AN: I know I suck! I've been incredibly busy for the last few months. I'm taking the last class for my MBA and its taken up nearly all of my time outside of work. I can't promise that I'll get the rest of this out fast but I promise to try!
Nef's Pov
The first round of the playoffs for the boys went smoothly. They just seemed to click, with every member of the team contributing and giving their all. The Caps beat the Ranger in 5 games. We all wanted it to be done in 4 but we were just happy with the win. It meant that the boys had improved from last year and the big question would be by how much. There was a few days of down time between the end of round one and the beginning of round two. We wouldn't know until the end of the entire first round who the boys would be facing.
"Go home, rest up, and come back the day after tomorrow ready to work," Bruce told the guys at the end of practice.
With an entire night and day off from hockey Sasha let me know that he wanted to spend time with me. I had lived in the library the past two weeks only popping out for food and hockey. It was like that for all grad students approaching graduation. We were in the home stretch, the sprint to the finish line. I'd turned in the last of my final projects and the only thing that remained was to prepare for exams. I could spend a day or two of time with Sasha.
Meet me at my place. Come upstairs to my room.
Sasha sent a text message when he left Kettler to come over to his place after I had finished up for the day. His parents would be gone for two days and I knew that we would be completely alone.Sasha made it clear what he wanted and I was more than happy to oblige.
When I arrived at Sasha's place I found him in his room, naked, kneeling at the foot of his bed with his head bowed. He didn't look up when I approached him, nor did he look up when I looked over everything he laid out. It had been a while since we had been able to play freely and we both missed it.We both enjoyed sex with each other but we loved to play, experiment, and try new things.
"Have you showered?" I asked.
"Yes," was his response.
"On the bed. Face down," I told him.
While he complied I undressed and took the time to look at his body. There were bruises on his arms, legs, and torso. Hockey is a rough and tumble sport and I was used to the marks that littered his body but the Rangers were a physical team and his body showed it. I made a mental note to rub down the parts of his body that looked like they could use a little TLC. But as for right now I had an appointment with his lovely back side. I sat beside him on the bed trailing my fingers across his back, over his bottom, and down his legs.
"I missed you," he said turning his face toward me.
"I missed you too."
SWAT. My hand came down sharply on the left side of his butt. He flinched. Whenever I'd spanked him before I always warmed him up with a few gentle swats. This time there was no warm up and I brought my hand down sharply on the other side. I repeated this until he began to squirm on the bed. SWAT. SWAT. SWAT. Again and again until his skin had taken on a lovely pink color.
"Nef...hmmmmm," he groaned.
"This is what you wanted?" I asked as my hand came down harder.
"Ye- I wanted you."
The palm of my hand started to turn pink as Sasha's bottom so I stopped to grab the paddle he had jokingly given to me. It was black leather with "Dept of ED" written in white block letters.
"Ahhh," he all but screamed the first time I brought the paddle down on his butt. "No! Not that!"
I hadn't used a paddle on him very often as the pain of it sometimes outweighed the pleasure that he derived from a spanking. His hips began to shift on the bed but he made no move to get up. His hands twisted in the bed sheet and he released a high pitched whine. After about a dozen or so swats I put the paddle down.to rub his redden skin.The whine turned into a low groan as he liked the caress of my hand more than the bite of the paddle.
I told him to turn onto his back and I noticed that even with the paddling his was rock hard with precum dripping from the tip. My hand inched up his thighs and toward his cock and it twitched in anticipation.
"Tell me what you want," I said as I started to kiss random patterns all over his chest and stomach.
When he didn't respond I began to swat his legs with the paddle focusing on the sensitive skin of his inner thighs. The bite of the paddle was strong and he tried to shift away. I warned him to be still or I would tie him down.
"No, please. I want you...I want you to ride me," he finally managed to get out.
Sasha's POV
With two days off I had my mind set on spending as much time with Nef as I could. We were in my room sprawled out on my bed with me on my back beneath her.
"Nef, stop teasing," I pleaded.
I asked her to ride me but she refused to take me completely inside her. She balanced on her knees so that only the tip of my cock was inside her. She slowly swiveled her hips moving in a languid circle. Every time I tried to thrust upward she brought her hand down in a sharp swat to my chest. I didn't want her to grab the paddle so I stilled.
"Nef, please!" I all but begged.
"I could feel her warm pulsing center right above my my cock and I wanted nothing more that to be enveloped in that heat. She leaned backward, planting her feet on either side of my hips while supporting herself with one hand. Her free hand found her clit and began to rub sensuous circles. The sight of her pleasuring herself was amazing but it did nothing to give me what I wanted. Since she couldn't reach for the paddle I tried to thrust upward into her but the angle of her hips kept me from being able to push into her.
Her breathing quickened and I could tell she was close. She began to shake and it was harder to keep her balance on the tip of my erection.
"Please, let me cum with you?" Nef had barely said two words to me but I begged relentlessly. She barely touched me but I was trembling and desperate to cum. It took everything I had to lie still on the bed.
Her legs gave out as she started to cum and she sank down to one knee. She smirked as she refused to lower herself completely and I watched as her body trembled. I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from crying out when she moved away from me. My cock was red, glistening with a mixture of her fluids and precum that oozed at a steady flow, and throbbing.
"Should I let you cum?" she whispered in my ear.
Yes, I wanted to say but that's not what she wanted to hear. That's not what would actually get her to make me cum. She liked seeing me flustered, on the edge of release, and begging. She liked it when I was desperate to cum. She liked to tease me.
"If it please you," I answered. "If you want me to cum then yes. If you not want me to cum yet then I try not to."
She grabbed my erection tightly in her hand and lowered her mouth to it. She swallowed me deep into her throat and I cried out at the sudden warmth and wetness.
"Oh God! ...please!"
She hadn't told me if she wanted me to cum or not. She sucked harder and started to hum. I was close and there was no way I would be able to hold back for much longer. The hard sucking of her mouth. The caress of her tongue on the underside of my cock while her throat massaged the shaft was nearly too much.
"Close. please I close."
"Uh-huh," she mumbled around my cock. She pulled back longer enough to say "Cum."
I did. Hard. Gushing cum into her throat and screaming myself hoarse. She continued to suck, milking every drop of cum from me before she allowed me to collapse bonelessly on the bed.
"Good?" she asked smirking.
"Da. Good," I panted.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Chapter 89 - They miss you, Nef.
AN: Holy Crap!!! 6 and 0? - I'll take it. Good game boys!
Sasha's POV
The playoffs were starting and Nef is preparing for finals. I see her less as we're both so busy but our time together is better. We've both made a concerted effort to make the most of our time and to communicate more.
Around the time of the trade deadline there was a charity skate event for local children and their families, It was to raise money for youth hockey for underprivileged children in The Washington Metropolitan Area. Just about every member of team, their significant others, and their children attended. I had been concerned about Nef and how she would react to being around children. She'd been avoiding being around other WAGs, the guys, and children since she came back to DC. She'd been avoiding them to the point where the only other person on the team she interacted with was Ovi.
It took a lot for me to convince Nef to go and even then it wasn't because she wanted too. It was because I told her that I needed her. She made it through the event and even realized how much she had missed the guys. There were a couple of times when I almost didn't make it through the event. I would glance over and she her with one of the smaller children and start to wonder whats it would have been like if our child hand lived. I'd start to wonder about Ned as a mom and myself as a dad. I'd gotten so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed Nef approach me.
"We'll try again when we're ready," she said softly in my ear.
Over the course of the event I saw her interacting with the WAGs more. There were a few that knew about the miscarriage because they'd been told by their men but for the most part they were respectful and didn't ask Nef any questions about it. There were a few question about why it had been so long since Nef came to an event but she chalked it up to being busy with school.
"So when are you two getting hitched?" Brooks asked me when Nef went to talk to Jamie, Mike Knuble's wife, and the group of little girls she was leading on the the ice. They couldn't have beenmore than eight years old.
"Huh?"
"Don't play dumb, Sash."
"I not know. We move in together after the season end but we make no play for that yet. She say only if she not kill after first few months."
Brooks laughed at that. Nef and knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together but we had made no concrete plans for marriage. We'd been asked multiple times by her parents and by my mother since the end of January and the answer was always the same: "No, not yet."
"Well when you get hitched I want an invite."
Brooks skated over to Nef and said "Ewww girls! They have cooties!" I saw her turn and glare at him before chasing after him. Jamie was right behind her telling the littler girls to catch Brooks.Nef was pretty fast on skates and managed to catch up to Brooks and launch herself onto his back, forcing him into a head lock. Jamie came up behind them to pin Brooks' arms.The next thing I saw was the little girls wailing on Brooks' legs.
Nef's POV
WAG me. That's what I said to Sasha when he brought up the charity skate event that was scheduled for a couple of weeks after the trade deadline.As Sasha and I were in a serious, long term relationship their were certain obligations that I needed to fulfill and as of late I had been slacking. Now, Sasha needed me and I had no other choice but to go.
It wasn't all that bad. The event was nice and some of the WAGs told me that they were only obligated to go when it was a family sponsored event and as such it never focused on personal matters. There were other teams in the NHL that forced their start players to interact with the public in ways that caused increasing interest in the players personal life. At this point I was not ready for that. In any regards the Caps didn't do that. With the ever increasing amount of attention and media coverage the team received in recent years management had figured out a way of doing it without exposing too much of the players. Considering what Sasha and I had just experienced I was grateful.
It was a large event with both rinks at Kettler in use. It was open to the general public and most of the youth hockey clubs had representatives their to take donations and to sign up new kids. There was even an equipment donation center where parents could bring the equipment their children had out grown and could potentially pick up new stuff to help ease the cost or replacing equipment.
It was fun. Nearly all of the guys were there and it was amazing to see them act like kids. Most of them weren't too far removed maturity wise but seeing an adult interact with children was just to cute to miss.
Brooks Laich had cornered me earlier, asking why I had disappeared for so long. The guys had made it known that they had missed me. They made it know that they were there for support Brooks had been the guy that I was closest to on the team other than Ovi.
"When you and Sash decide to take the plunge make sure I get my invitation," he said skating away from me.
A little while later I saw him cornering Sasha and assumed he was having the same conversation with Sasha that he had with me.
I was currently on the ice with Jamie Knuble, Mike's wife. we were some of the few that could skate and keep up with the boys. Jamie was pretty cool - we'd never hung out all that much considering the 10 plus year age gap between us. She was however a wealth of knowledge and I ended up talking to her for the majority of the event. She knew about about my miscarriage because Mike had told her. It wasn't awkward and she didn't ask me any questions about it. She was even there to politely dissuade any WAG who got a little too curious.
"Ewww girls! They have cooties!" I heard as Brooks came back to me.
I glared at him before chasing after him. Jamie was right behind me telling the littler girls we'd been skating with to catch Brooks.I was pretty fast on skates and managed to catch up to Brooks and launch myself onto his back, forcing him into a head lock. Most of the coaching staff had a minor panic attack when I jumped on his back. The playoffs were here and no one wanted to be further injured.
Jamie came up behind us and pinned Brooks' arms, while the little girls were wailing on Brooks' legs. There are very few things funnier than a full grown man screaming for mercy while getting beat up by a group of 8 year old girls.
I spent the rest of the event clutching my sides from laughing so hard. These guys were my friends and I'd missed them. As the days and weeks past we moved closer and closer to the place we used to be. Things were a little more normal and the pain was a little less.I had been so afraid of being hurt by what I no longer had that I had missed what I did have. Friends that genuinely cared about my mental and physical well-being. I'd shut out this part of my life with Sasha and slowly we were starting to open up again.
Sasha's POV
The playoffs were starting and Nef is preparing for finals. I see her less as we're both so busy but our time together is better. We've both made a concerted effort to make the most of our time and to communicate more.
Around the time of the trade deadline there was a charity skate event for local children and their families, It was to raise money for youth hockey for underprivileged children in The Washington Metropolitan Area. Just about every member of team, their significant others, and their children attended. I had been concerned about Nef and how she would react to being around children. She'd been avoiding being around other WAGs, the guys, and children since she came back to DC. She'd been avoiding them to the point where the only other person on the team she interacted with was Ovi.
It took a lot for me to convince Nef to go and even then it wasn't because she wanted too. It was because I told her that I needed her. She made it through the event and even realized how much she had missed the guys. There were a couple of times when I almost didn't make it through the event. I would glance over and she her with one of the smaller children and start to wonder whats it would have been like if our child hand lived. I'd start to wonder about Ned as a mom and myself as a dad. I'd gotten so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed Nef approach me.
"We'll try again when we're ready," she said softly in my ear.
Over the course of the event I saw her interacting with the WAGs more. There were a few that knew about the miscarriage because they'd been told by their men but for the most part they were respectful and didn't ask Nef any questions about it. There were a few question about why it had been so long since Nef came to an event but she chalked it up to being busy with school.
"So when are you two getting hitched?" Brooks asked me when Nef went to talk to Jamie, Mike Knuble's wife, and the group of little girls she was leading on the the ice. They couldn't have beenmore than eight years old.
"Huh?"
"Don't play dumb, Sash."
"I not know. We move in together after the season end but we make no play for that yet. She say only if she not kill after first few months."
Brooks laughed at that. Nef and knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together but we had made no concrete plans for marriage. We'd been asked multiple times by her parents and by my mother since the end of January and the answer was always the same: "No, not yet."
"Well when you get hitched I want an invite."
Brooks skated over to Nef and said "Ewww girls! They have cooties!" I saw her turn and glare at him before chasing after him. Jamie was right behind her telling the littler girls to catch Brooks.Nef was pretty fast on skates and managed to catch up to Brooks and launch herself onto his back, forcing him into a head lock. Jamie came up behind them to pin Brooks' arms.The next thing I saw was the little girls wailing on Brooks' legs.
Nef's POV
WAG me. That's what I said to Sasha when he brought up the charity skate event that was scheduled for a couple of weeks after the trade deadline.As Sasha and I were in a serious, long term relationship their were certain obligations that I needed to fulfill and as of late I had been slacking. Now, Sasha needed me and I had no other choice but to go.
It wasn't all that bad. The event was nice and some of the WAGs told me that they were only obligated to go when it was a family sponsored event and as such it never focused on personal matters. There were other teams in the NHL that forced their start players to interact with the public in ways that caused increasing interest in the players personal life. At this point I was not ready for that. In any regards the Caps didn't do that. With the ever increasing amount of attention and media coverage the team received in recent years management had figured out a way of doing it without exposing too much of the players. Considering what Sasha and I had just experienced I was grateful.
It was a large event with both rinks at Kettler in use. It was open to the general public and most of the youth hockey clubs had representatives their to take donations and to sign up new kids. There was even an equipment donation center where parents could bring the equipment their children had out grown and could potentially pick up new stuff to help ease the cost or replacing equipment.
It was fun. Nearly all of the guys were there and it was amazing to see them act like kids. Most of them weren't too far removed maturity wise but seeing an adult interact with children was just to cute to miss.
Brooks Laich had cornered me earlier, asking why I had disappeared for so long. The guys had made it known that they had missed me. They made it know that they were there for support Brooks had been the guy that I was closest to on the team other than Ovi.
"When you and Sash decide to take the plunge make sure I get my invitation," he said skating away from me.
A little while later I saw him cornering Sasha and assumed he was having the same conversation with Sasha that he had with me.
I was currently on the ice with Jamie Knuble, Mike's wife. we were some of the few that could skate and keep up with the boys. Jamie was pretty cool - we'd never hung out all that much considering the 10 plus year age gap between us. She was however a wealth of knowledge and I ended up talking to her for the majority of the event. She knew about about my miscarriage because Mike had told her. It wasn't awkward and she didn't ask me any questions about it. She was even there to politely dissuade any WAG who got a little too curious.
"Ewww girls! They have cooties!" I heard as Brooks came back to me.
I glared at him before chasing after him. Jamie was right behind me telling the littler girls we'd been skating with to catch Brooks.I was pretty fast on skates and managed to catch up to Brooks and launch myself onto his back, forcing him into a head lock. Most of the coaching staff had a minor panic attack when I jumped on his back. The playoffs were here and no one wanted to be further injured.
Jamie came up behind us and pinned Brooks' arms, while the little girls were wailing on Brooks' legs. There are very few things funnier than a full grown man screaming for mercy while getting beat up by a group of 8 year old girls.
I spent the rest of the event clutching my sides from laughing so hard. These guys were my friends and I'd missed them. As the days and weeks past we moved closer and closer to the place we used to be. Things were a little more normal and the pain was a little less.I had been so afraid of being hurt by what I no longer had that I had missed what I did have. Friends that genuinely cared about my mental and physical well-being. I'd shut out this part of my life with Sasha and slowly we were starting to open up again.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Chapter 88 - Believe it Arnott
AN - okay so I remembered most of this chapter and was able to get it out in 30ish minutes!! Now if only it goes this well for recreating the other chapters...fingers crossed!
Sasha’s POV
The trade deadline has passed and I signed a new contract. Nef had been the first person to find out besides my parents. I’d wanted to tell her myself but I hadn’t signed the contract until just before leaving for a road trip. I hadn’t had time to go see her so I called her and told her to go to my house and that my parents had something to give to her. She was excited and happy that she wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. She’s a worry wart and the only thing that would be able to assuage her would be a new contract.
The trade deadline had also brought Jason Arnott from New Jersey. When he arrived Bruce decided that he, myself, and Marco Strum would make up the second line. After practice that day Nef had agreed to meet so that we could grab lunch. She was sitting in my stall as I was getting dressed when Jason walked over to her.
“Hi, I’m Jason. I take it you’re his girl.”
“Yes, I’m his girlfriend.”
“Well Bruce told us today that we’ll being skating together. I have to ask you a question – How well does he speak English?”
Nef giggled and looked at me.
”Did you tell him that you don’t speak English well?”
”No, I would never do that.” I said smiling. I never said I didn’t I just hadn’t spoken any English.
“He speaks English really-“ I flung my jockstrap at her to shut her up. I thought she would scream but she didn’t. She did however glare at me.
“He speaks English –“ she started again but I put my hand over her mouth preventing her from saying anything.
By now I was laughing. She tried to bite at my fingers but I wouldn’t move my hand away. By now most of the guys in the locker room were watching us at laughing. She looked at Jason and nodded.
“He speaks English?” he said.
She nodded.
“He speaks English well?”
She tried to nod again but I held her head still. She grunted for me to let go but I just laughed and pushed her toward the locker room door.
”I’ll meet you outside in a bit.” I said as I pushed her out and closed the door.
It didn’t take me long to get dressed. Before I left the locker room Ovi made plans for us to go out to dinner with the new guys that evening. As team captain he wanted everyone to feel welcome and wanted to make sure that we got to know each other. Anything would could do to develop team chemistry would be useful.
I found Nef sitting on the floor in the hallway outside of the locker room playing with Katie Erskin and her two small children. Ever since the children and family charity skate function Nef had been doing better when it came to being around small children again. She was doing better with interacting with people again.
”Ready to go?” I asked as I walked up to them. I reached for her hand to help her off the floor.
”Yep.” She turned to Katie and said goodbye to her and the kids. I told her that John would be out soon.
We had two days off and we’d been using that time to get to know the new guys so I told Nef about the team dinner plans for that night. I spent the next few hours with her before she left to go hang out with friends. She told me that she’d meet me a home later.
