POISON IVY

Ch 15

DIMITRI

I pulled the Jeep out of the parking lot and headed towards the restaurant. What Rose didn't know is that I was taking her to Fire Starter, Christian's place. With the help of Ivan, Tasha, Christian, and Lissa we were going to have dinner out on the covered patio. It was Ivan's idea when he heard I was going to be talking her out tonight. He said Christians restaurant was amazing and the patio would be a perfect private place for a date.

"Are you going to tell me where we are going?"

'Nope it's a surprise."

"Really comrade? Not even a hint."

"Nope."

"Fine, don't tell me." She crossed her arms,pretended to pout and turned her head towards the window. I had to chuckle at how cute she was being right now. She was pretending to huff and puff like she was mad so I decided to mess with her. I knew she wasn't a fan of my music so I turned the radio on. It wasn't very loud to begin with, but I could tell she didn't like it. So gradually I cranked it louder and louder, till I got a reaction out of her.

"Again Comrade with the oldies, I have no idea what it means by video killed the radio star."

"Do I really need to explain to you about MTV?"

"No, I know what MTV is, or what it used to be." She said, rolling her eyes at me. I just laughed and continued on driving. I had a feeling she would catch on to where we were going soon enough. I almost wanted to blindfold her, but didn't know how she felt about being surprised that way.

I rounded the corner to the street the restaurant was on and she turned to look at me.

"Are you taking me to Fire Starter?"

"Maybe."

"You know that's Christian's restaurant?"

"I do." She gave me a look like she was a little skeptical of where we were going. I just smiled at her, grabbed her hand and kissed it as we pulled into the parking lot.

"Just trust me." She smiled back at me and squeezed my hand.

I parked the Jeep, turned it off, hopped out and went to her door. I opened and grabbed her hand to help her down. Once out she didn't let go of my hand and I was happy to hold hers all the way to the door. I opened it and followed her to the hostess stand.

"Reservation for Belikov." The hostess gave me the biggest smile and told us to follow her. She didn't grab any menus because Christian was making all of Rose's favorites, including chocolate cake for dessert. We made it to the patio and stepped through the door and I heard her gasp. They had made the patio look like a fairy wonderland, all with twinkling lights, flowers hanging everywhere and a table in the middle for the two of us. The hostess led us to our table and told us our waitress would be with us shortly. As she walked away I went over and pulled out her chair.

"Very gentlemen of you Comrade."

"My babushka would slap me if I didn't."

"Your what?"

"Babushka, it means grandmother is Russian."

"Ah I like it, ba bush ka." She said slowly trying to add an accent, but it didn't quite work out. It made me laugh at how cute it was, then she started to laugh with me. We were having a nice moment then all of a sudden she got quiet.

"What's it like?" She asked with a sigh.

"What's, what, like?"

"Having a grandmother? A family." Oh crap, this date was taking a sour turn real quick. I didn't want to make her sad by saying I had a great family and loved being so close with all of them. Especially knowing she only had her mother growing up and that they didn't have the best relationship and only reconciled when she was on her deathbed.

Earlier today I learned she possibly had a dad and a brother and that was wearing heavily on my mind.

"Growing up it was a lot to have a house full of women. I never got in the bathroom, never had privacy, and it was never quiet. Even with all that, I wouldn't trade it for the world. Now that we are all adults I appreciate them more."

"That sounds so nice. I was ok with it being just me and my mom till she passed away then I realized I wish I had a family." She said sadly. I grabbed her hand.

"Hey, you do have a family and people that care for you. They may not be related by blood, but they are your family."

"You're right I do." A lone tear escaped from her eye and I took my free thumb and wiped it away.

"Enough of getting mushy and in my feelings. Anything else you want to teach me in Russian? Ooh how about the F word? Then I can tell rude guests to F off and they wouldn't know it."

"I don't know if I should, I have a feeling if I teach you one you're going to want to know them all"

"Maybe, but just for tonight can you teach me to say F off?" She batted her eyes at me and I couldn't say no.

"Otva 'li"

"Ot va li?" She said slowly.

"That's right, good job." She started clapping for herself.

"Are you sure you can't teach me anything else?"

"Maybe, but not cuss words."

"Boo, you're no fun Comrade." I was getting ready to say something back about that nickname and our waitress walked onto the patio with our drinks. She looked familiar and as she got closer I realized it was Jill, Lissa's half sister. She had such a huge grin on her face when she got to the table.

"A Dr Pepper for you and a Pepsi for you." She sat down our drinks and handed us straws.

"I'll be back shortly with bread and your appetizers."

"Thank you Jill." Rose said to her as left.

"Wow, you have already outdone yourself, I'm impressed." She said while looking around taking everything in.

"I'm trying to, but I can't take all the credit. Your friends wanted to help make this night special for you."

"Just being with you makes this a special night." She looked me right in the eyes and in that moment I knew I had to kiss her. It was just a simple kiss on the lips at first then her lips parted. I took this as an invite so I slipped my tongue into her mouth. My tongue made contact with hers and I swear it felt like electricity going through my mouth.

I'd have to say she was a good kisser. We were deep into it when I heard someone clear their throat.

"Sorry to interrupt, but your appetizers are here." Jill said with a giggle and sat our food down. Rose started to laugh.

"Sorry Jill, we'll try to behave."

"It's ok, I'll try to be louder the next time I come in." She said as she quickly left the room.

"Oops, I guess no more kissing at the table, we have an audience."

"That's going to be hard with you Roza, you make me want to do all sorts of bad things."

"Oh really?" She winked and gave me another quick kiss. That turned into a longer one. She stopped first.

"As much as I enjoy kissing you, I'm starving." She grabbed one of the plates that Jill had set down and passed it to me and grabbed one for herself. I noticed the appetizer platter looked a lot like the one we had at the club.

