The Only Way is Up

Part Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two

"I thought we were having a good time, what's this all about?" Maxim was glaring at her; he was angry, yet distant, evasive. Nicole didn't regret ruining the atmosphere, after all it was important. And the animosity just made her realise how vital this questions was. He was invading every aspect of her life and she knew little more about him than his name.

"You know everything about me..." she paused at that, she hadn't told him everything, that was a lie. But she had shared more than she imagined, and she needed more back from him, she needed to know him. "Yet I know nothing about you, other than a bunch of contradictory facts. Yet you want me to trust you, to open up to you. Yet you are stony faced." He looked confused, so she added, "you wear a mask. You give nothing away."

When he said nothing, just stared at her a stunned expression on her face, she shook her head, "I know you are from Russia, but you've lived in Miami for years, your friend mentioned it tonight, I don't know why you lived there...or why you're not there anymore. Andrei hinted that it wasn't by choice. But I don't know anything about it."

She sighed, "you live above the gym in two scummy rooms, yet you wore a designer tuxedo to my ball, which is the REAL Maxim Chertov? You took me to a bar that was like a hangout for the uber rich, you hang out with models for god's sake, yet you act as though you like on the poverty line. I know nothing about you, and what I do know doesn't fit. And that scares me."

"You care about how much money I have?" He asked angrily.

She shook her head vehemently, "of course not! But the fact that I have no idea of where you live...HOW you live, or if you can afford the dinner you just bought me, THAT is what I'm talking about. But if you don't want to talk to me, that's fine...I can get a train back to London, I've done my six weeks of training...I don't need this anymore." She gestured between them.

He shook his head, then closed his eyes for a moment he paused, she could see his nostrils flare as he took a few deep breaths, then as he opened them said, "my life is...complicated."

She waited for a moment, but there was nothing else, "whose isn't? That's it?" She almost laughed at him, if it wasn't hurting her so much. He was endearing himself to her, making her think about him being more than a friend. Something she never thought would happen.

He ran a hand through his hair, "no. There will always be more." That was the sign she was waiting for, a hint that he wanted to share things, it was better than anything she could have hoped for, "I'm estranged from my family."

Nicole felt a twinge of something, she was opening a can of worms, there may be no going back, but there wasn't a choice in this, he owed her the truth, "you hinted at that."

"At sixteen I left home, a family that I had grown to loathe, my mother died and she was immediately forgotten...I hated them for that."

"Why Miami?"

He looked up to the sky for a moment, then continued, "I got a scholarship to a school out there. I loathe my father, but there are some friends and family who are happy to help me, happy to be the one who indirectly goes against my father, a network of familiar families all over the world, I grew up with Natalya as a friend, but Yuri who you met last night, her father was an acquaintance of my grandfather, there are others in lots of places.

"Whilst my grandfather was alive there was some normalcy in my life, but when he died I had to walk away. Fortunately he left me some money, enough that I could make a break. So I got a scholarship at a University, they got me through the end of High School."

Running a hand across his jaw, he gave a rogue smile, "I didn't have that much money, not really. So in Miami, I did a little modelling. That's how I met Saskia. We worked together."