The team met at a restaurant in Georgetown. In speaking with Jason I learned one important thing in that practice - he talked a lot. Nonstop. About Everything that he or I or our other winger would or could or may do. He would not stop and he definitely didn't buy my limited English routine.
A few days later, after we had played several games together it had definitely paid off. We seamed to be able to play together better. When we were on the ice he understood me and I understood him. I could tell that coaches and the managment staff were happy with this and it was definitely encouraged.
Nef's POV
Boys are simple, simple minded creatures. No really. Sasha and Jason have been on a line together for two and half weeks. They've played 5 games together and they have been brilliant. Sasha has been trying to figure out why they've seemed to gel so quickly.
"I not know. He just gets it. He understand what I try and do on the ice. He even there to help and point out when I make mistake. He say 'this is the problem - try this to make it better. I don't know why but it just work."
Uh, that would be communication silly boy. It turned out that Jason was an excellent communicator and he made every effort to talk to Sasha. He made every effort to understand Sasha and Sasha in turn made the effort to talk to Jason. I mean really talk to Jason. There were times when Sasha would call me out of the blue because he was trying to explain something to Jason and he hadn't gotten the English quite right.
Everyone was hoping that the veteran presence that Jason brought would be the last piece of the playoff puzzle that this team needed to succeed.
Sasha’s POV
The trade deadline has passed and I signed a new contract. Nef had been the first person to find out besides my parents. I’d wanted to tell her myself but I hadn’t signed the contract until just before leaving for a road trip. I hadn’t had time to go see her so I called her and told her to go to my house and that my parents had something to give to her. She was excited and happy that she wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. She’s a worry wart and the only thing that would be able to assuage her would be a new contract.
The trade deadline had also brought Jason Arnott from New Jersey. When he arrived Bruce decided that he, myself, and Marco Strum would make up the second line. After practice that day Nef had agreed to meet so that we could grab lunch. She was sitting in my stall as I was getting dressed when Jason walked over to her.
“Hi, I’m Jason. I take it you’re his girl.”
“Yes, I’m his girlfriend.”
“Well Bruce told us today that we’ll being skating together. I have to ask you a question – How well does he speak English?”
Nef giggled and looked at me.
”Did you tell him that you don’t speak English well?”
”No, I would never do that.” I said smiling. I never said I didn’t I just hadn’t spoken any English.
“He speaks English really-“ I flung my jockstrap at her to shut her up. I thought she would scream but she didn’t. She did however glare at me.
“He speaks English –“ she started again but I put my hand over her mouth preventing her from saying anything.
By now I was laughing. She tried to bite at my fingers but I wouldn’t move my hand away. By now most of the guys in the locker room were watching us at laughing. She looked at Jason and nodded.
“He speaks English?” he said.
She nodded.
“He speaks English well?”
She tried to nod again but I held her head still. She grunted for me to let go but I just laughed and pushed her toward the locker room door.
”I’ll meet you outside in a bit.” I said as I pushed her out and closed the door.
It didn’t take me long to get dressed. Before I left the locker room Ovi made plans for us to go out to dinner with the new guys that evening. As team captain he wanted everyone to feel welcome and wanted to make sure that we got to know each other. Anything would could do to develop team chemistry would be useful.
I found Nef sitting on the floor in the hallway outside of the locker room playing with Katie Erskin and her two small children. Ever since the children and family charity skate function Nef had been doing better when it came to being around small children again. She was doing better with interacting with people again.
”Ready to go?” I asked as I walked up to them. I reached for her hand to help her off the floor.
”Yep.” She turned to Katie and said goodbye to her and the kids. I told her that John would be out soon.
We had two days off and we’d been using that time to get to know the new guys so I told Nef about the team dinner plans for that night. I spent the next few hours with her before she left to go hang out with friends. She told me that she’d meet me a home later.
The team met at a restaurant in Georgetown. In speaking with Jason I learned one important thing in that practice - he talked a lot. Nonstop. About Everything that he or I or our other winger would or could or may do. He would not stop and he definitely didn't buy my limited English routine.
A few days later, after we had played several games together it had definitely paid off. We seamed to be able to play together better. When we were on the ice he understood me and I understood him. I could tell that coaches and the managment staff were happy with this and it was definitely encouraged.
Nef's POV
Boys are simple, simple minded creatures. No really. Sasha and Jason have been on a line together for two and half weeks. They've played 5 games together and they have been brilliant. Sasha has been trying to figure out why they've seemed to gel so quickly.
"I not know. He just gets it. He understand what I try and do on the ice. He even there to help and point out when I make mistake. He say 'this is the problem - try this to make it better. I don't know why but it just work."
Uh, that would be communication silly boy. It turned out that Jason was an excellent communicator and he made every effort to talk to Sasha. He made every effort to understand Sasha and Sasha in turn made the effort to talk to Jason. I mean really talk to Jason. There were times when Sasha would call me out of the blue because he was trying to explain something to Jason and he hadn't gotten the English quite right.
Everyone was hoping that the veteran presence that Jason brought would be the last piece of the playoff puzzle that this team needed to succeed.
sBad News Bears
SO the word file that had all of the chapter drafts won't open. I don't know how or why but I can't get it to work. Crud!!
I have to start over from the last chapter - I'll try to get back to where I was as soon as possible . I'm 2 classes a way from finishing my first master program and I REALLY don't have time to start over but I'll try.
Damn. :(
I have to start over from the last chapter - I'll try to get back to where I was as soon as possible . I'm 2 classes a way from finishing my first master program and I REALLY don't have time to start over but I'll try.
Damn. :(
Monday, August 1, 2011
Chapter 87 – Fast approaching
AN: I am sooo sorry! I suck at life. I've been meaning to update this story but I just haven't had time to work on it. Between the marketing class I'm taking and my new boyfriend I haven't had much free time. He doesn't yet know of my secret love affair with Sasha - he's not a hockey fan so I figure I'll ease him into it gently :)
Any who - on to the next chapter...
Nef’s POV
Midterms. I hate them so much. No really. I don’t think there is any student who ever like midterms but these midterms were a little more important. They were my last set before graduation. I was being audited for graduation and if any of my grades were slacking there was the potential that I wouldn’t graduate on time. I wasn’t worried about that. I knew I had been performing well. I was more concerned that midterms signaled the fast approaching real world. The time to be a grown up was getting closer and closer and I didn’t think I was ready for it. It was going to be a mad dash until the end of the semester.
I know that I still have time before they actually get here but if you hadn’t noticed I tend to overanalyze and worry about everything. It’s my nature. Sasha’s contract is another thing that I was worried about. Sasha told me that his agent and George McPhee had been in nearly constant talks and that they caps didn’t want to trade him. Both sides knew that this had been an off year for all parties included. Sasha hadn’t maintained the level of production he’d started the year with and the Caps had been struggling to adapt to this new defensive mind set. He tried his best to assure me but I wouldn’t stop worrying until there was a signed contract that had been approved by the NHL in my hands.
I was going with him wherever he went but I was hoping that he wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Sasha called me as I was leaving McKeldin Library.
”Where are you?” he asked.
”Leaving the library, just finished with a study group.”
”Do you think you’ll have time to stop by my house today?”
”I can swing by before I go home for the evening. Why?” It’d be later in the evening but I could swing that.
”I have something for you. I gave it to my mom and I’ll tell her that you’ll come by later.”
“What is it?” Valentine’s Day had pasted and the only thing up next was his birthday…why would he be giving me a gift for his birthday?
”A surprise. Gotta go, love you.” he said before hanging up.
Have I told you how weird that man is? Half of the time he makes absolutely no sense. Anyway, my next class was starting in a few minutes, leaving me just enough time to run to the Student union to food to eat in class.
I texted Sasha throughout my class trying to get him to tell me what the surprise was but he wouldn’t. He simply said that it would be waiting at his house when I got there. Boo him. I hate it when he does this. I really wanted to know. Not because it was a present, but because I couldn’t stand not knowing. After a while I asked him what he wanted for his birthday and his answer was the same as it was for every other occasion where I had to get him a present. He said “I don’t know.” I’ll ask his mom, maybe she can help.
When I did make it to his house his parents were in the living room talking. They did that pretty frequently. My parents did the same only they talked in the kitchen. My mom had once told me that the reason why their marriage had lasted for nearly 30 years was because communication was such a big factor. I assumed it was the same for Sasha’s parents – they after all were older and had been married longer than my parents.
”Hi Tatiana and Valeri. I’ve been sent here by that son of yours.”
”He told me that you would stop by. He wanted to give you this before you found out some other way.” Found out?
Tatiana handed me a stack of papers. I saw the NHL logo and started to read it. To say it was complex would be an understatement. Tatiana took the papers back and flipped to a page that had signatures – Sasha’s, George McPhee’s, and a space for an NHL representative. A contract. It was a contract!
”They signed it before the team left this morning and sent it to the NHL for approval. There will be an announcement tomorrow.”
I picked up my phone to call Sasha.
”Why didn’t you tell me when you called!”
”Well hello to you too,” he said mocking me. I often said that to him when he would call me and just start rambling. ”I thought it would be better this way. I could have let you find out another way like on the news or through a teammate.”
”Not and live. I would have killed you for not telling me.”
He laughed, used to me threatening his life. I stayed at his house for a little while longer to talk about Sasha’s contract. They’d opted for a one year deal again, giving him a slight raise. This contract was at 6.7 million. I knew that it wouldn’t go higher than that – that’s what Nicky was making but Nick’s contract was for 10 years. I did ask why the contract wasn’t for longer and Sasha told me that he would tell me once the next CBA had been negotiated.
”Won’t they do that over soon?” I asked.
”Soon-ish, I’ll tell you then.” What did the CBA negotiation have to do with the reason for taking a short term deal? I knew that Sasha wasn’t interested playing for the KHL because if he did he’d be there already.
When I did make it home I called my mom and dad to tell them the news. Both of my parents were excited. One less thing to worry about.
Sasha’s POV
It was almost intuitive when I drove from the airport to Nef’s apartment. She was the first person I wanted to see when I got home from an away game or a road trip. When I walked into Nef’s apartment she was seated at the dining room table with her laptop and her books spread across the table.
”You’re still awake?”
”Yes, I had homework that I needed to finish. I thought I’d get it done while I was waiting for you.”
Nef did that sometimes. Sometimes she would wait up for me during the week if the team didn’t get back at an unreasonable hour. If we were leaving on a longer road trip she would actually drop me off and pick me up from the airport.
She packed up her books and her laptop and we went to bed. In the morning I got up before her so that I could make her breakfast before she went into work.
“To what do I owe this honor?” she asked when she walked into the kitchen, fresh out of the shower.
“Just because,” I said.
I told her to hurry up and get dressed and we’d have enough time to sit down together for breakfast.
”How has work been going?” I asked. She didn’t talk about it much.
”It’s okay. I’m telling them today that I’m not accepting the job offer after graduation.”
”But we’re staying in DC…I thought that you would accept it if I resigned.”
”I was but after thinking about it I’d rather work with my family. I know how much it means to them.”
”But what about what it means to you?” I didn’t want her taking the job because it would make everyone else happy. I wanted her to do this because she was happy.
”It means a lot to me. I’m glad that I was offered a job but in the long run I think this will be better for me.”
Nef told me that her grandfather would be flying into DC in a week. He’d be here for two weeks for meetings, planning, and the financial audit of the North American Branch of the company. She said that she would tell him then about accepting the job with the company.
“Will you still love me when I have to go to Germany?” she asked. Her grandparents lived there an operated out of the Berlin office. It made sense that she’d have to go there for training eventually. I just hoped it wasn’t for too long.
“As long as you come back to me I love you forever.”
After breakfast Nef left for work, telling me that she had her graduation audit in the afternoon. I wished her luck and told her that I’d be going home for a nap after practice. Lately when we‘re not traveling and we have the time for real practices Bruce has been putting us through bag skates. Bag skates are hard and leave even those in the best of condition gasping for breath and bone tired. Bruce had said that if we work this hard in practice the games would get easier and we’d be able to show consistency. We were down to the last few weeks of the season and we need every advantage we could get.
Any who - on to the next chapter...
Nef’s POV
Midterms. I hate them so much. No really. I don’t think there is any student who ever like midterms but these midterms were a little more important. They were my last set before graduation. I was being audited for graduation and if any of my grades were slacking there was the potential that I wouldn’t graduate on time. I wasn’t worried about that. I knew I had been performing well. I was more concerned that midterms signaled the fast approaching real world. The time to be a grown up was getting closer and closer and I didn’t think I was ready for it. It was going to be a mad dash until the end of the semester.
I know that I still have time before they actually get here but if you hadn’t noticed I tend to overanalyze and worry about everything. It’s my nature. Sasha’s contract is another thing that I was worried about. Sasha told me that his agent and George McPhee had been in nearly constant talks and that they caps didn’t want to trade him. Both sides knew that this had been an off year for all parties included. Sasha hadn’t maintained the level of production he’d started the year with and the Caps had been struggling to adapt to this new defensive mind set. He tried his best to assure me but I wouldn’t stop worrying until there was a signed contract that had been approved by the NHL in my hands.
I was going with him wherever he went but I was hoping that he wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Sasha called me as I was leaving McKeldin Library.
”Where are you?” he asked.
”Leaving the library, just finished with a study group.”
”Do you think you’ll have time to stop by my house today?”
”I can swing by before I go home for the evening. Why?” It’d be later in the evening but I could swing that.
”I have something for you. I gave it to my mom and I’ll tell her that you’ll come by later.”
“What is it?” Valentine’s Day had pasted and the only thing up next was his birthday…why would he be giving me a gift for his birthday?
”A surprise. Gotta go, love you.” he said before hanging up.
Have I told you how weird that man is? Half of the time he makes absolutely no sense. Anyway, my next class was starting in a few minutes, leaving me just enough time to run to the Student union to food to eat in class.
I texted Sasha throughout my class trying to get him to tell me what the surprise was but he wouldn’t. He simply said that it would be waiting at his house when I got there. Boo him. I hate it when he does this. I really wanted to know. Not because it was a present, but because I couldn’t stand not knowing. After a while I asked him what he wanted for his birthday and his answer was the same as it was for every other occasion where I had to get him a present. He said “I don’t know.” I’ll ask his mom, maybe she can help.
When I did make it to his house his parents were in the living room talking. They did that pretty frequently. My parents did the same only they talked in the kitchen. My mom had once told me that the reason why their marriage had lasted for nearly 30 years was because communication was such a big factor. I assumed it was the same for Sasha’s parents – they after all were older and had been married longer than my parents.
”Hi Tatiana and Valeri. I’ve been sent here by that son of yours.”
”He told me that you would stop by. He wanted to give you this before you found out some other way.” Found out?
Tatiana handed me a stack of papers. I saw the NHL logo and started to read it. To say it was complex would be an understatement. Tatiana took the papers back and flipped to a page that had signatures – Sasha’s, George McPhee’s, and a space for an NHL representative. A contract. It was a contract!
”They signed it before the team left this morning and sent it to the NHL for approval. There will be an announcement tomorrow.”
I picked up my phone to call Sasha.
”Why didn’t you tell me when you called!”
”Well hello to you too,” he said mocking me. I often said that to him when he would call me and just start rambling. ”I thought it would be better this way. I could have let you find out another way like on the news or through a teammate.”
”Not and live. I would have killed you for not telling me.”
He laughed, used to me threatening his life. I stayed at his house for a little while longer to talk about Sasha’s contract. They’d opted for a one year deal again, giving him a slight raise. This contract was at 6.7 million. I knew that it wouldn’t go higher than that – that’s what Nicky was making but Nick’s contract was for 10 years. I did ask why the contract wasn’t for longer and Sasha told me that he would tell me once the next CBA had been negotiated.
”Won’t they do that over soon?” I asked.
”Soon-ish, I’ll tell you then.” What did the CBA negotiation have to do with the reason for taking a short term deal? I knew that Sasha wasn’t interested playing for the KHL because if he did he’d be there already.
When I did make it home I called my mom and dad to tell them the news. Both of my parents were excited. One less thing to worry about.
Sasha’s POV
It was almost intuitive when I drove from the airport to Nef’s apartment. She was the first person I wanted to see when I got home from an away game or a road trip. When I walked into Nef’s apartment she was seated at the dining room table with her laptop and her books spread across the table.
”You’re still awake?”
”Yes, I had homework that I needed to finish. I thought I’d get it done while I was waiting for you.”
Nef did that sometimes. Sometimes she would wait up for me during the week if the team didn’t get back at an unreasonable hour. If we were leaving on a longer road trip she would actually drop me off and pick me up from the airport.
She packed up her books and her laptop and we went to bed. In the morning I got up before her so that I could make her breakfast before she went into work.
“To what do I owe this honor?” she asked when she walked into the kitchen, fresh out of the shower.
“Just because,” I said.
I told her to hurry up and get dressed and we’d have enough time to sit down together for breakfast.
”How has work been going?” I asked. She didn’t talk about it much.
”It’s okay. I’m telling them today that I’m not accepting the job offer after graduation.”
”But we’re staying in DC…I thought that you would accept it if I resigned.”
”I was but after thinking about it I’d rather work with my family. I know how much it means to them.”
”But what about what it means to you?” I didn’t want her taking the job because it would make everyone else happy. I wanted her to do this because she was happy.
”It means a lot to me. I’m glad that I was offered a job but in the long run I think this will be better for me.”
Nef told me that her grandfather would be flying into DC in a week. He’d be here for two weeks for meetings, planning, and the financial audit of the North American Branch of the company. She said that she would tell him then about accepting the job with the company.
“Will you still love me when I have to go to Germany?” she asked. Her grandparents lived there an operated out of the Berlin office. It made sense that she’d have to go there for training eventually. I just hoped it wasn’t for too long.
“As long as you come back to me I love you forever.”
After breakfast Nef left for work, telling me that she had her graduation audit in the afternoon. I wished her luck and told her that I’d be going home for a nap after practice. Lately when we‘re not traveling and we have the time for real practices Bruce has been putting us through bag skates. Bag skates are hard and leave even those in the best of condition gasping for breath and bone tired. Bruce had said that if we work this hard in practice the games would get easier and we’d be able to show consistency. We were down to the last few weeks of the season and we need every advantage we could get.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Chapter 86 – Feels like the first time
AN: Are you guys still with me?
I just finished a class and I have a three week break...here's hoping that I can get a huge chunk of this done by July!
Enjoy! :)
Nef’s POV
As soon as Sasha was through my bedroom door I locked it and pushed him down on the bed. He pulled my lips down to his and I had no choice but to straddle him. I felt one hand come to rest on my butt and the other pull out the hair tie that held my hair back into a neat ponytail. He practically devoured my lips and I knew he wanted me as much as I wanted him. I slowly unbuttoned his shirt kissing each inch of the warm, soft, creamy skin exposed. When I reached his belt buckle he pulled off his shirt as I undid the buckle. He reached for the hem of my dress, pulling it over my head as he lay back on the bed. He kicked off his shoes and wiggled out of his pant and underwear without knocking me off of his lap.
I couldn’t help but slowly grind myself against his lap. I could feel his growing erection and my wetness seeping through my panties. My core was pulsing with the need to get him inside of me. It had been far too long. I’d missed the feel of his body between my legs. I’d missed the feeling of his arms holding my as we melded together into the most intimate ways possible.
