"Mr. Coleman." Annoying voice leave me alone. "Mr. Coleman," peasant, "Mr. Coleman, are you listening?"
I wanted to be a brat and give him sass, but held it in. "Sorry. I had my head in the clouds," I plastered a fake smile onto my face. Surely, you must be wondering where am I? Who is the peasant bothering the all so great Edward? His name is David.
It had been a week since I had come back from Russia and I was back home in London. That meant meetings with my board. I had only sold thirty percent of my company since I loved being stingy and seriously did not need anyone trying to steal my company.
Yes, most of the board was my fathers friends and associates, but no one could be trusted. I was a very superstitious person. We were discussing a hotel we owned that needed renovation since the competition was tight in the area. A new hotel was being built a kilometre from ours and it was targeted to younger people who came for vacations. They were a big part of the tourist market and if our hotel did not appeal to them more, we would not make as much profit as the other.
"I think if we are going to renovate, we should get the youth to decide what is up and trending. Sure we could discuss it, but I'm thirty five I don't follow these things anymore and the whole lot of you are fifty and close to retirement," I said finally focusing on the meeting.
"You have a point, but how would we figure it all out?" Peter, my other chairman spoke.
"We should make a survey. Let about twenty thousand vote on it on twitter, instagram and Facebook. Than we can conclude. I will get Amanda to help since she is still all about these young and trendy things. Then we will go from there," I smiled at the three other men. We said our goodbyes and I went back to my office.
"You were literally out of it for ten minutes," Allison laughed as we closed the door behind us.
"They bore me. Most of the things discussed there could have been discussed on email or even a video conference. All three of them are retiring soon anyway I don't see the point," I shrugged and took off my suit and tie.
"You have a point. Do you think you will renew the contracts you have with their companies?" she asked as she put files back onto shelves.
"I don't think so. They have been around for so long that I feel my company needs something new. Give new young blood a chance or these older companies will be the only ones reaching millionaire status and it's not fair."
"You are a good man Eddie," she smiled, "Any way Yavoks representative will be here soon so let me get things ready." With that she left my office.
Yavok and I had agreed to send one of his engineers this side to speed things up. They would be able to work with architects on the design and Russian regulations as we planned everything out. It would speed up the process a lot more and it would help me not have to travel back and forth, and wait days for an approval.
He had not told me who he was sending, but my main hope was they knew English well, because my Russian lessons were not going so well. Yeah I knew Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch, but for some reason my mouth just could not pronounce the most simple of words. Maybe I was rushing myself that was why I could not master it, but when I had learnt all those other languages I was in university. I had enough time and did not have to run a billion dollar company.
"Ed, he is here," Allison called through the intercom.
"Let him in," I said. I did not even bother to look up from my papers as the door opened and I heard footsteps, "Please sit I just want to finish this paragraph." Whoever it was sat down and waited patiently as I finished up. When I was done I moved the papers to the side to give them my full undivided attention.
When I finally did look up I nearly fell out of my seat. There sat Vasili in a black suit. His hair was all over the place like usual and he seemed nervous. Since that unexplained kiss last week I tried not to think about it, although it kept on replaying in my head. The whole situation left more questions than answers and it irritated me to the core. I thought I would never see him till I went back to Russia in a month but for him to be sitting right in front of me left me... confused.
"Oh Vasili, Yavok sent you," I tried not to sound bothered by somehow it was laced with my words.
"He trusts me more than anyone else in the company so yes," he said coldly. I could not blame him my reaction to him was rude and uncalled for, but it was the least of my worries.
"Huh, well he is a smart man." I sighed and tried to regain my composure, "Sorry about my reaction I did not mean to be rude."
Vasili rolled his eyes and scrunched his face in a way that reminded me of something Amanda would do. "Whatever. It is my fault anyway so no big deal. Water under the bridge right," his voice was soft and tired.
"Yeah water under the bridge. I take Susan downstairs gave you a tour already."
"Yes," he nodded looking down to his hands. Even though he wore a suit; looked professional and matured. He still looked out of his element.
"Let me show you your office," I sighed. I reserved a space next to my office since he would need it to analyse plans. It looked like a miniature version of mine. It had a huge glass wall to show the view of London with white walls and a dark wooden floor. I decided to go less on the glass and went for a homier feel to the office since I noticed it was something Vasili liked at his house.
"Wow it's really nice," he walked to the desk and traced his finger along the dark wooden desk.
"I'm glad you like it," I smiled and sat down on the couch I put in there. "You know you don't have to wear suits if you don't like them."
"Thank you. Yavok would slaughter me if I didn't," he laughed.
"You are a dancer, can't be all strangled up like that," I chuckled. His eyes softened when I referred to him being a dancer. In a way I knew being an engineer was not Vasili's passion. His father had forced him to study engineering when he was in university in hopes he would run the company with Yavok. He still preferred ballet over it anyway and if it were not for the circumstances I knew he would not be here right now.
