Staying Away

　　Irena’s POV

　　I laid down to sleep but was disturbed by the sound of my phone ringing. By this time, I was already familiar with a particular person calling in the quiet of the night and I took my phone off my bedside table, calming my already accelerated heartbeat before I proceeded to answer the call. All these took seconds, but it felt like minutes.

　　“Hey beautiful,” Alexey’s familiar hoarse voice whispered, going straight to my heart and putting to futility; all the hard work I went through, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart down.

　　“You called,” my voice came out weak and shaky. I don’t like this feeling of weakness that comes over me anytime I hear his voice.

　　“I told you that I’ll call, were you asleep, did I wake you up?” he asked with a little bit of worry in his voice.

　　I sat up, folding my legs and wrapping the sheets around my naked body. I wasn’t cold, but I just wanted some form of covering.

　　“No, you didn’t wake me up, I wasn’t sleeping. I just thought you weren’t going to call anymore,” I replied, taking a deep breath.

　　Alexey chuckled. “Well, I did. Weren’t you eager to have me call you?” he asked, I could hear the humor in his voice. Fucking bastard.

　　“No, I wouldn’t be bothered if you decide to call or not. I couldn’t care less,” too much defense of Irena, he gets the message.

　　“So you are not in any way glad that I called?” he asked, sounding amused. Of course, I have become his personal source of entertainment.

　　“I have no reply to give regarding that question,” I said firmly.

　　“How are you?” he asked softly and I subconsciously relaxed. The thing is his voice can make me feel, just his voice.

　　“I am fine, it has been a long day,”

　　“I can tell, how is your friend? Has she been found?” he sounded genuinely concerned and I was surprised that he cared about something that is not relatively related to him.

　　“yeah, she was found,” she was found unconscious, in a warehouse, after being abducted by unidentified enemies, and her death was faked too.

　　Alexey exhaled in relief. “How is she?”

　　I sighed, “she’s fine and unhurt,”

　　“Where was she found and how did she get kidnapped-“ he paused. “urm, that’s if you want to talk about it, I didn’t mean to be nosy,” he quickly added.

　　I chuckled. “she was called to render services to a client, who turned out to be a bad man. He tried to abduct her but she was smart to ask for my help through the text and luckily with the address she was given, I and my men were able to find her some distance away from the address she was given, all tied up and unconscious.” I would rather lie than tell him that I do not want to talk about it.

　　“Hello? Are you still on the call?” I asked, feeling a little worried.

　　“I’m surprised that you shared it with me. And that sucks, were you able to find the supposed client?”

　　“Unfortunately, no. but I am working on it already,” I hope that should be enough to end the topic.

　　“I could help you find the client,” he offered. The tone he had used made it seem to be more of a question than a suggestion or offer to help, probably because he knew I would turn down his offer to help. There goes my wish for the topic to be over.

　　I chuckled lightly. “no thank you, it’s nothing to be worried about, I already have people working on it.” I ensured to lace my voice with reassurance, anything to make him stop pressing on the issue.

　　“Did you inform the police about it?”

　　“yes I did,” I lied. “that is another reason why you don’t have to worry about me needing your help too,”

　　He hummed. “alright, you win again this time,”

　　“Thank you,” I responded, resting my back on the headrest of my bed.

　　“I have a question though, why would May- ”

　　“- August, Alexey. Her name is August,” I corrected blinking rapidly and feeling the vein on the side of my head tick. I felt that he had intentionally called her the wrong name as some kind of joke.

　　“Forgive me,” he said with false regret. “why would she go out to see a client, without having any sort of protection? I thought you all escort services render some sort of protection to your clients?” he sounded slightly confused.

　　“August is stubborn, she prefers to defend herself and had tried on several accounts to leave for work without a guard, until now that she succeeded and well, it didn’t end well. She would know how to listen to instructions and follow rules.” I had said that as if August was in the same room with me because I wished she was. It helps no one when she chooses to be disobedient. But then when I think about it, it whoever wanted her didn’t get her the way he did, he could have tried doing so another way,”

　　“Well she is one lucky girl to have you ask a dependable boss,” I could tell that there was more to that compliment.

