“What does that mean?” She unplugged her phone and put it in her evening bag that held only lipstick and some cash. She didn’t carry a debit or credit card because she had neither. No bank account and no extra money made that easy enough.
“It means I’m sort of jelly over the way your Russian looked at you this afternoon. I know it pains you to hear it, but I’m going to say it anyway. That man may have been unfaithful, but he is living to regret it. He looked at you like you were life.” She grimaced as if in apology for what she said next. “You must know he isn’t going to give up without a fight. He’s going to try to convince you to forgive him. I don’t know how, but I saw the determination in him. You must have, too.”
“I did, and I do not understand it. What is the translation for ‘fabricated?’ Created, yes?”
“Yeah. Made up. Fake. Phoney. Why?”
“He said what I saw in his office that night was fabricated. He wants me to give him the opportunity to explain.” She’d have told Angela this after Alekzander had left this afternoon but Steve had texted for a ride.
Her friend frowned as she took Tanner out of the playpen to put him with Lekzi, who babbled a greeting. “To explain or lie? It’s hard to guess one’s motives once you don’t trust them anymore. What does your gut tell you?”
Sacha bit her lip. “To keep him away from my baby. But I also feel I should tell him about her. I have never felt like such an awful person.”
“Aside from that.”
Sacha sighed. “To get naked and ride him as if I am the star of the rodeo?”
Dark brown eyes popped wide, and then Angela was laughing uproariously. Sacha’s face steamed, but it was the truth. When Alekzander was around, her head was full of Lekzi, sex, or his betrayal.
“Holy shit.” Angela wiped at her eyes a minute later. She was laying on her back with Tanner crawling across her navel. “He’s been back in your life a couple of days, and you’re opening up like a pretty flower. Finally, you’re relaxing that guard, and I’m catching a glimpse of who you really are. Funny how the mate of your soul gets so deep that he can do that for you.”
Sacha merely nodded because it was true. There was no way she could convincingly denying it was Alekzander who was bringing this out in her.
“Don’t hide her anymore because I seriously think I’ll love her even more than I love the sheltered you.” Angela rolled onto her stomach and set up some foam blocks that the children knocked over as fast as she stacked them. “What was he like with you before he went stupid?”
Sacha sat at the table, remembering. “Warm, generous, loving. He was honest, so entertaining. He could be very charming and persuasive when he wanted his way. He was possessive.”
She nervously played with the silky material of her dress.
“He could also be intimidating, was very spoiled, but enjoyed spoiling others at the same time. He brought me to St. Barts once because he said he wanted to see what I looked like in a bikini.” She laughed softly. “We traveled around the island for two days looking for just the right thing for Alekzander’s housekeeper, a sweet older man. He ended up choosing a terribly loud and gaudy button-up shirt that I feared would offend. But when he gave it to Samnang, the man’s eyes lit up as if it were Prada. It was so sweet that Alekzander knew him well enough and cared enough to make the effort. Oh, and he’s spectacular in bed,” she snuck in because it was the first time she’d ever had the chance to brag about her daughter’s father. She jumped to her feet when she saw Angela regarding her with a speculative look.
“Amen. Sounds like a dream. Maybe you should hear him out. Was he spectacular in a dirty way or just really good?”
“Dirty and really good,” she murmured, too distracted by memories of how good and dirty Alekzander had been for Angela’s recommendation to register. She’d never had anyone to talk to about sex other than the man she’d had sex with.
“Bet you were a virgin when you met him.”
“I was. An inexperienced one. He used to enjoy shocking me,” she said as she agitatedly gathered up the text transcript of a lecture on Philosophy and Science of Human Nature she’d gotten from the course she was enjoying. “The way he talked about what we were doing while we did it was…very sexy. I never got used to that.” She blew out a hot breath. “He was very dirty.”
“Does he know you well?”
“Better than anyone.”
“What did he get you for your birthday?”
Emotion drifted up Sacha’s throat. “A figurine of a couple doing the Jive.”