We sat in a tense silence for a few minutes before he decided to speak up, "Look I know we are still a bit uncomfortable around each other after what I did. I'm really sorry Edward. Every day I wake up and feel like such an idiot for doing that especially since we would be working with each other. I just made everything awkward."
"It's okay Vasili. I must admit I am still uncomfortable about it but let's start on a new foot," I smiled. He returned the gesture, "It's lunch. Let's head out. I'm super hungry."
"But I just got here. Shouldn't I set up?"
"Don't worry the boss won't mind," I winked. He simply chuckled and shook his head. I quickly grabbed my suit jacket and we went to the parking. When I was in London I did not really need John to be around me most of the time and if I wanted lunch I just went to one of my father's restaurants. We climbed into my Bentley which Vasili admired and drove to my dad's seafood restaurant. I was really in the mood for sushi.
When we walked in the hostess led us to a table and she was furiously blushing when I smiled at her. She seemed to get redder when Vasili flashed her a smile and it was hilarious. We were both good looking men I did not blame her. Our waiter was a man so no fun there. I ordered a feast and Vasili dug in immediately.
"So how is Mary taking you being away for so long?" I asked before shoving the best prawn tempura in my mouth.
"She is use to it. I use to travel all year for performances and she is always travelling too," he shrugged.
"So it's Friday and I have to attend a party one of my friends invited me. Would you like to join me?"
Vasili kept quiet for a few seconds and had a thoughtful expression on his face, "If I do go promise me that if I get drunk hand cuff me. I have discovered I'm unpredictable." I practically howled in laughter at his reference and soon he joined me. After a few hours of work and another quick bite to eat, I went home to get changed for the party.
One of my good friends, Steve invited me to a lodge he had booked and a whole bunch of friends. The lodge was thirty minutes out of London and since he booked a whole lodge for us, we would all be sleeping over for the weekend. At first I planned not to attend, but since Vasili was there, I figured it would not hurt. I swore to drink no alcohol though since I seriously did not want to hook up with someone again when I was not in the right state of mind.
I quickly packed my overnight bag and wore a pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt and jersey. I would be picking up Vasili by the penthouse he was renting so I left ten minutes earlier.
Vasili was already waiting outside for me so that saved me the expense of having to go inside and draw attention to myself. "You really love being fancy," he chuckled referring to my Rolls Royce.
"One needs to travel in style Vasie boy," I smirked. He rolled his eyes and threw his duffel bag on the backseat. There was a bit of traffic so it took us some time to get out of the city, but once we did it was smooth sailing.
"I don't know how you cope travelling without music," he whined connecting his phone to the car.
"Most times I get business calls that I don't even notice there's no music," it was true. If this was any other time of the week my car would answer calls on hands free mode and I would spend my whole journey talking to clients.
"You and Yavok seem to live boring lives," he commented. I barely had time to respond, music burst out the speakers half startling me, but Vasili quickly turned down the volume. His choice in music was really similar to mine with hip-hop, trap music and pop. For someone who prided himself in Russian heritage he had an American sense to him. Even his Russian accent was not as heavy as his brothers and a lot of his references were American.
"Did you spend time in America once?" I was purely curious to why he was so different.
"My father sent me to New York when I was thirteen when things got a bit... complicated in Russia. I lived with my uncle over there till I was about eighteen then I chose to move back to Russia," his body was moving to the song he was playing and I could tell he was enjoying himself. That explained a lot yet it raised another question. Why were things tough for them?
Our journey to the lodge was filled with mostly small talk and Vasili singing, which was humorous and awfully off pitch. When we arrived the sun was starting to set and the parking was filled with cars.
"You should have told me this was a rich people party," Vasili had his face all scrunched up, which was comical since he came from a well off family.
"Trust me they are nothing close to snobs," it was true. Our circle of friends were pretty wild. Most parties ended in someone getting injured, one passed out from being too drunk and sometimes, if we were luckily, someone running through dry wall. No one would ever guess we were around our thirties.
We quickly checked in by the reception area and went to our room. Vasili and I would be sharing a suit that had two separate bedrooms. We dropped off our stuff and went to the ballroom, which the party was being hosted at. The music could literally be felt as it bounced off the wall and vibrated the floor.
When we entered the room, it was mostly blue lights and neon colours. Only Steve could host a neon paint party at this age. By the doors there were two women dressed in neon green bikinis and they were gorgeous. Not the point. They held cans of neon pain so we could paint ourselves.
I opted for two neon pink strips down my face whilst Vasili went crazy with it. He took neon yellow paint and put some through his hair and went full warrior with two strips across his cheeks. Then processed to imprint his white shirt with his hands so it looked like someone was grabbing his pectorals.
