Page 44 of His Smile
“I wish he was back,” she admitted quietly.
She could sense Mosca stiffen next to her and feel his eyeson the side of her face.
“He is fine,” he said, seemingly sensing what she wasthinking. “Knowing him, he is probably just staying focused so he can come homefaster.”
Nodding, she blinked and actually focused on the screenahead of her for the first time. “You want to watch either a melodramaticKorean drama about a female chef falling in love with her boss, the head chef,or do you want to watch a movie about aliens taking over a space station?”
Mosca cast her a mocking look that told her to take a guess.
“Alien carnage it is then,” she pressed play and grabbedanother slice of pizza.
Chapter 16
The voicemail from Rahina told him not to look at any of hersocial media. It went on to instruct him that she had a surprise for him whenhe got home and to hurry up with whatever he was doing. If only she knew howmuch he was trying to make that happen. Roman was in his second week in thishell hole, and his patience had worn down to its last degree—that was until hewatched the video feed.
Roman had every intention of playing along with Rahina’srequest. From the brief phone calls, he had with her over the past week and ahalf he knew she had been busy with her “new career” as she called itand she was eager to unveil to him all that had happened while he was away.Being away from her like this while so much was happening to her surprisedRoman on how much it affected him. He wanted to be there with her, he wanted towatch the determined young woman fight for her place in the dance world insteadof here on a hot fucking island watching Boris and his father, Vladimir,increase their own family and set off a small fucking war. With his attentiondiverted to Boris and Vladimir’s mess, Roman honestly didn’t have time tobrowse Rahina’s accounts. But once he was instructed not to, Roman couldn’tadmit that he hadn’t found his mind wandering with curiosity towards heractivities. Carving out a few moments alone, Roman smirked as he logged intohis security feed account. She never said he couldn’t spy on her. Inwardly helaughed at the thought of having that argument with her, and it immediatelyjust pissed him off. He had to get this shit wrapped up and get off thisfucking island.
It was late back in Boston, and the video feed only showedhim the dark living room and angles of the upstairs landing heading to therooms. Rewinding it, he watched as he watched her come and go throughout theday, quickly rewinding to previous days. Same shots of her walking through theliving room, eating something in the kitchen, a few scenes he actually slowed downto see her playing with his dogs in the living room. Even a scene he took greatpleasure in where both of her sisters sat in his living room laughing andtalking as Rahina stood up near the TV, in front of them both, telling anoverly animated story about her nearly causing a fire in her apartment yearsago. Rewinding it further, wanting to see more of the lively girl he leftbehind, wanting to hear more of her voice just for a couple of moments longer,he stopped at one scene in particular. The smile from his face slowlydisappearing as he watched Mosca lead her swaying body up the stairs. Stoppinghalfway up the stairs, she had mumbled something too low for the cameras topick up. He watched Mosca give her a tired smile and tug at her hand urging herto resume. The scene was so familiar it jabbed at his soul, it was the samescene that transpired between them when she cried in his arms that night.Shifting his eyes away from them on the stairs, Roman could see familiar shapeddark bottles lined up along his coffee table next to an empty open pizza box.Once she reached the top of the landing, she swayed against Mosca laughingtiredly, dropping her head to his shoulder. Her face was covered by her longdark hair which hung like a messy curtain around her shoulders and down herback.
“Fine,” Mosca said. Bending at the knees, he captured thedancer by the back and scooped her legs from underneath her holding her longbody in his arms.
Lazily her head lolled back, and Roman could see herupside-down drunk grin as Mosca carried her into the master bedroom. There wereno cameras in his bedroom, and Roman had no choice but to watch the open doorthrough to his darkened bedroom with a slow-burning impatience. Minute byminute, he let the video slowly creep by, refusing to fast forward, as hewaited. Finally, after five of the longest minutes he experienced, Mosca walkedout of the room, leaving the bedroom door still open. Gathering the emptybottles, plates, and pizza box Mosca opened the door the backyard on his way tothe kitchen. Hannibal and Genghis raced up the stairs to his bedroom door asMosca turned off the downstairs’ lights and left.
Rewinding the scene, Roman re-watched Mosca’s face as hepicked her up and as he left the room and he paused the feed on his enforcer.
Rage boiled inside of Roman, and he knew it was unfounded.Mosca did nothing. Rahina technically did nothing, but the image of chokingboth of them in vastly different ways didn’t abate. Shutting his laptop with asnap, he looked out to the darkness where he could hear but not see the oceanwaves, he needed to get back.