He didn’t make a move to undo my bra or remove my panties. He just looked at me, his eyes roaming over my body. I’d gone out a bought a new lilac lace set for tonight. Sasha liked lace and different shades of purple. I hadn’t told him that I’d also bought the matching corset.
“I missed you,” he said, cupping my face and kissing my lips softly. “I missed being with you, being in you, everything.”
He turned us over on the bed so that I was lying back and he was kneeling between my spread legs. I unsnapped the clasp on my bra and he slid my panties off as he placed my legs over his shoulders. He started to slide into me but stopped.
“You want to use a condom? Just in case?” he asked breathlessly.
I reached into my nightstand and pulled out a condom. He rolled it onto his erection before pushing inside of me. I gasped slightly. It had been a while and Sasha was not a small boy. After a second or two I started to rock my hips against his, letting him know that it was okay to move.
He started to gently rock his hips against mine. He felt so good. I’d missed this closeness with him.
“Sasha,” I moaned.
I locked my ankles behind his head and pulled his lips down to mine. Being incredibly flexible did have its advantages. He pushed deeper and I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from crying out. Tremors racked my body as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over me.
“Nef,” he moaned my name over and over again.
There were soft tremors that ran through his body every time I touched him. I don’t know how long we lasted. I just remember him thrusting into me over and over again, softly, lovingly, perfectly.
“Close,” I said. I wanted him to come with me.
His thrusts sped up and became more forceful and frantic. He spread my thighs as wide as they would go, opening me up to him. There was sweat pooling on his brow.
“Cum now,” he grunted and I was shouting his name as I fell apart.
He reached his peak at almost the same moment. I felt his hands grip my thighs impossibly tight. The look on his face as he erupted into me was enough to make me want to hold him close and never let him leave. He was beautiful, in every sense of the word.
Sasha removed the condom and leaned over me to reach the waste basket by my night stand. His arms were shaking as he tried to hold himself up but I pulled them out from under him and he collapsed heavily on top of me.
“Too heavy,” he said as he tried to move away.
I wrapped my legs around his was waist and held him in place.
“No, stay. Want you here.” It was still a little too soon for me to be speaking in complete sentences. I just knew I wanted him to stay where he was. I wanted him close to me.
I felt his warmth surround me and I briefly wondered why we’d waited so long for this. He nuzzled into my neck, kissing the skin there before his body slowly relaxed into slumber. It wasn’t long before I followed him.
The next time I woke up it was because of voice outside my door.
“Hey Nef? Are you awake?” It was Jackie.
I slide out from under Sasha and threw on a cami and a pair of his boxers.
“We’re just hanging out in the living room for some girl time,” she said.
Sasha was deeply asleep so I decided to join them. It was only 9 pm and it had been a while since I’d hung out with the girls like this. We were each approaching graduation and I didn’t know how often we would be able to do this.
“So woman, how are you holding up?” Jesse asked handing me a cup of my favorite cinnamon tea.
“I’m good. Our parents finally met today.”
“How’d that go?”
“Really good actually. I was surprised at how well they got along.”
“Now that mommy dearest doesn’t hate you anymore.”
“No. We’ve been getting along really well. We talk all the time, now. I’m pretty sure she’s started planning for a wedding and a grandchild.”
Jackie laughed at how things had changed and said that she was happy that things had worked out. I’d been thinking a lot lately about how things would work after graduation. I loved my roommates like they were my sisters. We’d been through a lot and I had genuinely enjoyed living with them. Jesse had been offered a job in Baltimore and Jackie had been offered a job in DC. I hadn’t told anyone yet but my internship had offered me a full time position with the company. I’d also been offered a job with my grandfather’s company but I wasn’t exactly sure if I wanted it. A lot of things were dependent on whether or not Sasha stayed in DC. If he didn’t I wouldn’t be able to take the job with my current company. If I took the job with my grandfather’s company there would be a significant amount of travel. There were several offices throughout the US and after a while I’d be able to work remotely so the city I lived in wouldn’t matter a whole lot. Both my parents and my grandparents wanted me to take the job that the family offered – Im had already accepted his. I wanted to have a job based on my own abilities rather than who I was related to. That’s not to say that I would never work for my family but I wanted to try things out on my own first.
Very few of my aunts and uncles had shown any interest in being the next generation to take over the company. Out of my grandparents seven children only my uncle Ali actually worked with the company. My grandfather had literally been grooming myself, Im, and a few of my cousins to eventually work at a high level with the company. There were still many many years before my grandfather and grandmother retired but I knew that they both wanted so badly for their grandchildren to be the future of the company.
Jackie and Jesse pretty much told me to shut up and work with my family. I knew what Sasha would say; he’d say to work with my family. That way I wouldn’t have to give up a career to be with him. I wouldn’t be just Alexander Semin’s girlfriend or future wife. He knew that I wouldn’t give up my independence. I wasn’t house wife material. To him it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
I heard Sasha call for me and I yelled that I was in the living room. He walked out in a pair of shorts and plopped down on the couch beside me. He slouched over with his head on my shoulders and mumbled something that sounded like “sleep” and “back to bed.”
Jackie, who was curled up on the recliner, started to giggle loudly. I looked at her and she said Adonis, referencing a conversation we’d had about Sasha walking around our place half dressed. Jesse started to giggle as well and it wasn’t long before we were all laughing hysterically.
“I’m going to miss this,” Jackie said.
“Mine!” I said. “Not yours!”
“Hey, if the other person is famous it doesn’t count!” Jesse said.
Sasha looked confused but he always looked confused when Jackie, Jesse, and I were talking. Our conversations didn’t really make sense to anyone but us.
“Sasha, I have a question. So there is this rule that if you cheat with a famous person it’s not actually cheating. Do you agree with that?” I asked.
“What you mean?”
“If I were to sleep with say…Johnny Depp it wouldn’t be cheating on you because Johnny
Depp is famous.”
“Nyet, it still cheating. Why you ask?”
“See Jesse I told you he’d never go for it!”
“Damn, there goes my chance!” Jesse said with mock disappointment.
“Your chance? That means I can never sleep with Johnny Depp!”
Sasha frowned at that and said the only person I should want to sleep with was him. He called all of us crazy and went back to my room. Jackie’s head tilted sideways as she watched him walk out of the room.
“Nice ass,” she said.
I threw my still damp teabag at her. It hit her right on the nose.
Sasha’s POV
Nef had this thing where whenever we finished making love with her on the bottom she would want me to stay on top of her. I always worried that I would be too heavy and that I would hurt her but this time I didn’t argue too much when she held me against her. I wanted to be as close to her as possible. I’d missed the feel of her warmth stretched around me. I’d missed the feel of her coming undone in my arms. I wanted us to be as close as possible for as long as possible.
Honestly it had been so long since we’d been together like this that it almost felt like our first time all over again. I was nervous and excited at the same time. During dinner I couldn’t wait to get her alone and ravish her.
Later that night she slipped out of bed to hang out with her roommates. They’d been hanging out more now that they wouldn’t be living together in a few months. These girls had been really close for a long time. When I went out into the living room they were in a giggling fit and couldn’t figure out why. I’m used to it. Not much that they do or say makes sense to anyone but them.
“Sasha, I have a question. So there is this rule that if you cheat with a famous person it’s not actually cheating. Do you agree with that?” Nef asked.
“What you mean?”
“If I were to sleep with say…Johnny Depp it wouldn’t be cheating on you because Johnny Depp is famous.”
“Nyet, it still cheating. Why you ask?” Who came up with this rule?
“See Jesse I told you he’d never go for it!”
“Damn, there goes my chance!” Jesse said with mock disappointment.
“Your chance? That means I can never sleep with Johnny Depp!”
See I told you. These girls are crazy. I told Nef that the only guy she should be thinking about sleeping with is me.
It wasn’t long before she crawled back into bed beside me. It also wasn’t long before she slipped her hand into my shorts.
“I want you again,” she said.
Between the feel of her hand down my shorts and her teeth and tongue worrying my ear I was rock hard in a matter of seconds. This time I sat back against the headboard when Nef pulled off my shorts and straddled me. I watched as my hardness sunk deep into her honeyed depths. Nef always made this sound when I first entered her. It was a deep groan that was accompanied by the tightening of her walls. It was almost as if her body was trying to swallow me.
She leaned backward bracing her hands on my legs and spreading her own. It gave me the amazing sight of watching her pussy move up and down on my erection, watching her lips clench against me, and watching the glistening moisture of our combined fluids. I loved it when she was on top. My hands were free to touch her. I could bring her greater pleasure but touching her in those places that drove her crazy. When pinched her clit her body convulsed as she came. I wasn’t far behind her.
I just finished a class and I have a three week break...here's hoping that I can get a huge chunk of this done by July!
Enjoy! :)
Nef’s POV
As soon as Sasha was through my bedroom door I locked it and pushed him down on the bed. He pulled my lips down to his and I had no choice but to straddle him. I felt one hand come to rest on my butt and the other pull out the hair tie that held my hair back into a neat ponytail. He practically devoured my lips and I knew he wanted me as much as I wanted him. I slowly unbuttoned his shirt kissing each inch of the warm, soft, creamy skin exposed. When I reached his belt buckle he pulled off his shirt as I undid the buckle. He reached for the hem of my dress, pulling it over my head as he lay back on the bed. He kicked off his shoes and wiggled out of his pant and underwear without knocking me off of his lap.
I couldn’t help but slowly grind myself against his lap. I could feel his growing erection and my wetness seeping through my panties. My core was pulsing with the need to get him inside of me. It had been far too long. I’d missed the feel of his body between my legs. I’d missed the feeling of his arms holding my as we melded together into the most intimate ways possible.
He didn’t make a move to undo my bra or remove my panties. He just looked at me, his eyes roaming over my body. I’d gone out a bought a new lilac lace set for tonight. Sasha liked lace and different shades of purple. I hadn’t told him that I’d also bought the matching corset.
“I missed you,” he said, cupping my face and kissing my lips softly. “I missed being with you, being in you, everything.”
He turned us over on the bed so that I was lying back and he was kneeling between my spread legs. I unsnapped the clasp on my bra and he slid my panties off as he placed my legs over his shoulders. He started to slide into me but stopped.
“You want to use a condom? Just in case?” he asked breathlessly.
I reached into my nightstand and pulled out a condom. He rolled it onto his erection before pushing inside of me. I gasped slightly. It had been a while and Sasha was not a small boy. After a second or two I started to rock my hips against his, letting him know that it was okay to move.
He started to gently rock his hips against mine. He felt so good. I’d missed this closeness with him.
“Sasha,” I moaned.
I locked my ankles behind his head and pulled his lips down to mine. Being incredibly flexible did have its advantages. He pushed deeper and I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from crying out. Tremors racked my body as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over me.
“Nef,” he moaned my name over and over again.
There were soft tremors that ran through his body every time I touched him. I don’t know how long we lasted. I just remember him thrusting into me over and over again, softly, lovingly, perfectly.
“Close,” I said. I wanted him to come with me.
His thrusts sped up and became more forceful and frantic. He spread my thighs as wide as they would go, opening me up to him. There was sweat pooling on his brow.
“Cum now,” he grunted and I was shouting his name as I fell apart.
He reached his peak at almost the same moment. I felt his hands grip my thighs impossibly tight. The look on his face as he erupted into me was enough to make me want to hold him close and never let him leave. He was beautiful, in every sense of the word.
Sasha removed the condom and leaned over me to reach the waste basket by my night stand. His arms were shaking as he tried to hold himself up but I pulled them out from under him and he collapsed heavily on top of me.
“Too heavy,” he said as he tried to move away.
I wrapped my legs around his was waist and held him in place.
“No, stay. Want you here.” It was still a little too soon for me to be speaking in complete sentences. I just knew I wanted him to stay where he was. I wanted him close to me.
I felt his warmth surround me and I briefly wondered why we’d waited so long for this. He nuzzled into my neck, kissing the skin there before his body slowly relaxed into slumber. It wasn’t long before I followed him.
The next time I woke up it was because of voice outside my door.
“Hey Nef? Are you awake?” It was Jackie.
I slide out from under Sasha and threw on a cami and a pair of his boxers.
“We’re just hanging out in the living room for some girl time,” she said.
Sasha was deeply asleep so I decided to join them. It was only 9 pm and it had been a while since I’d hung out with the girls like this. We were each approaching graduation and I didn’t know how often we would be able to do this.
“So woman, how are you holding up?” Jesse asked handing me a cup of my favorite cinnamon tea.
“I’m good. Our parents finally met today.”
“How’d that go?”
“Really good actually. I was surprised at how well they got along.”
“Now that mommy dearest doesn’t hate you anymore.”
“No. We’ve been getting along really well. We talk all the time, now. I’m pretty sure she’s started planning for a wedding and a grandchild.”
Jackie laughed at how things had changed and said that she was happy that things had worked out. I’d been thinking a lot lately about how things would work after graduation. I loved my roommates like they were my sisters. We’d been through a lot and I had genuinely enjoyed living with them. Jesse had been offered a job in Baltimore and Jackie had been offered a job in DC. I hadn’t told anyone yet but my internship had offered me a full time position with the company. I’d also been offered a job with my grandfather’s company but I wasn’t exactly sure if I wanted it. A lot of things were dependent on whether or not Sasha stayed in DC. If he didn’t I wouldn’t be able to take the job with my current company. If I took the job with my grandfather’s company there would be a significant amount of travel. There were several offices throughout the US and after a while I’d be able to work remotely so the city I lived in wouldn’t matter a whole lot. Both my parents and my grandparents wanted me to take the job that the family offered – Im had already accepted his. I wanted to have a job based on my own abilities rather than who I was related to. That’s not to say that I would never work for my family but I wanted to try things out on my own first.
Very few of my aunts and uncles had shown any interest in being the next generation to take over the company. Out of my grandparents seven children only my uncle Ali actually worked with the company. My grandfather had literally been grooming myself, Im, and a few of my cousins to eventually work at a high level with the company. There were still many many years before my grandfather and grandmother retired but I knew that they both wanted so badly for their grandchildren to be the future of the company.
Jackie and Jesse pretty much told me to shut up and work with my family. I knew what Sasha would say; he’d say to work with my family. That way I wouldn’t have to give up a career to be with him. I wouldn’t be just Alexander Semin’s girlfriend or future wife. He knew that I wouldn’t give up my independence. I wasn’t house wife material. To him it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
I heard Sasha call for me and I yelled that I was in the living room. He walked out in a pair of shorts and plopped down on the couch beside me. He slouched over with his head on my shoulders and mumbled something that sounded like “sleep” and “back to bed.”
Jackie, who was curled up on the recliner, started to giggle loudly. I looked at her and she said Adonis, referencing a conversation we’d had about Sasha walking around our place half dressed. Jesse started to giggle as well and it wasn’t long before we were all laughing hysterically.
“I’m going to miss this,” Jackie said.
“Mine!” I said. “Not yours!”
“Hey, if the other person is famous it doesn’t count!” Jesse said.
Sasha looked confused but he always looked confused when Jackie, Jesse, and I were talking. Our conversations didn’t really make sense to anyone but us.
“Sasha, I have a question. So there is this rule that if you cheat with a famous person it’s not actually cheating. Do you agree with that?” I asked.
“What you mean?”
“If I were to sleep with say…Johnny Depp it wouldn’t be cheating on you because Johnny
Depp is famous.”
“Nyet, it still cheating. Why you ask?”
“See Jesse I told you he’d never go for it!”
“Damn, there goes my chance!” Jesse said with mock disappointment.
“Your chance? That means I can never sleep with Johnny Depp!”
Sasha frowned at that and said the only person I should want to sleep with was him. He called all of us crazy and went back to my room. Jackie’s head tilted sideways as she watched him walk out of the room.
“Nice ass,” she said.
I threw my still damp teabag at her. It hit her right on the nose.
Sasha’s POV
Nef had this thing where whenever we finished making love with her on the bottom she would want me to stay on top of her. I always worried that I would be too heavy and that I would hurt her but this time I didn’t argue too much when she held me against her. I wanted to be as close to her as possible. I’d missed the feel of her warmth stretched around me. I’d missed the feel of her coming undone in my arms. I wanted us to be as close as possible for as long as possible.
Honestly it had been so long since we’d been together like this that it almost felt like our first time all over again. I was nervous and excited at the same time. During dinner I couldn’t wait to get her alone and ravish her.
Later that night she slipped out of bed to hang out with her roommates. They’d been hanging out more now that they wouldn’t be living together in a few months. These girls had been really close for a long time. When I went out into the living room they were in a giggling fit and couldn’t figure out why. I’m used to it. Not much that they do or say makes sense to anyone but them.
“Sasha, I have a question. So there is this rule that if you cheat with a famous person it’s not actually cheating. Do you agree with that?” Nef asked.
“What you mean?”
“If I were to sleep with say…Johnny Depp it wouldn’t be cheating on you because Johnny Depp is famous.”
“Nyet, it still cheating. Why you ask?” Who came up with this rule?
“See Jesse I told you he’d never go for it!”
“Damn, there goes my chance!” Jesse said with mock disappointment.
“Your chance? That means I can never sleep with Johnny Depp!”
See I told you. These girls are crazy. I told Nef that the only guy she should be thinking about sleeping with is me.
It wasn’t long before she crawled back into bed beside me. It also wasn’t long before she slipped her hand into my shorts.
“I want you again,” she said.
Between the feel of her hand down my shorts and her teeth and tongue worrying my ear I was rock hard in a matter of seconds. This time I sat back against the headboard when Nef pulled off my shorts and straddled me. I watched as my hardness sunk deep into her honeyed depths. Nef always made this sound when I first entered her. It was a deep groan that was accompanied by the tightening of her walls. It was almost as if her body was trying to swallow me.
She leaned backward bracing her hands on my legs and spreading her own. It gave me the amazing sight of watching her pussy move up and down on my erection, watching her lips clench against me, and watching the glistening moisture of our combined fluids. I loved it when she was on top. My hands were free to touch her. I could bring her greater pleasure but touching her in those places that drove her crazy. When pinched her clit her body convulsed as she came. I wasn’t far behind her.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Chapter 85 – Introductions
AN: I know, I know! You hate me and I suck at life...I really didn't intend for it to go so long between updates but my new job doesn't allow for the same amount of writing time as my old job. Between work, school, and going to the gym nearly every day (I had to get ready for summer!)I am swamped. Bah!
Okay so here is the next chapter....I hope you like it!
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Sasha’s POV
My mom is nervous. Really nervous. She’s wiped the same counter top six times now.
”Mom, I think the counter is clean enough. Stop it,” I said taking the cloth out of her hands.
I pushed her toward the living room where my dad was sitting. Nef and her parents were supposed to be arriving any minute. She’d been working like a mad woman the last two days to make sure that everything was perfect for an early dinner.
When Nef and her parents arrived I greeted them at the door. I gave her a chaste kiss on the lips before hugging her mother and shaking her father’s hand. I led them to the living room while Nef took their coats to hang up in the hall closet.
“Mr. and Mrs. Hassan, meet my parents. Tatiana and Valeri. Mom and Dad meet Adjo and Nefetiri.”
