The eyes of eons. [Slow Editing]

Chapter 19

     It was chilly and dark outside and I had no place to go. Like an idiot I was, I’ve been standing in the middle of the road for the past twenty minutes debating where to spend the night: To call Emily or maybe Marsha? Should I bother them? Should I go to the airport and stay there all night waiting for morning and then take the first available flight to Vermont? It would be the best to rent a car, but again, it was night and I was too tired to drive. Should I take a room in a hotel on the last money? Then where would I find money for the ticket? Decisions, decisions...There was no way I could win, doesn’t matter how I rotated the situation. 

     Absentmindedly I crossed the street going to the river, then shook my head in disbelieve at my own stupidity - I had no time for sightseeing - and spun the opposite direction to the city where I could catch a cab. 

     The passing car stopped in the middle of the street and somebody jump out from the driver’s seat. In the flashlights I could see only a figure of a man and when he advanced closer I recognized in the figure Victor. 

     “Do you have a place to go?” He went straight to business.

     I gave him a quick glance and looked away. “I do.”

     “Where are you going now?”

     “What difference does it make?” I sincerely bemused. Where in the wold did he learn that I was leaving.

     “Do you have a place where you can stay tonight?” He puffed visibly irritated.

     I couldn’t lie looking at his face. “I’ll manage,” I replied and continue strolling along the street.

     He huffed. “Alexandra, give me you bag. You are coming with me.”

     “No, no,” I waved him away calmly. “I said, I’ll manage.”

     “Doing what? Staying at the train station till noon or touring streets with your suitcase?”

     “It’s just till ten o’clock,” I muttered. “And if so, I don’t need to be rescued.”

     “Do you want to spend the rest of you life in the hospital?”

     “Nothing is going to happen with me, even if I’ll stay all night long outside!” I exclaimed.

      “Do you want to catch pneumonia on top of whatever caused your fever last time? Think of your mother. Do you believe she would be pleased to learn that you got sick?”

     That he brought Roberta into the argument, stunned me. Paralyzed with shock I couldn’t move and using that moment, Victor took from my hands my belongings and I watched him placing them into the trunk. 

     This was something I wasn’t ready for.  I tried to protest opening my mouth in a golden fish way, but Victor gently took me by the elbow and pushed me inside the car on the backseat. Then he closed the door behind me and I followed him with my stare when he walked around the car and took a seat behind the wheel. Without giving me another glance he started the car and drove away. 

     During the ride my eyes were down on my hands. It’s not like I was intimidated by Victor, more irritated, actually. It seemed like from one extreme to another. Mighty Victor Dark now took a charge of me and with him I felt myself like a child who needed to be preached. 

    A couple of times someone called him on the phone. At each buzz I would get all tense, afraid that one of those calls would be from Alex, but the conversations were about business not concerning his brother or me.  Frankly speaking, I couldn’t relax in his presence, everything: the traffic lights turned green when we drove by, the nasty yellow taxi cabs didn’t block his way, the pedestrians didn’t run in front of his car. We parked in the garage of his apartment building and even an elevator was there waiting for him.