Chapter 57 – Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Sasha’s POV


I saw Ovi go down right after he took out Dasha. I was able to hit Sam but the next thing I know is that I’m pinned down by Jackie and Neuvy. I knew that there was another girl out there. I just couldn’t find her. Every time I tried to move into a different position someone shot at me.

“We already caught Stecks so give up,” Jackie said. Shit! Stecks was gone and so was Ovi.

When I didn’t respond they opened fire again.

“Okay! I surrender!” I shouted.

“Throw you gun to us,” Neuvy said.

I pushed it out and away from me. Jackie was there to pick it up while Neuvy pointed his at me. They took me back to their HQ where I saw Stecks on the ground blindfolded and tied up with duck tape and a bandana. They did the same to me. We were there for maybe 15 minutes before I heard someone say Mike and Jeff were out. Damn it. How did they know that? How did they manage to pick off three of our guys and capture me and Stecks? We’d underestimated them.

A little while after that I heard someone come up.

“We captured Varly.” Damn. “Tie him up and put him with the rest.”

That was Nef’s voice. I heard someone move toward me and the next thing I heard was “when my team wins this, you belong to me.” Shit. I’m in trouble. Big trouble.

I heard them making plans for how to get the last two and capture our flag. Where there really only two of us left? Three we left behind to guard up while the others went to capture the flag. It didn’t take long for them to come back cheering. We were marched outside and made to kneel on the ground. They took off the blind folds and we saw that our team had been decimated.

“You lose,” DeeDee said before we were each shot in the back ending the game.

They untied us before they started jumping around celebrating.

“We win!” Jesse shouted. “We kicked your asses!”

The girls started chanting “firing squad” over and over again so we lined up in front of them to accept our punishment.

“Wait! Wait a second,” Sam said.

We all turned to look at her.

“We’d like to give you another option,” Nef continued. “You all can accept the punishment.”

“Or,” Jackie jumped in, “You can give us Varly.”

“What?!” Varly said. “No, not fair.”

“You or him,” DeeDee said. “What do you say? We’ll give you a few minutes to decide.”

“I sorry!” he tried. “I not mean it bad on you! You all very beautiful. Prettiest girls ever! Dasha, help me!”

Us or Varly? I really didn’t want to face the firing squad. The girls’ team was lining up. Four were kneeling on one knee with their guns at the ready and the other five were standing behind them at the ready. What the hell is this? Why did it look like they had military training?!

“Sorry Kid, but I vote we hand him over,” I said. I wanted to spare myself as much punishment as I could. I should have known that betting against Nef was a silly thing to do.

“No, we not hand him over!” Varly said to me. “They kill me.”

“Tough luck. You should have kept your mouth shut,” Mike said.

“We’re a team. We lost as a team so we all take the punishment.” Nick didn’t want to sacrifice Varly.

“Two minutes to decide,” Brooks called out.

It was an even split. Half of us wanted to take the punishment and the other half wanted to hand over Varly. The girls’ team was laughing at us, watching as we turned on each other.

“You guys are supposed to be a team. How can you turn on him like that?” Rachel asked laughing.

In the end we couldn’t decide so they decided for us.

“You all get it,” Brooks said, “line up against the wall.”

We lined up against the wall of their HQ. They hadn’t given us back out helmets, just our goggles, so we had to protect our heads with our hands and arms, leaving the rest of our bodies open.

“Ready,” Nef shouted. This is going to suck.

“Aim,” she called out again. This is going to hurt.

“Fire!” Crap.

As soon as the first ball hit I knew we had made a mistake. They were aiming low, at our chests and thighs. Crap this hurt. We were jumping around, trying to dodge the paint balls. At one point we were trying to hide behind each other. We should have handed Varly over!

“Ouch!” I screamed. “Enough! Stop!”

I got hit in the chest, in the thighs, on my sides, butt, and back. Damn. They stopped firing and we thought they were done but they weren’t. Instead they all took aim at Varly and fired the rest of their rounds. He screamed and tried to run behind us but we pushed him forward. The girls were aiming below is waist. They were aiming at his…that’s just cruel! He eventually dropped to the ground and curled into a ball. He would be bruised later.

“That should teach you to keep your mouth shut!” Jackie taunted.

Once they had spent all their ammo there were fist bumps and chest bumps all around their team.

Later that night I was soaking in a warm bath that Nef had drawn for me. I had little paintball bruises all over me. She rubbed down my arms and back, waiting until I was out of the tub to rub down my legs.

“Evil,” I said to her. “Cruel. Mean.”

She had been massaging my legs and she pressed down rather hard on one of my bruises.

“So you want me to stop rubbing your legs? Is that what you’re saying?”

“No! Not stop, please.” See what I mean? She’s evil and cruel and mean.



Nef’s POV


I had fun today. It was good to see all the guys and girls again. DeeDee and Rachel had been extremely helpful last year in teaching me how to handle the guys during the playoffs and after the being eliminated in the first round. If I hadn’t had them to talk to I don’t know how I would have been able to handle Sasha’s moodiness and sullenness.

Since Sasha had come back to DC he’d been excited for the start of the new season. He’d put last post-season behind him and was determined to move forward. The first preseason game was next week, Wednesday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets.

“Do you think you’ll play on Wednesday?” I asked.

“I don’t know. The first games Bruce likes to play the guys trying to make the team. Last season I didn’t play until the last 2 games.”

Made sense. The guys who already had roster spots didn’t need the playing time while those trying to crack the roster need all the time they could get to impress the coaches. They were leaving Tuesday afternoon after practice to play the Blue Jackets then off to Nashville to play the Predators on Saturday.

“I be back late Saturday night.”

My fall semester had just started. I was about 3 weeks into classes with only two more semesters before graduation. Sasha had had been more cognizant of my school work. He asked my questions about my classes; not just “how are you doing in this class?” but “when is your next assignment due?” and “Don’t you think we should stay home so you can study for your test next week?” Last year it had been largely up to me to moderate when, how, where, and how often I studied or did work. With Sasha’s busy schedule I had ample time with him gone. Now that this year’s schedule was not condensed he was worried about him being around me and being a distraction.

I had a test on Monday that I had been preparing for. He insisted that I spend the morning studying before we went paint balling because yesterday we’d spent the evening with my family and I hadn’t done a lot of studying.

“I want you to come watch practice tomorrow but maybe you should stay home and study,” Sasha said as we were lounging in bed.

“I can come. The open practice is in the afternoon, right?”

“Yea. It’s at 12:30.”

“So I’ll go to the library in the morning and watch practice in the afternoon. I don’t cram the day before tests. I can’t learn that way.”

Sasha’s schedule for tomorrow was a session with strength and conditioning coaches followed by an on ice practice and a goal meeting with Bruce and the assistant coaches. There were three important meetings that the coaches had with every player, every season. The first was a goal meeting where the player and the coaches would set goals and expectations. They looked at past performances and the direction in which the team was going to map out what would be the best uses for the player career-wise and team-wise. The second happened mid-season and was an evaluation meeting to see if the player was on track to achieve their goals or if the goals needed to be re-evaluated. The third and final meeting, a post-mortem, happened after the post season. In this meeting the discussed whether or not personal and team goals were achieved, what went wrong, and what went right.
Sasha’s goals were one of the many things we’d talked about over the summer. What he wanted to do, where he wanted his career to go, and how I fit into all of that. We’d also talked about my schooling and where I was going with it. We were coming up on our anniversary marking our first year together. Wow, had it really been almost a year?

“I love you,” he whispered to me, just before he fell asleep.

“I love you too,” I said kissing his forehead.

Chapter 56 – Captured

Nef’s POV


The assault teams were stationed at the west end of the park. Brooks and I were acting as sentries trying to locate the boys. We found out that only 2 were left protecting their flag and 3 were randomly patrolling the park. They were making a lot of noise – most likely decoys.

“This is Sam, on the west perimeter there are two coming toward HQ from my side.” I heard over the radio

“This is Jackie. I see one coming from the south side.”

So that was their plan? We had nailed it on the head. DeeDee broke off from the assault team to back up Sam on the west perimeter while Jackie was able to pick off whoever was coming up from the south side.

“David caught,” came through the radio. He was the one that was approaching from the south side. The instructions were to take their weapons and tie them up with duck tape. One down, two more to go.

The assault teams moved out toward HQ for backup. We were going to take out the decoys.

“I’ve got a clear shot a Mike and Jeff,” Brooks whispered to me. Varly was walking in from of the two of them trying to make himself as open as possible. Brooks and I had come up behind them.

“Take the shot.”

He shot Jeff in the legs; the idiot had worn shorts, again. Mike turned to see where the shot came from and Brooks nailed him right in the goggles. Nice!

“Varly, surrender,” Brooks said.

I radioed my team “This is Nef. Mike and Jeff are out.”

Instead of surrendering Varly ran, trying to make it back to his flag. He was running away from Brooks and he didn’t notice me. As he ran by me I launched myself onto his back, trying to pin his arms down so he couldn’t reach his weapon. It was hard wrestling him down but I got him down to the ground. As he went to reach for his weapon Brooks was there to take it away from him. We’d captured him and now we had to take him back to HQ.

“Dasha’s down, Ovie got her,” DeeDee said as we marched Varly in to HQ. “I got him and we caught Sasha but not before he picked off Sam. They thought they could surprise us but they walked into an ambush.”

Sasha was on the floor next to David. Their helmets and goggles had been removed and their mouths, hands, and feet were bound with duck tape. There were bandanas over their eyes. Three boys were captured and three boys were out. We’d only lost two.