I was surprised at how well Mrs. Hassan had picked up Russian. She was able to chat with my parents with minimal help from Nef or myself. My parents spoke English well enough but she was excited to be able to speak Russian.
“Damn, so this means we won’t be able to talk about my parents in Russian anymore,” Nef joked.
Her mom swatted at her and told her to behave. It’s true; we’d had multiple conversations about her parents, in front of her parents in Russian. Dinner was easy. Our parents got along well. Neither of them brought up and of the difficulties we’d had over the past few months. I’m sure Nef had sat down with her parents and allowed them to ask all of the questions they felt they needed to ask before they arrived.
After dinner Nef and I snuck away to have a few minutes alone together. I just wanted to be able to hold her for a little while.
“I’m glad they’re getting along,” she said as she crawled onto my bed.
“Me too,” I said crawling in beside her. She yawned into the pillow as I planted a kiss on her shoulder.
I had another long road trip coming up and I wasn’t looking forward to being away from her for another two weeks.
“You want to come to an away game?” I asked.
“Sure, as long as it’s a weekend game. I can’t take any time off of work or school with midterms coming up.”
There was a knock on my bedroom door.
“Come in,” I said not moving from the bed.
“Your mothers are looking for you,” my dad said.
“Napping,” Nef said not bothering to open her eyes.
I tried to get off the bed but Nef wrapped her arms around my neck.
“No, sleep.”
“Sleep after your parents leave.” I picked her up bridal style and carried her to the door. She let me carry her down the stairs without much protest.
“Wake up,” I said when we reached the living room. She made no move to get out of my arms so I dropped her on the couch.
“Jerk!” she squeaked.
I don’t know how but eventually our parents starting talking about Nef and myself moving in together. Nef had been talking things over with her mother and Nefetiri had quite a few things to say to me and Nef.
“You’re father and I were talking—“ Nefetiri began.
“Oh no,” Nef said. “This can’t be good.”
Nefetiri swatted at Nef and said “Well, your grandparents, father, and myself were going to wait until you got married but since you seem bent on moving in with Sasha before you get married we’ve decided –“
“That you’re going to disown me?” Nef said jokingly.
This time when Nefetiri swatted at Nef I held her in place so that she could hit her.
“No Ms. Smarty Pants, we’re going to buy you a house.”
“That not necessary. I happy to buy us a house where ever we end up moving to,” I said.
“We know that but this is something we’ve been planning since the day she was born. It’s something that our family does for the children.”
We argued back and forth for a little while before my mother interrupted with the idea that we could buy the house together. She said that if we wanted to have a strong relationship we would have to learn to compromise. Nef was set to move out of her condo the first week of August. Nef then said that she didn't really want to think about it just yet. There was too much up in the air and she couldn't make a decision with how things were. She didn't want to live with my parent or hers but it didn't make sense to by house for us when the one I already own would sit vacant for months at a time.
If I didn’t resign in Washington and depending on the length of the contract I signed it would be up to Nef to find a place for us in whatever new city it was. She already told me there were certain cities she didn’t want to move to: Philadelphia, Edmonton, Calgary, Atlanta, Columbus, etc. I jokingly told her that I’d never find a job if she cut out half the teams in the NHL.
“You know where I wouldn’t mind going…LA. I’d like to go there.”
“I keep that in mind.”
Nef’s POV
So now that’s one major monkey off my back. Parental introductions were done and it had gone really well. There were no arguments, no fights, no bloodshed, no Cold War part II, no nuclear standoff.
After dinner Sasha and I had gone back to my apartment. It had been more than a month since Sasha and I had been intimate. With his groin injury and me starting a new birth control pill we didn’t want to risk it. The doctor had given me a clean bill of health and said that I shouldn’t suffer any lasting effects from my miscarriage but we were both still cautious.
Honestly, I was nervous. Not so much about the sex part…I mean Sasha and I had had sex a hundred times before and in a hundred different ways but I knew that things were different and I knew that we were both scared. Sasha has been so tender and kind with me since all this happened, almost as if he was afraid that I would break. For the first few weeks it wasn’t that I didn’t want to have sex, I couldn’t. I wanted him but there was too much going on physically, mentally, and emotionally for me to even consider sex. But now that things were finally settling and getting back to normal I wanted nothing more than to strip him naked, throw him down on my bed, and have my wicked way with him.
Okay so here is the next chapter....I hope you like it!
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Sasha’s POV
My mom is nervous. Really nervous. She’s wiped the same counter top six times now.
”Mom, I think the counter is clean enough. Stop it,” I said taking the cloth out of her hands.
I pushed her toward the living room where my dad was sitting. Nef and her parents were supposed to be arriving any minute. She’d been working like a mad woman the last two days to make sure that everything was perfect for an early dinner.
When Nef and her parents arrived I greeted them at the door. I gave her a chaste kiss on the lips before hugging her mother and shaking her father’s hand. I led them to the living room while Nef took their coats to hang up in the hall closet.
“Mr. and Mrs. Hassan, meet my parents. Tatiana and Valeri. Mom and Dad meet Adjo and Nefetiri.”
I was surprised at how well Mrs. Hassan had picked up Russian. She was able to chat with my parents with minimal help from Nef or myself. My parents spoke English well enough but she was excited to be able to speak Russian.
“Damn, so this means we won’t be able to talk about my parents in Russian anymore,” Nef joked.
Her mom swatted at her and told her to behave. It’s true; we’d had multiple conversations about her parents, in front of her parents in Russian. Dinner was easy. Our parents got along well. Neither of them brought up and of the difficulties we’d had over the past few months. I’m sure Nef had sat down with her parents and allowed them to ask all of the questions they felt they needed to ask before they arrived.
After dinner Nef and I snuck away to have a few minutes alone together. I just wanted to be able to hold her for a little while.
“I’m glad they’re getting along,” she said as she crawled onto my bed.
“Me too,” I said crawling in beside her. She yawned into the pillow as I planted a kiss on her shoulder.
I had another long road trip coming up and I wasn’t looking forward to being away from her for another two weeks.
“You want to come to an away game?” I asked.
“Sure, as long as it’s a weekend game. I can’t take any time off of work or school with midterms coming up.”
There was a knock on my bedroom door.
“Come in,” I said not moving from the bed.
“Your mothers are looking for you,” my dad said.
“Napping,” Nef said not bothering to open her eyes.
I tried to get off the bed but Nef wrapped her arms around my neck.
“No, sleep.”
“Sleep after your parents leave.” I picked her up bridal style and carried her to the door. She let me carry her down the stairs without much protest.
“Wake up,” I said when we reached the living room. She made no move to get out of my arms so I dropped her on the couch.
“Jerk!” she squeaked.
I don’t know how but eventually our parents starting talking about Nef and myself moving in together. Nef had been talking things over with her mother and Nefetiri had quite a few things to say to me and Nef.
“You’re father and I were talking—“ Nefetiri began.
“Oh no,” Nef said. “This can’t be good.”
Nefetiri swatted at Nef and said “Well, your grandparents, father, and myself were going to wait until you got married but since you seem bent on moving in with Sasha before you get married we’ve decided –“
“That you’re going to disown me?” Nef said jokingly.
This time when Nefetiri swatted at Nef I held her in place so that she could hit her.
“No Ms. Smarty Pants, we’re going to buy you a house.”
“That not necessary. I happy to buy us a house where ever we end up moving to,” I said.
“We know that but this is something we’ve been planning since the day she was born. It’s something that our family does for the children.”
We argued back and forth for a little while before my mother interrupted with the idea that we could buy the house together. She said that if we wanted to have a strong relationship we would have to learn to compromise. Nef was set to move out of her condo the first week of August. Nef then said that she didn't really want to think about it just yet. There was too much up in the air and she couldn't make a decision with how things were. She didn't want to live with my parent or hers but it didn't make sense to by house for us when the one I already own would sit vacant for months at a time.
If I didn’t resign in Washington and depending on the length of the contract I signed it would be up to Nef to find a place for us in whatever new city it was. She already told me there were certain cities she didn’t want to move to: Philadelphia, Edmonton, Calgary, Atlanta, Columbus, etc. I jokingly told her that I’d never find a job if she cut out half the teams in the NHL.
“You know where I wouldn’t mind going…LA. I’d like to go there.”
“I keep that in mind.”
Nef’s POV
So now that’s one major monkey off my back. Parental introductions were done and it had gone really well. There were no arguments, no fights, no bloodshed, no Cold War part II, no nuclear standoff.
After dinner Sasha and I had gone back to my apartment. It had been more than a month since Sasha and I had been intimate. With his groin injury and me starting a new birth control pill we didn’t want to risk it. The doctor had given me a clean bill of health and said that I shouldn’t suffer any lasting effects from my miscarriage but we were both still cautious.
Honestly, I was nervous. Not so much about the sex part…I mean Sasha and I had had sex a hundred times before and in a hundred different ways but I knew that things were different and I knew that we were both scared. Sasha has been so tender and kind with me since all this happened, almost as if he was afraid that I would break. For the first few weeks it wasn’t that I didn’t want to have sex, I couldn’t. I wanted him but there was too much going on physically, mentally, and emotionally for me to even consider sex. But now that things were finally settling and getting back to normal I wanted nothing more than to strip him naked, throw him down on my bed, and have my wicked way with him.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Chapter 84 – If someone isn’t listening, you can’t make them hear.
An: Okay...now that I've sufficiently mourn our playoff exit here's the next chapter...hopefully I can keep you guys entertained until the fall!
Nef’s POV
For nearly two weeks Sasha’s life and my life have been splashed across the front page of nearly every tabloid in Russia. I was thankful that not very many of the American news outlets had picked it up. Katie Cerrera, the Caps Washington Post beat reporter, had tried to pick up the store but one quick conversation with Ted Leonsis, the majority owner, had ended that story. He had instructed the media that questions were to be hockey related and hockey related only. When I went to the family lounge to see him after home games I was escorted by a member of staff. I was stashed away until after the reporters left. It was very cloak and dagger and I hated every minute of it.
Tatiana had gone from hating me, to ignoring me, to trying to get rid of me, to remorseful and blaming herself for just about everything that was happening now. We’d been getting along better as of late but with Nadiya going to tabloids in Russia and telling them nearly everything Tatiana wasn’t painted in the best light. In fact, now that she saw everything she’d done on paper she realized just how unpleasant she’d been. She realized that she looked like a lying, manipulating bitch.
I was just waiting for this to die down. I needed to focus on school. I was less than 3 months away from graduation. Sasha still hadn’t told me anything regarding his contract talks and with the trade deadline a few weeks away I was becoming more and more nervous. I would spend the summer (or most of it) in my apartment packing up. I honestly didn’t want to move into Sasha’s house. He lived with his parents and as well as we got along I didn’t want to live with them. I also didn’t want to live in his house. I wanted to live in our house.
I talked to him about it and I have to say our first conversation on it didn’t go well at all. We’d argued because he just didn’t get it.
”Sasha, I don’t want to live at home with my parents so why would I want to live with yours?”
”You and my mom are getting along now. I don’t see what the problem is. I mean it’s not like they’re here year round. They’re only here for about half of the season.” Sometimes it’s longer than that.
”Would you want to live with my parents?”
I tried to explain it in a way that would make sense to him but I’m not sure if he didn’t get it because he couldn’t comprehend or if he just didn’t want to. He’s very attached to his parents. I think that…no, I know that he won’t want to let them go. I couldn’t figure out how to tell him that I just wanted it to be us. I just wanted time with us together away from everything and everyone.
I could tell when Sasha talked to his parents about it. There was a tangible shift in their attitude toward me. Over the past year and some months I’d gotten really good at noticing attitude changes in both Valeri and Tatiana. It wasn’t bad but I could tell that they didn’t like what I wanted. I didn’t want them to go away. That was the last thing I wanted. I just wanted to be a little more grown up.
”I’m not saying I want you two to go away. Hell, we just started getting along!” I told Tatiana one evening in the kitchen. She was teaching me how to make pelmeni the way that Sasha liked. ”I don’t want to live in his house. I want to live in our house. Does that make sense? Because Sasha just doesn’t get it.”
”He gets it. He does. I think he just wants to provide for you and for us. Did I ever tell you that one of the reasons Valeri only works part time is because Sasha asked him to?”
”No, you didn’t tell me that. I thought he was just ready to retire.”
”No, he works part-time as an industrial management consultant. One on the first things Sasha told us when he got his first big contract here was that he wanted to take care of his family.” I knew that part. I knew that Sasha wanted to take care of his parents after all they had done for him. ”He wants to take care of you to. He still blames himself and me for you losing the baby.”
”He shouldn’t be blaming anyone. We all messed up.” I thought we’d moved past blaming each other for my miscarriage.
”He blames himself for not being able to protect you. So he wants to make sure that you’re protected now.”
Well when she put it that way it made sense. It didn’t change the fact that I still wanted us to build our lives together but it did help me to understand. I should have known. Sasha has always tried to take care of the people closest to him, to take care of the people he loves. He didn’t look at it as his house. He looked at it as the house bought for his family. In agreeing to move in with him I had agreed to be a part of his family so it made logical sense that I would move into his family house.
How did I explain to him that while I respected his thoughts I wanted to help build that safe place for my family too? How did I explain to him that I wanted to create that safe place for the kids we would one day have? Or how I wanted to come home to the home that we created together?
I don’t think he was getting the whole together idea.
Sasha’s POV
”I don’t know what to do anymore,” I told my dad one night.
Nef and I had been arguing lately. She agreed to move in with me but it seemed like the closer we got to that point the more we argued. She didn’t want to live with my parents. She didn’t want to live in a house that I bought. She didn’t want this or that. I was having a hard time trying to figure out what she wanted. Does she really not what to live with me and is she just looking for an excuse to call the whole thing off?
”Now I wouldn’t go that far. Nef loves you and she wants to move in with you but I think that she wants to help. Look at it this way; you know how happy your mother gets when she takes care of you? You know how she wants to do all these things for you: the washing, the cooking, the cleaning, and all of that?”
”Nef is not the house wife type dad. She’s the exact opposite. This is why I think that all of us living together would be perfect. Nef wouldn’t have to do all those things unless she wanted to.”
”Sasha listen, it’s not those things that are important. It’s the act of creating a home for her family that matters to her. It’s having a place that’s yours: you and her together, that’s what she wants. She, like any good woman, wants to create a safe place for the children you want to have. She wants to create a home for her children and for her husband. You and her together. ”
That I understood. I tried to do that for my family. I wanted to take care of them, to make sure that they were happy and comfortable. I was trying to do the same for Nef. I wanted to protect her but at the same time I was overlooking what she wanted and what she needed. Great job, Sasha. We still had time to figure it out. There were still a few months in between now and graduation. She wouldn’t be moving until the end of the summer anyway.
”So what should I do?” I asked my dad.
He shrugged his shoulders and said that it was something that Nef and I would have to figure out together. He put emphasis on the word “together.”
Why can’t things ever be simple? Seriously. Why can’t it be simple?
Nef and I would have to talk about it sooner or later. Right now we’d wait until we figured out the contract situation. If I was moving to another city it might be a moot point and we’d all be living together anyway. Right now we need to focus on dinner. Our parents were finally meeting.
Nef’s POV
For nearly two weeks Sasha’s life and my life have been splashed across the front page of nearly every tabloid in Russia. I was thankful that not very many of the American news outlets had picked it up. Katie Cerrera, the Caps Washington Post beat reporter, had tried to pick up the store but one quick conversation with Ted Leonsis, the majority owner, had ended that story. He had instructed the media that questions were to be hockey related and hockey related only. When I went to the family lounge to see him after home games I was escorted by a member of staff. I was stashed away until after the reporters left. It was very cloak and dagger and I hated every minute of it.
Tatiana had gone from hating me, to ignoring me, to trying to get rid of me, to remorseful and blaming herself for just about everything that was happening now. We’d been getting along better as of late but with Nadiya going to tabloids in Russia and telling them nearly everything Tatiana wasn’t painted in the best light. In fact, now that she saw everything she’d done on paper she realized just how unpleasant she’d been. She realized that she looked like a lying, manipulating bitch.
I was just waiting for this to die down. I needed to focus on school. I was less than 3 months away from graduation. Sasha still hadn’t told me anything regarding his contract talks and with the trade deadline a few weeks away I was becoming more and more nervous. I would spend the summer (or most of it) in my apartment packing up. I honestly didn’t want to move into Sasha’s house. He lived with his parents and as well as we got along I didn’t want to live with them. I also didn’t want to live in his house. I wanted to live in our house.
I talked to him about it and I have to say our first conversation on it didn’t go well at all. We’d argued because he just didn’t get it.
”Sasha, I don’t want to live at home with my parents so why would I want to live with yours?”
”You and my mom are getting along now. I don’t see what the problem is. I mean it’s not like they’re here year round. They’re only here for about half of the season.” Sometimes it’s longer than that.
”Would you want to live with my parents?”
I tried to explain it in a way that would make sense to him but I’m not sure if he didn’t get it because he couldn’t comprehend or if he just didn’t want to. He’s very attached to his parents. I think that…no, I know that he won’t want to let them go. I couldn’t figure out how to tell him that I just wanted it to be us. I just wanted time with us together away from everything and everyone.
I could tell when Sasha talked to his parents about it. There was a tangible shift in their attitude toward me. Over the past year and some months I’d gotten really good at noticing attitude changes in both Valeri and Tatiana. It wasn’t bad but I could tell that they didn’t like what I wanted. I didn’t want them to go away. That was the last thing I wanted. I just wanted to be a little more grown up.
”I’m not saying I want you two to go away. Hell, we just started getting along!” I told Tatiana one evening in the kitchen. She was teaching me how to make pelmeni the way that Sasha liked. ”I don’t want to live in his house. I want to live in our house. Does that make sense? Because Sasha just doesn’t get it.”
”He gets it. He does. I think he just wants to provide for you and for us. Did I ever tell you that one of the reasons Valeri only works part time is because Sasha asked him to?”
”No, you didn’t tell me that. I thought he was just ready to retire.”
”No, he works part-time as an industrial management consultant. One on the first things Sasha told us when he got his first big contract here was that he wanted to take care of his family.” I knew that part. I knew that Sasha wanted to take care of his parents after all they had done for him. ”He wants to take care of you to. He still blames himself and me for you losing the baby.”
”He shouldn’t be blaming anyone. We all messed up.” I thought we’d moved past blaming each other for my miscarriage.
”He blames himself for not being able to protect you. So he wants to make sure that you’re protected now.”
Well when she put it that way it made sense. It didn’t change the fact that I still wanted us to build our lives together but it did help me to understand. I should have known. Sasha has always tried to take care of the people closest to him, to take care of the people he loves. He didn’t look at it as his house. He looked at it as the house bought for his family. In agreeing to move in with him I had agreed to be a part of his family so it made logical sense that I would move into his family house.
How did I explain to him that while I respected his thoughts I wanted to help build that safe place for my family too? How did I explain to him that I wanted to create that safe place for the kids we would one day have? Or how I wanted to come home to the home that we created together?
I don’t think he was getting the whole together idea.
Sasha’s POV
”I don’t know what to do anymore,” I told my dad one night.
