czarina sokolova | resort | olympic pairs skater | rhys cadell, sasha sidorov
“Hit me again and I’ll hit you with a lawsuit more expensive than that poor excuse of a nose job.”
Seemingly amused by this threat or the poorly-constructed insult thrown in along with it, Czarina took a moment to pause, crossing her arms and offering an amused smirk. “Hmm? Threaten me again and you'll be the one needing a nose job.” She gestured around the room before allowing her icy stare to narrow, falling dead in his eyes once again. “Don’t forget who’s trespassing on whose property. I’m sure a little bitch boy like you has had to pay off an allegation or two, no?”
This seemed to sober him up enough to make his pleadings bearable and to catalyze movement as far as this stranger getting the hell out of her apartment. As she stood up, she looked him up and down with no fear of being caught doing so. She had a disdainful look on her face as if his shredded figure was nauseating, as if he was the only man here that seemed to have a more stable relationship with protein powder than with his family. The difference was that there wasn’t a lingering question of if she’d slept with any of the others. With them, she could simply scowl at them in the hallway and not think anything more of it. Even the idea that something had maybe happened between them–no matter how drunk or incoherent they were–would surely keep her up at night. The prospect was a living nightmare.
Despite her natural inclination towards getting lost in her head, the annoying stranger in her hotel room was making it impossible to forget he was still there. “You wouldn’t happen to have a Colombian blend to go, would you?”
In many ways, he reminded her of a young child. He seemed to thrive off of everyone telling him how cute he was and used his looks and charm to manipulate others into doing things for him that he should have been capable of doing for himself. Czarina could never imagine coexisting with someone like that, let alone pretending to be in love with them. Even for money, even for connections: nothing in the world could make a man like this one attractive to her. She turned to face him, straightening the front of her clothing with the back of her hands. She offered him an annoyed, sarcastic look, fire in her eyes. “Only if I’m throwing it on your bare skin to burn you.”
Not long after, it finally seemed to occur to the man that his presence wasn’t welcome in Czarina’s space. She was running late as it was, and this wasn’t a worthy excuse for being late to practice. She’d seen his type before: no sense of time, no sense of urgency, no desire or passion for anything other than chasing cheap thrills. His family was probably rich and had given him everything he wanted and nothing he needed. His kind always left a bad taste in her mouth, especially given how much passion, drive, and work it had taken for her to get to where she was. He’d gotten there for free, and all he had to show for it was a willingness to let people help him far too easily and a few cheesy pickup lines.
“I’d inquire about breakfast, but I believe I’ve sampled enough of what a menu comprised of me-n-you would be,” Rhys threw over his shoulder as his hand stopped on the door knob, “have a good… whatever the bloody hell today is.”
Despite her relief at the fact that he had left, Czarina was confused regarding the fact that he hadn’t left with a jacket. It left her to believe that either someone else had taken his jacket and he hadn’t yet realized, or that he resided in this building as well. Both options were equally undesirable because they provided equal chances at him coming back to her room at a later date and time. Yet, when she poked her head out of the doorway to make sure he was really leaving, his lack of sense of direction reassured her that he surely didn’t live in this building. Still, that left more questions in her mind regarding what his next moves were going to be. It was in the negatives outside and he was barely wearing anything. Despite her general intrigue and amusement at the prospect of his limited options, Czarina forced herself to concentrate and focus on the day she had ahead of her.
It wasn’t until much later in the day that the events of the morning returned to her mind, not so much by choice but by necessity. After all of her workouts and practice sessions were over and she’d had a bit of time to herself, Czarina made her way to the other side of the resort to where the business offices were held. She had a meeting with some of the wealthiest men in the world regarding resort business. She wasn’t there because of her intelligence or her sly business tactics, but merely because of her ability to speak different languages necessary for making international arrangements a success. Somewhere along the line she’d been promoted to a position where she did more work and received worse treatment. She’d supposedly been ‘rewarded’ after replacing the ideas and concepts of the demented elderly man who’d been on the board with her own, leading them to one of the biggest successes in the resort’s history. That was three years ago, and she still wasn’t receiving any sort of success, respect, or progress in this position. Still, the way she’d come into this line of work was complicated, and she quite literally could not quit or start over elsewhere. Because of this, she simply made due with her circumstances and worked as hard as she could hoping for eventual change.
Much to her surprise, she arrived to find several of the usual members in their seats with extra chairs pulled up to the table. “I didn’t know we were expecting company,” she said simply, sitting in her normal chair and pulling her items out of her briefcase.
“Well, why would you?” One of the older gentlemen looked at her scornfully. A different one, one of the milder men, filled her in.
“The Cadells are coming today,” he said, as if she was supposed to know who they were. She didn’t, and she really couldn’t care less. Money didn’t earn Czarina’s respect.
“Oh,” she mumbled gently, waiting for the meeting to begin. Much to her disbelief, the Brit from her bed that morning came tumbling through the glass doors looking like a tornado had hit him. His clothes and hair were disheveled and all of his items seemed to spill out on the table before he’d even sat down. Her first impression was that he’d somehow tracked her down and was coming to hash out some sort of relationship drama he’d created in his head (it wouldn’t be the first time) but given the way he was dressed and the items he’d brought with him, she quickly realized the reality of what was happening was much worse.
“Rhys, meet Czarina, our translator. She took over for Stan a while back.”
“We’ve met,” she stated simply, trying to lighten up the defensiveness in her tone. Not so much for his sake but for the sake of her job.
“We’ll discuss more once the others get here, but we thought you might want to take her with you for your father’s latest projects.”
Typically she would have rejected the idea immediately, her body language and expression made this very clear, but she easily noticed the confusion on his face and realized it seemed he had no more of an idea of what they were talking about than she did. Daddy issues…she thought, trying not to let the smirk creep onto her painted lips as she sat in thought, waiting for the others to arrive.
Winter 
Day 
Blizzard