Not gonna lie. I was having a few pervy thoughts about Sasha. He looked really hot bound and gagged. I walked over to him and whispered “when my team wins this, you belong to me” in his ear. We had a side bet and I’d just figured out what I wanted to do to him.

“Nice work,” I said, bringing my thoughts back to the game.

We’d already taken Varly’s weapon, helmet, and goggles so the only thing left to do was tie him up and blind fold him.

“Okay so the only two left are Eric and Nick. They’re guarding the flag.”

Brooks stayed behind with DeeDee and Jackie to guard the prisoners while myself, Neuvy, Rachel, and Jesse went after the flag. We each took a side of their HQ. Nick was at the back door while Eric was at the front. I started firing at the front door while Neuvy started firing at the back door. Neither one of us could get a clear shot but that wasn’t the point. We weren’t supposed to take them out. Just distract them long enough for Rachel and Jesse to use the windows to take them out.

“Come out here and fight like men!” I goaded. I could hear Neuvy taunting Nick, trying to get him to come from behind the wall.

Neither Nick nor Eric would come from behind the walls to get clear shots at me and Neuvy. That would leave them too open. Rachel and Jesse crept up to the window and almost simultaneously opened fire, hitting Eric and Nick in the back. It was almost two easy. Neuvy and I ran inside and grabbed the flag. All of us ran back to HQ screaming that we won!

“What do we with the hostages?” Jackie asked.

“Shoot them,” Brooks said.

The ones that were still playing were inside our HQ while the ones that had been eliminated were lined up outside.

“Okay, you guys won,” Ovie said. I could tell that he wasn’t happy about it. We had been playing for about an hour. They thought that it would be an easy win for them.

We removed the duck tape from the hostages’ feet and marched them outside. We made them kneel in front of the eliminated players before taking off the blindfolds.

“You lose,” DeeDee said, right before we shot each of the hostages in the back.

Chapter 55 – This means war!

Sasha’s POV


Last night I got a call from Greener asking if Nef could invite her roommates out paint balling with us. Someone had come up with the bright idea that we should have a girl’s team and a guy’s team. It turned out that every guy who had a significant other was bringing them so to even out the numbers a bit we needed a few more girls.
Jesse and Jackie were happy to go. The teams ended up looking like this:

Guys: Me, Ovie, Nick, Mike, Eric, Brooks, Varly, Neuvy, Jeff, and Stecks,

Girls: Nef, Jackie, Jesse, Rachel (Eric’s wife), Dasha (Varly’s on again- off again girl), DeeDee (Stecks’ wife), Samantha (Mike’s friend).


It wasn’t exactly fair so we kicked Neuvy and Brooks to the girl’s team. We were in the equipment area of Pev’s Paintball getting paintball guys for those that didn’t have their own.

“Why I have to be on the girl’s team?” Neuvy asked.

“Because you the rookie,” I answered. Neuvy was still the youngest and had spent the least amount of time in D.C.

“Baby face, you don’t want to be on my team?” Nef asked, pouting. “And here I was thinking you were my favorite!”

“Kid, be quiet and enjoy this,” Brooks said. He had Dasha and Jesse on one arm and Rachel and DeeDee on the other. “This is a thing of beauty.”

“Besides Baby face, we’re going to win anyway.” Nef pulled out a printout from her backpack. “Ladies have a look at this.”

There was ooooing and ahhing over the pictures in the news article. It was one from Life.ru about Varly and Dasha. They had done a photo shoot for a magazine the first summer after they’d gotten together.

“Yes, yes, yes. They’re sooooo cute together! We know that but that’s not what I want you to see. Jesse read the bottom please.”

“I have a true love, so I don't look at any other women. You know, I'm extremely fortunate that I met a Russian girl in America. It's difficult to look at a lot of the local women. You get the feeling that they just don't take care of themselves! There are an awful lot of heavyset ones. But Russian girls have nice trim figures. I couldn't imagine myself being with a North American girl."

“Excuse me?” DeeDee asked. “What did he say?”

“He said that we’re fat cows,” Nef said laughing.

All the girls, minus Dasha who was laughing hysterically, turned to look at Varly. Their arms were crossed and all of them looked less than thrilled.

“You’re a dead man,” Brooks said. “They’re going to kill you.”

“Slowly,” Jesse promised.

“No, no wait! That not what I mean. You are pretty girls, not fat!” Varly tried to dig himself out of trouble but it was too late. “All of you are very beautiful!”

“No, he meant it. He thinks North American girls are fat and unattractive,” Betrayed by his girlfriend.

“Cardinal rule number one: Never, ever talk about a woman’s weight. Ever,” Eric chimed in. “You just dug your own grave.”

The rules were simple. Capture the other team’s flag and don’t get shot. The losing team faces the firing squad at the end. We were using the town park with each team’s headquarters on opposite ends of the game park. Each team went to their headquarters and we were given 20 minutes to strategize before the game actually started. Our headquarters was a shack, four walls and a door. There was an opening in the front and back for door and a window on the two other sides.

“Okay, now that this one has hung himself, the girls are going to head straight for him,” Eric said. “Nick and I will stay here and guard the fort. We should send Varly and maybe two others as a decoy. The others can go after their flag.”

“Brooks is good at paintball so they send him after our flag while they go after Varly,” I said. It made the most sense.

That was our plan. Eric and Nick would guard our flag. Varly, Mike, and Jeff would be decoys while Me, Ovie, and Stecks went after the girl’s flag. It was a fool proof plan that had to work. Nef and I had a side bet. The winner would get one night to do whatever they wanted to the loser and I had plans for her. I couldn’t lose this bet.



Nef’s POV



“Okay Ladies and Gents let’s get to work. We all know boys are stupid,” I began.

“Hey! We’re standing right here,” Brooks interrupted.

“Brooks, you’re not a boy. You’re a sexy, manly man,” Rachael said. There were a few cat calls and whistle which made Brooks blush bright red.

“You girls are worse than guys.”

“They’re going to expect us to go after Varly, rather than their flag,” I said, trying to bring everyone under control. “I planted the bait and I think that they’re going to take it.”

“Aren’t we,” Dasha asked.

“No. That’s too obvious. They’re going to count on us doing that.”

“And besides we don’t want this to be too easy. Let’s make them pay,” Jesse said as she dumped her backpack and mine.

We’d brought duck tape, bandanas, ear piece walkie-talkies, and camo face paint.

“Shit…You set them up!” Neuvy said. Oh yes little boy. These girls are bad-ass.
Jesse, Jackie, and I came to win. We go paint balling frequently with Immy and his frat brothers. We’d learned a thing or two about tactics and strategies. We thought that they would plan for us to all go after Varly and send Brooks after their flag. That meant that they would only need a couple to guard their flag. I was betting that they would send decoys and then have a team to go after our flag.

We were leaving two inside to guard the flag with one facing the front and one facing the back, two outside to guard them with one patrolling the east perimeter and the other patrolling the west. The others would act as assault teams to either capture or kill. We were going after their flag we were going after them.
Jackie, Rachel, Sam, and Neuvy were stationed at the headquarters, myself, Brooks, Jesse, DeeDee, and Dasha were assault teams

“If they don’t surrender shoot them.”

These boys were in for a rude awakening.

Chapter 54 – Acceptance

Sasha’s POV


“Hello Mrs. Hassan,” I greeted as I walked into Nef’s home.

“None of that now,” she said pulling me into a hug. “Call me by my name or Nef, or something like that.”

Well at least one member of the family wasn’t out for my head. She smiled knowingly and ushered me into the living room. Nef’s brothers were sitting there watching Sports Center so I grabbed an empty spot on the couch while Nef followed her mom into the kitchen. Her dad was at John Hopkins hospital where he worked and wouldn’t be home until the morning. As soon as Nef and her mom were through the door, out of sight and hearing Imhotep turned to me.

“What the fuck?!” he said. “What happened?”

“Huh?” I said, not getting the transition.

“”Huh” he says. What the fuck happened between you and Nef? Why did my sister flip out?”

“Ummm, Nadiya? She was an old friend from home. She want me but I with Nef so she try to break us up,” And almost succeeded.

I explained to Imhotep what happened between myself, Nef, and Nadiya from start to finish. He let out a low whistle.

“Nef tell me that it my fault because: 1, I’m a guy, 2, I not see what Nadiya wanted from the beginning, and 3 – well I don’t remember the third thing but yeah. That’s it.”

“Is Nef still mad?” Khai questioned.

“No, she not mad anymore. I think that we are past it for good. I not want Nadiya. I told her that.”

Nef and her mom walked out of the kitchen and told us that dinner was ready. It was really informal and laid back but it wasn’t long before Mrs. Hassan cornered me into talking to her. I was surprised at how understanding and gentle she was. She was really easy to talk to. In truth, she was easier to talk to than my own mother. She didn’t pressure me into doing what was right, or get mad when I said something she didn’t like. She was patient and she helped me to further understand Nef and what she has gone through. Nef and her mom had a really good relationship. She told her virtually everything – even things that she had told me during our talks. I even talked to Mrs. Hassan about what Nef and I had done to work on our relationship: dealing with the busy schedules, the distance, and the subtle lack of trust that had persisted.

“You’ve certainly thought this out.”

“Yes, ma’am. I love her and I want her to be happy.”

I thanked her for listening and for all of the suggestions that she gave me. When Nef and I got up to leave Nefetiri hugged me tightly. She said “Be good to my little girl.” Nef’s mom had always been nice to me. She was a very sweet and caring woman but today was different. She was more open with me. She talked me in a way that she’d never done before. We talked and it was more than just polite conversation.

“My mom likes you. I mean she really likes you,” Nef said to me. “She’s accepted you as a part of me.”

