The Little Girl Left in the Dark (Elizabeth Olsen X daughter)

Part 17- Pelmeni

Lizzie's POV

"What do you want for dinner?" I ask Tatiana while reading the hotel room service menu. Tatiana comes to sit with me on the couch of our luxurious suite. The colours were champagne and white, making the space feel open and clean.

"McDonalds!" She exclaims and I laugh, shaking my head slowly.

"No, we have that for lunch. Choose something else," I deny and Tatiana huffs loudly, sitting back to think.

"Pelmeni," she decides and I tilt my head in confusion.

"What is that?" I ask and Tatiana smiles, starting to make shapes with her hands.

"Meat inside," she tries to explain with her limited English and makes a ball with her hands. "My old Mama used to cook for me," she says quietly with a subtle smile and I nod in understanding.

"I'll get it," I smirk and the small girl nods shyly, running off after to probably go back to drawing with her crayons. I look over the menu but there is no pelmeni, damn it. I call the room service just to see if they can make a special.

"Room Service," A male voice comes through the line.

"Hi, This is room 216, I was wondering if the chef could make pelmeni," I ask hopefully and the man hums in thought.

"Hold one seconds please, ma'am." I hear the phone be put down and people talking distantly. After a moment, the phone gets picked back up. "The chef said that he would be happy to make them for you, how much will you require?" he asks politely and I smile brightly.

"12 pieces please," I ask, quickly doing math in my head to know how much to order. I also order a few more things to eat on the side.

"Alright, they'll be believed in under 40 minutes," he speaks kindly and I thank him before ending the call.

In the mean time, I look around the room in thought and my eyes catch a Bobbi Brown make-up bag. They are sponsoring me kindly and I get free make-up if I advertise their product.

I had to do some advertising for Bobbi Brown before the deadline given to me, why not get it out of the way. I jumped up and clutched onto the bag, heading to the hotel bathroom. 

I set up my ring light and attached my phone to the centre, starting an Instagram live. Hundreds of people started to pour in and I threw my hair up into a pony tale.

"Hi everyone! It's Lizzie. Today I am putting on my Bobbi Brown make-up with you guys since I'm bored in my hotel." I introduce and I see a bunch of questions in the chat feed. "Where am I? I am in San Francisco right now for the Godzilla press conferences!" I answered and I grabbed a face cloth to wash my face before anything else. "See all the redness in my skin? That's because I'm tired, but we're gonna fix that with Bobbi Brown," I smiled and looked down to all the products in front of me. "First, I'll start with the vitamin enriched face base, complete with lots of vitamins, a, d, it smells delicious, e." I started to rub the soft cream onto my cheeks. "And just apply it as so, I like applying it in an upward motion. So your not terrified of me, ima brush my eyebrows." I brushed my eyebrows and I saw my live reached a million watchers, woah. "Always correct before you conceal, my colour is beige, because that's how bland I really am."

"I'm going to apply my foundation with my forth finger around my eyes, because it's the most sensitive, and I think I learned that from either Paul Rudd or Mark Ruffalo." I finished the base layer and I looked at the comments, they were asking how I knew Mark Ruffalo, oops. "Next I'm going to use the Bobbi Brown extra lip tint, it's moisturising, but also brings some colour to your lips. I also learned that from Mark Ruffalo. I'm feeling like I'm a little washed out right now, so I'm going to just give myself a little natural glow and I'm going to use the Clipsal coral colour pot rues for lips and cheeks. It's a cream based so it looks reaaalllyy natural and you don't have that powder-y look. It's super light weight, like Paul Rudd. You just put a little on the apples of your cheeks, I also learnt that from Paul Rudd." I smiled again and my views went up crazily. "You might notice I already have mascara on, It's the extreme party mascara. I learnt that from Chris Hemsworth, who also applies all of his mascara off screen." I winked over my shoulder and picked up a lipstick to finish the make-up. "To top it all off, Ima use Bobbi Brown's new luck shine intense lipstick. But don't be fooled by the intense that I got, I'm still natural, Lizzie from the block." I sang the last part and applied the lipstick.

"There's someone at the door!" Tatiana shouted through my closed door and she came in, the camera seeing her in the background. I turn to see the four year old go on her tippy toes to see what I was doing and I mentally face palm, this kid has really bad timing.

"Okay, I'll be there in a minute," I smile and she goes to shut the door again but stops.

"What are you doing?" she asks, eyebrows knitted together in question.

"I'm talking to people on my phone, and they can see you," I tried to get her to understand and she nodded, taking a look at my phone. Tatiana waved at the camera and then closed the door, letting me end the live.

"Now that was my make-up routine, thank you Bobbi Brown but mostly, Thank you Paul Rudd." I smiled and waved goodbye as I clicked the 'end stream' button. I made my way to the door to see a man with a food service cart and trays of food.

 "Hi, sorry about the wait," I smiled awkwardly and he nodded, wheeling the food into our room.

"All good, Madame, please enjoy your meal and if you need anything else please call," he smiled kindly and spoke with a French accent.

"Thank you, sir," I walked him back to the door and to see him out. I came back into the living room to see Tatiana lift a lid off of one of the trays to see the pelmeni and she smiled from ear to ear. "Is it alright?" I ask and Tatiana places the lid to the side. She picks up a piece of the small dumplings and bites into it, her face lighting up at the taste.

"Wow," she smiled and holds a piece out for me to take.

"Thanks, babe," I take the piece off of her and pop it into my mouth. The mild non-leavened boiled dough is contrasted with a rich and savoury filling of ground meat and onions, it tastes sooo good. "Mmm, this is tasty," I smile and Tatiana nods, taking the last bite of the piece she was holding from before.

"Thank you, mama," she whispers and my eyes widen.

"Aw, come here," I open my arms for a hug and she jumps into them, hugging me lovingly. "Thank you," I whisper into her ear and she pulls back from the hug with a small smile.

"I am sorry," she apologises and her head drops, looking down to her hands that are fidgeting.

"Hey, it's okay," I assure her and she looks up to me, tears in her eyes. "But, why were you like that?" I ask in a soft tone and rub her arm. She goes silent and I sigh, she's not going to talk.

"... My papa used to hurt me," she quietly sobs and my heart breaks.

"Wh- What?" I ask, not knowing how to process her words correctly. Tears fall from her watery eyes and she starts to cry, hugging me again. She sobs in my arms as I hold her, my hand rising and falling unrhythmically as she gasps for air. I stare at the opposite wall from me, my brain overthinking and spiralling into horrid thoughts. "Tatiana," I call her name, trying to get her to let go of me. "Tatiana," I say again, softly to try not to scare her as she pulls back. "You're safe, baby," I cup her cheek and wipe her tears with my thumbs. I give a small sympathetic smile to the girl and she looks down, sniffing. Tatiana nods softly in acceptance and I smile, pulling my sleeve down to wipe a bit of leaking snot from her nose. A mother's gotta do what they gotta do right?

"Can w- we e- eat pelmeni n- now?" she asked while still gasping for air and I chuckled, nodding.

"Yes, we can," I stand up and grab some plates from the cupboard, sitting back down next to the small girl. "I also got some chips and chicken since you liked them so much," I tell her and reveal the schnitzel under the silver tray. Tatiana smiled once again and her tears we're dried.

God, I love this kid so much.

17

30/03/2022