Chapter 34 – Us

Soundtrack: Anjulie - Columbia


Nef's POV


My flight to Vegas was about 6 hours long. I slept through most of it. My birthday weekend followed by Father’s day with my family had left me absolutely exhausted. On Saturday night I had gone out with my twin brother and a group of friends for our 24th birthday. I couldn’t actually remember the number of bars that we went to. My friends and I always knew how to have a good time. Sunday morning I had to drive back to Baltimore for a family brunch.

”You look a little sick. Are you both alright?” my mother asked.

”They’re not sick. They’re hungover.” my father answered.

My mother clicked her tongue at us. We knew she didn’t approve of drinking but she didn’t nag us about it. She place glasses of something that smelled horrid in front of us.

”Drink this,” she ordered, "and next time remember to drink plenty of Gatorade before you go to bed.”

I had brought the luggage for my trip home with me because it was easier to leave from my parents’ house to go to Baltimore-Washington International Airport than it was to leave from my apartment. My dad dropped me off the morning of my flight and told me to call him when I landed. My flight left at 8 am so I would land somewhere around 11 am PST. I’ve never been one to dress up for travel so I wore a pair of yoga pants, running shoes, a camy, and Sasha’s hoodie.

In the days leading up to this trip I had become exceedingly antsy and excited. I wanted Sasha and I wanted him now. I missed him every day and the closer I came to reuniting with him the more my missing him increased. I missed the sound of his voice, the feel of his arms, the warmth that seemed to follow him around all the time. I wanted my Sasha.

Sasha had been texting me throughout the night and morning. He flew into Moscow so that he could leave with Ovie. They then flew from Moscow to Dulles International in Washington, DC to grabbed a connect flight to put them in Vegas. The flight from Moscow to DC was about 18 hours and the flight from DC to Vegas was another 5 or 6 hours. I expected him to be completely exhausted by the time he got to me. You’re doing nothing but sitting on long flights but they always seemed to drain all the strength and energy from you.

When I landed instead of waiting at the airport I head straight to the hotel to check in. Sasha’s flight had been delayed coming out of Moscow so there was still another 7 hours before he would get to Vegas. With the delay they had missed their connecting flight and were put on a later plane.

We were staying at the Bellagio. I checked in to the reservation under my name. The hotel was amazingly beautiful and every room was absolutely breath taking. There was a large king size bed that dominated a good portion of the far right wall. There were windows that ran from the ceiling to the floor or the left side opposite the building. We were on the side of the building that faced the sunrise. Well it faced as much of the sunrise as you could set on the strip. I showered and changed before heading down out find food and wander around. It was June in Las Vegas so I opted to wear a light sun dress. By the time I’d finished showering it was 1:30pm thanks to the time difference.

Between noon and 6 are always the hottest part of any summer day and Las Vegas was no different. The temperature outside was above 100 degrees. I wore a blue cape sleeve dress with a flower trim at the bottom and at the shoulders with my swim suit on underneath. I was tired but I didn’t want to take a nap because I would be up all night while Sasha slept. After having a quick meal at one of the hotel restaurants I walked around for a little while looking at the different hotels and doing a little bit of shopping.

When I got back to the hotel I still had a lot of time to kill so I went down to the pool and pool bar to lounge around for a little while.

I relaxed on a lounger with a cocktail and a book to enjoy the sun. I had been laying there for about an hour before I turned over so that I could evenly tan. My dark copper brown skin didn’t burn easily. In fact I had only ever burned once before. It happened when I was 10 and I had wandered away from the village we were visiting in Egypt and gotten lost in the desert. I had put on sun block after my shower so I wasn’t at all worried about burning. I was more concerned with trying to get an even tan. I always wear tankinis with either a skirt or shorts. If I did feel like wearing a bikini top I wore a skirt or shorts bottom. I’m entirely to “well endowed” to get away with wearing a tiny bikini. I would look like I walked right off the set of a playboy shoot.

“You are entirely too beautiful to be out here all alone,” I heard someone say.

I turned over to see who was speaking and I saw a guy that looked like he could have walked right out of the Jersey Shore. He was super tanned – but not a natural tanned, he looked orange, muscular, and had his hair spiked up.

“What’s your name sweetheart?” he asked as he sat down on the lounger beside me.

“Nefertiti.”

“That’s different. It’s….”

“Egyptian.”

“So my exotic beauty, you are entirely too gorgeous to be out here alone.” Is this guy for real? He turned so that he was sitting sideways on the lounger and leaned in closer to me.

“Not alone, just waiting. My boyfriend’s flight was delayed.”

“He can’t be too much of a boyfriend if he let you travel alone.”

What the hell? Let me travel alone? Most of the time when I mention a boyfriend guys back off…at least the respectable ones back off. This guy. Not so much. I tried to politely tell him that I wasn’t interested but he just wasn’t having it. The more I said no and no thanks the more he seemed bent on taking me out. He bought me a drink and told me that we would go out to one of the hotel clubs later that night.

“I’m sorry sir, but I’m really not interested.”

