Perfect Opposite (6 page)

“Princess... you’re definitely the most frustrating individual I've ever met.”

“Look who’s talking!”

“In fact, you don’t even need a bodyguard. After only five minutes with you, even Khalil would run away screaming.”

Chapter 4 - Playing with Fire

Eyes fixed on the TV in front of me, I was stretched out on the couch in the lounge, trying to concentrate on a History Channel documentary about medieval cathedrals which I watched every Saturday. Unfortunately, it was pretty hard to focus thanks to the huge distraction in an armchair across the room.

With one foot resting on the coffee table, Alex looked completely at ease as he faked being engrossed by the book in his hands. It was a cute
idea that one of Nikolai’s men might be in the habit of picking up a book from time to time, and I might have fallen for the scam if it had been some cheap detective story, but Dostoevsky? No one whose thoughts revolved around weapons and killing could possibly be interested in him. The title said a lot, though – ‘The Idiot’.

For
a couple of days I’d been doing my best to spend as little time as possible in Alex’s company, but somehow, he always found a way to settle his butt near me though, making a point of keeping me under surveillance. He probably had it in mind that I’d take the first available chance to escape.

Clever son of a bitch...

The man was natural born spy and his dedication drove me to the edge of sanity. I was sure that he could find a needle in a haystack, even in the dark. Several times, between classes, I'd tried to pass under his radar by darting down different hallways or hiding round corners, but it never worked. At the very moment when I thought I’d made my escape and drew my first free breath, he’d show up out of the blue. It was hard to fathom just how he managed it.

The large clock on the wall showed ten, which meant it would soon be time to get ready for a night out with Paolo and Beth, so I turned off the TV and headed for the kitchen to grab something to eat. Walking past Alex on the way, I tried to ignore his stare. Unfortunately, the looks he gave me weren’t so easy to ignore.

I’d opened the fridge and was weighing up its contents when I felt someone touch the lower part of my back, sending sparks shooting
out across the rest of my body.

“Is that what I think it is?”

Standing behind me, Alex was holding up the hem of my t-shirt and tracing the line of my scar with his fingertips. It was close to my hip and just visible above the waistband of my jeans. I took a step back, pulled my top down firmly and shoved a plate of macaroni into the microwave, avoiding his eyes.

“Leave me alone!
” I snapped back at him and watched as the plate moved round and round, steaming up the glass.

Whenever anyone asked me how I’d ended up with the scar, I made up some stupid story about how I’d had this hip surgery or something as a kid. I never thought about spilling the beans - how some idiots had tried to kidnap me, and that a bullet grazed my
side in the process. Almost fifteen years had passed since that happened, and what was once a thin, pale line was now fatter and uglier thanks to growing and stretching. Nikolai wanted me to have some expensive plastic surgery to remove it, but whenever he brought it up I refused. I guess I took some grim kind of satisfaction from it, and wore it as a badge to remind me that every day should be lived to the full, since it could always be my last.

“Sasha,
I asked you a question.”

“And I told
you to leave me alone!”

I took out the half-warmed dinner, set the plate down heavily on the table and sat down.
Alex stayed two meters away looking a little edgy and it seemed like he had no intention of leaving me alone until I’d answered him. I sighed, feeling resigned, and shook my head. There wasn’t much patience left for dealing with his stubbornness.

“Yes, Aleksey, it's exactly what you think.
A cute little souvenir from Nikolai’s former comrades. And now that your curiosity’s satisfied, and I’ve confirmed what you already thought, can I please eat in peace?”

His usual restraint and the lack of emotion I’d come to expect, seemed to falter very slightly then. He looked a li
ttle unsettled as he watched me and it seemed like he was about to say something, but then only nodded and left the room.

I stared down at my food, not hungry any more, a sour taste in my mouth. I forced myself to swallow a few pieces of the lukewarm pasta before giving up and dumping the rest in w
ith the trash.

As I was rinsing the plate under the faucet, Beth burst into the kitchen like a hurricane and started pulling me towards her room, instantly changing my mood.

“I can’t believe you’re still here! Don’t you see what time it is?”

“We've still g
ot an hour left.”

“That's exactly what I’m saying,” she sat down in a chair opposite the mirror, thrust her hair dryer in my hand and started powdering her face.

“I don’t have any idea how you manage to put up with having that crap on your face all day”

“We're not all blessed with a perfect complexion like yours, you know...”

“And what's wrong with your skin exactly?”

“I have freckles!” she exclaimed, as if it were some kind of incurable disease.

“Yes, I heard you can die from that.” I laughed and flicked the switch on the dryer.

Bet
went through a list of the outfits she planned to try on, the noise from the dryer only partially drowning her out, so that I heard ‘zebra pants’ and ‘mini skirt with leopard print’ quite clearly. Just thinking about the contents of her closet made me cringe, so I bit my lip in case I looked visibly embarrassed. I adored Bethany, but couldn’t stomach her taste in clothes, which were more appropriate for a zoo than a rock club.

When I was finished playing hairdresser, I left Beth to dig through the heap of clothes dumped on her bed and hurried over to the bathroom. After showering quickly and putting a little makeup around my eyes, I leaned my head inside my own closet and got down to searching for my favorite black dress. After about ten minutes I finally found it and pulled it out, together with my new black heels.

Done with getting dressed, I stood in front of
the large mirror and studied my reflection curiously. The thin black dress, tied at the neck, only just reached my ass. I’d twisted my waist long hair into a low bun, but left a few strands hanging down at the sides to give me sort of a serious look, which seemed to contrast with the scandalously short dress. I almost changed my mind about what to wear and thought of going for something a little less risqué, but then remembered that Tyler would probably be there in The Abyss, and decided to leave it.

