Her already pale face whitened to chalk; the troubled gray of her eyes the only blot of color in its delicate bone structure.
“No, it’s not…”
“Don’t bother to lie.” He paced away from her only to pace back. “Not my business, but you’ve made it so.” He heard the disgust and condemnation in his tone. “You chose a lifestyle, chose to be commitment free, and the child deserves better.” The words were spit out like bullets shot from a gun.
“You weren’t so choosy last night, were you?” She struck back hard.
The penny dropped and Vlad reared up to his full, threatening six-foot-three inches. They were chest to chest and he could swear those mermaid eyes were trying to pull him under.
“Do you mean to file a harassment claim? I warn you, I fight dirty.”
“I have a witness,” she said.
“Who? My driver? He’ll swear that it was consensual which by the way, it was.”
“But then when I didn’t give you what you wanted, you fired me!”
The heat of embarrassment scorched his cheekbones, and he turned away. Untrue, but she hit a sore spot. He absolutely never behaved that way with anyone in an office setting. Those kinds of complications made no sense when admittedly women
were all but his for the asking. Though he always confined himself to dating women outside of his own employees, he would have to be blind not to notice the
speculative looks that came his way and even the more overt invitations within his own offices. But he had never once reciprocated or in any way responded to those overtures. It was plain stupid, and he liked to think he could keep his mind above it and his pants zipped.
It infuriated him to think that this slip of a girl wound him up so fast that he had thrown away the habits of a lifetime and been ready to take her in the backseat of his car.
Perhaps not a slip of a girl. She’d shown up at his office with her child.
He was losing it. He badly needed a break if someone like Sabrina Boyd could get the better of him.
“You will regret it if you try that tack, Ms. Boyd. Let’s face it, who’d believe for a second?” His gaze trailed over her body in insulting appraisal.
“You’d slum it with a girl like me?”
She swung her hand in a swift arc and connected hard with his cheek.
“Rina?” Alex, who had been silent and transfixed watching the byplay between the two adults, reacted to the harsh vibration in the air. “Ri-na?” He lifted his arms and wiggled in his seat.
“Okay, pumpkin, we’re going.”
Hands shaking, she struggled with the doorknob. Vlad stepped forward to open it, to get her out of his orbit, and presented his hovering assistant with a close- up of the vivid handprint Sabrina left on his cheek.
****
Sabrina stuffed the last few personal items in a shopping bag, unable to organize her teeming thoughts. Her pounding head beat out a flashing, neon crisis list—job-apartment-preschool-college-job-apartment-preschool-college-job…
She trembled with fear and a bone deep realization that every nightmare she’d ever had of losing Alex was in danger of coming true.
More humiliating, Sabrina was forced to acknowledge her extreme case of naïvety. Somehow, in the far reaches of her treacherous mind, she’d built up her initial encounter with him into something special, the first meeting of a lasting relationship. Her inexperienced body had mistaken hormones and biology for feelings. That was hysterically funny and completely pathetic.
And then she’d gone on with that angry blather insinuating he sexually harassed her. By that point, she had no clue what she was saying. She was simply reacting.
The thought of filing any sort of claim that could be made public, where people would search into her background, was the last thing she would do. Even if he had harassed her, which he had not. They had both been so deep into whatever flared up between them that no thought beyond the pleasure of the moment crossed her mind.
The reality was that she was the de facto mother of a three-year-old, light years out of Vladimir Grigory’s league. And yes, he was hot, but underneath that kick- ass suit, he was just another guy who didn’t believe in second chances.
****
Rain continued to fall steadily outside the VGI building as Sabrina hooked her bulging bag onto the stroller’s handles. She pulled Alex’s rain hat down over his feathery black hair, kissed his cheek, and wiped away the raindrops, not tears, she told herself, from her own cheeks, and pushed the stroller to the downtown subway.
****
The thumping on her front door echoed the agonizing pounding inside her head. The banging was merciless, and she wanted to yell ‘go away’ but the added volume of her voice would surely awaken Alex from his nap and do serious damage to her nerves. Alex needed his rest and she needed him to rest, so she could.
Last night hadn’t ended till early this morning.
Sabrina was too chicken to tell Mrs. Egan about her disastrous day and her dismissal. If only she could forget the whole sorry day ever happened.
To cheer them both up, Sabrina treated Alex by making his favorite pasta and veg followed by ice cream for both of them and wine for her. She invited her friend Lacey, who lived on the floor above them to share, and they opened wine given to Sabrina on her birthday. Lacey brought another bottle and so, one Pinot Grigio had turned into two.
“Yum,” Lacey pronounced her verdict with her mouth full of linguine. “So amazing to eat honest-to- God carbs for a change. Man, I don’t know how I survived without ’em.”
“And tomorrow you’ll weigh exactly the same as yesterday and call it lucky metabolism whereas I—” Sabrina pretended to frown.
“Whereas real women have curves,” Lacey countered. This was an old routine of theirs.
“And everything you see I owe to pasta.” Sabrina wriggled and struck a voluptuous pose as she quoted the famous Sophia Loren line.
Sabrina continued to tease. “So, I guess pasta’s one compensation for giving up your title of ‘world famous model.’”
“Oh, there’s more than one positive in that bargain,” Lacey’s tone turned dead serious, “but don’t change the subject, we’re talking about you and your not-by-your-own-choice departure from under the thumb of Nanny Bordon.”
Sabrina giggled. At least she could be happy that Gert Bordon was now part of her past.
“Really, once the shock wears off, Rina, you might want to think about my offer, you know, about staying with me? Remember, mi sofa es su sofa.” Lacey’s blue eyes, which could go from innocent to smoldering in a heartbeat for the camera, were genuinely sincere.
“Hell, no, Lacey. You’re changing jobs, too.”
Lacey had just gotten out of a sticky work situation herself. Leaving modeling was a huge financial and emotional change for her, and Sabrina had no desire to add to Lacey’s troubles. Sabrina hadn’t gotten all of the dirt about the why of it, because they’d both been so busy of late, but she knew her friend was hurting. And Miranda’s Moments lingerie models would have to somehow muddle through without Lacey in their number.
“Just promise me, Sabrina, honey.” Lacey’s Maryland drawl turned to steel.
“I promise. We are far from that, but definitely, I will call you if anything.”
And she would. Because it wasn’t just her, it was Alex who would be affected most and if the best alternative was to sleep on Lacey’s sofa, they would.
By the time next month’s rent was due, if she still hadn’t found work, Sabrina would swallow her pride and accept Lacey’s offer. Sabrina had taken another sip of wine, unwilling to acknowledge how close her family history of transient living was to repeating itself. She also hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell Lacey about the embarrassing almost-hookup that had preceded her termination. It was still too raw, and she couldn’t actually believe it herself. In a few days or maybe weeks, when she could repeat the entire sorry tale without humiliating tears, Lacey would be the first
to know.
Much later on, when Lacey had gone back to her own place, Sabrina planted herself on the couch, her mom’s ancient laptop on her knees, and searched the employment listings until the wee hours. Depressing in the extreme.
The racket started up again and she jumped off the sofa and flew to open the door before her brother could stir.
Vlad stepped into her apartment with a swiftness at odds with his size.
“What the hell are you doing here?”