Nef and I had been arguing lately. She agreed to move in with me but it seemed like the closer we got to that point the more we argued. She didn’t want to live with my parents. She didn’t want to live in a house that I bought. She didn’t want this or that. I was having a hard time trying to figure out what she wanted. Does she really not what to live with me and is she just looking for an excuse to call the whole thing off?
”Now I wouldn’t go that far. Nef loves you and she wants to move in with you but I think that she wants to help. Look at it this way; you know how happy your mother gets when she takes care of you? You know how she wants to do all these things for you: the washing, the cooking, the cleaning, and all of that?”
”Nef is not the house wife type dad. She’s the exact opposite. This is why I think that all of us living together would be perfect. Nef wouldn’t have to do all those things unless she wanted to.”
”Sasha listen, it’s not those things that are important. It’s the act of creating a home for her family that matters to her. It’s having a place that’s yours: you and her together, that’s what she wants. She, like any good woman, wants to create a safe place for the children you want to have. She wants to create a home for her children and for her husband. You and her together. ”
That I understood. I tried to do that for my family. I wanted to take care of them, to make sure that they were happy and comfortable. I was trying to do the same for Nef. I wanted to protect her but at the same time I was overlooking what she wanted and what she needed. Great job, Sasha. We still had time to figure it out. There were still a few months in between now and graduation. She wouldn’t be moving until the end of the summer anyway.
”So what should I do?” I asked my dad.
He shrugged his shoulders and said that it was something that Nef and I would have to figure out together. He put emphasis on the word “together.”
Why can’t things ever be simple? Seriously. Why can’t it be simple?
Nef and I would have to talk about it sooner or later. Right now we’d wait until we figured out the contract situation. If I was moving to another city it might be a moot point and we’d all be living together anyway. Right now we need to focus on dinner. Our parents were finally meeting.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Chapter 83 – Tabloid
AN: The Caps are on to round 2!!
Sasha’s POV
When I came home from a five game road trip Nef and my mom were sitting in the living room talking. Under normal circumstances this would have been okay but considering where we’d been for the last year and change I was nervous. I didn’t know what would come of the two of them meeting without a mediator.
”How are you two doing?”
”Good, your mom is showing me pictures of you when you were little!”
”Oh no, this can’t be good.”
”Hush now,” my mom admonished.
”Oh this one is soo cute!!” Nef nearly squealed.
She held a picture; I couldn’t have been older than two.
”That was when he was first potty trained,” my mom said. ”One day he just took his diaper off and said “Big Boy.” After that his father and I decided that it was time for him to be potty trained.”
I looked closer and sure enough it was me sitting on the toilet. Crap. I went to take the picture away from Nef but she held it out of my reach.
”Put those away,” I said.
Of course they both ignored me. Maybe my mom and my girlfriend getting along was a bad idea? After dropping off my stuff in the laundry room I went to my room to change before heading back downstairs. I inserted myself on the couch between them. My mom had given Nef several of the pictures to keep.
”They better not ever see the light of day.” Nef rolled her eyes at me before leaning on my shoulder.
I wrapped my arms around her and just held her. I’d been gone for 12 days.
”So, family dinner,” Nef said. ”We have a date but is it going to be here, my parents' house, or neutral ground?”
”Did you tell them it was my fault we haven’t done it yet?”
”Maybe?” Of course she would. I tickled her sides and she nearly elbowed me in the stomach trying to get away.
”Ahhh no! Stop!” She called me a bully as she scrambled to sit on the other couch. ”You stay over there.”
My mom made dinner and Nef decided to hang out in the kitchen with her to help planned for the dinner with our families. We would be having it at my house like originally planned in January. It was just easier for my schedule and it would be easier on my mom. I sat in the living room watching television, relaxing from a long, hard road trip. I’d been there for maybe about half an hour before my phone rang. It was Lana. I hadn’t talked to her for a little while. It was a little weird for her to be calling since there is a 12 hour time difference between DC and Krasnoyarsk.
”Hi Lana, what’s up?” I said.
”We have a problem?”
”What? What are you talking about?”
She told me to get in front of a computer. There was a tabloid story running that I needed to see. I didn’t pay attention to tabloids. They ran nothing but lies and garbage. I tried to stay as far away from them as I could. When I pulled up the website for Russia weekly, the equivalent of US weekly, the headline read “Tragedy Strikes Alexander Semin’s American Dame: Infidelity and a Miscarriage.” There were pictures from the NHL awards, from Nef’s trip to Russia over the summer – the day of our lake trip, when we went to Club Mio, and pictures from the time Nadiya, Lana, and other friends of ours went out in Krasnoyarsk. There are few things in life that make me angry but I could barely contain the rage that was flowing through me.
I must have cursed or done something because my mom and Nef came back into the living room asking me what’s wrong. I showed them the article. My mother’s face blanched but Nef looked rather unaffected. She sat down beside me and read the article.
”Alexander Semin’s American Dame, Nefertiti Hassan, has recently been the victim of tragic circumstances. Shortly after the New Year and Christmas Holiday Nefertiti found out that the Snarling Siberian had been unfaithful during his summer break at home in Krasnoyarsk. He had been seen at the popular Club Mio with both Nefertiti and his summer lover. Immediately after this revelation Nefertiti was rushed to the hospital where she found out that she had lost the child she was carrying.
Russian Weekly has identified Alexander’s summer time lover as Nadiya Sergiovicha, childhood friend of Alexander. It seems that his mother declaration of America admirers was true. Does this mean that Alexander is indeed settling down with a Russian Beauty? ”
”Well I guess we know what Nadiya’s been up too.” Nef said as she finished reading the article.
”How do you know it’s Nadiya?” my mother asked.
”Look at the pictures. They’re taking by someone who was there at these events with us. They’re not paparazzi photos. There are none from the other times we went out in Krasnoyarsk. There weren’t any reporters or paparazzi following us around. ”
It made sense. When looking at the pictures in the article I realized that Nef was completely right and had been completely right all along about Nadiya. My mom went upstairs, presumably to call Nadiya. I hadn't spoken to her since that day. I honestly did even know when she left to go back to Russia. If I never saw her again it would be too soon. I was doing my best to forget that she even existed.
There was nothing we could do. This wasn’t the first time my name had popped up in a tabloid paper and it probably wouldn’t be the last. I tried as hard as I could to keep my private life private and out of the media.
When I went to practice the following day Kettler was swarmed with Russia reporters. There’s always a presence of foreign media but very rarely are the more than Dmitry Chesnokov and maybe one or two other Russian reporters. Today there were a lot more. I immediately went to Bruce and George. They called Ted on the phone and we had a meeting where I told them everything. I had spoken to Nef about what she wanted to do. Her response had been “I don’t live in Russia. I don’t care what they think. If you want to tell them or sit for an interview that’s fine but I don’t want stories about my miscarriage splashed across the front page of every tabloid.”
I chose to ignore it. I didn’t give any interviews about anything other than hockey. Nef and I tried to go on about our lives as normal. Any media personnel that tried to force the issue had their media pass revoked by Caps staff. That lasted to about two days. The same tabloid ran another article. This time a reporter had interview Nadiya about what had been happening over the past few months. She spoke about how her and my mother had gotten along, about how my mother had preferred her over Nef, she even went as far as to say she thought that Nef had gotten pregnant on purpose because she thought that I was going to leave her.
I tried to keep it as far away from Nef as I could. Whenever a report asked a question that was related to her I ignored it. But when the tabloid and Nadiya started to talk about her trying to trap me and about how my mother tried to drive Nef away I agreed to talk to a Dmitry Chesnokov and one other Russian Reporter. I worked with my agent and Ted’s PR team to arrange a meeting. Nef and I had decided that she would attend. We’re not hiding our relationship. We simply tried to avoid the media spotlight. I hate having my private life splashed across the front pages of the news. I hate having people scrutinizing my private affairs. I wanted to shield her from this as much as I could. Hell even during interviews for the Winter Classic when I was asked who I had with me I’d never answered any questions about having a girlfriend…even when Nef was standing right beside me. Nef is a good person and the last thing I want was for the media to try and tear her apart.
Nef’s POV
I should be in the library studying for class but instead I’m sitting across from two Russian journalists talking about one of the most private things in my life. It seems that as of late Nadiya has taken to giving interviews with Russian media outlets about her “affair” with Sasha. She’s gone so far as to suggest that I got pregnant to keep Sasha from leaving me for her. We started off trying to ignore it but it has gotten progressively worse. It’s got to the point where local US media outlets are hounding Sasha and myself for interviews. There have been reporters camped out at the end of the cul de sack where Sasha lives for the past three days. It’s getting to be a little ridiculous.
I kinda, sort of, knew Dmitry. Sasha had done interviews with him before. He was nice and respectful and kept all of his questions related to hockey. The second reporter, a woman whose name I didn’t catch, was not as pleasant. She seemed to be more focused of getting “dirty” details from us. I swear she was disappointed when Sasha said that he hadn’t cheated on me.
”Nadiya had been a friend of mine since we were kids. Our moms met because they worked at the same bank. We she came back home from University at the beginning of last summer our moms thought it would be good for me to show her around. She’d been away from Krasnoyarsk for a few years.”
”She came to Washington right after New Years, was that your idea?” the female reporter asked.
”No, that was my mother’s idea. Nadiya had been looking at going to graduate school in DC. My mother invited her to come so she could look at schools. I assumed it was because they didn’t want her to be alone in a strange place.”
”Did you know about Nadiya?” Dmitry asked me.
”Yes, I first spoke to her over the phone last June and then I met her in person when I came to Russia in July. She seemed nice enough. We hung out a few times during the week or so I was in Krasnoyarsk.”
”Do you believe that Alexander slept with Nadiya?” the female reporter.
”Sasha has been nothing but honest with me during our entire relationship. Has she tried to sleep with him? Yes. Has she been successful? No. Has she tried to convince me that she has? Yes.”
”Is it true that your mother preferred Nadiya over Nefertiti?”
”Yes, our families have known each other for a very long time. To my mom Nadiya was safe. She was someone she could trust.” or so she thought.
”Was this one of the reasons for the start of your slump?” Dmitry had been trying to bring the conversation back to hockey.
”Sort of, I was playing with an injury at first and then I didn’t take any time off to deal with our loss. Hockey was constant, it helped keep me sane. It gave me a purpose when it felt like my world was falling apart. I probably should have taken the time off but I couldn’t. I’d been out injured and I hadn’t been scoring goals so I didn’t take any time off.”
”Part of that was my fault. I ended up going away for a little while. I had my mom and my grandmother to help me through it.” I said. ”But I still needed to get away from here. I thought I needed to be away from Sasha to sort things out.”
The entire interview lasted about an hour and a half. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to go through this again. We’d been working so hard to deal with losing a child and it seemed like all the progress we’d made was being torn apart.
Sasha apologized to me yet again. He’d been doing that a lot lately. I guess he was worried about me being upset and running away again. I’m not doing that any more. I’ve run enough. I’m not leaving and I’m not letting anyone take what’s mine.
Sasha’s POV
When I came home from a five game road trip Nef and my mom were sitting in the living room talking. Under normal circumstances this would have been okay but considering where we’d been for the last year and change I was nervous. I didn’t know what would come of the two of them meeting without a mediator.
”How are you two doing?”
”Good, your mom is showing me pictures of you when you were little!”
”Oh no, this can’t be good.”
”Hush now,” my mom admonished.
”Oh this one is soo cute!!” Nef nearly squealed.
She held a picture; I couldn’t have been older than two.
”That was when he was first potty trained,” my mom said. ”One day he just took his diaper off and said “Big Boy.” After that his father and I decided that it was time for him to be potty trained.”
I looked closer and sure enough it was me sitting on the toilet. Crap. I went to take the picture away from Nef but she held it out of my reach.
”Put those away,” I said.
Of course they both ignored me. Maybe my mom and my girlfriend getting along was a bad idea? After dropping off my stuff in the laundry room I went to my room to change before heading back downstairs. I inserted myself on the couch between them. My mom had given Nef several of the pictures to keep.
”They better not ever see the light of day.” Nef rolled her eyes at me before leaning on my shoulder.
I wrapped my arms around her and just held her. I’d been gone for 12 days.
”So, family dinner,” Nef said. ”We have a date but is it going to be here, my parents' house, or neutral ground?”
”Did you tell them it was my fault we haven’t done it yet?”
”Maybe?” Of course she would. I tickled her sides and she nearly elbowed me in the stomach trying to get away.
”Ahhh no! Stop!” She called me a bully as she scrambled to sit on the other couch. ”You stay over there.”
My mom made dinner and Nef decided to hang out in the kitchen with her to help planned for the dinner with our families. We would be having it at my house like originally planned in January. It was just easier for my schedule and it would be easier on my mom. I sat in the living room watching television, relaxing from a long, hard road trip. I’d been there for maybe about half an hour before my phone rang. It was Lana. I hadn’t talked to her for a little while. It was a little weird for her to be calling since there is a 12 hour time difference between DC and Krasnoyarsk.
”Hi Lana, what’s up?” I said.
”We have a problem?”
”What? What are you talking about?”
She told me to get in front of a computer. There was a tabloid story running that I needed to see. I didn’t pay attention to tabloids. They ran nothing but lies and garbage. I tried to stay as far away from them as I could. When I pulled up the website for Russia weekly, the equivalent of US weekly, the headline read “Tragedy Strikes Alexander Semin’s American Dame: Infidelity and a Miscarriage.” There were pictures from the NHL awards, from Nef’s trip to Russia over the summer – the day of our lake trip, when we went to Club Mio, and pictures from the time Nadiya, Lana, and other friends of ours went out in Krasnoyarsk. There are few things in life that make me angry but I could barely contain the rage that was flowing through me.
I must have cursed or done something because my mom and Nef came back into the living room asking me what’s wrong. I showed them the article. My mother’s face blanched but Nef looked rather unaffected. She sat down beside me and read the article.
”Alexander Semin’s American Dame, Nefertiti Hassan, has recently been the victim of tragic circumstances. Shortly after the New Year and Christmas Holiday Nefertiti found out that the Snarling Siberian had been unfaithful during his summer break at home in Krasnoyarsk. He had been seen at the popular Club Mio with both Nefertiti and his summer lover. Immediately after this revelation Nefertiti was rushed to the hospital where she found out that she had lost the child she was carrying.
Russian Weekly has identified Alexander’s summer time lover as Nadiya Sergiovicha, childhood friend of Alexander. It seems that his mother declaration of America admirers was true. Does this mean that Alexander is indeed settling down with a Russian Beauty? ”
”Well I guess we know what Nadiya’s been up too.” Nef said as she finished reading the article.
”How do you know it’s Nadiya?” my mother asked.
”Look at the pictures. They’re taking by someone who was there at these events with us. They’re not paparazzi photos. There are none from the other times we went out in Krasnoyarsk. There weren’t any reporters or paparazzi following us around. ”
It made sense. When looking at the pictures in the article I realized that Nef was completely right and had been completely right all along about Nadiya. My mom went upstairs, presumably to call Nadiya. I hadn't spoken to her since that day. I honestly did even know when she left to go back to Russia. If I never saw her again it would be too soon. I was doing my best to forget that she even existed.
There was nothing we could do. This wasn’t the first time my name had popped up in a tabloid paper and it probably wouldn’t be the last. I tried as hard as I could to keep my private life private and out of the media.
When I went to practice the following day Kettler was swarmed with Russia reporters. There’s always a presence of foreign media but very rarely are the more than Dmitry Chesnokov and maybe one or two other Russian reporters. Today there were a lot more. I immediately went to Bruce and George. They called Ted on the phone and we had a meeting where I told them everything. I had spoken to Nef about what she wanted to do. Her response had been “I don’t live in Russia. I don’t care what they think. If you want to tell them or sit for an interview that’s fine but I don’t want stories about my miscarriage splashed across the front page of every tabloid.”
I chose to ignore it. I didn’t give any interviews about anything other than hockey. Nef and I tried to go on about our lives as normal. Any media personnel that tried to force the issue had their media pass revoked by Caps staff. That lasted to about two days. The same tabloid ran another article. This time a reporter had interview Nadiya about what had been happening over the past few months. She spoke about how her and my mother had gotten along, about how my mother had preferred her over Nef, she even went as far as to say she thought that Nef had gotten pregnant on purpose because she thought that I was going to leave her.
I tried to keep it as far away from Nef as I could. Whenever a report asked a question that was related to her I ignored it. But when the tabloid and Nadiya started to talk about her trying to trap me and about how my mother tried to drive Nef away I agreed to talk to a Dmitry Chesnokov and one other Russian Reporter. I worked with my agent and Ted’s PR team to arrange a meeting. Nef and I had decided that she would attend. We’re not hiding our relationship. We simply tried to avoid the media spotlight. I hate having my private life splashed across the front pages of the news. I hate having people scrutinizing my private affairs. I wanted to shield her from this as much as I could. Hell even during interviews for the Winter Classic when I was asked who I had with me I’d never answered any questions about having a girlfriend…even when Nef was standing right beside me. Nef is a good person and the last thing I want was for the media to try and tear her apart.
Nef’s POV
I should be in the library studying for class but instead I’m sitting across from two Russian journalists talking about one of the most private things in my life. It seems that as of late Nadiya has taken to giving interviews with Russian media outlets about her “affair” with Sasha. She’s gone so far as to suggest that I got pregnant to keep Sasha from leaving me for her. We started off trying to ignore it but it has gotten progressively worse. It’s got to the point where local US media outlets are hounding Sasha and myself for interviews. There have been reporters camped out at the end of the cul de sack where Sasha lives for the past three days. It’s getting to be a little ridiculous.
I kinda, sort of, knew Dmitry. Sasha had done interviews with him before. He was nice and respectful and kept all of his questions related to hockey. The second reporter, a woman whose name I didn’t catch, was not as pleasant. She seemed to be more focused of getting “dirty” details from us. I swear she was disappointed when Sasha said that he hadn’t cheated on me.
”Nadiya had been a friend of mine since we were kids. Our moms met because they worked at the same bank. We she came back home from University at the beginning of last summer our moms thought it would be good for me to show her around. She’d been away from Krasnoyarsk for a few years.”
”She came to Washington right after New Years, was that your idea?” the female reporter asked.
”No, that was my mother’s idea. Nadiya had been looking at going to graduate school in DC. My mother invited her to come so she could look at schools. I assumed it was because they didn’t want her to be alone in a strange place.”
”Did you know about Nadiya?” Dmitry asked me.
”Yes, I first spoke to her over the phone last June and then I met her in person when I came to Russia in July. She seemed nice enough. We hung out a few times during the week or so I was in Krasnoyarsk.”
”Do you believe that Alexander slept with Nadiya?” the female reporter.
”Sasha has been nothing but honest with me during our entire relationship. Has she tried to sleep with him? Yes. Has she been successful? No. Has she tried to convince me that she has? Yes.”
”Is it true that your mother preferred Nadiya over Nefertiti?”
”Yes, our families have known each other for a very long time. To my mom Nadiya was safe. She was someone she could trust.” or so she thought.
”Was this one of the reasons for the start of your slump?” Dmitry had been trying to bring the conversation back to hockey.
”Sort of, I was playing with an injury at first and then I didn’t take any time off to deal with our loss. Hockey was constant, it helped keep me sane. It gave me a purpose when it felt like my world was falling apart. I probably should have taken the time off but I couldn’t. I’d been out injured and I hadn’t been scoring goals so I didn’t take any time off.”
