Chapter 1
My name is Sonya Sergovski. I am your average twenty four year old; not too smart, not too dumb, not too attractive, not too plain; though they tell me my eyes are captivating. I live in New York. My parents came to the States when I was two; a long trip from Poland. I have a brother whom I don’t see often and other than that, I’m alone. My father died when I was nineteen.
For work, I am an insurance investigator with one of the bigger international firms based in Zurich, Switzerland. When a work of art is stolen, I pack an overnight bag and jump on the first plane. It’s actually less exciting than it sounds.
My mother is always telling me how I should be doing something less stressful. “Take some time for yourself, discover who you really are…Inside.” She’s not wrong, but I don’t know whether I’m brave enough to start looking inside myself just yet. Also the pay is good; those extra numbers on the check help keep my mother more comfortable than her state pension could.
When I’m not hopping continents, I like to do quiet things. A late walk in the park with my headphones, a coffee shop window looking at the rain, or a cozy blanket with hot chocolate and a romance novel. A couple of years ago, my ex boyfriend surprised me for my birthday with a rafting trip down the (name of a river). Needless to say, it did not end well. But, a broken wrist heals fast; lesson learned. I haven’t done anything adventurous since.
Above all I guess you could say I’m pretty simple, nothing out of the ordinary ever happens to me and I don’t want it too. Why? Because I prefer my life the way it is; I’m comfortable. It’s taken a long time to get to where I am today.
I’m single now. Actually it’s more of that weird phase of being single after pointless situationships while you try to heal a heartbreak. Either way, there’s nobody I love who loves me back. In fact, there’s nobody I like who likes me back as a human being, not even sexually or romantically. That second part just sank in recently and it’s taking some getting used to.
I suppose it’s harder to be alone when you see everyone else finding somebody, even just a good friend. All my old girlfriends from high-school and college are partying their asses off or having three babies. It’s true that both of these are excessive, but it is more than what I’m doing. Somehow, I’m caught without anybody at that crucial mid twenties crossroads.
You know, every age has its own relationship reality. Fall in love during high-school, break up in college, fool around for a while, then find somebody else and go steady for a while before reaching the point where you either stay with them or keep getting drunk every weekend and spreading your legs. I’m on the wrong side of both.
So with all that said I feel that my old friends and I have grown apart; they’re doing their own thing and I feel…well, more mature, more focused. We no longer go for coffee or go on girls’ night out. I can’t even remember when the last time we went on a trip together was. Oh wait, yeah, it was Ibiza; Zoe got sunstroke and I got a call for a stolen Renoir.
Of course, I don’t know what I’m focused on, but that doesn’t matter. I’m a great believer in fate, so if I’m meant to meet someone I will. Maybe I’ll be walking down the street and we’ll bump into each other, or we’ll get stuck in an elevator for a few hours. A tall dark stranger with a soft beautiful face, black curly hair and a sensitive soul that I can look after. I’m romanticizing my own imagination, but that does sound pretty good.
Chapter 1
It’s Autumn, though you’d never know it by the weather. First of November and not a cloud in the sky all day. Even after the sun goes down, the temperature still sits at a humid eighty, point six. My part of New York is quiet, peaceful. The neighbors are mainly middle aged couples with too many children and too much free time. I see them I was taking a walk down my street, my low heels tick tacking along the red bricks. Muffin was scampered along beside me. Some houses still had Jack O’ Lantern pumpkins set up beside their doors.
-“Wait a minute Sonya, wait there I have some pie for you”.
Misses Baker at the window. Maybe the one good thing about Halloween; the food. Everything else never lived up to my expectations.
I felt a vibration in my pocket, someone’s calling me. Shit; it’s Dennis. Dennis is my boss at the firm. He never calls at Christmas or Thanksgiving, or at any time, except to tell me to catch the first flight to somewhere or other; usually Europe. You’d think there weren’t art thefts anywhere else.
-“You have a flight, one fifteen a.m. at JFK.” He spoke literally as I swiped the screen.
-“Don’t you say “hello”, Dennis?”
-“Hello. One fifteen at JFK. Don’t miss it this time.”
-“That was the airline’s fault, also why am I always on these middle of the night flights?”
-“Because of the time difference. Call me when you get there.”
-“Where?”
-“Amsterdam.”
I do not like him. At that moment, misses Baker came out the door with a piece of pie big enough to choke a cow.
-“Misses Baker, I really couldn’t, I have a flight to catch.” I don’t know why this excuse popped into my head, but at the time it seemed good enough.
-“Well you can eat it on the plane, honey.”
