I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 31 - Twin Pools of Lust

"I hate to say it, but you're right, Lissa. It is boring without Rose around."

Christian and Lissa were lying together on the love seat in the Church attic. It was Sunday evening so they could have been in one of their dorm rooms if they'd wanted, but Lissa had been irritable for days, so Christian had suggested they visit their old love haunt for something different. They'd made out for a while, but even that hadn't seemed to put Lissa into a good mood.

"Nothing seems to happen around here anymore," Lissa agreed with a grumble. "It's just school, eat and sleep. There's hardly any parties, Adrian is still at that rest home detoxing or whatever he's doing, and Rose is off in Russia having the time of her life."

"Why don't you call her and catch up?" Christian suggested.

"Nah. She'll be in Baia at Dimitri's family's place, and she likes it to be all about them on the weekends. She'll call tomorrow after dinner when she's back at St. Basil's," Lissa said sounding flat. "Just like she does every Monday."

Christian was worried about Lissa. She'd barely been using her magic, acknowledging the need for the darkness within her to abate, but it didn't seem to be helping. While she wasn't volatile or uncaring like she had been earlier, she wasn't herself, either. She was listless - lacking the joie de vivre she had when Rose was around. Lissa was really missing Rose.

Loathe as he was to admit it, Christian was too. Whether unconsciously or by design, things always happened when Rose was around. She was the life of the party, the one doing all the best pranks, the student who could be relied upon to introduce some levity into a class or be cooking up some crazy, yet crazy fun, scheme. Without her presence time just passed. Slowly.

It probably didn't help that it sounded as though Rose was having a great time in Russia. Every Monday when she rang, there were stories of ice-skating, snow fights, pool competitions and culinary disasters where Olena was trying to teach Rose how to cook on the weekends. Rose was still a little shy about speaking about her relationship with Dimitri, so a lot of the stories involved Viktoria, Dimitri's sister, who was also in her senior year. While she hadn't outright said it, Christian knew Lissa felt like she'd been replaced. He didn't think that was the case, but Lissa had never had to share Rose with anyone before, and now that two Belikovs were claiming the bulk of Rose's time and attention, Lissa was struggling.

It was a month since Rose and Dimitri had arrived at St. Basil's, and they'd settled into a routine. Monday mornings they'd drive back from Baia with Viktoria in time for their morning combat class. Monday through Thursday Dimitri, Rose and Viktoria would train after school before dinner, and Tuesday through Friday Rose and Dimitri would also work out before school in the mornings. Monday nights Rose would lie on the bed she shared with Dimitri and ring Lissa at St. Vlad's, while Dimitri sat next to her playing with her hair and planning his lessons for the week. Tuesday nights were Guardian pool comp or movie nights, Wednesdays had become the evening for their weekly dinner out with Abe, Thursday nights Viktoria and Rose would binge-watch Gilmore Girls while Dimitri did an afternoon shift, and straight after school on Fridays, the three of them would leave to spend the weekend in Baia.

Despite Inna's increasingly blunt hints that she'd like to join them in Baia one weekend, no invitation had been issued. Viktoria had tentatively raised the issue with Dimitri who'd outright refused - saying that if Viktoria wanted to take Inna to Baia for the weekend, they'd be catching the train there and back because he'd take Rose to Novosibirsk that weekend instead. Viktoria was annoyed that when she told Inna she could visit for a weekend when Dimitri was in Novosibirsk, suddenly a visit was no longer of any interest.

Inna was always particularly bitchy on Monday mornings. Viktoria and Rose would return in good spirits - laughing about the happenings of the weekend. Discussion about the awesome parties held at school in their absence, no matter how exaggerated, didn't seem to tempt them to stay for the following weekend.