Tomorrow was Saturday and there was a little bit of free time during the insanity that was training camp. A group of us were getting together to go paint balling. We done it for team building activity last year and had a really great time. We’d decided to go again our own this year. Some of us had invited our significant others. I was bringing Nef. She missed the guys and wanted to hang out with them.



Nef’s POV


Sasha and I hadn’t been there long before my mother pulled him off to the side to talk to him privately. From the conversations I’d had with her I knew she wanted to talk to him about what had happened between us. My mother was one of the first people I’d talked to after the incident with Nadiya. She knew the whole story…at least from my point of view.

“He’s going to be fine, Nef,” my mom said. “Stop hovering.”

I wasn’t hovering; I just wanted to know why my mom needed to talk to him alone.

“I fine. Go spend time with your brothers,” Sasha told me as he pushed me toward the couch.

My mom and Sasha talked for a long time. I could only guess he was telling her about what happened over the summer, about what happened after I left Russia and what happened in Egypt.

“I made a mistake,” I heard Sasha say. “I was too trusting. I wanted to keep my friend when I should have let go.”

I heard laughing a little while after that. However long it was it seemed to be going well. When they made their way back to the living room my mom pulled me aside.

“He’s a good man,” she whispered to me, hugging me tightly.

“Did I miss something?” I asked.

“No, but he’s a good man and I approve. I wasn’t too sure about whether or not you two would last but after the way you worked through this…I’m impressed.”

“Ommy, we didn’t do anything special.”

“Yes you did. You two not only addressed the problem but you also addressed what caused this problem and how to avoid it in the future. What the two of you did most adults can’t do. Nef, relationships aren’t easy but you guys are willing to work at it. It’s hard, especially arguing with you when you think you’re right.”

“Hey! I am not that bad,” I replied back. I can be stubborn and hard headed, sure but I am not a horrible person to argue with.

“Yes, you are!” Sasha called out. Quiet you!

“He loves you. He really loves you and I’m okay with that.”

There was a crash and a thud in the living room. My mother and I looked over and saw that Sasha was sitting on the floor with Khai in a choke-hold. Set was trying to break Sasha’s hold on Khai but he couldn’t.

“What are you boys doing in there?” my mom yelled in her Mommy voice.

“Nothing!” all three voices said back.

Immy sat on the couch laughing. He was glad that Khai and Set had found someone else to bother. They liked to horse-play.

“A little help here?” Sasha asked. Khai had wiggled out of the choke-hold and now they were gaining the upper hand. Khai held Sasha’s left arm while Set grabbed the right. Sasha didn’t want to hurt either of them so his moves were defensive…that was until Khai started punching him.

“What do I do?” he asked.

“Khai, Set, enough. He doesn’t have brothers so he’s not used to this.” Ovi was the closes thing to a brother that Sasha had but Sasha could hit Ovi back when they fought. He wasn’t sure how to deal with teenage boys.

“You know Alex, if you hit them back you won’t get in trouble,” Immy said from the couch.

Sasha looked at my mom for confirmation and when she nodded he punched both of them on their backs.

“Ow!” Set shouted.

Khai scrambled to get away but Sasha grabbed his ankle and pulled him back. Set attempted to throw himself on Sasha’s neck but ended up being pinned to the floor with Khai. Sasha had grabbed the left arm of both of them and pinned the behind their backs, which forced them to lie face down on the floor.

“You gonna stop?” Sasha asked.

“Never,” Set replied defiantly.

Sasha jerked Set’s arm higher up his back and he shouted “Okay, okay you win!”

“All right boys, enough,” I said. “Khai, Set leave him alone before you get your asses kicked. He doesn’t have to be nice to you anymore.”

When Sasha let them go, Khai turned around and said “this isn’t over.”

We didn’t stay for too much longer. I was spending the night at his place because tomorrow there was a paintballing trip with the guys. Sasha had invited me and I was super excited to be able to see the guys again.

Chapter 53 – OCD

Nef’s POV


The life of a hockey player is routine and regimented. During training camp there is a routine from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. What they eat is planned out by trainers and nutritionists. Their workout plans are carefully scripted by strength and conditioning coaches and athletic trainers. I learned all of this last season. I loved the routine and familiarity that came with it. It was constant and steady. Even with the insanity that was last season and the compressed schedule there was a certain level of predictability that satisfied my OCD nature.
During the season I became used to it. It was a part of Sasha and not only what he did but who he was. During the time we spent together over the summer I had gotten used to other behaviors. Now I had to get reacquainted myself to hockey season Sasha and he had to get used to all my little things again.

Sasha had learned most of my quirks over the first few months of our relationship: my need for neatness and order, the thing with colors and numbers, etc. He made fun of me to no end but he was actually really good with putting up with them. Within the first few days he had gotten back to DC we went to the grocery store because he had zero food in his house. When we got back and were putting things away I decided to take the fridge while Sasha stocked the pantry. There is an order to the fridge and the freezer. Everything has a place and it should be there.

“What are you doing?” I heard Sasha ask.

“Putting stuff away.” I had done the fridge first. Milk, eggs, juice on the middle shelf, smaller things on the top shelf (e.g. yogurt, etc), fruit in the left bin and vegetables in the right bin, lunch meat, cheese, and bacon in the draw, and bottles arranged on the door from largest to smallest. This was of course after I had scrubbed the entire thing inside and out.

The freezer was next. It was arranged by type of meat and by size. Altogether it took me about 20 minutes. Then I went to the pantry and saw that he’d just thrown things any and everywhere there was space.

“Come out of the pantry,” he said. “It fine the way it is.”

False! I spent another 15 minutes organizing the pantry roping him in to lifting the heavier things like the cases of Gatorade and soda. Once everything was organized to satisfaction I went to the counter to begin prep for dinner. Sasha and I were cooking together. Well Sasha said that he was going to try and cook for me. He had been practicing and learning new things so that he could make dinner for me. I was in the kitchen just in case anything went wrong.

“Crazy,” he muttered under his breath.

I hip checked him as he walked by to grab a knife from the silverware draw. I sat at the island counter eating chocolate M&Ms. I’d ripped the bag open and had poured the contents on a paper towel. He was standing on the other side chopping peppers, garlic, and fresh rosemary. I ate the M&Ms the same way I always do. I arranged them by color: as close to ROY G BIV as I could get. M&M really need to make indigo and violet colored pieces. I hated the light blue pieces. They did not fit nicely into my rainbow. I pushed them off to the side and only kept the dark blue pieces. The chocolate pieces were at the bottom as a base. I took out all the odd number pieces. I don’t like odd numbers. Everything has to be even and symmetrical.
Sasha watched me as I arranged the M&Ms and laughed at me. He shook his head but he was used to it. They first time he’d seen me do thing he just watched me for the entire 15 minutes it took me to eat the candies.

“What do you do with the ones you don’t eat?” he asked. I had left out all the odd numbered pieces.

“I throw them out. They’re odd numbers and I can’t eat them.”

He looked at me like I was nuts, completely whacko insane. That’s when I had gotten the bright idea to give him all the odd number and light blue pieces. So now without fail when there is an odd number piece of food I give it to Sasha.

“Open,” I said leaning across the counter to pop the candy into his mouth.

He obediently opened his mouth and I fed him the candies as he cooked dinner. He made Govyadina V'smetane, which is pretty much Russian for steak in a sour cream and cheese sauce, with sautéed peppers and asparagus. It was actually really good.

“This is good,” I said. “Who taught you how to make this?”

“Lana. She tell me that I should cook for you sometimes. She say women like that type of thing.”

And we do. It’s sweet and thoughtful. After dinner we sat together or the couch going over his schedule for the season. Compared to last season this one would be so much better. There was no major outside tournament so there was no compressed schedule. We wouldn’t have to go weeks without seeing each other.

“And the night before home games you can sleep at home, in your bed,” I said. We’d had this rule that we wouldn’t be together the night before home games. That rule hadn’t lasted. It got to the point where if we didn’t see each other then we wouldn’t have seen each other at all.

“Yes, with you here,” Sasha replied. “We not go back to that rule. It silly. I can be with you and still play well.”




Sasha’s POV


My girlfriend is weird. No really, I mean it. When we came back from the grocery store she spent 20 minutes arranging the food in the fridge and then another 15 minutes rearranging the pantry that I had already stocked. I hadn’t done it as neatly as she would have. I put the food on the shelf. That’s all that needs to be done.

“Everything has a proper place,” she said.

That’s not the kicker though. The kicker was watching her eat colored candy. She sat at the island counter while I was cooking dinner (Lana had taught me a few recipes over the summer), eating a bag of M&Ms. She arranged them by color and then only ate up to an even number. She didn’t eat the light blue ones because they didn’t fit into her color pattern and she didn’t eat any odd number ones. For example if there were 13 brown M&Ms she would only eat up to the number 12. She would then pop the 13th one into my mouth. She did that with everything. If I put 7 pieces of asparagus on her plate she would eat 6 pieces and give the 7th one to me. If I wasn’t around she threw it out. She even did it with the number of bite she took and the number of pieces she cut her food into.

“I don’t like odd numbers.”

“So if I change my number to…27 what would happen?”

“I’d break up with you!” she joked.

“Crazy. You are crazy.”

I love her anyway. After dinner we sat together on the couch going over the schedule for the season. We already knew when games were – that had been released in June. I had gotten the actual player schedule that had times and dates and times for travel arrangements and all that stuff. We would get to see each other more this season compared to last season.

“So my mom wants you to come over for dinner. It’s been a while since they’ve seen you,” Nef told me.

Whenever Nef was home I spoke to her mom or one of her brothers on the phone. They approved of us being together and as a result wanted to get closer and get to know me. I’d met them at Christmas dinner last year and I had gone to her parents’ anniversary party but I hadn’t actual just gone to hang out with them the way Nef had done with my family.