I took the tupper and turned back towards home. One-thirty; no, one-fifteen. Five hours. Just enough time to have a long bath before catching a cab. The sun had just set and the street-lights were on. Underneath their warm yellow glow fluttered dozens of moths. I love the dark, the night. It’s serine and undemanding; I don’t have to be anything more than myself. I can hide away in the shadows.
A pair of teenagers were smoking pot and making out on a park bench across the street. The bitter smell of the joint floated up into the air. My phone rang again and this time it was my mother.
-“Hi mom, I’m just going inside, I’ll call you back.”
-“Sonya? My love, can you hear me?”
-“Yes! I’ll call you back.”
One downside of wanting to look carefree and sexy without carrying a bag is that you have to put everything in your pockets. With tight jeans this is not very easy. I pulled out my keys and looked at them for a moment. It was a big bunch of metal teeth; I didn’t know what half of them where even for. Three for my apartment here, one for the locker, one for my suitcase. How about these old blackish ones? My parent’s house maybe?
-“Good evening miss. Doing anything tonight?”
-“Hi Jerry. Nope, on my way to the Netherlands.”
-“You know it’s not that way right?”
We both laughed. Jerry was the only doorman I’d known that didn’t try to hit on me. I felt comfy around him, he looked out for me like the dad I’d lost.
My apartment looked out over (the park?). At dawn I can see the sun catching the steel point of the skyscrapers. I dialed my mom’s number. For some reason she always let it ring three times before picking up.On the floor above, someone was either doing it with an elephant or moving furniture around; wither way, the whole room was vibrating.
-“Sonya darling?”
-“Hey mom, sorry about earlier…I was just going in.”
-That’s okay, just so long as you’re well. Is everything ok with you?”
-“Yea, everything’s fine. I’m just a little tired and I have a flight tonight.”
-“Oh again? So soon?”
My heart sank as I knew she wouldn’t miss this opportunity.
-“That job is exhausting you Sonya…”
-“I know mom, it’s not a problem, I can take care of myself. Look, I gotta go; I’m not feeling too good so I’m just going to soak in the bath for a while before I go.”
-“All right my love, have a safe trip. You’ll call me right?”
-“Yes mom. Good night…I love you.”
-“I love you too sweetie.”
God I wish I wasn’t flying tonight. Fortunately I don’t have to do any packing; I always have a suitcase ready to go. But now, I still have time. I slipped into the warm water and let a soft jazz playlist and the bath salts do their work.
About twenty or thirty minutes later my eyes fluttered open. I must have fallen asleep; wait, there it is again; a loud thud. What is going on up there? To my horror, I saw a long crack appear in the ceiling. In a moment, the whole ceiling caved in with terrible crash. I threw up my hands over my head.
I couldn’t move; I sat in the bathtub, frozen and of course, completely naked. All around me were pieces of broken tile and plaster. In among all the debris there was also a man.
-“Hello. Sorry about that. Are you okay?”
-“What the fuck do you mean sorry about that? You just dropped through the fucking floor!”
-“Yes, I had a small accident, it’s nothing to worry about.”
He stood up and carelessly brushed his clothes; completely pointless because he was covered in plaster dust from head to toe.
-“Is there anyone else here?”
-“Yes, my boyfriend and my father are next door.”
-“Well then they must be deaf. You might want to put something on.”
He moved forward and stepping over a smashed piece of the basin, went out the door. I jumped up and grabbed a towel as I realized for the first time that he had seen the full view.
-“Do you have anything to drink?” He asked, as he fiddled with a carved elephant souvenir my brother had got me.
-“I’m sorry mister, I don’t know what you’re doing in my house and I don’t care. You are not going to have a drink.”
He turned at looked me in the eyes and smiled a broad, benign, close-lipped smile and asked me again like he hadn’t heard a word I said.
-“Could I have a drink please?”
I turned with a mock huff and obeyed.
-“Scotch?”
-“Thank you.”
He stood leaning against the door, as if he wanted to make sure I wouldn’t try to run away. Strangely, I didn’t feel at all threatened otherwise I’d already have called the cops two minutes ago. He was tall, lean and fair, with long hair swept back untidily; that kind of golden blonde that looks almost transparent. The long greenish veins of muscled arms ran below rolled up shirt sleeves. Even though his features were perfect, they were more strong than pretty. His jaw, hollow cheeks downturned nose and firm lips were so different to the conventional boyish standard of beauty that I was used to. Everything about him was rugged in a manly “I don’t give a fuck” sort of way.
-“My name is Ilion, pleased to meet you”