~*~
Pressing play on the video, Roman watched as the cameraslowly zoomed out from black, revealing a line of dancers, female and male alla multitude of races, all lined up together leaning on one another with theireyes closed in a dramatic group pose. The females all wore a long sleeve blackleotards while the males were shirtless and all wearing black tights. As thecamera panned out to fully reveal the line of eighteen dancers, the musicbegan, and their eyes opened at once. Breaking away in perfect choreographyfrom the woman standing in the middle, she danced alone in the dark room lit bytheatrical warm lighting. Her dancing seemed purposely tired, and her facialexpression complimented the lethargic moves. The camera panned away lower tothe ground as a new set of black satin point slippers danced in from the right.The feet moved with deft speed and in rhythm to the music. Slowly sweeping upthe long bronze legs, the new dancer was revealed. Her long black hair wascoiled in a neat large bun at the base of her head, her leotard looked paintedto her long torso and full breasts. The other dancer who was now dressed in aSpanish dress, smiled gratefully at the newcomer and met the dancer’s extendedhand. Dramatically the camera spun around them and their outfits swapped.Dancing with a vigor she didn’t possess before the previous dancer twirled andleapt away with a smile leaving the newcomer centerstage. The music changed tothe familiar world-renowned Bizet’s Habanera from Carmen. With her black hairnow streaming down her back and a crown of blood red roses in her hair, theradiant dancer twirled in her off the shoulder dress as she fluttered herruffled skirts. Coming up from behind her, a familiar man dressed also incostume, clasped her waist and the music stopped as they stood frozen in apose. The dancers from earlier ran out from left and right of the stage andassembled in laughs and smiles around the two dancers as the upbeat musicwashed over them and the video’s text overlaid the screen. “Ephemeralwelcomes two new principals to the family, Rahina Chopra and Jason Davies.”
Pride cooled some of the burning need of urgency that hadplagued Roman for the past few days. Today was the thirteenth day since heleft, just under the two weeks mark he promised her when he left. It took allof him to make it happen, and he was exhausted, but Roman could not ignore theinsistent nagging feeling in his gut. He could sense Rahina’s disappointmentthat he hadn’t returned yet, as her text had lost their frequency and bubblytone. No longer caring if he broke his promise, Roman clicked on the next link,pulling up an article about her and Jason’s introduction to Ephemeral. Thearticle explained how Rahina and Jason would be taking over the company’sremaining Carmen performances while the previous dancer would be moving to anew upcoming contemporary performance Ephemeral will be releasing.
Are there any hard feelings between you and Maria Lanesabout you taking over her part in Carmen? The reporter asked.
“No not at all, actually Maria was more than happy tomove on from it since contemporary has and always will be where she dominates.I don’t know how she does it, I am terrible at contemporary. I saw pieces ofher practice for their upcoming performance Blitz, and I have to say I wasblown away by what they’re doing.”
After Carmen, I see that you and Jason will be working onDante’s new very hush hush piece Moon Princess. Care to share just a littlemore info about that, I am dying to know?
“Well you will just have to wait a bit longer, but I amallowed to tell you one piece of info that no one else knows. I will not onlybe dancing with Jason but with Yuri Gosev as well.”
Wow. I mean this is huge. You will be dancing alongsidethe notorious Russian bad boy of ballet. Are you telling me Yuri has signed onto Ephemeral as well?
“No,” the reporter went on to describe Rahina’s beautifulsmile and laugh as she assured her, he has not. “You and I both know Yuri Gosevwill never let himself be tamed by one company. He is on a temporary contractwith us, just for Moon Princess.”
I know that you have danced with him before, how do youfeel dancing with him again as well as one could say his complete oppositeJason Davies at the same time.
“I am excited to work with him, and you are right; theyare complete opposites. Dancing with Jason is like dancing with the love ofyour life. You feel safe, protected, and completely in love. Dancing with Yuriis what I can only imagine is what an affair feels like.”
Please tell me more, I am at the edge of my seat.
“Dancing with Yuri feels like something torrid and taboo.Its heart crashing, breathless, and feels totally dangerous. I guess I couldsay it’s like dancing with lightning.”
I believe that line right there should be the tagline forthe Moon Princess. And lastly, everyone is talking about how you walked away fromThe Boston Ballet Company because you weren’t given the principal positioneveryone feels you deserved. People are saying that their members are not happyand they have seen an astronomical influx of returned tickets for the upcomingseason and heavily reduced ticket sales. What is your opinion on that?
“The Boston Ballet Company has a lot of wonderful dancersand friends of mine. I know that their upcoming performances will be just asgood as they have always been.”
Roman couldn’t help but appreciate the bland statement.Looking out the dark window of the jet, he unseeingly stared past his ownreflection as he thought of her.
