Chapter 92: Chapter 92

(Avery’s Thoughts)

My mind couldn’t fathom the last words I hear from Dmitri at the elevator. I had sex with him, yes. I cheated. I am a cheater and I am the worse. I liked everything he did to me. How can I do this to poor Jeff?

My body still feels every stroke of his slender fingers and warm hands to me. And even now, just this scent coming from his shirt is so captivating, I feel like having arousal early in the morning. My body just can’t get enough of him.

I shake my head and go towards my room. Peach is already gone when I come, “Thank goodness she didn’t see me coming in with this shirt on. How could I even explain what happened, right?”

I quickly change into something decent and comfortable. I slap both my cheeks, “Wake up, Avery! You must stick with Jeff! Jeff is the one for you! Jeff is the one who truly loves you! Jeff has been with you for a long time.”

I try to convince myself, even though deep in my heart, that isn’t the case. I know, Dmitri still takes the biggest part of me. But I should stop now. I look at my engagement ring and sigh, “I am engaged now.”

I look at myself in the mirror. I talk to myself and say aloud, “It is over, Avery. You already gave your ultimatum. You shouldn’t… You must not accept his indecent proposal. Never!”

A minute after, Peach is calling me, “Where are you? We are almost complete, come down here!”

I wear my happy face and promise not to think about Dmitri, and his proposal. I am not a righteous woman, but, I am not that immoral, too. Am I? I need to at least keep my sanity intact.

I hit the elevator and go down the lobby. My mind is flying elsewhere when my professor calls my name as soon as he saw me, “Anderson, you have some explaining to do.”

Everyone’s looking at me, “Uh, why, what did I do? Am I that late?” I ask ignorantly.

“Well, you didn’t tell us you are acquainted with a billionaire!” the professor exclaims excitedly, while my classmates are cheering loudly.

Uh-oh, I have a bad feeling about this. Every time someone says the word billionaire, all I think about is him. “What? No! Of course, none!” I deny. I guess no one has seen us from yesterday and no one knows about us. No one must know!

Peach pokes me on my side, “Don’t deny, he visited our professor awhile ago and upgraded all our rooms and our packages. It turns out, that hottie who brought you last night was a billionaire.”

I try to conceal my disdain, but I am about to lose my mind. I didn’t even expect he would go to this extent. I almost hide my face from them when I see Dmitri closing in. I clench my teeth and quench my fists.

I shake my head warning him not to go near me, but he is wearing a wide smile, feeling like hearthtrob, and he goes straight to me. He wraps his hand around my waist as if it is a casual thing to do, and faces them.

“Good morning to you all. Uh, by the way, is it okay if I borrow my dear friend, Avery, here?” he asks casually.

I squeeze his side and whispers, “What do you think you are doing? I clearly told you last time-”

“-Is that a yes?” he ignores me and speaks to the professor directly.

“Sure, anytime and anything for you, Mr. Sullivan,” my professor gladly hands me over.

He pulls me far away from them, then he closes his face to mine, “I told you, I will be your man, but I won’t hide like a secret lover.”

“Are you crazy?” I scold him and push him away, “You are insane!”

He scoffs, “Last night was insane as far as I remember,” he teases me. I cover his mouth and kicks his calf.

“Ugh. You see, I am crazy about your love,” he smiles then he brushes my nose with his fingers, the way he used to.

I feel tremendous electricity flowing throughout my body. Despite my effort of distancing myself to him, he always finds way.

“Why, Dee? Why are you making it hard for me?” I ask him straightforwardly.

“Because you are with the wrong guy, Avery. I am the only one for you,” he confidently announces.

“By the way, I have a meeting this morning, too, and I’ll see you later,” Dmitri just flies off after kissing me on the lips in front of everyone.

Everyone is shocked, and I am no different. I try to explain, “Look! That guy is insane, I-I don’t even want to talk to him!”

But they laugh at me, “Avery, rich guys are crazy, and it so happened you are damn pretty, so it is understandable.”

“So don’t worry, we won’t tell on you to Jeff!” second the others.

I hit my forehead with my palm, “Oh, goodness, this is the scariest thing ever,” I utter myself.

Then, the professor finally ask us to get on the bus.

***

Our next destination for today is similar to the popular Ludwigstrasse street. Although on this street, it isn’t more of an art, but more of buskers. Our minibus parked just a block away from the busy street.

The moment our feet step out of the vehicle, buskers welcome us with music and performance left and right.

Our professor asks us to form a single line to announce something. The professor says, “Today, we will have a different type of internalization. As you all know, visual art isn’t the only way to express your love for art. Performing arts has been practiced and loved by people. So today, I want you to find the thin line between the two forms of art. You may group yourself into three.”

The professor scoffs, and he looks from a distance as if signaling someone to join us. When I look in the same direction, I see a familiar car parked next to our minibus, “Uh-oh, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Then he speaks again, “Okay, it would be hard to do it alone, so I already divided you into four groups. Each group will have three persons, and as you may know, there are ten of you, so I already invited someone to accompany the sole winner.”