“Sasha! We’re late!” I heard Beth roaring from the living room.

“Just a minute!”

“Hurry up
. I'll be down with Paolo.”

I added a little more mascara, pressed down on the perfume bottle to let out a fine mist near my neck then left the room, grabbing my purse and a
thin coat on my way out.

The sight that awaited me in the hallway literally took my breath away.

Alex was leaning against the jamb of the front door with a thoughtful expression on his face, shifting his motorcycle keys from one hand to the other. It was true that even in the baggy pants and washed out t-shirts he usually wore he could turn the head of any girl he passed. Now, in black jeans and a black shirt with its sleeves rolled up to the elbows, he might have been sin made flesh, so that even I couldn’t pretend not to notice.

Trying my best to ignore the knots in my stomach, I raised my nose and tried to look decisive as I approached the door. Getting closer, Alex looked me up and down carefully, his eyes lingering eventually on the hem of my outrageously short dress.

“Princess ... I think you forgot the bottom half of your outfit.”

“Don’t bother me,” I said, in what I intended as the verbal equivalent of swatting away a fly.
When I got outside, I rushed to meet Bethany and Paolo, who were standing by the car looking annoyed at being kept waiting.

“It's about time!” Beth pointed a threatening finger at me. “We’ll enter a new geological era waiting for you.”

“It looks like it was worth it. Sasha, my dear, that's a dangerous combination...” Paolo hugged me so that I left the ground just a little.

“Thanks, sugar,” I laughed and gave him a wet kiss on the cheek.

“Hey, I don’t want to panic anybody...” he whispered in my ear, “but there’s some big strange guy standing over behind you. He’s looking in our direction and seems kinda mad. Friend of yours, maybe?”

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Alex standing not far from us, his hands in his jeans’ pockets.

“Ah, that’s my socially inept cousin. Ignore him.”

“
I don’t think he likes me. Should I be concerned?”

“
Oh, don’t worry, Alex is harmless. He just looks weird.” I whispered, then called out, ”Alex, this is Paolo!”

He
just nodded and went on glaring at Paolo, who’d started to bicker about something with Bethany. Since they weren’t paying close attention to me, I took the opportunity to walk over to Alex and take him by the arm.

“
Behave. Paolo’s my old friend. Not an assassin or anything like that, so stop looking at him like you’re going to slaughter him and eat his insides.”

“Your wish is my command... Princess,” he smiled sarcastically.

“Stop calling me that,” I hissed, “you’re doing it on purpose to annoy me, right?”

“W
hy would I do that?”

“Oh,
I wonder...” I turned and approached the passenger door of Paolo's car. “Let’s get going or we’ll be the last ones there.”

“Sasha”, a deep, commanding voice came from behind me.

I glanced in Alex's direction and saw him turn his eyes from me to the bike, then back again. I imagined telling him to fuck off, but I knew very well that it would only be a losing battle and a waste of time. Forcing a fixed smile, I went over to Paolo who’d already sat down in the driver’s seat.

“I’ll go with Alex, if you don’t mind...”

“Well... no, it’s fine. See you in front of the club then,” he replied, obviously a little confused.

I flashed a wide smile at him and, feeling annoyed, walked over to Alex, who was sitting astride his
bike, carefully following my every step.

“Get dressed,” he gestured towards the coat over my arm
and handed me a shiny new pink helmet.

”Yes, daddy
.”

***

Beams of colored lights danced chaotically against the stucco relief on the walls, to the beat of music so loud it drowned out the noise from several hundred people inside the club. From my spot on a high stool at the bar, I observed them mingling or making their way around the tall round tables that lined the edges of the room as an old rock ballad blasted out from the huge speakers high up in the rafters. My eyes lingered on a small group nestled in one of the booths set back from the room, close the stage. They were laughing freely and clinking glasses, and I suddenly recognized Tyler among them, sandwiched between two platinum blondes. I took a firm hold of the shot glass in front of me and knocked back my tequila. As I slammed the glass down on the bar, a warm and pleasant feeling started in my tummy and I gestured for the bartended to hit me again.

“P
lanning to get wasted in the first half hour?” Alex's voice came from somewhere to my right.

One elbow supporting my weight against the bar, I turned, expecting to meet his disapproving face
. The absence of any real light in the club meant his features were mostly lost to the shadows, except that two fires burned in the darkness, a pair of glittering gray eyes. Making an effort to look defiant as the bartender brought over another drink, I reached for it and emptied the glass in one dramatic gulp, throwing my head back in the process.

“Even if that’s just what I planned, it’s
not your problem,” I croaked.

Turning my back to him to show how little I cared what he thought, I moved to face Beth and Paolo on the other side.

I was pretty far gone after four hits of tequila in just one hour. Paolo was telling some story about a casting for Armani
and though I couldn’t make much of it out, I laughed myself silly all the same. Meanwhile, I was distracted by the effort it took to give Alex the cold shoulder. He stayed real quiet but stuck to me like glue all the while. It’s no small thing to ignore a frowning mountain of a man when he casts a constant shadow over you. Not to mention the fact that he was giving off real negative vibes and studying every guy who even passed close to me.

I glan
ced at him covertly a few times and couldn’t help but wonder what he would have been doing that night if he didn’t have to play nanny to me. Out somewhere else with his girlfriend? Did he even have a girlfriend? If he did, I sure felt sorry for the poor thing, having to put up with him.

The more I thought about it though, the more likely it seemed that his bad side was reserved exclusively for me. He and Beth got along fine. He never snapped at her or acted rude. I’d even seen them chatting in the mornings, shooting the breeze over the papers. So
, the problem was me.