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CHAPTER 36

DPOV

"I'm telling you, she's just being stubborn," Ivan said, following me around the kitchen as I cooked dinner. "I bet when she sees you, she'll forgive you." I looked at him, raising my eyebrow. "Okay, maybe she'll scream at you first, but when she's got it out of her system, she'll take you back."

"You've been talking an awful lot about her lately," I noted. "Why do you care so much? A few months ago, you told me to break up with her so I could hook up with the women I wanted to but never could because of Tasha."

Ivan sighed. "Yeah, okay, I said that. But I didn't know back then how sad you'd be without Rose."

"I'm not sad."

"You're just like Rose. She keeps saying she is over you, but she's not. Whenever I mention your name, she-"

"What are you talking about?" I cut him off, turning around to look at him. "Have you seen Rose?"

"Um, I might have," he said uneasily.

"Have you?" I repeated, my voice getting louder.

Ivan nodded. "I'm sorry, but someone has to talk to her if you won't do it," he defended himself. "You're both miserable without each other and you're both too stubborn to admit it!"

"How many times?" I exclaimed. "How many times did you see her?"

"I went to visit her once," he answered, "and one time I ran into her in town. She was at a bar."

"A bar?!"

"Yeah, with her friends."

I frowned. "Who?"

"Christian and Adrian. Why are you asking? Are you scared she's already met some other guy or something?"

I turned away from him. "No. She can go out with whoever she wants to."

"Even if it's with some guy you don't know? Some guy who doesn't have a girlfriend?"

I shrugged. "Like I said," I said, clenching my jaw, "she can go out with whoever she wants to."

He scoffed. "Liar. You'd be jealous as hell."

"Fine, I'd be jealous!" I said angrily. "But I don't have a right to be. I'm not her boyfriend anymore. I made a stupid mistake and now I'm not her boyfriend anymore."

"Finally you're admitting you made a mistake," Ivan said, unfazed by my yelling. "We're making progress. That's good."

"No, it's not good! It's not good at all! I broke up with Rose , which is the stupidest thing I've ever done, and I can't make it right. I can't fix this. I-"

"You can. You can fix this, Dimitri," Ivan said calmly. "All you need to do is talk to Rose, apologize to her and explain to her why you've been such an ass."

"She won't ever forgive me!" I said, breathless from all the yelling. "And I understand. If I were her, I wouldn't forgive me either."

"You don't know that until you talk to her," Ivan said, agitated. "And if you keep stalling, it will only make things worse. You should've gone to her the day she came back."

I sat down on the nearest chair and buried my face in my hands. "God, I've been so stupid. I should've never let her go."

"Everyone makes mistakes," Ivan said shrugging. "Now you just gotta-"

"Daddy, is everything okay?"

I looked up, startled. Inna stood in the doorway, a worried look on her face. She glanced from Ivan to me.

"Yes, milaya, everything's fine," I said, forcing a smile.

She looked at me, unsure. "I heard you yelling."

"Oh, that was just your dad realizing what a stupid ass he's been for letting Rose go," Ivan said casually. I glared at him and he added, "Excuse my language." Then he cleared his throat and looked at Inna. "What do you think? Should your father go to Rose and apologize to her?"

Inna's eyes widened. "Is Rose back?"

"Inna-"

"Yes, she is," Ivan cut me off. "So, what do you say?"

Inna rushed to my side and tugged at my arm. "You have to go make it right with her, Dad. You have to go now. Please."

"Inna, sweetie, I can't do that. I don't even know if she's at home," I started.

"Where else would she be? And if she isn't there, you can go back tomorrow," she said, trying to convince me. "Please, Dad. I don't want Hayley anymore as our babysitter. She's not as much fun as Rose is."

"I'm sure you agree with that one, right?" Ivan said, looking at me, as he wiggled his eyebrows. "Rose was much more fun, wasn't she? She had way more benefits as a babysitter than-"

"That's enough," I cut him off, glaring at him again. I looked back at Inna, who was still begging for me to talk to Rose, and sighed. "I'll go talk to her, milaya, but not tonight. Okay?"

"Then when are you going to talk to her?" she asked with a frown.