”Part of that was my fault. I ended up going away for a little while. I had my mom and my grandmother to help me through it.” I said. ”But I still needed to get away from here. I thought I needed to be away from Sasha to sort things out.”
The entire interview lasted about an hour and a half. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to go through this again. We’d been working so hard to deal with losing a child and it seemed like all the progress we’d made was being torn apart.
Sasha apologized to me yet again. He’d been doing that a lot lately. I guess he was worried about me being upset and running away again. I’m not doing that any more. I’ve run enough. I’m not leaving and I’m not letting anyone take what’s mine.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Chapter 82 – “A friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself.”
AN: Short chapter but I've got a longer one coming up soon! Between school, work, and games 1 & 2 I haven't had much time to editing.
Enjoy! I'm off to watch game 3. Good Luck boys!
Nef’s POV
“Hey chick, wanna go to the mall?” I asked Jackie. Jesse and I were about to head to Pentagon City Mall for some shopping. I was in an amazing mood after talking to Sasha’s mom.
“Sure.”
We piled into my car and took the 35 minute drive to the mall. We always stop at a Starbucks for coffee before we actually started shopping.
“So how’d it go?” Jackie asked, referring to me talking to Tatiana.
“Good. Mommy Dearest doesn’t hate me anymore.” We’d taken to calling Sasha’s mom Mommy Dearest whenever we spoke about her.
“That’s good…does this mean I won’t get to ogle your half naked boyfriend because you guys will be staying at his place.” Sasha had gone from staying at Ovie’s place to staying at my place and he did tend to walk around without a shirt on a lot.
“I don’t know. We’ll probably try to find that balance from before…but I’ll tell Sasha to put clothes on.”
“No! Don’t do that. I need to be able to look at the Russian Adonis.”
Jesse nodded in agreement with Jackie. I couldn’t help but laugh. My roommates are insane and I love them.
“I’m telling Chris and Norman on you two slut bags!” I said.
“Well if Norman looked like Sasha I wouldn’t have to look elsewhere,” Jackie said.
“Chris and I have a rule – if the person is famous, it doesn’t count!” Jesse and Chris have a really weird relationship…but it is a pretty funny rule…I wonder if Sasha would ever go for that?...No, probably not.
“You can look but no touching,” I said.
“Come on Nef. Didn’t your parents ever teach you to share?” Jesse.
“No. I’m the only girl. I never had to share.” It’s true, being my parents’ only daughter did have its perks.
“You’re just so selfish!” Jackie giggled.
I told my roommates that I’d made plans to go back and visit with Tatiana more. I wanted this to work so that Sasha could be happy. We stopped in BCBG so I could get a new dress. Last night on the phone Sasha and I had picked a date for our parents to have dinner at Sasha’s house and I wanted a new dress for that.
“But really, are you and Sasha okay?” Jesse asked. “He’s been staying at our place for a while but there’s been no noise coming from your room.”
“What?!”
“You two have not been gettin’ busy. Why?” Jackie.
“I can’t believe you two…wait, yes I can,” I said. “Well if you must know I started a new pill and my doctor said that I should not have sex for a couple more weeks…and Sasha has been healing from a pulled groin muscle.”
It had been a while since Sasha and I were intimate. As soon as the doctor told me it was okay and as soon as his groin was good to go I was going to jump him, tie him to my bed, and have my wicked way with him. With the way I’ve been yearning for him it would probably be weeks before I let him go.
The past few months have been incredibly difficult on all fronts. I could only hope that this marked a turning point for us. Things had to be getting better now that we’d experienced the worst.
Enjoy! I'm off to watch game 3. Good Luck boys!
Nef’s POV
“Hey chick, wanna go to the mall?” I asked Jackie. Jesse and I were about to head to Pentagon City Mall for some shopping. I was in an amazing mood after talking to Sasha’s mom.
“Sure.”
We piled into my car and took the 35 minute drive to the mall. We always stop at a Starbucks for coffee before we actually started shopping.
“So how’d it go?” Jackie asked, referring to me talking to Tatiana.
“Good. Mommy Dearest doesn’t hate me anymore.” We’d taken to calling Sasha’s mom Mommy Dearest whenever we spoke about her.
“That’s good…does this mean I won’t get to ogle your half naked boyfriend because you guys will be staying at his place.” Sasha had gone from staying at Ovie’s place to staying at my place and he did tend to walk around without a shirt on a lot.
“I don’t know. We’ll probably try to find that balance from before…but I’ll tell Sasha to put clothes on.”
“No! Don’t do that. I need to be able to look at the Russian Adonis.”
Jesse nodded in agreement with Jackie. I couldn’t help but laugh. My roommates are insane and I love them.
“I’m telling Chris and Norman on you two slut bags!” I said.
“Well if Norman looked like Sasha I wouldn’t have to look elsewhere,” Jackie said.
“Chris and I have a rule – if the person is famous, it doesn’t count!” Jesse and Chris have a really weird relationship…but it is a pretty funny rule…I wonder if Sasha would ever go for that?...No, probably not.
“You can look but no touching,” I said.
“Come on Nef. Didn’t your parents ever teach you to share?” Jesse.
“No. I’m the only girl. I never had to share.” It’s true, being my parents’ only daughter did have its perks.
“You’re just so selfish!” Jackie giggled.
I told my roommates that I’d made plans to go back and visit with Tatiana more. I wanted this to work so that Sasha could be happy. We stopped in BCBG so I could get a new dress. Last night on the phone Sasha and I had picked a date for our parents to have dinner at Sasha’s house and I wanted a new dress for that.
“But really, are you and Sasha okay?” Jesse asked. “He’s been staying at our place for a while but there’s been no noise coming from your room.”
“What?!”
“You two have not been gettin’ busy. Why?” Jackie.
“I can’t believe you two…wait, yes I can,” I said. “Well if you must know I started a new pill and my doctor said that I should not have sex for a couple more weeks…and Sasha has been healing from a pulled groin muscle.”
It had been a while since Sasha and I were intimate. As soon as the doctor told me it was okay and as soon as his groin was good to go I was going to jump him, tie him to my bed, and have my wicked way with him. With the way I’ve been yearning for him it would probably be weeks before I let him go.
The past few months have been incredibly difficult on all fronts. I could only hope that this marked a turning point for us. Things had to be getting better now that we’d experienced the worst.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Chapter 81 – "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday."
Nef’s POV
The Caps have left to go on a 5 game road trip. Twelve days without Sasha. Right now I’m sitting in my car at the end of the cul de sack where he lives. I’ve spent the last two days trying work myself up to go and talk to his mom. The first time I couldn’t stop the car. Literally, I pulled into the cul de sack, did a U-turn and kept on going. Yesterday I managed to almost pull into his drive way before I left.
Come on Nef, you can do this. I pulled into his drive way and I sat there again. I couldn’t bring myself to turn off the engine and get out of the car. After what seemed like hours I turned off the engine, grabbed my purse, and got out of the car. I still had the key he’d given me. I even managed to put said key in the lock before I turned around and left. I can’t do this.
His neighbors must think I’m crazy. I’m sure they think I’ve lost it. Tomorrow. I’ll come back tomorrow. I can do it tomorrow.
That whole tomorrow thing? Yeah, that was a lie. It took me another two days before I could work up the courage to go back there. I called and spoke to Valeri. He apparently had noticed me driving by the house and figured that I was trying to work myself up to it.
”If you don’t want to talk to Tatiana you could at least come and talk to me.”
I hadn’t spoken to him since Ovi’s house, which was weeks ago. Since the second time I met him when we went out to lunch together I talked to him multiple times a week. When I arrived Valeri was in the living room watching television. He told me that Tatiana was upstairs taking a nap.
”She doesn’t have to hide. I won’t say anything to upset her,” I told him.
”I think she’s more worried about saying something to upset you.”
”What did I do wrong? I mean I know she’s never liked me but why?” From the moment she laid eyes on me she’s hated me and done everything she could to drive me away. It had to be more than just because I’m not Russian.
”She doesn’t hate you. She didn’t choose you and she thinks that you’ll take Sasha away from her. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but she’s a little controlling,” he said.
”A little controlling?” Understatement of the year.
”When Sasha didn’t come home after the hospital she was terrified that she’d driven him away. You know he still hasn’t slept here since then? If he’s not with you he’s with Ovi. When he did come home it was just to pick up clothes. He hasn’t spoken to her all that much. It’s hard losing a child, no matter how far a long you are. We know that. We know that better than either of us would like. I know that she would never wish that on you.” I could imagine that sometime during their 30 plus years marriage Tatiana had a miscarriage or two.
”Valeri, I know that. I know she doesn’t like me and I know that she doesn’t want me anywhere near her son but I don’t think that she would ever intentionally do something to hurt me.”
I sat there talking to him for a long time. So long that I was surprised when my phone rang. Sasha was calling me to say goodnight.
”I didn’t realize it was so late,”
”Where are you?” he asked.
”At your house, talking to your dad.” There was silence on the other end. He hadn’t expected that.
”Umm, okay. Is everything alright?”
”Yeah, I just hadn’t spoken to your dad in a while and I wanted to catch up…and talk about you behind your back.” I laughed into the phone.
”Oh you’re so funny.”
Valeri took the phone from me and told Sasha not to worry, that he would take care of me. I still hadn’t spoken to Tatiana so I made plans to come back the following day. Now I wanted to talk to her to keep Sasha from worrying. I didn’t want to cause him any unnecessary stress or heartache.
The next time I arrived at Sasha's place Tatiana was sitting in the kitchen waiting for me. Valeri left us alone to talk.
”First I’d like to apologize to you,” she started.
”Keep your apology. It doesn’t do either of us any good. You don’t like me. I don’t particularly care for you. We do however need to find a way to coexist.”
”What do you suggest we do?”
”The same thing I’ve been trying to do since I met you. Let’s be civil to one another and we’ll be fine. I don’t want Sasha to feel like he has to choose between us. We both love him and that should be enough to get along.”
”I just wanted what’s best for him,” she said gripping her coffee mug tightly.
”And what you thought was best cost us our child. Let Sasha and I decide what’s best for us. It’s bad enough I have to worry about other women throwing themselves at him, I shouldn’t have to worry about his mother trying for force women on him. I shouldn’t have to worry about what plans or plots you have to ruin my relationship.”
”I didn’t give you a fair chance and for that I’m sorry. I was so worried about what you were after and how you were going to take advantage of Sasha that I didn’t take the time to get to know you.”
This was the first time that Tatiana and I had sat down together to talk to one another. I learned that she had been the matriarch of her family for so long that it was difficult to let go. It had been her ingenuity and strength of character that had saw her family through the Soviet collapse of the early 90s. Valeri had gone from the Chief Financial Officer of a major industrial company to next to nothing.
”It didn’t matter how much money he was making it was still worth next to nothing. We didn’t want to take anything away from our children so we worked hard so that we could give them whatever they asked for.”
”Sasha told me about how you moved with him when he went to Trakor. He told me about what you were willing to give up so that he could live his dream.”
There was still a long way to go before either of us would be completely comfortable with one another but we were making progress.
”Are the two of you planning more children?” she asked toward the end of our conversation.
”We’ll try again when we’re ready. We want to try living together first.”
It was still too soon to considering having another baby. Sasha had promised that we could have as many as I wanted but it’s too soon for that.
”And are you two going to get married?”
”According to Sasha, I don’t have any other option,” She laughed at that. Sasha can be very pig headed when there is something he wants. He’s liable to have a tantrum if I say no. ”I love him but I’m still not sold on the whole idea of marriage so soon. I’m only 24. There is no rush.”
The Caps have left to go on a 5 game road trip. Twelve days without Sasha. Right now I’m sitting in my car at the end of the cul de sack where he lives. I’ve spent the last two days trying work myself up to go and talk to his mom. The first time I couldn’t stop the car. Literally, I pulled into the cul de sack, did a U-turn and kept on going. Yesterday I managed to almost pull into his drive way before I left.
Come on Nef, you can do this. I pulled into his drive way and I sat there again. I couldn’t bring myself to turn off the engine and get out of the car. After what seemed like hours I turned off the engine, grabbed my purse, and got out of the car. I still had the key he’d given me. I even managed to put said key in the lock before I turned around and left. I can’t do this.
His neighbors must think I’m crazy. I’m sure they think I’ve lost it. Tomorrow. I’ll come back tomorrow. I can do it tomorrow.
That whole tomorrow thing? Yeah, that was a lie. It took me another two days before I could work up the courage to go back there. I called and spoke to Valeri. He apparently had noticed me driving by the house and figured that I was trying to work myself up to it.
”If you don’t want to talk to Tatiana you could at least come and talk to me.”
I hadn’t spoken to him since Ovi’s house, which was weeks ago. Since the second time I met him when we went out to lunch together I talked to him multiple times a week. When I arrived Valeri was in the living room watching television. He told me that Tatiana was upstairs taking a nap.
”She doesn’t have to hide. I won’t say anything to upset her,” I told him.
”I think she’s more worried about saying something to upset you.”
”What did I do wrong? I mean I know she’s never liked me but why?” From the moment she laid eyes on me she’s hated me and done everything she could to drive me away. It had to be more than just because I’m not Russian.
”She doesn’t hate you. She didn’t choose you and she thinks that you’ll take Sasha away from her. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but she’s a little controlling,” he said.
”A little controlling?” Understatement of the year.
”When Sasha didn’t come home after the hospital she was terrified that she’d driven him away. You know he still hasn’t slept here since then? If he’s not with you he’s with Ovi. When he did come home it was just to pick up clothes. He hasn’t spoken to her all that much. It’s hard losing a child, no matter how far a long you are. We know that. We know that better than either of us would like. I know that she would never wish that on you.” I could imagine that sometime during their 30 plus years marriage Tatiana had a miscarriage or two.
”Valeri, I know that. I know she doesn’t like me and I know that she doesn’t want me anywhere near her son but I don’t think that she would ever intentionally do something to hurt me.”
I sat there talking to him for a long time. So long that I was surprised when my phone rang. Sasha was calling me to say goodnight.
”I didn’t realize it was so late,”
”Where are you?” he asked.
”At your house, talking to your dad.” There was silence on the other end. He hadn’t expected that.
”Umm, okay. Is everything alright?”
”Yeah, I just hadn’t spoken to your dad in a while and I wanted to catch up…and talk about you behind your back.” I laughed into the phone.
”Oh you’re so funny.”
Valeri took the phone from me and told Sasha not to worry, that he would take care of me. I still hadn’t spoken to Tatiana so I made plans to come back the following day. Now I wanted to talk to her to keep Sasha from worrying. I didn’t want to cause him any unnecessary stress or heartache.
The next time I arrived at Sasha's place Tatiana was sitting in the kitchen waiting for me. Valeri left us alone to talk.
”First I’d like to apologize to you,” she started.
”Keep your apology. It doesn’t do either of us any good. You don’t like me. I don’t particularly care for you. We do however need to find a way to coexist.”
”What do you suggest we do?”
”The same thing I’ve been trying to do since I met you. Let’s be civil to one another and we’ll be fine. I don’t want Sasha to feel like he has to choose between us. We both love him and that should be enough to get along.”
”I just wanted what’s best for him,” she said gripping her coffee mug tightly.
”And what you thought was best cost us our child. Let Sasha and I decide what’s best for us. It’s bad enough I have to worry about other women throwing themselves at him, I shouldn’t have to worry about his mother trying for force women on him. I shouldn’t have to worry about what plans or plots you have to ruin my relationship.”
”I didn’t give you a fair chance and for that I’m sorry. I was so worried about what you were after and how you were going to take advantage of Sasha that I didn’t take the time to get to know you.”
This was the first time that Tatiana and I had sat down together to talk to one another. I learned that she had been the matriarch of her family for so long that it was difficult to let go. It had been her ingenuity and strength of character that had saw her family through the Soviet collapse of the early 90s. Valeri had gone from the Chief Financial Officer of a major industrial company to next to nothing.
”It didn’t matter how much money he was making it was still worth next to nothing. We didn’t want to take anything away from our children so we worked hard so that we could give them whatever they asked for.”
”Sasha told me about how you moved with him when he went to Trakor. He told me about what you were willing to give up so that he could live his dream.”
There was still a long way to go before either of us would be completely comfortable with one another but we were making progress.
”Are the two of you planning more children?” she asked toward the end of our conversation.
”We’ll try again when we’re ready. We want to try living together first.”
It was still too soon to considering having another baby. Sasha had promised that we could have as many as I wanted but it’s too soon for that.
”And are you two going to get married?”
”According to Sasha, I don’t have any other option,” She laughed at that. Sasha can be very pig headed when there is something he wants. He’s liable to have a tantrum if I say no. ”I love him but I’m still not sold on the whole idea of marriage so soon. I’m only 24. There is no rush.”
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Chapter 80 – Overheard
Sasha’s POV
I’ve pretty much lived with either Ovi or Nef for the last few weeks. I’ve only gone home long enough to drop off laundry and dry cleaning and pick up clean clothes. I was home doing that and my parents were in their room with the door cracked. I could hear them talking.
”I don’t know what to do anymore?” my mother said.
”There is nothing you can do. Let them be and when they are ready they’ll talk to you.”
”But what if she’s never ready? What do I do if she never wants to be around here again? What do I do when they get married? I can’t lose him; he’s still my little boy.”
”You’re not going to. He loves you and he’s not going to walk away from you but you have to stop meddling. It’s only hurting him. I’m honestly surprised that the two of them have put up with this much. For more than a year you’ve done nothing but try to drive those two apart.” My dad.
I’d been catching bits and pieces of their conversations for a little while now. I could tell that my mom had been crying. My mother is controlling. She’s always had this need to try and control nearly everything around her. It hurt her to not be able to fix this. It hurt her to not be able to make everything the way it was. There was nothing I could do to ease this for her. There was nothing that anyone could do to make this go away.
I heard my dad close their bedroom door as he walked out. He walked into my room and sat down on my bed.
”I’m sorry this is hard on you,” I said.
”There’s no reason for you to be sorry.”
I was past the point of blaming anyone for this. I couldn’t hate the people I love. Nef was getting there. Slowly but surely she was finding peace within herself and in our relationship. There were still time when I found her crying or subdued but for the most part she was getting better. I’d promised her that no matter what we’d have as many children as we could. I knew that we could never replace this baby but I would promise her anything just to see her smile again.
Nefetiri and Adjo still wanted to meet my parents and I’m sure that my parents still wanted to meet them…well my dad did anyway. My mother was convinced that they would hate her just like she thought Nefertiti did. We were still working on making a meeting happen.
”I’ll talk to Nefetiri and Adjo tonight. We’re meeting them at a soup kitchen in Baltimore. We’re volunteering tonight with dinner and handing out blankets to the homeless.”
Nef’s family is very much so civic minded. They frequently go out as a family to do community service and make donations to local charities. I didn’t stay home for long. I went back to Nef’s and we drove to Baltimore for a quick family dinner and then off to the soup kitchen. Nef and I had gone shopping the previous evening for blankets, clothing, toiletries, and food to donate.