"What?" he laughed as I stared at him in shock. I was pretty sure I was going to lose him halfway through the party. We walked through the crowd of dancing bodies, I estimated there were about fifty people, which was not as large as I thought it would be. Most faces I recognised that were not covered in paint.
I eventually found Steve sitting on a couch with his girlfriend Jessica. Steve was pretty average sized with brunette hair that was always cut short and a moustache. "Ed! Took you long enough you wanker," he beamed as we approached him.
"Call me that again and you won't have a dick to jerk off with," I threatened. We both laughed as we hugged and I quickly kissed Jessica's cheek.
"And who is this young lad with you?" he referred to Vasili who looked desperate to go to the bar to get a drink.
"Vasili, he's the younger brother of a new business partner." Steve shook Vasilis' hand. I could tell Steve said something to Vasili; by how serious his face got. Due to the loud music I heard none of it, but I could tell Vasili was uncomfortable. He quickly left and I lost sight of him. "What did you say to him?"
"I just thought I recognized him from a ballet theatre," Steve said with a thoughtful expression. I sighed and decided to let Vasili be. He was a grown man after all he could handle himself.
"So what's up with you not drinking?" Steve asked a good two hours into the party.
"If I drink anymore this week I'm going to be utterly useless this weekend," I had stuck to drinking sodas and water throughout the whole event. It made the party a whole less exciting, but who said you needed to get drunk to have fun anyway. Steve and I sat by the couches whilst his girlfriend went off with her friends a few minutes ago. For some unknown reason everyone started to head outside in a hurry with an excited cheer.
I noticed a girl walk past I gently held her wrist, "Why is everyone going outside?"
"There's some blonde Russian guy who is about to jump in the pool," she giggled clearly drunk out her mind. Steve and I stared at each other immediately realizing that it was Vasili.
"Shit," I hissed and broke out into a sprint. It was the middle of winter meaning the pool would be cold shitless. Plus trying to swim whilst you were drunk just elevated the risks so much more. Steve and I ran through the crowd of people towards the pool.
When we got there everyone was cheering and clapping as Vasili stood on top of the waterfall which was a good five meters high. He held a bottle of beer in one hand and was in his trunks, his clothes nowhere in sight. The pool was huge meaning it would take me a good few seconds to get around but with all these people it would take longer. Everyone started chanting his name as he chugged down the beer then threw it behind him.
"This is for mother Russia!" he screamed then as graceful as a swan ran off the edge and flipped before landing perfectly. I was mesmerized by how effortless the whole thing seemed to him that it took me a few seconds to realize he had not come back up to the surface. In a panicked frenzy I tore off my jersey and dived into the pool. The water was bone crunching cold, but the adrenaline rushing through my body barely made me feel it.
It took me a few seconds to get to Vasili since I was a strong swimmer and I lifted his body up to the surface. Once we had access to air Vasili gasped loudly and went into a coughing fit. I held him to my chest till we got to the edge and lifted him out.
"Yeah!" He yelled enthusiastically and once again everyone went wild with excitement. I came out the pool soaking wet, but also slightly furious. Without a second thought I lifted him off the ground and carried him bridal style through the crowd that was chanting his name. "Where are you taking me?" he protested trying to jump from my grip.
"To our room before you kill yourself," I snapped irritated that he even wanted to debate this.
"You are no fun old man," he stuck his tongue out childishly. Even though he wanted to go back he was practically trembling from the cold. His skin was pale yet strangely red at the same time since his whole body was exposed to the brutal winter. I simply ignored him and carried him to our room. Once there I went into the bathroom and put him on the vanity then proceeded to fill the tub with warm water. When it was full I put him in there much to his protests, but immediately he practically melted into it.
I glared at him with so much annoyance I felt it radiating off me. He shrugged and reached down to pull off his trunks. The scream that escaped my lips was unexpected, but I wasted no time in running out the bathroom to my room. The soaking clothes were glued onto my skin so it took some time taking everything off to take a shower.
My mind was practically going in circles as I thought of Vasili. I had hoped he would be responsible and do nothing foolish, but who was I to trust a kid. Anyone in their right mind would have not done that, but the boy was made of iron. Even though I tried to find his actions crazy, a chuckle escaped my lips the more I thought of it. That was something I would have done in my younger years.
I dressed in pyjama pants and engulfed my body in the warm blankets. Within a few minute I heard my bedroom door open, followed by footsteps and weight on the other side of the bed. When I opened my eyes I saw Vasili worming his way into the blankets.
"What the fuck?" I hissed when he turned over.
"My bed was really cold, move over," he said it like it was the most obvious thing in this world. I stared at his face as he stared at me back. I was too tired to fight with him so I shimmed over a little to give him more space. He sighed contently and closed his eyes. I stared at his face for a few minutes before drifting off to sleep. It was probably one of the very few nights, in a very long time I slept peacefully.