　　“She is indeed,” I replied proudly.

　　There was a comfortable silence between us and I used the time to reflect on what would be going on at the moment if I was still at his place. The thought of it made me feel butterflies in my stomach and I cleared my throat.

　　“How is Charles?” I asked, eager to talk about something then stay quiet and let my thoughts stray.

　　“He is good, he was worried about you, so I should report to him about your welfare after we’re done with the call,” Alexey replied.

　　“I miss his cooking,” I whispered.

　　“We miss your presence,” he whispered back.

　　I laughed. “We or you?”

　　“Umm,” he paused. “not important,” he dismissed.

　　I chuckled again, “oh suddenly it’s not important, right? Fucking pussy.”

　　“says the one without a dick,” he retorted with a teasing tone.

　　“shut up,”

　　“Hey,”

　　“Hello,”

　　“what are you doing now?”

　　"Nothing, why are you asking?" I inquired, raising an eyebrow.

　　"Nothing,"

　　We fell back into a comfortable silence. I felt like he was silent because he wanted something.

　　"Do you want something?" I asked, sounding a little unsure.

　　" Urm," he cleared his throat. "Since we didn't get to finish the date, I'll be back at my place in Los Angeles late this week and I would like to have another date with you." Oh, so that's what all the silence is about?

　　"I'm sorry Alexey, but that's not possible," I replied, my voice breaking a little from the sadness that came with my declination.

　　He was silent for a few seconds, "Alexey?" I called, did he hang up? I checked my phone, the call was still ongoing. Did he walk off or something?

　　"Why?"

　　I felt a pull in my chest from the way his tone changed. He sounded mentally exhausted, maybe from the way I had been declining all of his offers. I declined his offers to help, I declined his proposal for a date.

　　"I just can't Alexey. We can only have one date and we've had it," man this is honestly sad to say. I remember that I had decided to go on just one date with him, but the date with him went so well that I wouldn't mind going for another. I had so much fun and it seemed like my problems didn't exist. I would kill for anything right now that would make my problems disappear, even for just a day.

　　"Why? Did that last date not go well? I know you enjoyed it, you looked happy and stress-free all the time it lasted unless you're good at faking." I could hear the sadness in his voice.

　　" It went well, I enjoyed every bit of it and I would honestly love to go on another date with you-"

　　"-then accept my proposal, why did you refuse if you love to go on another?" He sounded very confused and hurt.

　　" Listen, I can't." I hope he would just let this slide, I don't want this to end up being a fight and I don't want to have to keep refusing him because nothing he is going to say would change my mind.

　　"Why can't you Irena?" He was sounding frustrated already. "You've just been repeating that you can't, but you aren't giving me any reason why you can't. Why can't you go on a date with me Irena?"

　　And… he was beginning to annoy me.

　　" I wish I could tell you why, but I can't. Just know that it would be impossible to go on another date with you, I'm sorry," I was tired of repeating myself already, I hope he let this slide.

　　"Why can't you tell me, is it something personal that you don't want to talk about again?" He questioned. His choice of words angered me immediately, as there was more meaning to what he had said.

　　"What do you mean by that?" I questioned.

　　" You know what I mean, it is as if there is this part of you that I have no access to, and this life you less keeps interrupting your relation with everything. You never want my help and you never share anything with me," he complained, sounding annoyed. " Are you into some kind of shitty business that I should not be aware of?"

　　Unbelievable bastard.

　　" Excuse me? Do I owe you any explanation?" I laughed. " We're not a couple Alexey, stop acting like we are one just because I agreed to go on one date with you. I'm sorry, if you cannot accept my decisions then you should get off my fucking phone. I honestly do not have the strength to deal with your bullshit this minute. Who are you to act as I owe you explanations? You're acting like we're in a fucking relationship when you have no respect for women. Just because we're having sex, it doesn't mean that treating me any different and pretending to care would change anything. In the end, we are both using each other."

　　Oh god, I've said so many things I didn't want to say.

　　The call ended abruptly and I tossed my phone aside in frustration.