“Sure, how about this weekend?”

“That’ll work. I’ll let my mom know that you’re coming.”

“Does your dad still hate me?” I hadn’t really spoken to him in a long time.

“Yup, even more so after the whole Nadiya thing.”

“You tell him?” I asked. Shit, this cannot be good.

“No, I told my mom. She told him. You know my mom can’t keep a secret.” That’s very true. Nefetiri can’t keep anything from her husband…or anyone else for that matter. She’s just one of those types of people that can’t keep secrets, no matter how hard they try.

Was it too much to hope that we could put this whole incident behind us? Really, I never wanted to speak of it again. After much talking and deliberation Nef and I had moved past it. I only spoke to Nadiya when absolutely necessary – and that was not often. Now that I was back in DC I could forget all about her. Now I had to work my way back into her family’s good graces.

Chapter 52 – Media Opps

AN: If you watch family guy then you get the quote below. I thought it was super funny!


Brian: Hola, me llamo es Brian ... Nosotros queremos ir con ustedes… uhhhh ...
Bellboy (Spanish): Hey, that was pretty good, except when you said "me llamo es Brian," you don't need the "es," just me llamo Brian.
Brian: Oh, oh you speak English!
Bellboy (sigh): No, just that first speech and this one explaining it.
Brian: You .... you're kidding me, right?
Bellboy (Spanish): Que?


And now onto the chapter….


Sasha’s POV


I arrived back in the States about three days ago. I had gotten back a little early to spend time with Nef, clean my house and prepare for the season. Today was media day and most of the team had arrived back in DC. We’d done some light training this morning, mostly meeting with coaches, trainers, and doctors. During the afternoon we had photo shoots and interviews with local and foreign media. I always hated these days. I hate talking to reporters and I only spoke with them when asked to by Caps management. Last year I had done a sit down interview with Russ Thaler from CSN Washington but I didn’t have to speak English. When I did a skate with local kids last season I had to say a few sentences in English. Now they had been pushing for me to do an interview solely in English.

While the other guys were finishing up their interviews I was skating around on the ice with Ovie. He was the first to start his interviews and as a result was the first to finish. We had been skating around for a few minutes when other guys started to filter out. Several of them joined us on the ice for some stick handling.

“Hey Sash, how’s Nef doing? Are you two still together?” Brooks asked me.

“Da, we still together. She’s doing good. She want see you guys soon. She tell me she miss you.”

“Of course she misses me—“

“You speak English well,” I heard someone say. The voice wasn’t from anyone on the team and it wasn’t a trainer or a coach. I turned around and I saw Katie Carrera, the new Washington Post reporter, standing by the bench. Shit. There was no way I could get to the locker room without passing her.

Brooks and Ovie each grabbed one of my arms and skated me over to Katie.

“He say he do interview with you,” Ovie said. Neither he nor Brooks let go of my arms as I struggled to get away. Dmitry and another Russian report had come over. I am so screwed.

“Govorite li vy angliyski po?” Katie was asking me if I spoke English. I guess she had phonetically learned a few sentences in Russian. Shit! How the hell am I going to get out of this one?

“Hey, that pretty good. But you just switched “po” and “angliyski.” It “Govorite li vy po angliyski?” not “Govorite li vy angliyski po?” but other than that it was good,” I said smirking.

“You do speak English!”

“No…not really, just that last part and this part explaining that I don’t speak English.”

“You don’t…you’re joking with me, right?” she asked.

“Nyet, ya ne panimayu tebia,” I said with mock confusion on my face. I elbowed Ovie to get him off me and snatched my arm away from Brooks. I dashed toward the locker room leaving a mass of laughing people behind me.

I took of my skates and hopped in to the shower before anyone could enter the locker room. When I came out to dress most of the team was back and they were all laughing at me.

“You’re such an idiot!” Mike said. “I can’t believe you did that!”

“It was pretty funny,” Nick chimed in.

Later that night I was at home with Nef watching TV. She was on the phone talking to Ovie and I guessed that he was explaining what had happened earlier today with the way she was laughing.

“Turn it to CSN,” she told me through her giggles.

I turn the channel and I was greeted with video of what had transpired earlier today. Damn it! I hadn’t even noticed the camera there. It was an airing of CSN SportsNite with Katie reporting on training camp. They had caught everything. From Brooks and I skating around (thank God they didn’t actual catch what we were saying) to Ovie and Brooks dragging me over to her to the joke I pulled on him. This is going to bite me in the ass big time.

“I can’t believe you did that? What were you thinking?” Nef asked me.

“I not know the camera was there!” I said indignantly. “I saw it on Family Guy once before.”

Nef remember the episode and she laughed even harder. The show cut to a clip of Katie interviewing Bruce and he couldn’t keep a straight face.

“The jig is up!” Bruce said. “He’s got a great sense of humor, no matter what the language.”

“This really shows that he’s been working on the language and hopefully we’ll be able to get a few more interviews out of him,” she said as they were ending the segment.

I got a text from Mike that said GMGM (General Manager George McPhee – it was what we called him) just called and he said that you now have to do post game interviews in English the same way Ovie does.

I texted back saying Go to Hell!!Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this?

”Stop laughing at me!” I said to Nef. ”This is serious.”

“Ohhh Honey,” she cooed, touching her hand to my cheek. “They were bound to find out sooner or later. Did you really think you could keep going with this? I mean you’ve been in DC for what 6 seasons now?”

”That’s not what you’re supposed to say. You’re supposed to comfort me and tell me that it’s going to be okay.”

“It will be okay. You’ll just have to give interviews in English.”

That’s not what I wanted! The next day at training camp I tried to avoid the media. I was the first person on the ice and the last one to leave it. I took a 45 minute shower just so that when I finished there would be no one around. All day the guys had been laughing at me, including Bruce, Ted, and GMGM. When it came time to go back into the Media room I tried to discreetly leave. I had made it out of the locker room and down the hall. I was almost out of Kettler when I heard someone shouting at me.

“Hey Sasha! Where you going?” Ovie yelled. “Come back. You have to do interviews!”

I decided to make a run for it but I ran into Mike and Nick. Apparently they had been told to block the exit in case I tried to run for it. The drug me to the media room and dropped me outside the door.

“Now you can go willingly or we can drag you the rest of the way,” Nick threatened.

What are the chances that I could push by both Nick and Mike, make it to my car, and out of here before anyone caught me? Not so good. Damn

Chapter 51 – The boys are back in town

Sasha’s POV



Training camp starts next week. I’m going back to DC in a few days. It’s been a long but enjoyable summer. I’d done more traveling in the past few months then I had done in any of my previous summers. This was the first summer that I’d had a girlfriend that lives in another country.

I was excited for the start of the season. I was ready for the routine and regiment that comes with the hockey season. I love the off season but I was ready to go back to work. Packing for the season for me is never much of a hassle. I fly out before my parents and if I forget anything important they bring it over with them. I have just about everything I could need already in DC so the only things I really need to bring are my computer, cell phone, hockey equipment and any other personal effects that I would like to bring.

When Nef came to visit me in July she’s jokingly asked “What, do you have two separate wardrobes? One for DC and one for Russia?” They answer was yes. It’s a lot easier to not have to pack so much to carry back and forth. Right now I was packing things that I had acquired over the summer: presents from Nef, trinkets from our trips, a handmade blanket that her grandmother, Bast, had given me while I was in Egypt.

Nef would be spending the weekend with me to help me clean my house and make it livable. It had been locked up with no one there for several months.

“You go away for the summer and when you come back you invite me over to clean your house and to go grocery shopping for you? I feel so used!” she joked when I asked her to come over and help.

“Not forget to cook food too,” I joked right back at her.

I was sitting on the floor of my room tossing things into an open suitcase when my mom walked in.

”Sweetheart, do you need help- packing?” my mom asked.

”No ma’am.”

She sat down on my bed to talk to me. It had been a little while since we had talked to each other. With traveling and training I just hadn’t had the time. She wanted to make sure that I would be able to take care of everything when I got to DC.

”Yes mom, I have everything under control. I know how to clean and I cook well enough to feed myself. I’m not going to starve; besides Nef is helping with the cleaning and grocery shopping.” I survived just fine without them during the months that they stay in Russia. My mother is a worry wart. She can’t help it. We go through this at the beginning of every season.

”I also wanted to tell you that I invited Nadiya’s mom over for dinner. Nadiya might come.”

”Okay, Mom. I told you I could be civil since you’re friends with her mom. I meant it.”

With that my mom left me to finish packing.




Nef’s POV



I picked Sasha up from the airport after I finished classes for the day. It was September and I had been back in class for a couple of weeks. Things were slowly starting to get back to what I considered to be normal. I had already gone to the store to pick up cleaning supplies. We ended up dropping off Sasha’s luggage at his place and then going to my place. He was too tired to start cleaning right away and I couldn’t sit around in house when there was cleaning to be done.

He laughed at me when I first told him about it. One random weekend early last season we’d been hanging out, watching movies and his kitchen was a mess. If I hadn’t actually walked into the kitchen to get a drink I wouldn’t have seen the mess, but because I did it had bothered me all night. I eventually couldn’t take it anymore and cleaned the kitchen. Everyone has their thing, their little quirk or pet peeve, and mine was cleanliness and tidiness.

We opted to start fresh the next day, when he wouldn’t be so tired. After showering he crawled into my bed and pulled me down beside him.

“Cuddle?” he asked.

I snuggled in beside him and we were both asleep within minutes.





“AHHHHHHH!!!!!” I woke up to that scream coming from the hallway. It was coming from Jackie – my new roommate.

