Devil | A Solomons

SEVEN - JUST FRIENDS

Irina had actively avoided all of Luca's advances after their rendezvous two weeks prior. She'd woken up before sunrise in his bed, an empty bottle of champagne on the floor beside her and a headache that felt like her skull was splitting in two. Grabbing her belongings, she managed to slip out of his home without waking him.

Luca had called her at work, but she'd told Kristian to turn him away each time. It wasn't that she hadn't had a nice time with Luca, because she had, Irina had simply panicked.

When she awoke in the same bed as a man, looking over and seeing him sleeping soundly with the blanket around his waist, bruising from her nails around his shoulders, the feeling scared her. Irina wasn't sure what exactly this feeling was, but it was alien to her. She didn't like things out of the ordinary, anything out of her control or her understanding.

As far as she was concerned, Irina already had everything in her life that she both wanted and needed. This feeling in the pit of her stomach wasn't something she wanted to be playing on her mind every day, she had far more important things to be worrying about.

Irina had worked herself into the ground every day since her evening with Luca, using her business as a distraction from her growing feelings. Every time she heard the phone ring from on Kristian's desk just outside her office door, her heart would stop, her eyes fixing on the door as she waited, just in case it was Luca calling for her.

In the second week, the calls stopped. At first, Irina told herself she was relieved. The hassle of turning down talking to him once a day wasn't needed in her busy schedule, but once she no longer needed to do that, she started to wonder why.

Had Luca stopped calling because he didn't care anymore? Had he changed his mind again about the terms of their casual situation? Or had he found a different woman to satisfy his needs, perhaps a woman who did answer the phone when he called?

Irina didn't know, but the questions played on her mind a lot more than the feelings had done, giving even the lack of his presence a heavy effect on her.

The knock on her office door came just shy of three o'clock in the afternoon. She glanced down at her calendar on her desk, seeing that she had no meetings scheduled in for that day at all.

"Miss Zakharov? Mr Shelby is here to see you."

Irina pursed her lips before speaking, "Send him in."

Thomas walked into the room with a face like thunder, which wasn't out of the ordinary, Irina had noticed. He seemingly looked more angry each time she saw him, but she could never work out whether he actually was, or whether he just had a more miserable face than she did.

"Have a seat." She said, placing down her pen and pulling her hair behind her shoulders, clasping her hands together on her desk.

"You couldn't make dinner at The Savoy?" He spoke, an eyebrow raised.

"I had plans, my apologies."

"Plans with Luca Changretta, so I heard."

Irina rolled her eyes, "That was none of your brother's business, and it still isn't."

"Oh no," Thomas scoffed, shaking his head, "I didn't hear it from Arthur."

"Then who?" Irina questioned, her mind tracking back to that night trying to remember who she'd seen, all while Thomas sat with his lips sealed, "Alfie," She finally whispered.

Irina wasn't sure why Tommy had travelled all the way down to London to confront her about not going to dinner with him. If she had been turned down, she certainly wouldn't have travelled to another city to ask why.