Chapter 4

Alessio:

“So, boss actually hired a babysitter for you” Ivan asked raising an amused eyebrow at me. I had to fight back punching him in the face for his comment. But he was right to be amused. Hell, I wouldn’t have dropped the subject if it was him dealing with this.

“Unfortunately, and the girl didn’t even know that she was handling an adult. You should have seen her expression, she was about to burst into fire. I honestly thought that she would” I rolled my eyes making Ivan laugh. The two of us were at the gym, well, the gym was in the house. But it was still a gym, warming up before we started boxing. I needed something to let my anger out, and it seemed like Ivan was also in the same situation “what’s up with you?”

“What do you mean?” Ivan asked frowning in confusion.

“Oh, cut it, you’ve been quiet all morning. Not to mention that you barely ate anything, you wouldn’t even engage in any conversation. What’s wrong?” I asked my best friend. I knew that he had a fight with his girlfriend last night, everyone in the house heard their loud yelling last night “is it about Natasha?”

“She asked for a break last night. She doesn’t want to see me around her, nor does she want to talk to me” Ivan explained and I frowned in confusion. Natasha had grown up along outside as kids, she was practically the sister my mom didn’t give birth to. Her and Ivan have been a couple for as long as I can remember. Therefore, it surprised me that she would suddenly ask for a break “she believes that I cheated on her, despite trying time and time to tell her that I haven’t. It got out of control yesterday and the two of us hurt one another, I’m not sure how it would end up. But I’m also not stupid as not to see or realize that we’re hitting rock bottom”

“Come on, Ivan. The two of you have been together for years…”

“That is what’s bothering me! We’ve been together for years and she can’t find it in her to trust me” Ivan said looking me in the eye “if she can’t trust me, can’t trust that I wouldn’t even think of looking at a different girl whether or not she was around. What’s the point in all of this?”

“True, but you can’t blame the girl for being jealous or worried, Ivan. She’s not stupid, she knows what we see and do on a daily basis. The fact that she would fear you looking at a different girl. Yes, I understand that you’re angry, and I understand that you’re upset with what happened. But put yourself in her shoes, you knowing that you go to see girls which are naked, yes, it’s not your choice. It’s who we are, but she’s a woman…”

“I have been with her for years! If I wanted to look at a different girl, I would’ve when I was twenty, when we FIRST started dating. Not when I’m twenty-eight and we’ve been together for the past eight years” Ivan said stopping me. I sighed and put my hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently.

“Do you really not see that she’s not been okay lately?” I asked Ivan softly. I knew the reason to why Natasha’s been upset lately. The fact that she was frightened of Ivan’s reaction, her fearing leaving him if he finds out. Though I’ve assured her that he wouldn’t, that she would be treated as his princess and queen. That he loves her too deeply to leave her, she was still frightened, and that had her insecurities rise to the sky.

“What do you mean?”

“Natasha is pregnant, Ivan” I said looking my best friend in the eye. His brown eyes widened as he processed my words and I nodded smiling at him. Natasha had come to me a few weeks ago, asking me to take her to the hospital for not feeling well. I wouldn’t lie when I said that I haven’t noticed that she wasn’t okay. She was getting frequent nauseas, and I was also aware that her pressure dropped once. She claimed to be okay and refused to go to the hospital, but this time, it was her who asked to go.

The two of us found out about her pregnancy at the hospital that day, I couldn’t describe my happiness. She was also excited about it, until we found out that Ivan was shot. She had almost lost the baby that night and had asked me not to tell Ivan about it, as days went by, she grew frightened of telling him. Frightened that she could lose him if she told him, and respecting her decision, I kept her pregnancy from my best friend for her to be ready to tell him.

“Tasha? My baby, is pregnant?”

“Weren’t you two on break?” I smirked raising an eyebrow. Ivan glared at me and I had to fight back a laugh at his change of demeanor. He smiled and I wrapped my arms around him, giving him a hug before nodding at him to leave the gym and go to his girlfriend. The two had to make up, I knew that they wouldn’t be able to handle being away from one another for long anyway.

Ivan walked toward the door and left the gym without any other words, leaving me to do my own workout. The door to the gym was opened making me frown in confusion “Ivan, you couldn’t have possibly gone… oh, it’s you”

I raised an eyebrow at Kiara who stood in front of me. Her eyes met mine and her eyes remained cold and void of emotions, my own expression sharing the same coldness “we started off on a wrong foot, I apologize for being as rude as I was”

I raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t answer for a second before a laugh escaped my lips making her frown in confusion. I myself frowned in confusion at the fact that she was being serious about this “you can’t be seriously apologizing…”

“I am, I was rude, and it wasn’t your fault. So, I’m sorry…”

“You are one weird girl, but sure” I shrugged not knowing what to tell her. She raised an eyebrow at me. I smirked at her and raised my hands at her revealing my boxing gloves “interested?”

“In?” She asked frowning in confusion and I smirked. A devious plan coming into my mind at how I could scare her off, I had to get her off my back if I wanted to do what I wanted freely without having her report every move I made to dad. That would just be a pain in the ass and it was something that I didn’t want to handle or deal with.

“Boxing? I can teach you if you want”

“Against you? No, thank you” she said shaking her head and I smirked making her raise an eyebrow at me “no”

“Why not?”

“Well, for starters, I’d like to keep my body parts, and I don’t want to end up with a bruise or a broken limb” she said crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’ll be easy, we’ll just simply have a small fight after I’ve taught you a few tricks” I said throwing gloves at her. She had changed her clothes into grey sweat pants and a V-neck baby blue shirt. She shook her head at me and entered the ring ignoring the boxing bag which was behind me making me raise an eyebrow.

“Me not wanting to fight you, doesn’t mean that I don’t know how to fight, Alessio” she said rolling her eyes at me. My eyes met hers and I smirked following her into the ring as she hung the gloves on the ring’s ropes. Fisting her small hands making me raise an eyebrow and follow her in suit.

The two of us positioned ourselves before I punched, the punch was supposed to hit her right shoulder. However, I was surprised when she blocked the punch and twisted my hand for a second before letting it go and taking a step back. I raised an eyebrow at her and nodded, before going to attack again. This time she kneeled down and avoided my punch again before getting up and punching my abdomen.

This time, it was her turn to smile. Checking her nails, she looked at me and nodded. The two of us going all out on one another, punch after punch was either blocked or punched back, until she kicked my leg making me fall on the ground and getting on top of me, straddling my waist. Her arm raised and her hand fisted as if she was going to punch me in the face. My eyes widened and I breathed heavily as I looked at her dropping her hand on her lap. I smirked and sat up, wrapping my arm around her waist keeping her in place as I looked her in the eye “not the smartest move you could make, pretty face”

“I thought that I was dumb blonde?” she said raising an eyebrow at me. Her blonde hair which was initially tied in a ponytail was now open and loose over her shoulders as her hairband loosened and she eventually removed it and put the band on her wrist.