"I don't know," I said, letting out another sigh. "But I will."

"You promise?"

I looked her in the eyes. I hesitated briefly, but then said, "I promise."

RPOV

It was just another boring Saturday at the supermarket. The job was okay, but it wasn't as much fun as babysitting. But at least this was paying the bills. What made my job a little bit more bearable was that I'd made some new friends. Mia, another cashier, had started this job a month ago and was around my age. She had blond, curly hair and sparkling blue eyes. She was always smiling and very friendly with costumers. But she could be nasty sometimes towards colleagues she didn't like. Fortunately, she liked me.

And then there was Mason. He was a little older than us and stocked the groceries. He stood out with his red hair and blue eyes. He was kind of cute, too. We flirted sometimes, but I wasn't sure that was a good idea since I wasn't over Dimitri yet and I didn't want Mason to give false hope. Mia had told me he liked me a little more than just a friend. At first, I didn't want to believe it, but today I'd caught him looking at me in a way that a friend doesn't.

When I saw him looking at me for the tenth time in an hour, I think, he called to me, "Break in ten minutes?"

I nodded at him and continued helping my customer. I couldn't help but sigh; this job could be so boring sometimes. It was monotone; everyday was just the same.

"Have a nice day, sir," I said automatically. I greeted the next customer without looking up and started ringing up the items.

"Rose."

I froze.

"Roza."

Slowly, I looked and let out a small gasp when I saw Dimitri. He gave me a small, nervous smile. I could only stare at him. It had been so long since I'd seen him. Nothing had changed, though. He was still as handsome as ever.

"Hi," he said, his smile growing a little bit. "How…how are you?"

I just kept staring at him.

"I've actually been wanting to talk to you," he said hesitantly as he looked at me.

I snapped out of my trance and quickly rung up the other items. "That's 40 dollars, sir."

"Rose-"

"Have a good day, sir."

Dimitri looked hurt as I glared at him. He glanced at me one last time before taking his bag and leaving. I watched him leave from the corner of my eye and let out a sigh of relief when he was gone. I was distracted the rest of the day, thinking about Dimitri. Since coming back, I'd expected to ran into him, but not like this. Not at the supermarket, where he was my costumer. Where I couldn't yell at him and beat the crap out of him for breaking up with me.

"Rose, are you okay?" Mason asked me as we left the supermarket. Our workday was over and I couldn't wait to get home and jump into the shower too cool off. Or maybe I could go to Christian so I could vent to him about seeing Dimitri today. "One minute you look mad, the next you look like you're going to cry."

"I'm fine, Mase," I said, forcing a smile. "I just-"

I stopped walking when I noticed Dimitri leaning against the side of his car. When he saw me, he came walking towards us.

"Who is that? Do you know him?" Mason asked. Apparently, he'd noticed him too.

"No," I said, glancing away. "I should go. Bye, Mason."

But before I could run off, Dimitri had reached us. "Rose, can we please talk?"

Mason frowned as he looked at me. "I thought you said you didn't know him."

"I don't," I said, clenching my jaw. "He's just a customer."

"Then why does he know your name?" Mason said, raising his eyebrow.

I let out a frustrated sigh and turned to Dimitri. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk," he said softly. "Please?"

I looked at Dimitri, who was looking at me pleadingly. At last, I let out another sigh and said, "Mason, I'll see you next week, okay?"

Mason looked unsure, glancing from Dimitri to me, but then nodded. "Okay. See you, Rose."

Mason left and then it was just Dimitri and me. It was quiet for a while. I crossed my arms and waited until Dimitri said something. He was the one who wanted to talk, after all.

"So, how long have you been working here?" Dimitri asked, not looking at me.

"A few weeks," I answered curtly.

"Why are you working here? Why aren't you babysitting anymore?"

"I kind of have enough of babysitting," I said icily. That was not true; I loved babysitting. But he didn't need to know that. "And the only family that needed a babysitter consisted of a father with two kids. I'm not babysitting any kids who have a single father. Not after what happened with you. I'm not going to make that mistake again."

Dimitri finally looked up at me, hurt in his eyes. "You think we were a mistake?"