I ran into the hall and I saw her standing over someone. She was swinging a….a flyswatter? Really? A flyswatter? The hallway was dark with the only light coming from the bathroom.

“Get out! Get out! Get out!” she yelled.

“Ow! Stop it!” the person shouted. It was Sasha.

“Jackie, what are you doing?” I asked

“Nef, call 911. There’s a burglar.” Have I mentioned that she’s really dramatic?
Sasha snatched the flyswatter from her with a final “stop it.” I flipped on the hall light and I couldn’t help but laugh at what I was seeing. Sasha’s face was flustered and his arms, chest, and back were covered with red spots from being hit with the flyswatter. Jackie stood in front of him with a look of terror on her face.

“That’s not a burglar, that’s my boyfriend,” I said.

“Your boyfriend? I thought you said he was in Russia.”

“He came back today –“

“Holy crap! That’s Alexander Semin!” she interrupted as her brain caught up with what was going on.

“Sasha, this is Jackie, my new roommate. Steph moved out last month.”

Jackie stood there completely star struck. Sasha handed me the flyswatter and said
“Not let her hit me again.” Jackie blushed and apologized for the mix up. Sasha had gotten up to go to the bathroom and when he came out Jackie was walking down the hall toward the kitchen. She hadn’t expected anyone to be home. Jesse was visiting home/introducing a boy to her parents and I told Jackie that I would most likely be at Sasha’s place. When she came home Sasha and I were napping in my room with the door closed so she assumed that I wasn’t home.

“All of a sudden this giant, half naked man comes out of the bathroom! I assumed the worst.”

“And grabbed a flyswatter? What was that supposed to do?” If someone is attacking you, you should either run or pick up something better than a flyswatter.

“It was the only thing I could reach.”

It was still early – 7:30 -- so we decided that we would order pizza for dinner, watch movies, and invite Jackie’s boyfriend over. I told Sasha about the whole situation with Steph. Things between us had spiraled out of control once we went to court. I decided not to press charges but since I wasn’t actually the sole owner of the car – my parents bought it for me – the decision wasn’t entirely mine. My parents decided to press charges against her. She’d gotten off with a warning and community service. She wasn’t happy with that and it made for an awkward living situation. Her relationship with Terry was just a tumultuous as ever but they ended up deciding that they wanted to live together. Whatever. I didn’t ask questions.

Both Jesse and I knew Jackie from undergrad. She’d been living at home with her parents so when we asked her if she wanted to live with us she jumped at the chance. When her boyfriend Norman showed up Sasha went to the door to let him in. He opened the door and then retreated back to the couch.

“Norman?” Jackie called. “Are you coming in?”

Norman was standing in the door way staring.

“It’s…that’s…”

“Nef’s boyfriend.”

Jackie took his hand and pulled him into the apartment, closing the door behind him. She then led him over to the living room and helped him sit down on the floor in front of the coffee table. Only then did he realize he was staring.

“Hi,” Norman said awkwardly.

“Hi,” Sasha responded back laughing.

“Hi Norm!” I said cheerily

“Why is Alex Semin in your living room?” Norman asked me.

“Because,” I said.

“Because why?”

“Because why not?”

Sasha couldn’t stop laughing at our childish interchange. Jackie had said that’s “Nef’s Boyfriend,” but I guess Norm’s brain was stuck. Norm is a huge hockey fan. Literally this guy lives, eats, sleeps, breathes, Caps Hockey. My friends knew that I was seeing a Russian boy but not many people knew that I was dating a player. I didn’t advertise it for various reasons. I remember when I change my facebook status to “In a relationship.” I had gotten a flood of messages from my friends asking “who are you in a relationship with?” and “Do I know him?” I ended up telling people that I was dating a Russian guy that was in the states for work and he didn’t have a facebook account. Most people assumed that I was either dating someone who worked for my grandfather’s company or someone from my internship. Almost all of my friends knew each other so they knew it wasn’t one of them. I remember a few of them asking Anna if she knew the guy I was seeing or if she knew anything about him. This had been before I went to Russia so she responded “Yes, because all Russians know each other. No! I have no idea who this guy is but we need to find out.”

Sasha pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around my waist. It finally clicked for Norm.

“This is your boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

“No way! That’s so cool!!” he squealed.

”Your new roommate and her boyfriend are crazy.” Sasha said to me.

”Yup.”

Chapter 50 – I like the way you move.

Sasha’s POV


The sun was setting and the men were setting up an evening fire. We’d just finished dinner and the women and children were cleaning up. This sounds so sexist but it’s really what was happening. I was visiting the village in Egypt were Nef’s family is from and there was a clear division of labor based on gender. The fire that the men were building was large with several smaller fire pits scatter throughout the communal meeting area for both light and warmth. There were also torches and lambs near each house…hut…brick structure… The structures weren’t really houses in the modern sense but they weren’t mud brick huts either. They had brick walls that had been plastered and painted both on the inside and out. Each home had several rooms: a kitchen, living/dining room, and 1 or more rooms for sleeping.

When we finished building the fire we sat around it and it gave many of them time to ask me questions. They were interested in modern western culture and how it differed from their own. I started to shiver; it gets really cold in the desert at night. As hot as it was during the day, the cold at night matched it. Nef had warned me before hand so I excused myself to change into sweats. When I came back I noticed that they women had returned and they were all wear wraps to cover themselves. I assumed it was because they were cold. For those that weren’t wearing Western dress, the traditional desert day time wraps that they wore would do little to protect them against the dropping temperature. It was warmest at the center of the meeting area. All the fires were positions so that all of the light and warmth moved to one centralized area. It was an ingenuous set up.

There was music; traditional drums and string instruments playing softly in the back ground.

“So what do you think?” Nef asked as she sat beside me.

“I like it. I get to see where your family comes from. It nice.” I had learned a lot today about Nef, about her family, about her way of thinking. I felt closer to her.

One of her younger cousins ran up to me and held up her arms for me to pick her up. She couldn’t have been more than six. She said something to Nef in Arabic and Nef laughed.

“You have a new admirer. She wants to know if she can marry you.”

I kissed the top of the little girl's head and said no, that I was already promised to Nef. Nef told her that but I heard Ivan’s name I could only assume she was offering my nephew as a replacement.

During dinner Nef walked me through some of the more traditional Egyptian foods, suggesting things that I might like and warning me away from some of things that I might not. I was not keen on trying things like camel tongue or brain. That’s just a little too far for me.

After dinner there was dancing, both traditional and modern dancing. I liked watching Nef dance. There was a grace that seemed to flow around her when she moved. It was intoxicating and I often found myself staring at her. I remember the first time she belly danced in front of me. Well not exactly in front of me. She’d gone down to the basement to do yoga and she’d decided to work on her dancing. She later told me it had been a few weeks since she’d practiced.

I’d come down to the basement to asked her if she wanted anything special for dinner but I’d gotten distracted by the way that she was moving. I sat on the steps watching her for about 10 minutes before she even noticed I was there.

“What are you doing?” she asked her arms akimbo.

“Uhhh….I came to ask what you want for dinner but I…”

“Got distracted?”

“Yeah,” I said sheepishly.

Since then she’d danced for me a few times. This time, even though we were surrounded by her family and friends, I couldn’t help but to be drawn in by her.

“You’re staring,” Ali said to me.

“Sorry,” I couldn’t help it. She was beautiful and she was mine.

Nef walked over to me and used the end of her wrap to pull me closer to her. She danced around me, holding me where she wanted me to be with the wrap. I tried to grab her arm to pull her closer to me but I ended up with a fistful of cloth. She spun away from me, leaving the cloth behind. I noticed for the first time that she had on a belly dancing costume, so did her a few of her cousins. These were different from the ones that she wore in the US. The top and the bottom skirt were connected by fabric covering her midsection. She later told me was in compliance with Egyptian law. If she had been wearing a two piece costume she would have had to put on a mesh type body stocking to maintain modesty. There were laws against showing excessive skin and performing certain movements in public. In private they were allow to wear whatever they wanted.

She smirked and pushed me back into my seat. It was nice to see traditional folk dance and to learn how the customs had evolved in Egypt. The evening was fun and the festival lasted late into the night. When we finally did get tired we were housed with her grandmother Bast. We weren’t allowed to be alone together so Nefetari offered to watch us until we fell asleep.

“No funny stuff,” she warned. “I’m watching you both.”

“Funny stuff?” I asked, not understanding.

“She means I can’t do this.” Nef kissed me, hard.

“Or this.” She grabbed my hips, pulling me flush against her.

I pulled away quickly and apologized to her grandmother. She laughed and said that she understood but not before swatting the back of Nef’s head.

”My grandmother knows we have sex.” Knowing it and see it are two different things. I’d rather not do anything to cause her army of cousins to skin me alive.

Chapter 49 – In the Jungle. The mighty jungle.

Sasha’s POV


No, not the Jungle but the desert. We were definitely in the desert. We traveled to a small village a 4 and a half hour drive from the resort we were staying in. At one point we were no longer driving on paved roads. We were going to spend 2 days in the small village were Nef’s grandparents are originally from. I was a little nervous. I’d been camping before but this was a whole new ballgame. Ali, Hassa, and Nefetari had come with us. They didn’t often get the chance to come home so when told them she wanted to bring me to Egypt and show me where her family came from they all jumped at the chance to do it. Ali and Hassa lived in Cairo but spent a great deal of time in Germany with the branch of her grandfather’s company there.

When we first stepped out of the jeeps Nef attacked me with sun screen, telling me that I needed to apply it frequently or I would burn. It was really bright and the sunlight reflecting off the sand was almost blinding. We were greeted by an older woman named Bast who turn out to be one of Nef’s grandmother on her father’s side. She immediately ushered us into her home and out of the sun. It was darker inside as all of the shutters where closed and it made the temperature several degrees cooler.