Nef’s POV
Yesterday Sasha and I had gone shopping for things to donate to a soup kitchen in downtown Baltimore. They were in the middle of a 3 game home stand and I have to say I love having him at home when I get there. The one down side is that he’ll be gone for Valentine ’s Day yet again. So to make it up to me he’d been pampering me for the last week, flowers every day, my favorite chocolates, back rubs, the works.
Family dinner was nice; we’d had one a few nights ago. I expected there to be awkwardness but there wasn’t. In fact my family was more accepting and accommodating to Sasha. Even though he was not officially a part of the family, my parents treated him like they treaded the rest of us. That meant he was expected to participant in family activities when his schedule permitted. He’d been thrilled. I knew that he was concerned about how my family would react when I came back from Egypt. After all I told them everything. They were sad for our lost but understanding of our need to be with each other. My dad told me that he’d been there for Sasha whenever possible while I was gone. Khai and Set just wanted us to be happy again. Im was a little bit more reserved and Sasha would have to work to earn his trust back. He no longer trusted Sasha not to hurt me.
“I never want to see you like that again,” Im told me when I came home. “I never want you to hurt like that.”
”Come on woman, get out of the car.” Sasha yelled to me.
”Don’t rush me!” I playfully admonished. We were supposed to be unloading the cars but I had opted not to.
”Take the blankets inside and I’ll grab the boxes from the trunk.” He’d gotten into the habit of telling me what to do.
Once we’d unloaded the cars Sasha and I went into the back store room to help with setting up for disbursement.
“And who is this?” Mrs. Robinson asked me. She was the Manager of the soup kitchen and the homeless shelter. I’d known her since I was about 8, when my family first started to volunteer here with regular frequency.
She was an older, southern black woman that had moved to Baltimore with her husband. He’s a surgeon that works at Johns Hopkins with my dad. Mr. Robinson had been one of the surgeons who my dad had studied under. Mrs. Robinson knows absolutely nothing about hockey and had no idea who Sasha was. He didn’t want to tell her either. This gave him the chance to do something because he wanted to, to volunteer without cameras present for PR.
“Mrs. Lyn!” I said. It had been a few weeks since I’d seen her last. “This is Alex. Sasha this is Mrs. Lyn. I told you about her.”
“Hello Mrs. Lyn. It nice to meet you,” he said shaking her hand. She pulled him in to a tight hug and laughed.
Mrs. Lyn is very motherly and it doesn’t take long for people to warm up to her. I’m sure that my mother had told her about Sasha. Those two liked to gossip...a lot.
“I was wondering when you would bring him down to meet me.” She gave me a look that clearly meant that I should have done so sooner.
“I’m sorry! Things have just been so busy.”
She didn’t buy it, not even a little bit.
“We’re sorry,” Sasha jumped in. “It just I busy with work that I never have the time before. It my fault, not hers.”
I hoped the donations we brought would assuage her. Sasha and I had been together for more than and year and we had only just now found our way down here. She wasted no time putting us to work.
“And just because it’s your fault, you get the heavy lifting,” she told him.
“Not too heavy, he’s got a game in a couple of days and he’s supposed to be resting.” Not to mention his wonky groin.
“He looks strong enough.” She pointed to the utility shelves along the back wall.
“You and Im grab a case of each of those cans please? Take them over to the table and Neffy and I will start bagging them up. Nef and Adjo and the little ones head to the kitchen and start with setting up for dinner.”
That’s Mrs. Lyn, straight and to the point. It doesn’t take long for her to start giving orders. She’s called me Neffy since the day she met me.
“Now you, Miss Neffy,” she said once everyone started moving to do her bidding.
“Start talking.”
“Talk about what?” I asked innocently. “Sasha and I have been together for a little longer than a year. I met him at Six Flags.”
“So this is serious?”
“Yes ma’am, but I’m sure you know that. You talk to my mom almost every day. I know you two talk about me.”
She wanted to know everything about Sasha; who he was, where he grew up, what he did for a living. She didn’t like that he was a professional athlete. Apparently all of them are bad news. I assured her that he was well behaved and good to me…that was when he wasn’t throwing Styrofoam packing peanuts at me.
“Stop it!” It was nice to see him have that playful spark again.
It wasn’t long before my mother and I switched places. Those two couldn’t stay apart for long. Mrs. Lyn didn’t bring up the baby although I’m 100% positive she knew. She did field questions about me moving in with Sasha after graduation.
“Tell me how they’re really doing,” Mrs. Lyn said to my mom.
“Better. They’re doing a lot better now that they’re back together.”
“Have you met his parents?”
“We were supposed to, but that was the day that we went to the hospital. We’ve told them that Adjo and I still want to meet them. We left it up to them to figure it out.”
I hadn’t told my mom about the stress on the relationship between myself and Tatiana. Or I hadn’t told her that the woman wanted nothing more than for me to disappear. My mom had figured out that there was a bit of tension there. I’m not sure if I want my parents to meet her anymore. I knew I couldn’t put it off forever. Eventually I’d have to face up to this but is it wrong for me to prolong this for as long as I can?
No, Nef. Stop running away. You’re running away from this. That’s what you do. When things get hard you bail.
Stop it.
When I found Sasha, he and Im where handing out meals and blankets outside.
“How are your parents holding up?”
“My dad is fine. He happy that Nef is back. My mom…she…she worried.”
“About what?”
“That Nef hate her. She worried that Nef blame her for what happened.” I don’t hate his mom. I don’t like her very much at the moment but I don’t hate her.
“Well can you blame her? It’s kinda her fault.”
“I know that Nef don’t hate her but I also know that Nef don’t want to talk to her or see her. I not going to make her. My dad did talk to me about meeting your parents. He want it to happen soon.”
I did want my parents to meet his dad. Valeri is a really nice guy. I think they’ll get along well.
I don’t like feeling rushed or forced or pushed. I hate it. I guess that’s one of the reasons why I tend to run away so much. I can’t keep running away from this. Okay. Fine. It’s just dinner. It won’t be that bad. We’ll do it. I can do it.
I’ve pretty much lived with either Ovi or Nef for the last few weeks. I’ve only gone home long enough to drop off laundry and dry cleaning and pick up clean clothes. I was home doing that and my parents were in their room with the door cracked. I could hear them talking.
”I don’t know what to do anymore?” my mother said.
”There is nothing you can do. Let them be and when they are ready they’ll talk to you.”
”But what if she’s never ready? What do I do if she never wants to be around here again? What do I do when they get married? I can’t lose him; he’s still my little boy.”
”You’re not going to. He loves you and he’s not going to walk away from you but you have to stop meddling. It’s only hurting him. I’m honestly surprised that the two of them have put up with this much. For more than a year you’ve done nothing but try to drive those two apart.” My dad.
I’d been catching bits and pieces of their conversations for a little while now. I could tell that my mom had been crying. My mother is controlling. She’s always had this need to try and control nearly everything around her. It hurt her to not be able to fix this. It hurt her to not be able to make everything the way it was. There was nothing I could do to ease this for her. There was nothing that anyone could do to make this go away.
I heard my dad close their bedroom door as he walked out. He walked into my room and sat down on my bed.
”I’m sorry this is hard on you,” I said.
”There’s no reason for you to be sorry.”
I was past the point of blaming anyone for this. I couldn’t hate the people I love. Nef was getting there. Slowly but surely she was finding peace within herself and in our relationship. There were still time when I found her crying or subdued but for the most part she was getting better. I’d promised her that no matter what we’d have as many children as we could. I knew that we could never replace this baby but I would promise her anything just to see her smile again.
Nefetiri and Adjo still wanted to meet my parents and I’m sure that my parents still wanted to meet them…well my dad did anyway. My mother was convinced that they would hate her just like she thought Nefertiti did. We were still working on making a meeting happen.
”I’ll talk to Nefetiri and Adjo tonight. We’re meeting them at a soup kitchen in Baltimore. We’re volunteering tonight with dinner and handing out blankets to the homeless.”
Nef’s family is very much so civic minded. They frequently go out as a family to do community service and make donations to local charities. I didn’t stay home for long. I went back to Nef’s and we drove to Baltimore for a quick family dinner and then off to the soup kitchen. Nef and I had gone shopping the previous evening for blankets, clothing, toiletries, and food to donate.
Nef’s POV
Yesterday Sasha and I had gone shopping for things to donate to a soup kitchen in downtown Baltimore. They were in the middle of a 3 game home stand and I have to say I love having him at home when I get there. The one down side is that he’ll be gone for Valentine ’s Day yet again. So to make it up to me he’d been pampering me for the last week, flowers every day, my favorite chocolates, back rubs, the works.
Family dinner was nice; we’d had one a few nights ago. I expected there to be awkwardness but there wasn’t. In fact my family was more accepting and accommodating to Sasha. Even though he was not officially a part of the family, my parents treated him like they treaded the rest of us. That meant he was expected to participant in family activities when his schedule permitted. He’d been thrilled. I knew that he was concerned about how my family would react when I came back from Egypt. After all I told them everything. They were sad for our lost but understanding of our need to be with each other. My dad told me that he’d been there for Sasha whenever possible while I was gone. Khai and Set just wanted us to be happy again. Im was a little bit more reserved and Sasha would have to work to earn his trust back. He no longer trusted Sasha not to hurt me.
“I never want to see you like that again,” Im told me when I came home. “I never want you to hurt like that.”
”Come on woman, get out of the car.” Sasha yelled to me.
”Don’t rush me!” I playfully admonished. We were supposed to be unloading the cars but I had opted not to.
”Take the blankets inside and I’ll grab the boxes from the trunk.” He’d gotten into the habit of telling me what to do.
Once we’d unloaded the cars Sasha and I went into the back store room to help with setting up for disbursement.
“And who is this?” Mrs. Robinson asked me. She was the Manager of the soup kitchen and the homeless shelter. I’d known her since I was about 8, when my family first started to volunteer here with regular frequency.
She was an older, southern black woman that had moved to Baltimore with her husband. He’s a surgeon that works at Johns Hopkins with my dad. Mr. Robinson had been one of the surgeons who my dad had studied under. Mrs. Robinson knows absolutely nothing about hockey and had no idea who Sasha was. He didn’t want to tell her either. This gave him the chance to do something because he wanted to, to volunteer without cameras present for PR.
“Mrs. Lyn!” I said. It had been a few weeks since I’d seen her last. “This is Alex. Sasha this is Mrs. Lyn. I told you about her.”
“Hello Mrs. Lyn. It nice to meet you,” he said shaking her hand. She pulled him in to a tight hug and laughed.
Mrs. Lyn is very motherly and it doesn’t take long for people to warm up to her. I’m sure that my mother had told her about Sasha. Those two liked to gossip...a lot.
“I was wondering when you would bring him down to meet me.” She gave me a look that clearly meant that I should have done so sooner.
“I’m sorry! Things have just been so busy.”
She didn’t buy it, not even a little bit.
“We’re sorry,” Sasha jumped in. “It just I busy with work that I never have the time before. It my fault, not hers.”
I hoped the donations we brought would assuage her. Sasha and I had been together for more than and year and we had only just now found our way down here. She wasted no time putting us to work.
“And just because it’s your fault, you get the heavy lifting,” she told him.
“Not too heavy, he’s got a game in a couple of days and he’s supposed to be resting.” Not to mention his wonky groin.
“He looks strong enough.” She pointed to the utility shelves along the back wall.
“You and Im grab a case of each of those cans please? Take them over to the table and Neffy and I will start bagging them up. Nef and Adjo and the little ones head to the kitchen and start with setting up for dinner.”
That’s Mrs. Lyn, straight and to the point. It doesn’t take long for her to start giving orders. She’s called me Neffy since the day she met me.
“Now you, Miss Neffy,” she said once everyone started moving to do her bidding.
“Start talking.”
“Talk about what?” I asked innocently. “Sasha and I have been together for a little longer than a year. I met him at Six Flags.”
“So this is serious?”
“Yes ma’am, but I’m sure you know that. You talk to my mom almost every day. I know you two talk about me.”
She wanted to know everything about Sasha; who he was, where he grew up, what he did for a living. She didn’t like that he was a professional athlete. Apparently all of them are bad news. I assured her that he was well behaved and good to me…that was when he wasn’t throwing Styrofoam packing peanuts at me.
“Stop it!” It was nice to see him have that playful spark again.
It wasn’t long before my mother and I switched places. Those two couldn’t stay apart for long. Mrs. Lyn didn’t bring up the baby although I’m 100% positive she knew. She did field questions about me moving in with Sasha after graduation.
“Tell me how they’re really doing,” Mrs. Lyn said to my mom.
“Better. They’re doing a lot better now that they’re back together.”
“Have you met his parents?”
“We were supposed to, but that was the day that we went to the hospital. We’ve told them that Adjo and I still want to meet them. We left it up to them to figure it out.”
I hadn’t told my mom about the stress on the relationship between myself and Tatiana. Or I hadn’t told her that the woman wanted nothing more than for me to disappear. My mom had figured out that there was a bit of tension there. I’m not sure if I want my parents to meet her anymore. I knew I couldn’t put it off forever. Eventually I’d have to face up to this but is it wrong for me to prolong this for as long as I can?
No, Nef. Stop running away. You’re running away from this. That’s what you do. When things get hard you bail.
Stop it.
When I found Sasha, he and Im where handing out meals and blankets outside.
“How are your parents holding up?”
“My dad is fine. He happy that Nef is back. My mom…she…she worried.”
“About what?”
“That Nef hate her. She worried that Nef blame her for what happened.” I don’t hate his mom. I don’t like her very much at the moment but I don’t hate her.
“Well can you blame her? It’s kinda her fault.”
“I know that Nef don’t hate her but I also know that Nef don’t want to talk to her or see her. I not going to make her. My dad did talk to me about meeting your parents. He want it to happen soon.”
I did want my parents to meet his dad. Valeri is a really nice guy. I think they’ll get along well.
I don’t like feeling rushed or forced or pushed. I hate it. I guess that’s one of the reasons why I tend to run away so much. I can’t keep running away from this. Okay. Fine. It’s just dinner. It won’t be that bad. We’ll do it. I can do it.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Chapter 79 – Call
AN: Yay the caps won tonight!! I apologize again for not updating as frequently as before. My new job doesn't really give me the freedom during the day to work on this story so it takes a little longer to get chapters finished.
Nef’s POV
The first day of my last semester of classes was a lot like any other day; classes, syllabus, reading, homework, assignments, the usual. I had finished my morning classes and I was in the Student Union having lunch when my phone rang. It was Sasha’s home number. That’s weird, I thought. He shouldn’t be back from practice just yet and he hardly ever called me from his home number.
“Hello,” I said into the phone.
”Nefertiti, it's Tatiana.” I never expected that.
I didn’t want to talk to this woman. I didn’t want anything to do with her.
”Do you have a few minutes to talk?” she asked.
”I don’t really have anything to say to you.”
”I can understand that but I wanted to talk to you about Sasha. Things have been really hard the past few weeks.” Really? No shit, Sherlock.
”You called me for a reason. What do you want from me? I don’t have time for small talk.”
”I was hoping that we could get to know each other. Sasha has made it clear that he loves you and that you two want to be together.”
”I can’t say that I’m ready to do that. I’ve been kind, and patient, and understanding, and respectful of you since I met you last year and you’ve been none of that to me. I don’t know you and I can’t say that I want to know you right now. The past few weeks have been so unbelievably painful and I blame you. Probably more than I should but I do. Until I’m no longer angry I don’t want to see or speak to you for fear of saying something that would hurt Sasha. I don’t want to hurt him any more than he’s already been hurt.” I hung up the phone.
I wasn’t ready to make peace with her. I knew I might regret this one day. She is after all the mother of the man I love. But this past year has been difficult and these past few weeks have been more than I can take. I didn’t know how we were supposed to exist peacefully in each other’s lives. I knew that we needed to find a way so that Sasha wouldn’t suffer. He is so very close to his parents. I’m just not sure if I can mentally and emotionally handle it. Every time I thought of this woman I thought of how I tried so hard to get her to accept me, to be okay with Sasha and I being together. Every time I thought of her I thought of the baby that I’d lost.
I don’t think she meant for anything bad to happen to me. I don’t think she’s that cold or callous but that didn’t make the outcome any better. It was her actions that brought about the situation. No, she wasn’t responsible for our behavior but she was directly responsible for creating the situation.
My phone rang again. This time it was Sasha. He’d just come off the ice.
“Did you call me so you wouldn’t have to talk to reporters?”
”No, I would never do something like that.” Yeah, right. Sasha’s solution to avoiding reporters was to pretend he was on the phone or to call me so that he would actually be on the phone. It’s such a simple trick but it works.
“Liar.”
”Can you be ready at 6 instead of 7 tonight? There somewhere I want to take you.”
”Where?”
”Don’t worry, just be ready at 6.”
Sasha’s POV
After dinner at the Source I took Nef out to Kettler to skate. I had managed to talk one of the custodians into letting us use one of the two rinks for a private skate in the evening. I knew that Nef knew how to skate but we’d never had the time to do it. She kept her skates in the back of her closet and I grabbed a pair of black spandex shorts for her to wear under her dress.
”Come skate with me?” I asked as I stepped out onto the ice.
She was actually really good at it. We chased each other around the ice playing tag. I was faster than her but she was incredibly agile. There were several times I reached out to grab her only to bring in a handful of air as she slipped through my fingers.
“Get back here!” I shouted at her as she danced across the ice.
“Catch me if you can!”
When I did finally catch her I lifted her into my arms and spun her around. She hated that. She hated when I picked her up because it most likely meant I was going to throw her somewhere; in a pool, in a lake, on the bed, on the couch. She was always afraid I would unintentionally drop her.
“Put me down!”
“No. I catch you and now I get to keep you.”
I sat her down on the wall and leaned in to kiss her. She turned her lips away from mine.
“Not turn away.”
I grabbed her sides and made like I was going to tickle her and she flinched. She plastered her lips against mine in a searing kiss. The past few weeks had been so heavy and heart breaking it was nice to be able to relax and be carefree for a little while.
Our next game wasn’t until February 1st , after the AllStars, so I was using these few days to spend as much time with Nef as I could. At first I had been disappointed that I had missed the AllStars yet again, but now I was more than happen to have the time to get my life back in order.
My phone rang so I slipped over to grab it. It was my mother.
”Yes, ma’am?”
”I’m just calling to see if you’ll be home tonight.”
”I don’t know. I’ll probably go home with Nef.” There wasn’t actually much "I don’t know in" it. I was going home with Nef.
”We need to finish our conversation from earlier today.”
”I know and we will when I’m ready. I’m trying to get my life with Nef back on track, mom. ”
I knew that I’d been pulling away from her recently. I hadn’t been home in about three weeks and she was trying to make peace. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go home or that I was afraid to go home. I just wanted to be with Nef. I didn’t want to be away from her anymore than I had to be. She wasn’t ready to go back to my house. She wasn’t ready to face my mom. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable
”What can I do to make this right?” my mom asked.
The truth was I didn’t know. I know my mom had called Nef earlier today. I knew because my dad had told me. I guessed that it didn’t go well and that Nef wanted nothing to do with her just yet. I know that Nef’s not cruel and didn’t say anything to intentionally upset my mom but I also knew that Nef ran away from things that were painful. I’ve seen it so many times in our relationship. When she’s reached her breaking point rather than breakdown or scream or argue or fight she simply walks away from whatever was causing her pain. She came back more often than not but only when she was able to mentally and emotionally do so. It was one of the reasons why I found arguing with her so aggravating. She would quite literally walked away from me in the middle of an argument. I wasn’t going to push her to do this for me or for my mother. I wasn’t going to force her to push her feelings aside.