"What does it matter what I think? And why are you looking like that? Like you care?" I said. "You broke up with me. You obviously thought we were a mistake."

"I didn't think that. I don't think we're a mistake," Dimitri said, his eyes piercing mine. "I made a mistake. I believed I was doing the right thing by letting you go, but I was wrong. And I'm sorry."

I stared at him, stunned for a moment. I hadn't expected this. I'd expected him to give me more reasons why he was right to break up with me, but I hadn't thought he'd admit he'd been wrong. But it was too late. He'd come too late.

"Thanks. I'm glad you realize it," I said softly before turning and walking away.

"Rose, wait!" he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me back to him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm walking away," I answered.

"But…" He frowned. "I… Will you please give me another chance to make it right?"

"Look, I accept your apology," I said, taking a deep breath, "but I can't be with you anymore, Dimitri. You broke my heart and I'm not sure I can trust you anymore. One minute you want me to move in, the next you're breaking up with me."

"I know and I'm sorry, Roza," he said, looking at me pleadingly. "I am so sorry. I should've never listened to your mother. It was stupid."

"Yeah. Definitely stupid," I said flatly. "You don't even know her and you listen to her, even though I told you so many times that I knew what I was doing when I got together with you. That I wasn't going to leave."

"I know. You're right, Roza," he said. "And I realize that now. If I could turn back time, I would've never taken her advice. I would've stayed with you." He took a step closer to me and continued, "But I can't change what I did. All I can do now is apologize to you and-"

"You already apologized, Dimitri. You don't have to keep doing it."

"Yes, I do," he said firmly. "And I will until you forgive me."

I looked down and sighed. It was quiet for a while. At last, I looked back up at him and said softly, "If I forgive you, will you leave me alone then?"

Dimitri stared at me. "Roza…"

"If you really wanted me back, you would've come to me sooner. Why would you wait so long? Why didn't you come to me sooner?"

"I called you several times over the summer, but… You blocked my number, Rose."

I nodded. "I had to. I was trying to forget you. But that's not what I'm talking about." Dimitri frowned, momentarily confused, so I said, "I'm pretty sure Ivan told you he saw me here. You probably knew when I came back to campus, but you didn't try to talk to me."

Dimitri looked down. "I didn't think you'd want to see me or talk to me. Ivan tried to talk me into it, but I was convinced you wouldn't want to see me anymore."

"Then why did you show up here?"

"It was a coincidence," he replied. "I didn't know you're working here. But then I saw you and I had to say something. I'd been thinking about visiting you for a while now, but I… I guess I'm a coward. I've been wanting to tell you for a longer time now that I still love you and that I want you back."

Tears sprung in my eyes and I had to remind myself that I'd made a promise to never cry over Dimitri again – let alone, cry in front of him.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do this," I said, my voice breaking.

I guess he knew I was going to run off, because he quickly stepped in front of me. "Okay. I won't talk about it anymore. I just… I just need to ask you something."

"What?" I asked, not looking at him so I could hide my tears.

"Would you..." He fell silent. Taking a deep breath, he tried again. "Would you please come over for dinner sometime? The kids miss you like crazy. They'd love to see you."

I forced my tears back and looked up at him. "The kids? T-they miss me?"

He gave me a sad smile. "Of course they do."

"I miss them too," I whispered.

"So what do you say? You want to come over for dinner?" he asked. "Say hello the kids?"

"I don't know," I said hesitantly. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Please, Roza," he said. "I won't try to convince you to take me back. It's just dinner. Okay?"

"Fine," I agreed at last. "But I'm doing this for the kids," I added firmly.

"I know," he said. "How about Friday night? Is that okay for you?"

I nodded. "Friday night is fine. What time do you want me to be there?"

"Is seven p.m. okay for you?"

"That's fine."

"Okay. I'll see you then."

"Yeah. Bye."

With one last glance at Dimitri, I turned around again and walked off. And this time, Dimitri let me.

Their conversation didn't go too well, but at least Rose is coming to the dinner. Maybe then Dimitri will be able to convince her to take him back ;)

Hope you liked the chapter. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Have a nice day/evening! :)