She didn’t get to see her grandchildren very often as they lived in America. This was the first time that she had ever met someone that Nef had been seeing. Bast didn’t approve that Nef was 24 and not married with children.

”She has traditional, old school values and beliefs.”

We talked for a long time with Nef acting as translator. Her grandmother wanted to know as much about me as she could. It was funny trying to watch Nef explain ice hockey to her. She couldn’t seem to grasp that I was paid to play a game for a living. I guess with the way she lived their lives were devoted to a handful of things: survival, procreation, and religion. Bast said that life out here was simple and there weren’t very many modern amenities.

”It must be fun to be able to do what you love for a living no matter what.”

She even asked me what I thought of Nef going to school and working. Nef’s paternal grandmother had never done anything like that. Her life was centered on her family: her late husband and her children; whereas Nef’s maternal grandmother, Nefetari, had gone to school, had a career, and a family. I told her that I liked it. During the season I’m so busy with hockey that I don’t always have the time to be completely devoted to Nef. She has her own life and ambitions. She’s not sitting around waiting for me. She doesn’t need to be the sole focus of my attention. She took a lot of pressure off of me. It made being with her easier because I knew that she was just as busy as I was. I know that being super busy can cause problems and issues when we become distant but it also helped that it made us both understand the effort we had to put into a relationship.

Nefetari eventually came to find us, saying that if we wanted to eat we would have to work. There was going to be a large family gathering tonight and there was work to be done. Ali had taken me off to work with Nef’s male relatives while Nef was taken to work with the women. Nef absolutely hated gender roles and she let it be known. I couldn’t help but laugh as her family shushed her and ushered her off to do the prep work. I was surprised by the number of her number of her relative that spoke English. There were several that were fluent and some that could chat.

“So you are the one that has tamed Nefertiti,” one of her cousins said.

“Tame her? I not think so.” Don’t let her hear you say that.

We were building a fire pit to be used that night. We had already built one that was being used for cooking. I saw Nef cooking with her female cousins and she shouted ”Please! Come save me from these Harpies!” I laughed at her and told her to enjoy the time she had with her family.



Nef’s POV



”Where did you find him? He is absolutely gorgeous!” one of my female cousins gushed.

This was how my afternoon went. Most of my female relatives thought that Sasha was mind bogglingly beautiful. He was exotic and different. When I went up to him to help him reapply sunscreen he took off his shirt and I thought that they would all faint. He has amazing muscle definition and since he had amped up his workout in preparation for training camp next month he was losing the off season pudge…if you could call it that. He didn’t gain weight but the muscles that are always active during the season rest and they start to lose their shape.

”This isn’t funny,” I told him when he laughed at me. He knew that they were oooohing and aaaahing over him and it stroked his ego.

When we finally did sit down for dinner all the girls had a million and one questions for him. Those that spoke English spoke for those that didn’t. How did you meet? How long have you been together? How did you get Nef to settle down? When will you two get married? When will you have children?

“Hey! Why do I have to get married? I haven’t done anything wrong!” I shouted indignantly. I repeated it in Arabic.

Both of my grandmothers shook their heads at me and Sasha just laughed. He knew my opinion on this topic. I was not one of those girls whose sole purpose was to get married and have kids. There was too much I want to do and to study.

”Someone needs to make you settle down,” my uncle Ali said. Over my dead body.

I was able to get a few minutes alone with Sasha, away from my family. I didn’t want him to be overwhelmed. We sat together quietly for a few minutes, just long enough for him to exhale deeply and rest his head on my shoulder.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Da. I fine, just need a few minutes to…to…”

“Decompress?”

“Yes.”

With the hustle and bustle of traveling to the village and preparing for dinner tonight we’d been moving almost nonstop all day.

”You’re cousins told me that you have finally found someone to tame you,” he told me.

”Please don’t listen to the cavemen. They all have very archaic beliefs when it comes to women and their roles.”

”I noticed that. I’m waiting to see how long it takes you to blow up at someone.”

I swatted him. Baset, one of my million and one cousins came over to tell me that we needed to get ready. I hadn’t told Sasha but there was going to be a dance tonight. There was going to be belly dancing, snake charming, the whole festival shebang. We’d eaten dinner and given it time to digest and now it was time for the fun to begin.

Chapter 48 – Dinner II

Sasha’s POV

“Come on Nef, we are late,” I called to her.

We were supposed to be at the restaurant 10 minutes ago but we hadn’t left our hotel yet. It was a good thing the restaurant was only a 3 minute walk down the street.

“I’m coming!” she said exiting the bathroom and slipping on her sandals. “We’re not late. We still have time.”

I swatted her on her butt and told her to get a move on. While we were walking to the restaurant I asked her about her aunt and uncle. She hadn’t said much about them. She jokingly told me that her grandfather had sent him to spy on us. He was to report back anything that would be considered unacceptable.

“So I shouldn’t grope you under the table?” I asked.

It was the early evening and the temperature had cooled off a lot. Today had been oppressively hot and we’d gone to places that were air conditioned or stayed at the pool at our hotel. Our market trip last night had ended up with us coming back to the hotel and me stripping off my clothes because I was so overheated. Nef took care of me. She said the last thing I need is for you to get sick and then she proceeded to give me a cool sponge bath.

It was easier to move around as the sun was beginning to set and the temperature was dropping. When we got to the restaurant her grandmother was there but her uncle and aunt had yet to arrive. When they did finally arrive I could tell that he was a little shocked to meet me. I don’t think that I was what he was expecting.

“Sasha, this is my uncle Ali and his wife Hassa.”

Ali spoke English but Hassa did not. Conversation flowed between Arabic and English with Nef explaining things I didn’t understand in Russian. Ali was a lot like Nef’s grandfather, aloft and stoic but he was respectful enough. I couldn’t tell if he liked me one way or another but I guess it didn’t really matter. Her aunt Hassa thought that I was very handsome and polite.

”She thinks that you’re very handsome.”

”Tell her that I’m charming too!” Nef rolled her eyes at me and relayed the message.

“I bet my sister is absolutely smitten,” Ali said referring to Nefetiri, Nef’s Mom.

I had charmed Nef’s mom and grandmother. Now I was working on her aunt.

“She think I can do no wrong, that I’m perfect.”

“Eh, he’s okay,” Nef said scrunching up her nose.

“You crush my ego, woman!”

“Someone has got to keep you grounded.”

Nef is really sarcastic and tonight she was out in full force. She was laughing and smiling. It was good to see her happy again. I had noticed a difference in her over the phone since the Nadiya incident but after our talk she seemed to be getting back to where we once were.



Nef’s POV


What is with the women in my family falling for Sasha? They all love him. Hassa was currently gushing over how respectful and charming Sasha is. I think that my uncle Ali might be a little bit jealous.

”I don’t think my uncle likes you much. Lay of the charm, I might get jealous,” I teased.

”It’s not my fault. I’m just being me. ”

We were lying together in bed later that night talking. We had been doing a lot of that lately. Not just normal conversation either. We were talking about our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and our futures. Sasha was convinced that everything that had happen between him, myself, and Nadiya had been the result of a lack of clear communication. I held my tongue when all I wanted to say was that it was the result of a conniving, deceitful tramp.

As much as I wanted to forget all about what happened I couldn’t. I had once, early in our relationship, told Sasha that we needed to communicate better. It had been after the first nothing fight that we had. Now that Sasha was asking for the same thing I couldn’t refuse him. I couldn’t demand that he talk to me and tell about his thoughts, emotions, and concerns and then not do the same when he called me to task. Saying I don’t know or I’m not sure wasn’t an option with Sasha. He wouldn’t accept those answers and forced me to actually think and reason through my emotions.

“You always say that I need to be calm and think when I play hockey. You say that I can’t let my emotion run away, that I can’t act without thinking. Well this is same. We have to think and talk to each other.”

Chapter 47 – Talk or Sex? Choose wisely.

Sasha’s POV


As soon as I shut the hotel door behind us I picked Nef up and tossed her on the bed. I needed to kiss her, to hold her, to be with her, and to be inside her. We didn’t take the time to undress. I pulled her panties from under her dress after I pushed it up to her waist. She unzipped my shorts and pulled my erection from my briefs.

Hard, fast, and now seemed to be the theme of it. When I pulled out of her she winced.

“Sorry. I not mean to hurt you.”

“It’s fine.”

After discarding the condom we crawled onto the bed and held each other. This was what I had missed. They two of us together, just being near her. I knew that there was still a lot that we needed to talk about but for right now I just wanted to enjoy us.

“I missed you,” she told me.

We lay together with her head resting on my chest and my arms wrapped tightly around her. This was right. This was how it was supposed to be.

“I love you,” I whispered in her ear. “I love you so much.”

I felt her lips move against my neck. “I love you too.”

We dozed for a bit, falling in and out of sleep. We made love, needing that physical closeness that told us that we were still together, that we still belonged to each other.

“We do need to actually get out of bed,” she said.

“How I get out of bed? You hold me here.” She was straddling me.

We weren’t doing anything, just talking. We had been laying side by side but I pulled her on top of me. She started out laying flush against me but soon moved to a sitting position when I kept kissing her face.

“It’s hard to think when you do that,” she said. I had roped her into to finishing the conversation we’d started on the phone about us, my mom, and Nadiya.

We didn’t get very far before we started having sex again. Okay so laying together on a bed isn’t the best way to have a serious heart to heart. We tried sitting at the table and that didn’t work. We had sex on the table. We tried sitting on the couch and that didn’t work. We had sex on the couch, and then against the wall, and in the shower, and well you get the picture. When it seemed like we were both physically exhausted we tried to have the talk again and end up falling asleep half way through it.