Nef’s POV
The first day of my last semester of classes was a lot like any other day; classes, syllabus, reading, homework, assignments, the usual. I had finished my morning classes and I was in the Student Union having lunch when my phone rang. It was Sasha’s home number. That’s weird, I thought. He shouldn’t be back from practice just yet and he hardly ever called me from his home number.
“Hello,” I said into the phone.
”Nefertiti, it's Tatiana.” I never expected that.
I didn’t want to talk to this woman. I didn’t want anything to do with her.
”Do you have a few minutes to talk?” she asked.
”I don’t really have anything to say to you.”
”I can understand that but I wanted to talk to you about Sasha. Things have been really hard the past few weeks.” Really? No shit, Sherlock.
”You called me for a reason. What do you want from me? I don’t have time for small talk.”
”I was hoping that we could get to know each other. Sasha has made it clear that he loves you and that you two want to be together.”
”I can’t say that I’m ready to do that. I’ve been kind, and patient, and understanding, and respectful of you since I met you last year and you’ve been none of that to me. I don’t know you and I can’t say that I want to know you right now. The past few weeks have been so unbelievably painful and I blame you. Probably more than I should but I do. Until I’m no longer angry I don’t want to see or speak to you for fear of saying something that would hurt Sasha. I don’t want to hurt him any more than he’s already been hurt.” I hung up the phone.
I wasn’t ready to make peace with her. I knew I might regret this one day. She is after all the mother of the man I love. But this past year has been difficult and these past few weeks have been more than I can take. I didn’t know how we were supposed to exist peacefully in each other’s lives. I knew that we needed to find a way so that Sasha wouldn’t suffer. He is so very close to his parents. I’m just not sure if I can mentally and emotionally handle it. Every time I thought of this woman I thought of how I tried so hard to get her to accept me, to be okay with Sasha and I being together. Every time I thought of her I thought of the baby that I’d lost.
I don’t think she meant for anything bad to happen to me. I don’t think she’s that cold or callous but that didn’t make the outcome any better. It was her actions that brought about the situation. No, she wasn’t responsible for our behavior but she was directly responsible for creating the situation.
My phone rang again. This time it was Sasha. He’d just come off the ice.
“Did you call me so you wouldn’t have to talk to reporters?”
”No, I would never do something like that.” Yeah, right. Sasha’s solution to avoiding reporters was to pretend he was on the phone or to call me so that he would actually be on the phone. It’s such a simple trick but it works.
“Liar.”
”Can you be ready at 6 instead of 7 tonight? There somewhere I want to take you.”
”Where?”
”Don’t worry, just be ready at 6.”
Sasha’s POV
After dinner at the Source I took Nef out to Kettler to skate. I had managed to talk one of the custodians into letting us use one of the two rinks for a private skate in the evening. I knew that Nef knew how to skate but we’d never had the time to do it. She kept her skates in the back of her closet and I grabbed a pair of black spandex shorts for her to wear under her dress.
”Come skate with me?” I asked as I stepped out onto the ice.
She was actually really good at it. We chased each other around the ice playing tag. I was faster than her but she was incredibly agile. There were several times I reached out to grab her only to bring in a handful of air as she slipped through my fingers.
“Get back here!” I shouted at her as she danced across the ice.
“Catch me if you can!”
When I did finally catch her I lifted her into my arms and spun her around. She hated that. She hated when I picked her up because it most likely meant I was going to throw her somewhere; in a pool, in a lake, on the bed, on the couch. She was always afraid I would unintentionally drop her.
“Put me down!”
“No. I catch you and now I get to keep you.”
I sat her down on the wall and leaned in to kiss her. She turned her lips away from mine.
“Not turn away.”
I grabbed her sides and made like I was going to tickle her and she flinched. She plastered her lips against mine in a searing kiss. The past few weeks had been so heavy and heart breaking it was nice to be able to relax and be carefree for a little while.
Our next game wasn’t until February 1st , after the AllStars, so I was using these few days to spend as much time with Nef as I could. At first I had been disappointed that I had missed the AllStars yet again, but now I was more than happen to have the time to get my life back in order.
My phone rang so I slipped over to grab it. It was my mother.
”Yes, ma’am?”
”I’m just calling to see if you’ll be home tonight.”
”I don’t know. I’ll probably go home with Nef.” There wasn’t actually much "I don’t know in" it. I was going home with Nef.
”We need to finish our conversation from earlier today.”
”I know and we will when I’m ready. I’m trying to get my life with Nef back on track, mom. ”
I knew that I’d been pulling away from her recently. I hadn’t been home in about three weeks and she was trying to make peace. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go home or that I was afraid to go home. I just wanted to be with Nef. I didn’t want to be away from her anymore than I had to be. She wasn’t ready to go back to my house. She wasn’t ready to face my mom. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable
”What can I do to make this right?” my mom asked.
The truth was I didn’t know. I know my mom had called Nef earlier today. I knew because my dad had told me. I guessed that it didn’t go well and that Nef wanted nothing to do with her just yet. I know that Nef’s not cruel and didn’t say anything to intentionally upset my mom but I also knew that Nef ran away from things that were painful. I’ve seen it so many times in our relationship. When she’s reached her breaking point rather than breakdown or scream or argue or fight she simply walks away from whatever was causing her pain. She came back more often than not but only when she was able to mentally and emotionally do so. It was one of the reasons why I found arguing with her so aggravating. She would quite literally walked away from me in the middle of an argument. I wasn’t going to push her to do this for me or for my mother. I wasn’t going to force her to push her feelings aside.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Chapter 78 – The way we were
AN: In honor of the Cardiac Caps (as I like to call them when they play games like they did tonight!)and Sasha with the shoot-out winning goal, here's the next chapter!
Nef’s POV
While Sasha was in Atlanta I bought books for the semester but also made a last minute appointment to see my doctor. I hadn’t gone for a follow up appointment after I was discharged from the hospital and I wanted to choose another birth control pill. I didn’t want to risk going through this again until I was ready. My doctor gave me a clean bill of health, a new pill, and the suggestion to not have sex for another couple of weeks.
I also took time to talk to my dad. My mom had been with me in Egypt and she had been right beside me as I got better but my father for the most part had been in the dark. I knew that he wasn’t happy about the situation but he would never want something this terrible to happen to me. He told me of how Sasha reacted when he found out I was gone. He told me of how he thought of me and hoped that I would be strong enough to get through this.
“We sheltered you so much as a child that I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to handle this. I was afraid that you and Alex wouldn’t work out and you’d be left to raise a child alone. Your mother and I would never leave you but raising a child as a single parent is a hardship that I don’t want for you or any of my children. I’m sorry you had to go through this but you’ve shown me that you’re stronger than I give you credit for.”
During the two days that Sasha was gone I had time to think about us. I thought about how we were supposed to get back to where we were. How we were supposed to move on from this. I don’t think that either one of us would ever get over losing a child. I don’t think a parent can, no matter how far along they were or how long the child had been here. It sucks on every level imaginable. This experience had given me insight into the knowledge that I wanted to have children with Sasha. I wanted to marry him and grow old with him.
Every time he crawled in bed beside me, every time he pulled me into his arms, every time he kissed me I knew this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. When he came home from Atlanta it was late. He crawled into the bed beside me but instead of lying down he placed a box on my forehead.
“What are you doing?” I asked, half asleep. It was nearly 3 am and I had my first day of classes the next day.
“Is present for you.”
I sat up with the box falling to my lap. He opened it for me. It was a necklace with two pendants. Turning on the bedside lamp I saw that he had given me a pendant of Saint Jude and the second one I didn’t know.
”It’s Matrona Dmitrievna Nikonova, the Blessed Elder.”
On the back of each pendant was an inscription. The first read: The Blessed Matrona said: “Everyone, everyone who will come to me: tell me, as if I were alive, of your sorrows, and I will see you, and hear you, and help you.” The second one read: “Saint Jude, Hope of the Hopeless, Pray for me”
It was perfect.
”I know there is still along way to go for us to get back to the way we were but I love you and I’m willing to do whatever it takes for us to get there .”
He fastened the necklace around my neck before turning off the bedside lamp and snuggling in beside me. I woke up to kisses on my face the next morning. When my eyes fluttered open the kisses moved to my neck. It’s not an unpleasant way to wake up. In fact, it was a really good way to wake up.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
The kisses moved down to my stomach and it wasn’t long before he pushed my shirt up. Glancing at the bedside clock there were still a few hours before he had to go to practice and I had to go to class. When his hand slipped into my shorts I had to push him away. He looked hurt but he said nothing.
“It’s not that I don’t want to but the doctor told me not to for another couple of weeks and I just started a new pill.”
“You go to doctor while I was gone?”
“Yes, a follow up from the hospital.”
Sasha’s POV
It hurt when Nef pushed me away. I wanted her. I wanted to show her how much I loved her and how much I’d missed her. I knew that it would be nearly impossible for us to jump right back into our relationship the way it was before but I hadn’t considered her not wanting to be intimate with me.
“It’s not that I don’t want to but the doctor told me not to for another couple of weeks and I just started a new pill.”
“You go to doctor while I was gone?”
“Yes, a follow up from the hospital.”
I hadn’t given a thought to the possibility that she wasn’t physically able to have sex. She told me about her doctor’s appointment. Everything had checked out but her doctor wanted to see how she reacted to this new pill. It was good to know that she’d suffered no ill physical effects from this.
I lay down on top of her with her legs wrapped around my waist. Her hands went to my hair and she played with the loose strains.
“You need a haircut. You’re starting to look like Bon Jovi.”
I couldn't help but laugh, I’d heard that before. We lingered in bed for a while before we had to get up. Practice was always later the morning after a game.
“You want to go out for dinner?” I asked her as we walked to our cars.
“Yes, can we go to the Source?”
That was the place we’d gone to the night we confessed our feelings for each other.
“Yes. I pick you up at 7.”
Instead of going straight to practice I went to Ovi’s house before going home. I hadn’t been to my house in almost three weeks. It was harder than it should have been going into the door that led from the garage to the kitchen. My parents were there, sitting in the kitchen having breakfast. It’s their routine.
”Good morning,” I said as I drug my laundry into the laundry room. I hung my suits on the rack for the clothes meant for dry cleaning.
”Good morning, Sashka.” my parents greeted me.
There’s no real way to start an awkward conversation. My parents and I kind of sat at the table for a few minutes staring at each other. I honestly had no idea of how to start this conversation. There were things that needed to be said. I should have been angry or mad or sad or whatever but I wasn’t. I was still just mostly thankful that Nef and I were back together. We’d decided that she would go back on the pill, that we would always use condoms, that she would move in with me after graduation, and that we would try to have a child when we were ready. I had already decided that I ask her to marry me one day and she’d finally come to grips with the fact that she loved me and would marry me one day. I wasn’t giving her any other option.
”Nef is back and we’ve worked through some things,” I said mostly speaking to my mother as my father was there when Nef came back to the States. ”We’ve decided that we’re staying together whether or not I’m traded or I sign somewhere else. I don’t know how much she’ll want to be around here. She told me this place doesn’t feel safe to her anymore. We’re not going to try for another baby until we’re ready.”
”Sashka I -” my mother began. ”I’m sorry. I had no idea that she was pregnant. I didn’t know that Nadiya would –“
”Mom, you knew Nef and I’s feelings toward Nadiya. You should have never brought her here without talking to me. At every turn you do something to jeopardize my relationship with Nefertiti, pushing Nadiya on me, going against my decisions when I’ve made them so painfully clear. I can’t trust you anymore. ”
”I – ”
”No, I don’t want to hear it. There’s nothing you can say to make this better. I lost my child and nearly lost the woman I love. I’m sorries can’t make this better.”
I wasn’t angry. At least I hadn’t been when I came home. I really just wanted my mom to stay out of my relationship. I guess it’s my fault though. My parents have always been so intertwined in my life, both personal and professional. It was hard for my mother to take a less active role in managing me.
I had to leave. I didn’t want to be late for practice. Being late meant being punished and I really didn’t want to have to skate sprints after practice. I knew that I would have to finish this conversation when I came home but for now it was enough to let them know where we stood.
AN: Part 2 - Sorry for the lack of updates. I have chapters written I swear!! I wrapped up a graduate class and started a new job (all within a few weeks....poor planning on my part) so I haven't had much time for editing. Hopefully things are settling down and I'll be able to update with more frequency.
Nef’s POV
While Sasha was in Atlanta I bought books for the semester but also made a last minute appointment to see my doctor. I hadn’t gone for a follow up appointment after I was discharged from the hospital and I wanted to choose another birth control pill. I didn’t want to risk going through this again until I was ready. My doctor gave me a clean bill of health, a new pill, and the suggestion to not have sex for another couple of weeks.
I also took time to talk to my dad. My mom had been with me in Egypt and she had been right beside me as I got better but my father for the most part had been in the dark. I knew that he wasn’t happy about the situation but he would never want something this terrible to happen to me. He told me of how Sasha reacted when he found out I was gone. He told me of how he thought of me and hoped that I would be strong enough to get through this.
“We sheltered you so much as a child that I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to handle this. I was afraid that you and Alex wouldn’t work out and you’d be left to raise a child alone. Your mother and I would never leave you but raising a child as a single parent is a hardship that I don’t want for you or any of my children. I’m sorry you had to go through this but you’ve shown me that you’re stronger than I give you credit for.”
During the two days that Sasha was gone I had time to think about us. I thought about how we were supposed to get back to where we were. How we were supposed to move on from this. I don’t think that either one of us would ever get over losing a child. I don’t think a parent can, no matter how far along they were or how long the child had been here. It sucks on every level imaginable. This experience had given me insight into the knowledge that I wanted to have children with Sasha. I wanted to marry him and grow old with him.
Every time he crawled in bed beside me, every time he pulled me into his arms, every time he kissed me I knew this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. When he came home from Atlanta it was late. He crawled into the bed beside me but instead of lying down he placed a box on my forehead.
“What are you doing?” I asked, half asleep. It was nearly 3 am and I had my first day of classes the next day.
“Is present for you.”
I sat up with the box falling to my lap. He opened it for me. It was a necklace with two pendants. Turning on the bedside lamp I saw that he had given me a pendant of Saint Jude and the second one I didn’t know.
”It’s Matrona Dmitrievna Nikonova, the Blessed Elder.”
On the back of each pendant was an inscription. The first read: The Blessed Matrona said: “Everyone, everyone who will come to me: tell me, as if I were alive, of your sorrows, and I will see you, and hear you, and help you.” The second one read: “Saint Jude, Hope of the Hopeless, Pray for me”
It was perfect.
”I know there is still along way to go for us to get back to the way we were but I love you and I’m willing to do whatever it takes for us to get there .”
He fastened the necklace around my neck before turning off the bedside lamp and snuggling in beside me. I woke up to kisses on my face the next morning. When my eyes fluttered open the kisses moved to my neck. It’s not an unpleasant way to wake up. In fact, it was a really good way to wake up.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
The kisses moved down to my stomach and it wasn’t long before he pushed my shirt up. Glancing at the bedside clock there were still a few hours before he had to go to practice and I had to go to class. When his hand slipped into my shorts I had to push him away. He looked hurt but he said nothing.
“It’s not that I don’t want to but the doctor told me not to for another couple of weeks and I just started a new pill.”
“You go to doctor while I was gone?”
“Yes, a follow up from the hospital.”
Sasha’s POV
It hurt when Nef pushed me away. I wanted her. I wanted to show her how much I loved her and how much I’d missed her. I knew that it would be nearly impossible for us to jump right back into our relationship the way it was before but I hadn’t considered her not wanting to be intimate with me.
“It’s not that I don’t want to but the doctor told me not to for another couple of weeks and I just started a new pill.”
“You go to doctor while I was gone?”
“Yes, a follow up from the hospital.”
I hadn’t given a thought to the possibility that she wasn’t physically able to have sex. She told me about her doctor’s appointment. Everything had checked out but her doctor wanted to see how she reacted to this new pill. It was good to know that she’d suffered no ill physical effects from this.
I lay down on top of her with her legs wrapped around my waist. Her hands went to my hair and she played with the loose strains.
“You need a haircut. You’re starting to look like Bon Jovi.”
I couldn't help but laugh, I’d heard that before. We lingered in bed for a while before we had to get up. Practice was always later the morning after a game.
“You want to go out for dinner?” I asked her as we walked to our cars.
“Yes, can we go to the Source?”
That was the place we’d gone to the night we confessed our feelings for each other.
“Yes. I pick you up at 7.”
Instead of going straight to practice I went to Ovi’s house before going home. I hadn’t been to my house in almost three weeks. It was harder than it should have been going into the door that led from the garage to the kitchen. My parents were there, sitting in the kitchen having breakfast. It’s their routine.
”Good morning,” I said as I drug my laundry into the laundry room. I hung my suits on the rack for the clothes meant for dry cleaning.
”Good morning, Sashka.” my parents greeted me.
There’s no real way to start an awkward conversation. My parents and I kind of sat at the table for a few minutes staring at each other. I honestly had no idea of how to start this conversation. There were things that needed to be said. I should have been angry or mad or sad or whatever but I wasn’t. I was still just mostly thankful that Nef and I were back together. We’d decided that she would go back on the pill, that we would always use condoms, that she would move in with me after graduation, and that we would try to have a child when we were ready. I had already decided that I ask her to marry me one day and she’d finally come to grips with the fact that she loved me and would marry me one day. I wasn’t giving her any other option.
”Nef is back and we’ve worked through some things,” I said mostly speaking to my mother as my father was there when Nef came back to the States. ”We’ve decided that we’re staying together whether or not I’m traded or I sign somewhere else. I don’t know how much she’ll want to be around here. She told me this place doesn’t feel safe to her anymore. We’re not going to try for another baby until we’re ready.”
”Sashka I -” my mother began. ”I’m sorry. I had no idea that she was pregnant. I didn’t know that Nadiya would –“
”Mom, you knew Nef and I’s feelings toward Nadiya. You should have never brought her here without talking to me. At every turn you do something to jeopardize my relationship with Nefertiti, pushing Nadiya on me, going against my decisions when I’ve made them so painfully clear. I can’t trust you anymore. ”
”I – ”
”No, I don’t want to hear it. There’s nothing you can say to make this better. I lost my child and nearly lost the woman I love. I’m sorries can’t make this better.”
I wasn’t angry. At least I hadn’t been when I came home. I really just wanted my mom to stay out of my relationship. I guess it’s my fault though. My parents have always been so intertwined in my life, both personal and professional. It was hard for my mother to take a less active role in managing me.
I had to leave. I didn’t want to be late for practice. Being late meant being punished and I really didn’t want to have to skate sprints after practice. I knew that I would have to finish this conversation when I came home but for now it was enough to let them know where we stood.
AN: Part 2 - Sorry for the lack of updates. I have chapters written I swear!! I wrapped up a graduate class and started a new job (all within a few weeks....poor planning on my part) so I haven't had much time for editing. Hopefully things are settling down and I'll be able to update with more frequency.
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