*Sephie*
As we walked into Adrik’s office, he was smirking. “What trouble have you three gotten into now?” He opened his arms for me to come to him. I saw him frown as he noticed my limp was back. Misha tried to smooth it over. “We sat by the lake for too long. Her hip doesn’t like it when she sits for too long.”
Adrik’s eyebrows furrowed, but he said nothing. He pulled me onto his lap, sliding his hands over my legs. “Now, what were you all laughing about? Have you seen Tori yet?”
Andrei sighed. “Oh yeah,” he looked at Adrik, his eyes wide. “It went even worse than what we were thinking. She’s not only mad at me, she’s mad at Sephie for being with us. Boss, you need to know what she said.”
I interrupted him, “Bubba, it’s fine. She’s just mad. She’ll eventually get over it and it’ll be fine.” I felt Adrik tense.
Misha argued, “No, Sephie. I agree with Andrei. He needs to know what she said.”
I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. Andrei proceeded to tell Adrik what had happened, what Tori said, and then what Misha said to Tori. I knew he was mad, but he looked at Misha with a smile on his face. “Well done, kid. I couldn’t have said it better.” He was quiet for a moment, his hand running up and down my back. Normally I would’ve loved this, but I knew he was trying to keep himself calm.
He looked to Andrei. “After this, are you still interested in pursuing a relationship with her?”
Andrei didn’t have to think about his answer. He emphatically shook his head no. “Not in the slightest, Boss. This is going to happen again, and I won’t allow it.”
Adrik nodded, inhaling deeply. He stood up, with me in his arms. He kissed my cheek before gently setting me down. “I want you to lie down for a while. I think you overdid it with your hip. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Andrei, with me. Misha, stay here.” They walked quickly out of his office.
I couldn’t help but smile at the situation. “I love how he’s so calm with us in here, like he’s not feeling all murdery and shit on the inside right now.”
Misha laughed. “I want to sneak down to the kitchen so I can hear what’s going on.”
“Whatever it is, you know it won’t be pretty. I just hope they take her knife away from her first.” I limped over to the couch, lying down. I exhaled, mumbling, “ahh, sometimes I hate it when he’s right about literally everything.” It felt good to lie down. Maybe I did overdo it with the long walk, but it was worth it. Maybe it was needed to fully show us the extent of Tori’s anger.
After a few minutes, Adrik returned without Andrei. My eyes went wide, “did she kill Andrei?” He smirked, but shook his head no. He walked to the couch, pulling me up. He sat and pulled me back down to rest my head in his lap. His hands immediately went to my hair. He looked at me for a moment, his eyes smiling at me.
He sighed. “Tori will no longer be working here.” He looked from me to Misha. I glanced at Misha, shocked. He did not look as shocked as I was. He looked thoughtful.
“I think that was the best decision, Boss. Who wants to order takeout?” he said, grinning.
I looked up at Adrik, still shocked. “You fired her? For that? She was just angry.”
Misha coughed. “She was more than angry, Sephie. She’s always been jealous of you. It’s clear as day to all of us.”
Adrik twirled one of my curls around his finger. “That’s the thing about anger, solnishko. What is said in anger is usually brutal honesty. She just revealed how she really feels about you. I will not tolerate that kind of disrespect of you.”
My mouth fell open. I was so shocked at their response. “How does Andrei feel about this?”
“You can ask him when he gets back from escorting her off the property,” he said, that sly smirk on his face. “Why is this so difficult for you?” his fingers lightly tracing over my face and neck.
“I… Well… I don’t know. I mean, this happened all the time with Max. But he would choose the other girls over me every time. He’d disappear for a few weeks, then he’d be back once he broke up with them.”
“I told you, Sephie. Your friend is not a smart man,” his smirk turning into a small smile.
Misha, sitting on one of the cabinets, lamented, “Ivan is gonna be so happy when they get back. He hated Tori. Even before her and Andrei got together.” He laughed. “He would purposely be extra grumpy around her because he knew she was terrified of him.”
Adrik smiled. “Ivan has always been a good judge of my previous girlfriends. He was always the first one to see their other sides.”
“His demons pull their demons out for the world to see. He’s very good at that. He just doesn’t always realize that his demons work for him now, instead of against him,” I said.
Misha cursed under his breath. I looked at his shocked face. “What?” I asked.
“I’ve never heard him described that way. It’s perfect.”
“Shall we send for Vinny’s tonight? I have a meeting next week that you’re going to need to be present for. I need to make sure you’re paid up for it,” Adrik said, grinning.
“I think Andrei needs to pick his breakup dinner,” I said, laughing. “It’s the least I can do for wrecking his relationship status.”
Adrik clicked his tongue. “You didn’t wreck anything, solnishko. You saved him.”
Andrei came to the office after almost an hour. I was still lying with my head in Adrik’s lap, his hands still running through my hair. Misha was still sitting on the cabinet. We were talking about random things, wondering aloud where exactly Viktor and Ivan were in their journey across the ocean, while listening for screaming from downstairs.
I was expecting him to look sad, but truthfully, he looked quite happy about his situation.
“Bubba, you don’t look as sad as I was expecting you to look.”
He sighed, as he sat in one of the chairs across from the couch. “I’m not sad at all, spider monkey. This has been building for a while. She’s always been jealous of you. Like, weirdly so.”
Misha snapped his fingers, pointing at me. “Told you.”
“Why would she be jealous of me? I’m the one who got you two talking!”
“I don’t know. Like I said, it was weird. It never mattered how much I reassured her there was no reason to be jealous, she was still jealous. Like me telling her there was no reason to be jealous actually made her more jealous. I never understood,” Andrei said, rubbing his face with his hands.
“Why are women so complicated?” I groaned.
“I’m fairly sure if you could find the answer to that question, you would also be able to solve all of the world’s problems,” Andrei said laughing. “But first, let’s order takeout since we just got rid of our chef.”
“Are you sure you don’t want some of that incredibly finely murdered…. chopped broccoli downstairs?” I asked, turning my head to smile at him.
He looked at me, astonished, “I have never seen vegetables so abused.”
Misha laughed, “Ivan, Viktor, and Stephen are going to be mad they missed this.”
I got up from the couch and walked over to Andrei. I leaned on his back, hugging his neck. “I still love you, Bubba. Even if she was pretending that head of broccoli was your face and my face.”
He patted my arms, looking up at me. “Yeah, I’m not sure which one of us she hates the most right now.”
I went back to the couch. As my head rested on Adrik’s lap, I said, “Ivan. He’s still on top.”