"Some of this looks really familiar." I commented.

"That's because it is. Christian helped design the menu for the club. So they are all his recipes.

"So does that mean I have to watch you put ketchup on your tacos?"

"Maybe?" We dug right in and yes she put ketchup on her tacos.

We quietly ate our food and just enjoyed each other's company.

Dinner and dessert came and went and Ivan was right. The food was amazing, but the company was even better. We had the room to ourselves for as long as we wanted so we were taking advantage of it.

We were deep into a game of twenty questions when we heard a commotion outside the door to the patio. We both turned to see what was going on and to my horror I saw Adrian standing just outside the door. I could tell he was drunk by the way he was swaying and slurring his words. I could hear him say something about his sister. Shit Shit Shit. How in the world did he know we were here? I had to do something quick before this got out of hand.

I grabbed my phone and texted Ivan.

Have a bit of a situation. Adrain is here at the restaurant making a scene.

Oh shit! I'm out with Tasha! I'll text Sydney and we will be right over to help.

"Looks like someone has had one too many drinks at the bar." Rose said with a laugh. I'm glad she wasn't paying too much attention to the scene he was making outside. I wanted to get her out of here before anything happened. I looked for an exit other than the door we came in only to notice the only other exit out of the patio was an emergency one. There was no way we were going out that way.

"Maybe we should take this as our cue to leave." Rose said. That wasn't going to happen while Adrian was right outside the door. I needed to distract her.

"Hey no fair, I just started to ask you my questions."

"We can always finish another time."

"Nope, you're not getting out of questions that easily. I answered all of yours, and some were really personal, you have to answer mine."

" Fine be that way, comrade."

"It's only fair Roza." I leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Alright hit me with it." She sighed.

"So, did your mom really not tell you anything about your dad?" I knew it was a risky question, but I was testing the waters.

"Good one comrade, I know nothing about my dad. The only thing my mom ever said was that he was a dangerous man. She never wanted me to know who he was, she made sure he wasn't on my birth certificate. When I went through her things after she passed I didn't find anything about him. She was very private about her life before she had me. I was five when we moved here and I don't remember anything from before then and she never brought it up. I've always wondered if he knew about me and if he did , where has he been my whole life." She looked a bit sad so I grabbed her hand to comfort her. She took a deep breath.

"Ok I think that one was worth three questions."

"That's fair. How about an easy one, how long have you and Lissa been friends?'

"We've been best friends since our first day of kindergarten. The teacher asked us to write our names and I threw a book at her and called her a "facist bastard". Didn't know what it meant at the time but I sure knew how to throw. It made Lissa laugh and we've been inseparable since."

"I can totally see you doing that." I laughed imagining a little dark headed Rose throwing a book at her teacher.

We're here and it's bad.

What can I do to help?

Get Rose out of here!

"Who keeps texting you?"

"Ivan, he just won't quit harassing me for finally having a date."

"Gotcha, I'm surprised Lissa hasn't texted me yet, but then again I'm sure Jill is filling her in."

"Speaking of Jill, I haven't seen her in awhile."

"We probably scared her off."

We were laughing and all of a sudden the door to the patio opened and in came Adrian. Shit I needed to get her out of here quickly. But like everything in my life that was easier said than done.

"Dimitri, are you being good to my sister?" Slurred Adrian as he came our way. Ivan and Tasha were right behind him. I grabbed my duster and her jacket and stood up. Rose looked from Adrian to me then to Ivan and Tasha.

"What's going on?" I didn't know how to answer her. Ivan had a hold of Adrian and was trying to get him to leave.

"Adrian's our boss and it looks like he fell off the wagon."

"NO, let me go or you're fired. Rose,Rose." Adrian protested and got out of Ivan's hold.

"I'm your brother Rose."

"I don't know who you are and what you're on, or even how you know my name,but I don't have a brother or any family."

"Yes you do. You have me and you have a dad." Ivan put him in a death grip and started to drag him out.

"Let's go Adrian, Sydney's here to take you home." Ivan said forcefully in his ear.

"Let's get out of here." I said to Rose as I tried to put her jacket on. She reluctantly let me put it on and we made our way to the patio door. Ivan had just taken Adrian out the door into the restaurant. I couldn't believe the mess he had made out there. There were broken glasses and plates all over the floor. Sydney was talking to Christian, I assumed she was smoothing things over.

We walked by Adrian and he reached out to grab her arm.

"Please, listen to me, I really am your brother. Your mom's name is Janine Hathaway not Irene,she passed away in 2018. Your birthday is March 15, 1995. She dated my dad for three years and just up and left nine months before you were born.Your birth certificate is fake, you weren't born in Darby. I don't know where you were born or anything about the first five years of your life " The more he said the paler her face got.

"Just stop."

"My mom left when I was a baby, Janine loved me like her own. She was the only mother I've ever known."

"Now I know you're lying, my mother was nothing like that."

"She was, I was heartbroken when she left."

"Enough Adrian, we're going home." Sydney came up and gently grabbed his arm.

" I'm not leaving till she believes me. I have pictures of me with her to prove it, ask Dimitri, he's seen them.." She turned and looked at me.

"What's he talking about?"

"Roza."

"Don't Roza me. I want to know what's going on and I want to know now!" She demanded. I just stood there staring, there was no right way to do this. No matter what I said I was going to look like the bad guy.

"He's telling the truth."

AUTHORS NOTES: Thank you again for sticking with this story. It is my baby and I'm not anywhere near done with it. I am recovering from major surgery and finally feeling like myself. Plan on posting weekly.

Ps. I googled the Russian. If it's wrong, I blame Google.