Chapter Fifty-Two
Star
I try to keep myself busy for the next couple of days. I know I have to start a new life for myself. I ignore all Nigel’s calls and eventually I put a block on his number.
Rosa tells me I can stay with her until I find my own place and I quickly accept her offer. When she is in it is not so bad. She is funny and warm and I can push Nikolai to the back of my mind, but when she goes to work and I am left alone at the apartment, I find myself bursting into tears for no reason. I’d be peeling a pear and suddenly I’d start sobbing my heart out.
I try to write but I find that I can’t concentrate like I used to be able to. Suddenly I would be thrown out of my story and my head would be filled with Nikolai. I miss him so much. At night if I have not had at least two glasses of wine I can’t sleep. Sometimes I think of Miss One Penny and Ray and Celine. I went to the shop and bought a big box of chocolates for Sophia, but then I didn’t know where to send it to, so Rosa ended up eating most of it.
I go online and try to find gossip about him. There is nothing new. Which is a relief. Even though I obsessively Google him I know I would be devastated if I saw him with another woman.
“Who can that be?” Rosa says as she gets up to go answer the doorbell. I just slouch further into the sofa. I hear her open the door. “My, you’re a big boy,” I hear Rosa say, and I sit up and crane my neck to see who has come through the door.
“Can I have a quick word with Miss Minton please?”
Sweet Jesus!
That’s Semyon’s voice.
“And who may you be?” Rosa asks.
I try to make myself appear more presentable by quickly brushing my hair back with my hands.
“My name is Semyon.”
“Well, Semyon, if you wait here I will see if Miss Minton will see you,” Rosa says formally. She leaves him standing in the hallway and comes to me with widened eyes. She opens her mouth in a silent scream before saying in a perfectly natural voice, “There is a man called Semyon who would like to see you. Shall I send him through?”
“Yes.” I gulp, and jump up from the sofa.
Semyon comes into the small sitting room making it appear even smaller than it is.
“I’ll be in my bedroom if anybody needs me,” Rosa says, and with a wink at me, sails towards her bedroom.
“Hello,” I say softly.
He nods.
“Would you like to sit?”
“No. That’s fine. I won’t be staying l
ong.”
“Can I get you a drink?”
“That will not be necessary either.”
“Okay. So what can I do for you?”
“I just came here to say that you should go and see Mr. Smirnov. You were good for him.”
My eyebrows fly up. I thought Semyon didn’t even like me. He was always giving me the cold eye.
“I can take you there now.”
“He doesn’t want me, Semyon.”
“He does want you,” he insists blandly.
“You don’t understand. It was just a sex thing for him. He saw me in a restaurant four weeks ago and he just thought, yeah, why not, I’m a billionaire. If I want her I’ll have her, and he did. Now he’s had me he’ll move on to the next girl.”
“Is that what he told you?”
“No, he didn’t have to say it.” I shrug. “But that’s what it was.”
“He didn’t see you in a restaurant four weeks ago. He saw you in a casino two years ago.”
“What?”
“I’ve been on your case for two years, Miss Minton. When Mr. Smirnov wants something he never lets anything stand in his way. His focus is complete. His patience is legendary. For two years he planned how to get you. He set up Ziggurat because he knew your husband wouldn’t be able to resist.”
I sit down on the sofa in shock. “Are you seriously telling me Nikolai set up a casino to trap Nigel so that he could have me?”
“Mmmm.”
“That is so crazy.”
“Yes, that is what I thought.”
“So why did he send me away?”
“You’ll have to ask him that yourself.”
“What if he doesn’t want to see me?”
“He is, how do you say in English, ah yes, dying to see you again.”
I smile. “Really?”
“I know him very well, and yes, really.”
My smile becomes a grin. “And you’ll take me to him.”
“Correct.”
“Can you wait while I change?”
“Of course.”
I go into Rosa’s room, shut the door, and lean against it. “Did you hear?” The walls are paper thin in Rosa’s apartment.
She lifts her shoulder up to her ears in a conspiratorial gesture. It makes her look like a naughty child. “Did I ever?”
“I’ve got nothing to wear.”
“I have a wardrobe full.”
“I was thinking about something demure and subtle.”
“I’m thinking: something that’ll blow his mind.” She walks to her cupboard and takes out a pair of white shorts.
“No way am I wearing those.”
“Look. You’re wearing this or you’re going in what you’ve got on now. Anyway it’s the right weather for it,” she says. She pulls out a button down pink top. “I don’t know why I bought this. It’s too girly for me, but it’s perfect for you. He won’t be able to resist.”
“Are you sure about this? Won’t it look too slutty.”
“Yup. Nope you won’t look slutty if you wear it with sneakers. You’ll just look cute and adorable.”
I change into the shorts and pink top. It doesn’t look too bad. I fluff my hair out and slick on a layer of lip gloss and go out to meet Semyon.
He grins. “That is a good outfit.”
“Thank you.”