An Unexpected Engagement

Chapter 84

Natasha

What's happening?

I walk slowly, dizzily, through the corridors of DBS to my office, still trying to make sense of the strange conversation with Steve in the elevator.

I mean, if I'm going to make sense of something, I'd better start with Steve's disappearance yesterday, which he hadn't explained to me.

Steve and I had fought hundreds of times before, but he had never disappeared afterward without an explanation and even stayed out all night.

At first I was furious, already wondering what the fuck he'd done, and I even listed a few options in my mind while I showered.

Option 1 — Steve spent the night working at DBS like the good workaholic he was, not giving a damn about me or Penelope.
What if a thief broke into the house? How did they forget about me in that movie, the wet thieves, or whatever they called it, who flooded the house after stealing everything, taking advantage of people being out for Christmas?

Guys, I'm creative but I have no idea how to make Kevin's cool traps. I really should have watched that movie more often as a kid. Was it on Netflix? I could watch it with Penelope and...

Option 2 — Steve left DBS and went to some pub for a drink and drank so much he fell into some gutter and was probably now waking up with his ass frozen and some dog licking his mouth.

Option 3 — Steve cleared our bank accounts and fled to Mexico, assuming a new identity, with some exotic name like Antônio de Guadalupe, and now he's going to make a career as a Mexican soap opera star. Let's face it, he's handsome like Fernando Calunga and, wow, he could even do a new version of Maria do Bairro.

None of these options seemed reasonable to me.

As he got me ready for work and then said goodbye to Penelope, who was nursing very quietly while watching cartoons, I still felt dizzy.

Irina, Penelope's Russian-born nanny, had calmed me down by saying that Steve probably had some reason for not coming home. But what did she know? Irina was a widow and had moved with her husband when she was twenty to England for his work. I still thought that such work must have something to do with the Russian police, the KGB. Surely Irina's husband was some spy who moved to London to spy on English citizens! And so it must have been common for him to spend nights and even days out.

But Steve wasn't a spy—I mean, he'd be cool if he was, right? Like that series “The Americans”, where the Russian couple moves to the United States and pretends to be American. I'd do great being a spy, since I'm a well of discretion and my alias could be Black Widow and Steve Captain Am...

So I couldn't find any plausible reason why he'd stayed out all night. And what was my surprise to see him in the elevator and still pretending he didn't know me?

What kind of game is Steve playing with me?

"Natasha, are you okay?" I hear my assistant Miguel's voice calling to me as I walk right past his desk and into my office, collapsing in my chair.

Miguel enters the room behind me looking at me worriedly.

— Natasha, beloved, why are you doing the Egyptian?

"Steve..." I whisper in a daze and Miguel chuckles, closing the door behind him and sitting in front of me.

"Did you fight with Steve?" Tell me everything. Let's analyze this there, I'm sure it's not as bad as it sounds. How about picking up one of those coffees you love at Starbucks?

Miguel is trying to cheer me up like he always does when I'm upset about something, or mad at Steve like most. And he always does, which has earned him many successive raises in the last few months since he started working for me.