When we woke up a few hours later it was close to sun down and we went to grab dinner and talk. We'd taken most of our meals in our hotel room as it was Ramadan and Muslims fasted during the day. Nef told me that it was important to respect them and refrain from eating and drinking in front of them. We also decided that it would be best if we went out to try and have this talk. It was highly unlikely that we would have sex in a public place. Neither one of us are exhibitionists and we didn't want to get arrested. After looking around the market place we settled at a café where we could talk with relative ease.

”Okay Nef, for right now I just want you to listen,” I began. ”I understand what happened and why you reacted the way you did. I know that it has been less than easy dealing with my mother and her constant negativity and for that I apologize. I’ve never given you a reason to doubt me and our relationship. I apologize for not walking away from Nadiya after the first and second time she tried something. It was my fault for putting myself in the situation in the first place. ”

”Thank you for apologizing. I have to say that I’m sorry as well. I assumed the worst, even if the situation may have warranted it. I should have spoken to you directly that night.”

”Have you always thought that I would cheat on you?” I asked her. I hoped her answer would be no.

”No, I trust you. I guess that’s why I reacted the way that I did. It was like my trust was misplaced. I thought that I should have seen it coming…maybe that I did see it coming.”

”What do you mean?”

”The reason I was so hesitant to go out with you, as anything more than friends, was because I thought that you would be that stereotypical pro athlete. You know the kind that will screw anything that has a vagina and a pulse. But then that wasn’t the case. You’re sweet and kind and caring and loving and all the things that a girl could want. When you kept hanging out with Nadiya after she tried to get with you time and time again I thought that maybe you did want her. I thought that maybe there was something there.”

”Why didn’t you tell me?” Nef had never talked to me about her insecurities. She always seemed so self-confident, so sure of herself and of us. I hadn’t considered how the repeated attempts by Nadiya and my attempts to salvage my friendship with her had affected Nef. I hadn’t given it a second thought and I know now that I should have.

”I didn’t know how to say it without sounding like a jealous psycho,” she said. ”I was worried that you would think I was controlling.”

When you’re in a relationship your actions – however small or minute they might seem – affect not only you but the person you’re in the relationship with and the relationship itself. I apologized for my oversight and she apologized for hers. We’d both made mistakes but we learned from them and we would have a stronger relationship.

Chapter 46 – Wait, you want me to actually get on the camel?

Nef’s POV


When I landed in Egypt my grandmother was there waiting for me at the airport with my uncle Ali. My grandmother had flown in from Germany, where her and my grandfather had been living for work. Sasha arrived the following day. We were staying at a resort for the first couple of days to slowly introduce Sasha to Egyptian culture. We would then spend two days in the desert with family. There were still members of my family that didn’t live in the cities. They preferred to stay in small villages where life was simple. My grandparents had grown up in small villages in New Valley but they ended up going to school in the cities.

It’s actually pretty funny. My family’s success started with my great grandfather drilling a well for water and finding oil instead. He’d thought that it meant our family was cursed but it was the opposite. After selling the land for a sizable sum of money to my grandmother’s uncle, my grandfather was sent to University where he majored in finance and investment. My grandmother had been sent by her family to attend school and after my grandfather had successfully completed his degree their parents decided to marry them off. Together they built a strong investment firm in Egypt that soon became leaders in international investment. One of my grandfather’s larger clients was actually the oil company from my grandmother’s side of the family.

“Your grandparents’ marriage was arranged?” Sasha asked.

“Yes, by their parents.”

“What about your mom and dad?”

“No, that wasn’t arranged but their families knew each other so they were okay with it. Well more like they were really really happy with it.”

“What about you?”

“My grandparents tried to marry me off to someone they chose. I told them to go to hell. My parents thought it was hilarious.”

Yes, while I was in undergrad my grandparents had tried to get me to marry some guy that they chose. He worked/still does work for my grandfather. I promptly told them to go to hell and under no uncertain terms would I ever participate in an arranged marriage. I mean really. I grew up in the US and the only person that could/would decide who I would marry would be me. And since my mom agrees with me and my dad was out numbered I got to do what I wanted.

We were walking through the market in Cairo looking at the different vendors trying to find something for dinner. I’d been trying to get Sasha to try some of the different foods but he was a little hesitant. He’s a picky eater on the best of days so when he saw something that looked strange (which was pretty much everything) he didn’t want to go near it. We passed one vendor that was selling meat and rice.

“I try that,” he said pointing. “It look simple.”

He took a bite of it and said “not bad. What kind meat is it?”

“Camel…and that over there is goat.”

The look on his face was priceless. You should always ask what it is before you eat it. The vendor laughed at the silly foreign boy. Sasha eventually shrugged his shoulders and kept eating.

“It good…How I say thank you?”

“Shukran.”

He repeated the word to the vendor who smiled at him. We went to a coffee shop to sit and talk. Sasha had told me that it was time for us to have a conversation about what had happened a few weeks ago. We’d talked about it over the phone but there are certain conversations that need to happen in person. This was the second day of our trip and we’d put it off for as long as we could. We were having this conversation in a public place to lessen the chances that we would get distracted with each other. It had been a long few weeks and we needed that physical closeness.

”Okay Nef, for right now I just want you to listen,” he began. ”I understand what happened and why you reacted the way you did. I know that it has been less than easy dealing with my mother and her constant negativity and for that I apologize. I’ve never given you a reason to doubt me and our relationship. I apologize for not walking away from Nadiya after the first and second time she tried something. It was my fault for putting myself in the situation in the first place. ”

”Thank you for apologizing. I have to say that I’m sorry as well. I assumed the worst, even if the situation may have warranted it. I should have spoken to you directly that night.”

We were both wrong to some degree and this situation could have been avoided. I wanted to blame him but I couldn’t…at least not completely. He told me about the talk that he had with his parents and how his mother promised to back off.

”Have you always thought that I would cheat on you?” he asked me.

”No, I trust you. I guess that’s why I reacted the way that I did. It was like my trust was misplaced. I thought that I should have seen it coming…maybe that I did see it coming.”

”What do you mean?”

”The reason I was so hesitant to go out with you, as anything more than friends, was because I thought that you would be that stereotypical pro athlete. You know the kind that will screw anything that has a vagina and a pulse. But then that wasn’t the case. You’re sweet and kind and caring and loving and all the things that a girl could want. When you kept hanging out with Nadiya after she tried to get with you time and time again I thought that maybe you did want her. I thought that maybe there was something there.”

”Why didn’t you tell me?”

”I didn’t know how to say it without sounding like a jealous psycho,” I said truthfully. ”I was worried that you would think I was controlling.”

It’s hard talking about your insecurities. It’s really difficult but Sasha wouldn’t back down. He wouldn’t let me sweep it under the rug or forget about it. When we left the coffee shop we went back to our hotel to relax for the night. We were supposed to meet my grandmother, Uncle Ali, and his wife for dinner tomorrow.

Sasha was lying on the bed. He’d stripped down to his boxer briefs saying that it was still too hot. It had reached upward of 110 degrees outside, a normal Egyptian summer. He had yet to cool down from being outside even with it being after sundown. His skin was sweaty and sticky.

“How you stand it?” he asked. “I feel like I am boiling.”

I took a small basin and filled it with cool water. I used a soft cloth to wipe down his skin to help him to cool off faster. My grandmother had told me to be careful with him, to watch that he didn’t over heat too quickly. There are always people – mainly tourists and foreigners – that suffer from heat related illnesses. During this time of year the local hospitals were often flooded with people that were suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion. It didn't help that august was seeing a monster heatwave.

He released a contented sigh when I wiped the cloth across his chest and stomach.

“Have I told you I love you today?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever, you only love me because I’m doing this for you.”

Chapter 45 – Root of the problem.

Sasha’s POV


Every problem has a root, a cause, a reason for being. I had found out with Nef that there was a root problem. It was something that I thought we’d moved past. It was my mother. Let’s be brutally honest for a second. My mother does not like Nef. She does not approve of our relationship and she has made it known. She has not tried to get to know Nef and she has not tried to make this situation work. In fact at every turn she has tried to tell me that I should choose someone else, some one that she knows, someone Russian.

Nef has always told me that it didn’t matter. She’s told me that she could handle my mother…and for a while she could. When we were together in DC nothing my mother did could affect her. But now that we’re apart and that constant reassurance wasn’t there, she cracked. We loved each other but it was still early in our relationship. We hadn’t even been together for a full year so we were still learning each other. Still figuring out what we wanted from each other. We were still growing and we still had so much to learn. We’d both been in relationships before, both somewhat serious and not serious at all. But this? This was different.

It wasn’t easy to get Nef to talk about this. She has this annoying habit of shutting down and running away when things hurt. I was surprised that instead of just calling it quits she cursed me out. She said exactly what she was thinking and was combative with me. If she hadn’t been she could have completely walked away from our relationship without me knowing what was going on…not that I would have accepted that. I would have flown to DC to figure out what the hell was up. I had already been so close to doing so. I refuse to let her run away from me.

Long distance relationships are always difficult but more so when the relationship is still in its youth. I knew that I didn’t want to go anywhere and I knew that I didn’t want Nef to go anywhere. She is mine and I am hers. I sat down with both of my parents and I laid everything on the table. I told them exactly what I thought the problem was. Who contributed what and what exactly needed to stop…I was mostly talking to my mom but I needed my dad there for moral support.

”She’s taking my son away from me.” my mother said.

”Mom, what are you talking about? I haven’t gone anywhere.”

