met him," I said slowly, trying to find the right words. But there were no right words. I was telling the woman I love who her attacker was, and it made me sick to my stomach.
"What?"
"Ralf was Adrian's roommate."
I could feel all of her muscles locking into place as she looked at me, her eyes flickering over my face as the words sank in. Rose pulled her hand out of mine and leaned back into the couch, looking at the coffee table with an empty stare.
"You're saying that he's one?" Rose asked quietly, her voice still but I could hear the vulnerability in it. I nodded my head.
"Yes. Ralf is the one who assaulted you."
I'm sorry to leave this chapter on such a sombre note, but the chapter itself become too long and I needed to break it up.
Let me know what you think!
