Chapter 24 – Get to know you better

Nef’s POV

Somehow Sasha had convinced me to go to a late lunch with him and his dad. He told me that Valeri was really sorry and wanted to apologize in person. I was still annoyed at them but I knew that it meant a lot to Sasha. I didn’t want to make things difficult between him and his parents.

I met them at Kettler Iceplex at the end of practice. Instead of taking both of our cars we took my mustang leaving Sasha’s car at Kettler. I’m pretty sure he did that so I couldn’t storm off and leave if the conversation didn’t go well. I wouldn’t leave Sasha in the middle of DC with a way to get home. There was no way he’d be able to figure out how to take the metro back to Ballston where Kettler Iceplex was located, and even if he did he would probably be swarmed by fans.

”I apologize for what happened on Monday,” Valeri said once we were seated at Russia House. During the day Russia House was actually a pretty nice restaurant.

”Thank you,” I responded.

”I’d like to get to know you better. It seems that you mean a lot to my son. It’s not often that he brings someone home for us to meet.”

He asked the standard questions: how long we’ve known each other, how did we meet, how did we get together, and had Sasha met my parents yet.

”Sasha met my parents on my Christmas Eve. My mom likes him; she thinks he’s pretty much perfect. My dad…well I can’t say that he likes Sasha but he’s respectful of what makes me happy.”

”I am perfect...Your dad threatened to break both of my legs if I do anything to hurt you,” Sasha reminded me.

I looked at him and rolled my eye. Perfect my ass. Anyway, my daddy loves me. What did you expect? I warned Sasha that it would only happened after I got through with him, and there may not be much left after I’m done. Valeri laughed at our exchange. All things considered lunch with Valeri had gone well. He was definitely warming up to me. I could only hope that his opinion would influence his wife.



Sasha’s POV


After Nef dropped my father and I back off at my car I asked him what he thought of her. We were going to the mall for last minute gifts. This was the perfect time to get my dad’s opinion. I wanted to talk to him before he went a reported back to my mother.

”Well she’s certainly feisty. She seems like a good girl.”

”Do you like her?”

”I could. I’d like her to come around a little more.”

I told my dad that Nef came to just about every home game. The only ones she missed were the ones that conflicted with her evening class schedule. She was currently on winter break and didn’t have classes again until the end of January.

”She’s in school?” My dad asked me.

”Yes, graduate university. She’s studying Business and International Management.”

My dad was impressed. Nef’s life didn’t revolve around me and she made no moves to change that. She did however let me have my own place in it and in returned I allowed her to have her own place in mine. My dad spent the next hour asking every personal question he could think of. Why do parents think it’s necessary to know about their child’s sex life? It’s none of your business. Yes, Dad Nef and I are using each other for sex. We have lots of sexy sex.

Yes we’re being safe. I’m sure Nef doesn’t want to accidentally get pregnant. She’s not ready for children and neither am I. We’ve only been dating a few months. No, we definitely didn’t want any uh-ohs.

No, our relationship is not based on sex. We weren’t just lusting after each other. There was something else there. There was more than just physical attraction.

”What are you getting Svetlana for Christmas? My dad inquired. Svetlana is my older sister. She’s almost impossible to shop for.

”Jewelry.” I said plainly. You can’t go wrong with jewelry. I had gotten
Lana’s gift when I went to pick out Nef’s gift.

Lana wanted to meet Nef. I had talked to her about Nef a few times over the phone and once or twice when Lana called me I was with Nef. Sometime during January I would have to take Nef, Svetlana, and the kids out. Ivan and his sister Veronika wanted to meet Uncle Sanya’s new girlfriend.

My sister had to sit down with them and explain to them that calling someone an American whore was not nice. We’d always been so careful about what we said in front of the children. It was hard explaining to them that what their grandmother said was bad, especially when grandma refused to apologize for it.

I had not been prepared for mother to object this strongly. She’d never reacted this way to someone before. I’m 25; it’s safe to say that I’ve dated quite a few women. It never mattered to her before. I mean I had only brought a few of them home to meet my parents. I won’t say that she was happy but she was never outright rude or disrespectful. As a child if I had ever behaved the way she was I would have ended up with my butt blistered. My parents had raised me to always be respectful so I was shocked when they didn’t subscribe to their own principles.


Christmas morning for us was also game day so we got up a little earlier than normal. We were sitting around the tree in the living room opening gifts when my Dad handed a small box to me.

”Nefertiti asked me to give this to you.”

I was confused. Nef and I had already exchanged gifts. When could she have given the box to my dad? I was with them the entire time yesterday. I opened the box and found a set of gold cufflinks. They were in the design of the Washington Capitals Eagle logo (http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/cufflinkspremier_2102_19167956).

I excused myself to call her. We didn’t talk for long; she said that she didn’t want to keep me from time with my family.

“It’s so hard to shop for you,” she said. “What do you get the person who does want or need much?”

“Now you know how I feel!” I joked with her.

We’d gone through this big thing about getting gifts for each other. We’d each said that gifts weren’t a big deal and that we would be happy with whatever we got. After a few dozen I don’t knows and whatever you get is fine we were both thoroughly frustrated.

Nef is not big on jewelry. She hardly wears it. She hates stuff that is big and obnoxious. I decided to go with go with something simple that she could throw on and wear with anything. She had gotten a watch for me – she said that she noticed that I rarely wear them. I didn’t own many watches. They were something that I’d never bother with before. For this gift she had gotten cuff links.

I saw her briefly before the game. Just long enough to steal a kiss for luck. In the stands I saw that she was sitting with her father. I acknowledged him and went about my warm up routine. We won the game 5-2 over Ottawa. After the media wrap up we flew down to Atlanta to face the Thrashers. It was Bruce’s birthday. There had been talk to giving him a shaving cream pie to the face but none of us were brave enough…or stupid enough to do it. Instead we gave him an 8-1 win. It seemed like during that game we could do no wrong.