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A week had passed since our kiss in the gym. I avoided being alone with him. Even when we were boxing, I made sure to give him a cold shoulder.
But then three days ago, Nikolai had to go out of the country for his business or his mafia, I wouldn't know. He doesn't tell me anything about what he does.
I went to the gym a few times alone but it didn't feel the same or right without Nikolai.
Since Grace and I were alone in the house, I realized she wasn't so bad. She could be described as over-friendly something I'm definitely not used to. After my parent's death, I spent most of my time with Nikolai and Scott and they were the least friendly people on earth.
Right now, Grace and I were reclining on the lounge chairs while she babbled continuously about ex-boyfriends. Grace had a long list of ex-boyfriends, all of them were Made men.
Her father was abusive towards her mother, he beat her up a lot, so Grace was used to getting slapped around by her stupid boyfriends. She was surprised and ecstatic that her father had paired her up with Nikolai, she couldn't ask for a better husband.
I sighed and put lotion on my legs. She was talking about Nikolai a lot and that made me miss him but how do I tell her that I miss her husband-to-be too? That would backfire terribly.
"I fucked my ex after Niko stood me up at our wedding in Sicily..." she said out of nowhere.
My jaw slacked as I stared at her wide-eyed. "Are you crazy?" I asked her. She was engaged to Nikolai Costello, not to some random guy, if he knew that she cheated on him, he'd go ballistic.
She rolled her eyes, "You think he didn't do the same to me?"
I shut my mouth instantly as I remembered the kiss from last week. Shame crept up from the pit of my stomach, and my cheeks warmed.
She blew out a breath. "You must think of me as some bad person but that's all I know, it's how my parent's marriage has been. Niko doesn't like me very much, I can fucking see that. He's gonna cheat and he can't expect me to just sit around his house and look pretty for him, yeah, not gonna happen. I'll do whatever I want like I always have."
My mind went back to my parents, "My parents loved one another... so much."
She placed a hand over my knee and squeezed, "I'm sorry."
"It's alright. I'm a big girl, I can handle it."
She gave me a pitiful look and I blew out a breath. I laid back down, putting the lotion aside.
"Niko!" she squealed.
My eyebrows pinched together and my eyes shot open.
