I’ll Wait For You

They loved it, and wanted to include it. Arina suggested it as a bonus track, track number sixteen, and spent a few hours improving on her basic chords, along with backup vocals to make it hair raising, haunting and sad.

Elinor had been in tears afterwards, but the good kind. She didn’t consider herself to be a fantastic lyricist, far from it, but it made her feel special, wanted, to see how well the band took to the words, the emotion behind them, and how Kostya had instantly singled her out for this one purpose, when her cheering friends never gave them a second thought.

She headed over to the fridge, after staring at the gold-plated fountain in the center of the studio, with the tiny birds that were forever suspended in almost flight, intricately carved and fragile, with the water flowing over them. The babbling sound of the water soothed her, lulling her into a place of calm, uncoiling the knots of stress that had been pinching her skull.

When she took out a beer from the fridge, she saw Kostya’s reflection in the surface, as he came out of the elevator and sauntered toward her.

“Oh no, you’re not scaring me this time,” Elinor said, turning and waving a finger at him. “Because I see you.”

“Is that so?” He said, unperturbed. “Because I’ve never once tried to scare you.”

“That’s a lie and you know it,” Elinor replied haughtily, taking a moment to check out what Kostya chose to wear. A blue shirt with two buttons undone revealed a sliver of hair upon his chest. The cufflinks glinted with two copper buttons. The pants were black and business like, the shoes longer than a normal foot, with a curved and pointed shape at the end. His dark hair was slicked back, and his pale and piercing blue eyes seemed to glow in the indoor lighting. A white bag dangled from his hand.

The shadows on his cheekbones accentuated just how damn gorgeous he was, and a shiver of arousal made itself welcome in Elinor.

In comparison, she didn’t quite look the part, as she’d opted for pajamas to chill around for the whole evening. Her pajamas were not exactly mature and dignified adult pajamas, either, and Kostya regarded the pattern on them in great amusement. He now stood close enough for her to smell, and again, that intoxicating allure of mown grass and soft earth permeated her nostrils, as if being in his presence was like being comforted by nature itself.

“Is that a monkey wearing a goldfish bowl?” Kostya inclined his head to examine the pattern. “Out of this world, is what it says underneath. Nice.” Elinor grinned.

“It’s a space monkey. Because everybody knows that monkeys live in space.”

“To be fair, one of the first animals in space was a monkey, so it’s appropriate.”

“And then Yuri Gagarin, Russian astronaut extraordinaire, the first man in space.”

“That’s right.” Kostya smiled, pleased. He reached behind Elinor to take something out of the fridge. “I’ve been stocking this up with the cherry beers, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

“That’s fine with me. I like them. Well. I was planning to drink alone and maybe steal some prime time in front of the massive screen in the recreation room, and watch Vikings. I’m on season three now. And it’s brilliant.”

“Well, I only came to drop off yet more snacks,” Kostya said, hefting the white bag, which turned out to have a selection of crackers and cheese. “Arina was going on and on about how she couldn’t find any decent cheese anywhere. So when I was in the Netherlands a few days ago, I got a selection of cheese, along with a cooler box to preserve them in on the flight back to Chicago.”

“Wow. That’s… awfully considerate of you.”

“I know. It drives my family crazy. Doubly so because people love me for doing things like this, when they would see it as degrading.”

This piqued Elinor’s interest. “Why would they see something like this as degrading?”

“Well. It’s like giving out to charity for them.”

“I still don’t see the problem,” Elinor said, now heading towards the recreation room. Kostya finished unloading the cheese, placed the crackers in one of the storage cupboards, and followed her.

“They think if you didn’t claw your way up from poverty yourself to earn your position, you don’t deserve hand outs. Never mind that they, and everyone else in the family, were handed wealth from the start, or that charities actually do good things. It’s the campaign managers who make Fusion Chord look good. Really, it’s just a rotten apple.”

Elinor sensed aggravation under Kostya’s mild commentary of his family. “Sounds like you could do with some relaxing.”

“I could,” Kostya agreed.

Heart beating faster at the proposal she was thinking, Elinor blurted out, “Well, have you seen Vikings?”

“I’m afraid not. I don’t really have that much time to sit down and watch shows.”

“But you have time to sit and watch terrible people sing,” Elinor pointed out.

“Well, now, that’s different,” Kostya said, giving her a light nudge. “That’s still part of my job.”

“Fine. Well, you’re coming to watch the first episode of Vikings with me. No arguments. Come.”

Kostya Vasilev raised an eyebrow. “I suppose I shouldn’t resist the demands of a beautiful woman now, should I?”

“That’s right,” Elinor said, thrilled that he had called her that, and nervous at the same time.

Together, they went into the recreation room, and made themselves comfortable on a large purple sofa, which made an L shape when it swerved at the corner wall.

Elinor set up the television, nervous, because she wondered if Kostya would notice how the eyes of the main character in the show, Ragnar Lothbrok, had the same eerie iris contrast as the man now sat beside her.

When the show started, though, and they clinked their beers together, watching the dark and surreal opening sequence, Elinor at first sat near Kostya, but not touching. Then, with a huff, because he looked so welcoming and warm on his side, and she wanted an excuse to touch him, she moved closer, gruffly said, “Let’s make this a snuggle session if we’re going to do this properly,” and he quite willingly draped his arm around her.