The Only Woman to Defy Him(18)

                ‘I doubt it.’ Alina more than doubted it.

                ‘Well, at least you’ve still got the restaurant. Are you there tonight?’

                Alina nodded and then held her breath, knowing what was coming next.

                ‘I might have a few friends over when you get back. Just letting you know.’

                Great!

                It would be more than a few people. Cathy had parties all the time and Alina was desperate for a place of her own and was frantically saving towards that goal. Sydney prices, though, were terribly expensive.

                Perhaps she should have just faked it with Demyan for a little while longer, Alina thought as the sound of Cathy and her boyfriend having sex filled the small apartment.

                Demyan.

                She wondered just how cross he was.

                Worse, she wondered if he’d even deign to note her leaving with a shrug.

                He was still there in her mind that evening as she was getting ready for work.

                She pulled on her black skirt and T-shirt and loosely tied back her hair. There was no hope of make-up staying on in a busy restaurant so Alina didn’t bother with it. The restaurant, though exclusive, had a casual ambience and the waitressing staff were all young and friendly. Most of them were students, all of them, actually...

                Except Alina.

                Alina pulled on her sandals and headed for her shift. She took the bus as parking in the city was far too expensive.

                Sydney was beautiful but never more so than now. European royalty was visiting and the new hotel and casino were opening soon and the place throbbed with excitement. Tonight the restaurant would be crammed to bursting with the beautiful and well heeled.

                Before starting her shift, Alina checked her phone, wondering if her father had made contact yet.

                Still no.

                ‘Cheer up, Alina!’ Pierre, the manager, said as he briefed the evening staff on the house specials and dishes of the day. He wasn’t being kind, he was telling her. ‘Our guests don’t need to know that the waitress is having trouble with her love life.’

                Love life? Pierre couldn’t know but that was a rather black joke and there, an hour and a day after she’d written Demyan that note, Alina knew the real reason she’d walked out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

                Demyan.

                The man himself.

                Yes, Alina loathed confrontation and she’d never known a man as confronting as him.

                As sexually confronting as him, Alina amended as she pushed out a smile and got on with her evening.

                Clearing a table around nine, her mind was so conflicted she wanted to just sit down and put her head in her hands to get it straight.

                Yes, she was naïve and might have acted as if she’d seen it all before yesterday morning when those women had left...

                She just didn’t want to see it all again.

                ‘Alina!’ She could hear Pierre calling to her as she came to a painful truth.

                She was already jealous of whoever Demyan was bedding.