498"Rose? Are you home?" The blonde called out as she let herself into her best friend's apartment and made her way down the hall into the living room – where she found her curled up on the soft, brown sofa watching re-runs of The Office.
Lissa hated to admit it, but Rose looked a mess. Her usually gorgeous, soft brown hair was thrown back into a bun, and judging by the tangles and stray hairs, it looked like it had been for days. She was dressed in sweatpants and a dressing gown, wore odd socks and was surrounded by empty mugs and chocolate wrappers on the coffee table.
Now, this wouldn't have been unusual for Rose, had it just been a Sunday where she had nothing to do except lounge around or hang out with Lissa. What was unusual, though, was the fact that it was a Friday, and it was the tenth day in a row that Rose had spent like this.
"You look like shit," Lissa stated bluntly, standing in front of her best friend with her hands on her hips as though she was about to scold her child for not taking the chicken out of the freezer.
"Gee, thanks," Rose mumbled, as she sat up and shuffled over slightly to make room next to her for Lissa. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to check up on you. I haven't heard from you in days, I was starting to worry. What are you doing?"
"Watching The Office," Rose said as she gestured towards the TV, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's a good episode too. The one with the dinner party, you know – when Michael and Jan invite Pam and Jim over and it's really awkward."
Lissa was exasperated at her friend's nonchalance, and rubbed her fingers against her temple to relax herself.
"That's not what I meant and you know it. I meant, what are you doing? It's been ten days, Rose, and you're still locked up in here by yourself."
Rose closed her eyes momentarily, silently wishing that Lissa would just leave her be, but she knew her best friend well enough to know that that wasn't going to happen.
"I knew what you meant. I just didn't want to talk about it."
The thing was, that just ten days ago, Rose had decided to break up with her boyfriend of three years. Mason and Rose had met during their third year of college and had immediately hit it off, beginning to date not long after their initial meeting. When Rose decided that college was not for her, moaning something along the lines of 'how is she meant to pass when that bitch of a professor, Kirova, hates her guts', the pair had tried long distance for Mason's final year until he moved to Pennsylvania to be with her. It had been going well, with Rose even planning on moving into Mason's apartment, but she couldn't help the niggling feeling that something just wasn't right.
She had always thought that love was supposed to be this big, grand feeling. She thought that love was supposed to be this powerful addiction, where nothing else mattered besides the two of you. It was supposed to make you feel warm, whole, on top of the world.
Rose knew that you couldn't force love. It was either there or it wasn't. And she knew that if it wasn't there, she needed to admit it.
And that's what she did.
Mason made her happy, sure. But he didn't make her stomach flutter with butterflies every time he entered the room. He didn't make time stand still when it was just the two of them. She knew that she didn't love him. But she knew that he loved her. And she couldn't string him along if it wasn't genuine anymore.
"Rose, I know you're sad about Mason, but you can't do this to yourself." Lissa said sympathetically, her concern and sadness for Rose clear in her tone. "You can't lock yourself up in here just because you feel guilty."
Rose sighed and let her head fall into her hands, before leaning back against the sofa.
"Maybe it was a mistake."
"Pfft as if, Rose!" Lissa exclaimed. "You've been miserable for months, even I saw that. You didn't love him. You didn't love him in the same way that Christian and I love each other, at least. You cared for him, but you didn't love him."
Rose couldn't help but smile – having known Lissa since kindergarten, they knew each other so well. It was as though the two of them knew exactly what each other was thinking or feeling. Rose had found it difficult to explain about the breakup at first, but Lissa knew exactly how she felt.
"I just feel so bad. Not just in myself but for Mason, too. He must hate me."
"Rose, you did the right thing. You would have ended up marrying him."
Rose tried to raise an eyebrow to show her discontent, but failed. She always thought it was so cool when people did that, and it was a sore point for her that she couldn't. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"Yes! You would have settled and married him and then spent the rest of your life being unhappy. Trust me. You made the right decision." Lissa reached out and grasped Rose's hand. "He didn't make you happy. You didn't glow when he entered a room. You need to find someone that makes you light up like the sun. Someone that makes you feel so happy you think you might burst. Did Mason do that?"
"No…"
"I rest my case."
"But what if I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life? You just said Mason would have married me – what if no one else wants to and I'm destined to just be a third wheel in your relationship forever…" Rose stood up from the sofa and began pacing in front of it, chewing at a hangnail as she spoke. "No one's going to be interested - I'm past my prime as it is!"