I had been lying on my stomach with my head turned toward the Jersey Shore guy. He had yet to mention his name so in my head I called him the Jersey Shore guy. I felt something cold being poured onto my back and I turned my head ready to lay out whoever had poured something on me. I was greeted by the signature gapped-tooth smile that belonged to Ovie. He was standing over me dripping cold water onto my back.

“Ovie!” I shouted jumping up to hug him. “Where’s Sasha?”

“He put on a different flight. He be here later.” The megawatt smile I had immediately dimmed. “What? You no happy to see me?”

Ovie feigned hurt and I said “Of course I want to see you but I wanna see Sasha too.”

He hugged me again, patting the top of my head, telling me that it would be okay, and that Sasha would be here soon. I heard someone clear their throat and I expected it to be Jersey Shore guy but it wasn’t. It was Sasha! I looked up and I saw him standing beside us wearing purple board shorts, flip flops, and shades.

“Sasha!” I screamed jumping from one pair of arms to the next. He picked me up into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist, and crushing his lips to mine. By now people were staring at us, probably wondering what was wrong with this girl jumping around like a Mexican Jumping Bean. I couldn’t care less. Sasha was here, he was in my arms, and I was touching and kissing him. That’s all that mattered

“I missed you!” I said when we finally came up for air.

“I miss you too,” he said burying his face in my neck and inhaling deeply.

He lowered me back down to the ground and I looked up into the bright smile that was plastered to his face. Oh God, it felt so good to be with him. He sat down on the lounger, propping up the back of it so he could sit down with his back leading against it. I inserted myself between his legs wanting to as close to him as possible. Ovie was sitting on the lounger next to us, they one that Jersey Shore guy had been sitting in. I hadn’t noticed the guy leaving at all.

I reached over and punched Ovie in the arm. He’d lied to me. How could he play with my emotions like that?

“You jerk! You told me that he was on a different flight.”

Sasha laughed when Ovie told him what he had done and how my face had looked when he told me that he wasn’t here yet. My face flushed bright red in embarrassment at my eagerness.

“It okay. Sasha antsy the whole flight. He not sit still and want plane to hurry up and fly faster.”

It was about 6 pm and there were still a couple of hours before sunset. We swam around the pool for a little bit. Sasha and I tried to keep the PDAs to a respectable minimum but it was hard. It had been a month and a half since we had seen each other. We wanted to touch and kiss and be close to each other.

Once we left the pool Sasha and I went upstairs to our room while Ovie went to his. They both looked tired and I knew that there was a whole day of interviews and media related events for Ovie on the next day and the day after – the actual day of the ceremony. Sasha told me that both Jose and Mike Green would be flying in tomorrow afternoon. Mike was a finalist for the Norris and Jose for the Bill Masterton and the King Clancy.

Sasha and I showered together; we sat under the rain shower head until our skin was wrinkly and water logged. I’d missed talking to him. We ordered room service for dinner and snuggled down into bed. He had been yawning nonstop since we got out of the shower.

“Sorry. I tired,” he said.

“No worries. Turnover onto your stomach.”

I rubbed his back for him and it wasn’t long before he was a sleep. I fell asleep right after him.



Sasha’s POV



I yawned for what seemed like the 900th time.

“Sorry. I tired,” I said. I hadn’t really been able to sleep on the flights. I was too antsy, too excited to see Nef.

When I saw her by the pool she launched herself into my arms. I gladly caught her and wrapped her legs around my waist. It didn’t matter that there were a lot of people staring at us; we were too caught up with seeing each other for the first time in nearly two months.

“Oh God, I missed you,” she said as she leaned into me on the lounger.

She settled herself between my legs and I pulled her back so that she was flush against me. I buried my face in her neck and inhaled deeply. She smelled like home, like warmth, like perfection.

“No worries. Turnover onto your stomach.”

I turned over and she started to rub my back. A few minutes later I was asleep. It wasn’t what we planned for our first night back together but falling asleep next to her was just what I needed. It seemed like I slept the best when she was snuggled up against me.

When I woke up again the bedside clock read 4:36am. I was still lying face down on the bed and I felt Nef cuddled against me with her head and arm resting on my back. Her breathing was deep and even. I tried to slowly ease myself off the bed but that resulted in Nef shifting and tossing her leg across me. It effectively pinned me to her. It took a few minutes but I managed to slip from the bed without waking her. I sat on the edge of the bed watching her. She was beautiful. I’ll admit there is something about seeing Nef wearing my clothes that excites me. She was wearing a pair of my boxers and one of my t-shirts.

I leaned down to place a kiss on her forehead and in her sleep she turned her head toward me. Her hand reached for me and when she felt the empty spot she roused.

“Sasha?” she called, her voice thick with sleep.

“Da. I’m here.”

She looked at the clock and asked “why are you up so early?”

“Not know. Just up, watching you.”

She turned over on to her back and stretched, arching her chest up off of the bed.

“What do you want to do today?” she asked. Sex and food were the only things that I had on the agenda. Everything else was pretty much up in the air.

“Sex. Food. More Sex and more food.”

She laughed at me while getting up to open the curtains opposite the bed. It was still pretty dark outside. Sunrise wasn’t for another half hour. Las Vegas was a city that didn’t sleep so there were people out and about already. When she crawled back into bed I laid down beside her. We stayed like that until sunlight had completely filled the room.