Standing there admiring my extra bit of self, I tried to remember when last, I actually had a period. My life had been so busy that I’d lost track. I remembered having bought a pregnancy test a few months before. I started my period before I could use it, so I put it in a drawer.
You may as well use it, Angel. Better safe than sorry.
I put on the kettle and peed on the stick while I waited for the water to boil. I left it on the bathroom counter and went to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. I wasn’t stressing. The test was really just a way to reassure me that I was being paranoid.
Coffee in hand, I strolled back to the bathroom about five minutes later. It was then that my life changed forever. Instead of one line, there were two. Two!
“No, this can’t be right,” I said out loud as if that would make a difference to the results of the pregnancy test.
The bloody thing must have been old. Surely that’s what it was. I placed the coffee mag on the counter, found my shoes, and drove to the drugstore where I bought a new test. I took it as soon as I got home.
Fuck! Two lines, again!
I fumbled in my bag for my phone and dialed Josie’s number.
“Hey, what did you forget?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“What? But I just left your place. What did I miss?”
“I took a test. All your fat talk got me thinking. Josie, I’m fucking pregnant!”
“Calm down. I’m on my way.”
20
MAX
The ice-cold water pelted my sweaty brow, bringing with it much-needed relief. Vlad and I had gotten into a spirited game of squash and my muscles were hot and aching. The physical exertion took my mind off the fuck up my business life was becoming, if only briefly.
I was no longer in charge of my own creation. Or that’s what it felt like. The shipments from Moscow were arriving thick and fast and I had no option but to turn a blind eye. Grigoriy had made good on his promise to line the pockets of his associates. Everyone was on the winning end. Everyone but me.
Sure, I was being compensated for my silence, but at what ultimate cost? If I wanted to live a life of crime I would have stayed in Russia. Now, thanks to Grigoriy, I was tiptoeing on thin ice.
“I don’t mean to state the obvious, Cuz, but the shipments of happy dust are getting a tad much,” Vlad said while we were getting dressed.
“It hasn’t escaped my attention.”
“What are we going to do about it?”
“Stand on our head and whistle dixie through our asses. Maybe that will change Grigoriy’s mind.”
“Ah, so we’re going with sarcasm, are we? Yeah, that’s not helpful, Max.”
“Neither is you stating the obvious, Vlad.”
“I was hoping the squash game would get rid of that prissy mood you’ve been in since you returned from Moscow. I guess I was being overly optimistic.”
“I’m sorry, Vlad. I know you mean well. I’m just so fucking frustrated. At this rate, we may as well go back to Russia. At least there Grigoriy has the cops in his pocket. Out here, I’m a sitting duck.”
“We are. I’m in this too, remember.”
“I know. And that makes me feel even more like a sack of shit. I brought you and Inessa to America to get you away from the shit. What a fucking joke.”
“Don’t worry about me, Max. I had no misgivings about Grigoriy’s ultimate plans for us. You’re the cockeyed optimist.”
“I don’t know what I was hoping for.”