Lissa couldn't help the choked laugh that escaped her lips. "Don't be ridiculous Rose, you're only 24!"
Rose stopped pacing and turned to face her best friend, pointing an accusatory finger in her direction. "Easy for you to say, you've already been married for a year!"
"Yes and as I said, Christian and I love each other. I can't say the same for you and Mason."
Exasperated, Rose sighed and flopped down onto the sofa cushions once more.
"Listen Rose, please don't worry. You're going to be fine. You just need to get out of this funk. You've been cooped up in here for over a week."
"But –"
"No – you're leaving the house whether you like it or not. I bet you've not changed out of those sweatpants for days either." Rose's guilty look that flashed across her face told Lissa that she was right. "Listen, I'm supposed to go to yoga tonight but if you want we can go out instead? Why don't we go to Pyramid?"
"No Liss, I don't want to go to a club!" Rose exclaimed, bringing her hands to her face and rubbing her temples. "Besides, Adrian will be there and he'll just spend all night trying to get me to go out with him."
"So why don't you? Maybe give him a chance now you're not with Mason anymore."
"I don't know how I feel about him." Rose said truthfully. Rose and Lissa had met Adrian one night while they were out at a bar, and after flirting with Rose the whole evening, he seemed to have become a permanent member of their group. A fact that Rose couldn't quite work out if it was a good or bad thing. Adrian was a lovely man, despite his dependence on alcohol and cigarettes, and brought a sense of light-heartedness and humour that was perhaps lacking in the group. He hadn't exactly made his desire to get into Rose's pants subtle, however, and spent most of the time while they were together trying to persuade her into his bed.
"Please come, Rose," Lissa pleaded, bringing Rose out of her thoughts.
"No, Liss. I'm not going."
"Well then why don't you come with me to yoga if you don't want to go out-out?"
"Nah I'm not going there, your instructor's a fucking creep!"
"Who, Stan? No he-"
"Yes he is! He hated me! He was always picking on me, telling me I was doing it wrong when I know for a fact I was doing it right. And he wouldn't stop staring at that girl's tits in the front either. Put me right off."
Lissa chuckled and shook her head at Rose, remembering her hour-long rant after the last time she dragged her to her yoga class.
"I was actually going to say that he's not there anymore. We've got a new instructor now, quite fit actually."
"Liss! Weren't we just talking about how you were married?"
"So? A girl can look can't she? Besides, you'll understand when you see him," she added with a wink. "That's it. No excuses – you're coming with me to yoga."
Much to Rose's annoyance, Lissa had finally convinced her to join her at yoga that night, practically dragging Rose into the bathroom and forcing her to take a shower and change into her workout gear. Rose thought that Lissa would have practically bathed her herself if she hadn't agreed, so she knew that protesting was a wasted effort.
It's not that Rose didn't enjoy yoga, much to the contrary, actually. Rose was naturally gifted when it came to physical activity or exercise – she had reached her black belt in Taekwondo by the time she was ten, only two years after starting her lessons, in fact. However, she never really enjoyed going to workout classes or anything along those lines, simply because she always found it too easy.
Which is why Lissa's previous instructor, Stan, had pissed her off so much! She knew for a fact that she was carrying out the poses with perfection and precision. So when he had picked on her for what felt like the hundredth time in the space of ten minutes, she stormed out, sticking a very particular finger in the air as she went, never to return.
She was glad to know that Lissa had a new yoga instructor, even if it didn't completely dispel her reluctance, and frustration, at going.
As soon as the pair entered the studio that evening, she saw him - the new instructor - and Rose was gobsmacked.
The words 'holy crap' instantaneously flashed across her mind as she first laid eyes on him, and she couldn't ignore the sudden increase of her heart rate. It was almost as though he had been chiselled out of stone by an artist. And a perfectionist at that! Stood at the front of the studio, talking to a few of the ladies here for the class, was a muscular, burly, hunk of a man, who had to be at least 6'5", if not 6'7". His dark hair was just long enough that it could be tied neatly at the nape of his neck, probably reaching to just above his shoulders had it not been tied back. A few strands had escaped from their hold in the hair-tie and had fallen forward messily, but somehow he had made it look intentional. They framed his face in a way that only accentuated his strong jaw and defined cheekbones. Rose instantly felt drawn into his smiling, dark brown eyes that were, strangely, staring intently right in her direction as she stood in front of the door of the studio. Rose's breathing hitched as a sudden image of those darkened eyes staring down at her, as their writhing bodies tangled together under her bedsheets, flashed across her mind.