For some unknown reason, he grins at me and winks. The only thing I could do is place my palm on my face, “You gotta be kidding me.”

Then he starts with his roll call, “Okay, first would be the group for musicians, Lyndsay, and hubby together with Mark.”

The three of them hold hands together.

“Next group would be for theater and dancing, Luke, Paul, and Geneva.”

I think our professor doesn’t really know what he’s doing, doesn’t he know the three of them are in the love triangle. Peach and I click our tongues.

“Our professor is insane,” Peach says.

“Or more likely, a lunatic,” I counter. And we both chuckle.

“So, I know you won’t be joining us, so, see you at the hotel?” she winks at me after teasing me.

“Don’t remind me, go bitch!” I bid goodbye.

“Next group is for the puppetry, Peach and the twins.”

Then, he smiles widely, “And that leaves Anderson, and of course, she will be, luckily, accompanied by our guest, Mister Sullivan. They will focus on spoken poetry.”

He claps, and the others follows, as if Dmitri is some kind of a public figure or a celerbity.

I smirk and to avoid their gaze, I turn around. And once I did, I find him standing there, in front of me.

“What the! You’ll be the death of me! You’re not going to stop aren’t you?” I scold him.

But our professor hits me instead, “Hey, be nice! Remember, Mister Sullivan is our guest of honor and it’s your job to take care of him. That will be graded!” he warns with his hawk eyes.

I face him and argue, “What? That’s unfair!”

But Dmitri wraps his arms around my shoulders and speaks, “Think of it as a practice, like you are a presenter, and I am, you know, your client?” he teases.

“Wonderful idea, Mister Sullivan,” the professor agrees with this ridiculous idea.

“Okay, students, chop chop, see you after two hours, okay?” and then he leaves.

The only ones left here is Dmitri and me. I cross my arms at him, “What the hell is wrong with you? Isn’t it clear that I don’t want anything to do with you?”

Then he crosses his arms in return and stares at me wearing the biggest smile he could ever have, “Oh, really? Then what about yesterday night, huh?”

“That was a mistake, something I regret doing,” I bluntly throw him these words.

“Well, your body tells me differently, Avery. And whatever harsh words you say, it won’t work on me. I’ve decided, I am going to take you back, and you know, I always get what I want,” he leans towards me, so I punch him on the stomach, and walk out on him,

“Not this time, Dmitri.”

The frustration that I am feeling right now is even hotter than this sunny day. I look at the sky, and the sun almost blinds me, thanks to this tall man on my left, the sun has been blocked.

When I look over my shoulder, it is Dmitri, “Careful, you don’t want to hurt those beautiful eyes of yours.”

I snicker, “Whatever, will you just help me find these spoken poetry people?” I command him.

“Aye, aye, madame!” he says, then he claims my hands and holds it tight.

I couldn’t rebut, and couldn’t even get rid of his grip, surprisingly, my feet follow wherever his feet go.

“Come on, I know where they are,” he says.

***

We arrive in front of an old building made with red and brown wall bricks. The signages are a bit worn out, and the structure of the building seems very old.

“Hey, are you sure this is the place? Have you ever been here in the first place?” I scowl at him after tiring my feet because of his dragging.

“Are you always this skeptical about things?” he laughs while asking me this question.

“No! Only when it comes to you, Dmitri!” I respond annoyed and upset.

His smile disappears and he looks at me in an intimidating way, he takes his steps towards me and I step back, away from him.

“What did I do to make you hate me that way, Avery?” he sighs. “Follow me, they are here.”

I feel a bit guilty about what he says, should I not treat him hardly? But if I don’t, I may fall in love with him again. That’s something I want to prevent from happening.

I follow him quietly, and since then, he hasn’t talked a bit. We enter a coffee shop in the basement of the building, at the inner rightmost part of the basement.

An opaque glass door blocks our views. When he opens and holds the door for me, I immediately hear the loud cheering from the customers of this coffee shop, or should I say audience?

I am bewildered by what I see, foreigners are sitting everywhere, and the small stage is packed with passionate young people.

Dmitri walks his way in without even telling me. I run towards him and say, “Hey don’t leave me like that, I don’t know this place very well.”

“So, if I being you t a foreign land, you might consider being good to me, less being tactless?” he sarcastically exclaims.

I couldn’t understand and just take a deep breath. “It’s not like that,” I mumble to myself, but it seems he didn’t hear it.

“What do you like to drink?” he asks using a distant voice. He avoids my gaze.

So I thought, “Is he angry at me? Because of what I said earlier?”

“J-just latte,” I say, and then he stands up and goes to the counter.

We spend there the whole two hours observing the themes, the emotions, and the kind of people who usually do the spoken poetry.

“How marvelous and sad, that with those words, they could either touch or kill someone,” my mind lets me jot down this takeaway of mine.

Dmitri barely spoke to me during the entire time we are at the coffee shop. Then he just walks me to the minibus and he immediately drives off.

Sudden pain in my heart is felt. Peach looks at me, “What’s his deal? Did you fight with him? Prof is going to kill you.”

I shake my head off, “No, he suddenly just changed his mood,” I respond with dismay.