”But you will. You won’t come home anymore. What if she gets pregnant? What if you marry her? You’ll move to the US and you’ll be gone.”

”Mom,” I hugged her. She was afraid of losing me. ”Nef and I haven’t even been together a year yet. It’s a little early to talk about marriage. As far as pregnancies go, we’re being careful. She’s on the pill and we use condoms. She’s still in school and the last thing we want is an unplanned baby. Nef is far to controlling to want to have an unplanned pregnancy. If it happens then maybe it was supposed to but just trust us to be responsible.”

”But if it does happen, do you really think she’s going to give up everything to follow you around? I’ll admit she’s a smart, successful woman with a bright future so do you think she’s going to give it all up to be with you?”

”No, but I do expect for us to try if we have to but for right now neither one of us has to give up anything to be together so let’s just take this slowly and see what happens.”

She tisked but hugged me back none the less. ”And no more pushing other women on me. You raised me to be respectful of women so stop trying to get me to cheat on my girlfriend.”

Chapter 44 – 7 minutes

Nef’s POV


Seven minutes was all it took to nearly destroy my world. Seven minutes to shatter my heart into a million pieces. Seven minutes to undo all that I believed in. All I could think was “he slept with her.” He cheated on me. He lied to me. He…I…I can’t…
I was hurt and angry. I cursed and screamed and cried. I told him I hated him. I told him that he was a liar. That he was…oh God the things I said to him. Jesse intervened. She called him. They were friends so she wanted to know what happened. She wanted to curse him out. It turned out that it had been a lie. Nadiya had lied. I’d called Sasha late one night. I expected him to be asleep but Nadiya had answered the phone. She shouldn’t have been the one answering his phone. She told me that she was in his bed. That he told her that we’d broken up. That things hadn’t worked out between us.

”I’m so sorry,” she said. ”I wouldn’t have slept with him if I had known that you two were still together. I thought - ”

She offered to wake him up so that he could explain but I hung up the phone. I threw my phone against my bedroom wall and the glass screen shattered with the force of it. When I did finally talk to him I was livid. Sadness at his betrayal had turned to anger. He denied it. He acted like he had been blindsided. He had been blindsided. He didn’t have a clue what was going on.

It was hard to believe that someone would do something like that. That someone could be so conniving and vindictive. Stuff like this doesn’t happen in the real world; it only happens in the movies…or so I thought.

I’m such an idiot.

”Don’t ever do that again. If there is ever a time that you don’t trust me, please talk to me.”

Sasha had never given me a reason not to trust him. There were times when he missed the obvious, when he was too trusting to the people around him, but he had never given me a reason not to trust him. He’d never given me a reason to not have faith in him.

This had been the first big thing to rock my relationship with Sasha. We’d had tiffs, misunderstandings, and disagreements before but we have never fought. I didn’t like it. I don’t like fighting. I don’t like arguing. I never wanted something like this to happen again.

Sasha said that he wasn’t angry with me. He said that he understood what happened and how I could react the way I did. Had the situation been reversed he probably would have done the same thing. He was hurt that I hadn’t trusted him. We both had underestimated Nadiya. They’d been such good friends. I could understand her attraction to him but she crossed the line. She was manipulative and sneaky. When Sasha didn’t respond to her come ons she slow upped the ante; touching him, constantly being around him, kissing him, and finally trying to run me out of the picture.

It sucked being away from him right now. I wanted nothing more than to be able to pull him into my arms and hold him. I wanted the physical reassurance that he was still mine. I would be seeing him shortly. We were going to Egypt together. After the almost two months we went without seeing each other at the beginning of the off season we met up once a month. For June we’d spent a week in Vegas, for July I spent almost two weeks in Russia, and for August we’d spend a week in Egypt. He’d be back in DC by mid September.

”Tell me you love me,” he said one night on the phone.

“I love you.”

”Tell me you trust me.”

“I trust you.”

“Please remember that.”

Chapter 43 – WTF?!

Sasha’s POV


There is one thing I hate about long distance relationships: when you fight it takes forever to resolve the situation. You get cursed out and hung up on. I hadn’t talked to Nef for about a week. Sometime during that week something happened to make her think that I was cheating on her with Nadiya. Literally, I had no clue what the fuck was going on. I called her one day and she was completely livid.

“How could you?” she screamed at me.

“How could I what?”

“You slept with her!”

“Slept with who? What you talking about?”

“You slept with Nadiya!”

“No I didn’t! Why you say that?” If she didn’t want me to be friends with her then she should have said something. She shouldn’t have said the decision was up to me.

There was a lot of back and forth. She hung up on me and I hung up on her. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how she could think that I would do something like that to her. Had she always thought that I would cheat on her? Did she not trust me from the beginning? She called me a liar, a cheater, a son of a bitch, and every other name she could think of.

At one point my mom walked into my room and took my phone from me. Nef had been crying into the phone. I was trying to get her to listen to me, to believe me when I told her that I had done nothing wrong. I think at one point during the shouting match she broke up with me. I couldn’t get her to believe me. I couldn’t get her to talk to me. I couldn’t get her to do anything other than cry and scream.

I ended up drinking. I drank a lot, to the point where someone had to take me home. I tried calling Nef again but she refused to answer. I hadn’t done anything wrong! I felt hurt and betrayed. I’d done nothing to deserve this.

My dad tried to mediate. My mom told me to forget about her. Lana said that something wasn’t right. Nadiya said that she didn’t know why Nef would or could assume something like this.

”I apologized to her. I’ve been respectful of the two of you, Sasha.”

Day after day. Fight after fight. Nef was bent on the knowledge that I had betrayed her. After someone doubts you and your honest for no apparent reason you start to wonder.

I was out again at another bar when Nadiya came to get me. She told me that my mom had called her and asked that she come and get me. I don’t remember much of that night. I just remember Nadiya putting me into her car and taking me home. I don’t remember much else after that. I just remember being angry. I remember being angry that she would even think that about me. I’d done everything to show her that I loved her.

I woke up to the feeling that I was going to be sick. I barely made it to the bathroom before throwing up violently. When I could stand I realized that I didn’t have any clothes on and when I went back to my room. Nadiya was there. She was in my bed.

Oh my God. Please no. I didn’t. I couldn’t have slept with her. She still had clothes on so I took that as a good sign. I woke her up and told her she had to leave.

”Sasha, what’s wrong?”

”You have to go. Leave now.”

I threw her stuff at her and hurried her out of the door.

”After last night, you’re just going to kick me out.”

”I was drunk and upset. Last night was an accident and it shouldn’t have happened. Fuck I don’t even remember last night.”

I showered, scrubbing my skin until it turned red. She was still dressed so that meant that had to mean that I didn’t sleep with her, right? When my phone rang it was Jesse.

“What the fuck did you do!”

“I do nothing to her. She call me screaming. Say I cheat on her. I not do anything.”

“She called you a few nights ago and Naiya answered your phone.”

“What?” I thought back a few nights. I hadn’t been anywhere other than my bed. “I was at home…I not with Nadiya.”

Every night for the past week or so I’ve been in my bed…and then it hit me. I had gone to bed one night and left my phone in the kitchen. My mother, Nadiya, and her mother had been there. My mom was doing laundry and they had been sitting around talking. I told Jesse what happened and she drug Nef into her room.

“I called you and she said picked up the phone. She told me that she was in your bed.”

“She lie to you. I left my phone in the kitchen. My mom and her mom were talking and she was there. I went to bed alone.”

I couldn’t believe it. Nadiya had lied to Nef. She had lied to me. I checked my call log for the day and time that Nef told me she called and sure enough there was a 7 minute phone call that I didn’t have.

“Oh Sasha. I’m so sorry,” she said. “When I called you and she answered the phone I…I believed what she told me.”

“Nef, I love you. I with you because I want to be. I not with her because I not want her.”

There had to be some reason for Nef to completely lose it like that. I knew her and she knew me. I’ve never lied to her about anything. We’ve been nothing but open and honest to each other. It hurt that she didn’t trust me but now that I knew what happened it made sense. She had called me in the middle of the night and a woman that she knew wanted me answering my phone and telling her that we were together.

If I had been in DC or her in Russia she would have been able to see that Nadiya was lying. I couldn’t be mad at Nef because if the situation had been reversed I would have done the same thing. I call in the middle of the night and some guy tells me that you two are sleeping together…Oh God I would have been homicidal.
It was my fault too. I walked right into it. I had been so concerned with not losing a friend that I almost lost my girlfriend. I believed Nadiya when she said that it was a mistake. Time and time again I had tried to look past obvious problems to keep a friend that I’d had since I was a child.

My dad walked into my room to check on me. I had been pretty out of it last night. I told him what happened between Nef and myself. I told him about what Nadiya had done. It wasn’t long before the story made its way around my family and Lana was calling me saying ”I told you to stay away from her. I told you that she wasn’t trust worthy.” My mother couldn’t believe that Nadiya would do something like that. She said that Nadiya’s such a sweet girl. She’s trust worthy, she’s honest, she’s this, and she’s that.

Nadiya of course denied it but I didn’t believe a word she’d said. She’s lie to me too many times. I’ve trusted her too much. I could only guess that she thought Nef would break up with me and we would cut off all communication. Did she really think that I wouldn’t check my phone log? Did she really think that Nef wouldn’t tell me why she was breaking up with me? Or worse she thought that once Nef blew up for no apparent reason that I would want nothing to do with her? I love Nef too much to just walk away.

”If she really trusted you what was said on the phone shouldn’t have mattered.”

”Nadiya, leave. We’re not friends anymore. I’ll be civil to you because our mothers are friends but I can’t deal with you anymore.”