"Stop staring, Rose, you'll burn a hole in his head," Lissa chuckled, frustratingly disrupting Rose's attention on what was, quite frankly, the most gorgeous man she had ever laid her eyes on.
"I, uh, I'm-" She managed to stutter. She was practically speechless!
Lissa could do nothing but laugh as she dragged Rose by the arm to the back of the studio, noticing the fact that the pair still hadn't broken eye contact. Rose reluctantly dragged her gaze away as she and Lissa dropped their bags in the corner of the room. Now, instead of staring at the intense, sparkling eyes of a God, she was now looking into Lissa's jade green ones. Lissa knew exactly what her friend was thinking, and she couldn't stop the knowing glint twinkling in her eyes.
"I told you, didn't I?" She grinned.
"Fuck me, he's gorgeous…" Rose muttered, her head involuntarily turning back towards the front of the room.
"I'm sure he wouldn't say no."
"Huh?"
"You said 'fuck me', I'm sure he'd take you up on it if you asked… at least that's one way to get over Mason!"
Rose was about to retort to Lissa's crude comment, when the subject of their conversation suddenly spoke up, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Okay everyone, are we ready to get started?" He asked, beginning the class.
"Holy shit…" The words slipped out of Rose's mouth before she could stop them.
"What?" Lissa questioned, as the pair edged closer to the front of the studio, finding a space and setting down their yoga mats adjacently.
"He has a fucking accent and everything…"
"You're looking a bit flustered, Rose," Lissa chuckled, as she and Rose collected their things at the end of the class. Rose had been blushing red all lesson, squirming under the intense gaze of the instructor, and the usually outspoken girl had been rendered speechless.
"Stop it, Liss. He's way out of my league," Rose hissed, unable to consider being on even remotely the same level as him.
"As if! Have you seen your body?"
"Well, yes, but – I mean, have you seen him?"
"Yes I have seen him. I've seen him staring at you all lesson."
"No he hasn't," Rose pouted. Okay, yes, he had been staring at her, but Rose didn't want to think anything of it. He was probably just wondering who the new girl in the class was, right?
"He has, Rose. He's barely taken his eyes off you for more than five seconds. Don't tell me you haven't noticed."
"He probably stares at all the girls…"
"I don't think so - he hasn't stopped staring at you the whole time. And he's definitely not staring at me."
"You're imagining things," Rose said, rolling her eyes in exasperation, when suddenly she felt a presence behind her. Judging by her body's involuntary, tingly reaction and the smirk plastered on Lissa's face in front of her, she had a feeling she knew exactly who it was that crept up on them. And his scent was amazing…
She stuck her tongue out at the blonde in front of her, before slowly turning and coming face to face with pure chest muscle. Tilting her head back and raising her gaze, Rose's breathing hitched as her eyes met his soft brown ones. He grinned down at her, causing her stomach to tighten and heart rate increase, before averting his gaze to Lissa's.
"Vasilisa. Nice effort today," he said, his thick accent rolling off his tongue and making Rose's knees feel weak. He nodded to Lissa politely once, before looking back at Rose – his grin emerging onto his face once more. "We haven't met before, I'm Dimitri. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself at the beginning of class."
"Rose," she barely choked out. Honestly, what was wrong with her? She was never this nervous around anyone.
"Ah, Roza. It's certainly a pleasure to meet you."
A pleasure indeed, she thought.
"Rose, not Roza."
"Sorry, my mistake. Roza is the Russian equivalent for Rose," he informed her with a wink. So he was from Russia... "You haven't been here before, have you? At least not while I've been teaching here. Tonight was your first time?"
Rose was about to answer, attempting to squash down her nerves, when Lissa spoke up behind her. "She just broke up with her boyfriend; I was trying to get her out the house. So yeah, she's single…"
"Lissa!" Rose exclaimed, spinning round to find her friend attempting to hide a smirk. Lissa feigned ignorance, shrugging her shoulders. Rose didn't miss the twinkle in her eye, however. With a frustrated huff, she turned back around.
"Well, I hope you'll consider coming back. Next week?" Dimitri queried.
"She'll be here," Lissa interjected, yet again. Rose was definitely going to have to have a conversation with her…
"Good," he said, with a certain optimism and sincerity lacing his tone of voice. "I'll be looking forward to seeing more of you."