Chapter Text
“What are those, Adrian?” Rose asks, the chilling calm in her voice much scarier than when she raises her voice, dark brown eyes fixed with barely repressed rage on the pair of tickets held out to her.
At any other time in her life she may have been excited at the prospect of a three week tour of a European country, despite the little interest she harbours for Italy beyond the delicious food. Adrian had been discussing his love for the country as long as she had known him. Often going off on tangents with Lissa, Rose’s best friend, about different artists and the renaissance in ways that Rose didn’t care to follow. She once found his enthusiasm endearing and was amused by how he could get lost in his own words from his passion over the subject; but those positive feelings are unreachable as she processes the news Adrian informed her of and the pair of tickets he offers. Her fun loving, ‘reformed’ playboy, art nerd of a boyfriend had presented them to her almost as soon as she rushed in the door, despite them being already late to this evening’s festivities and him knowing how work had brought her to her daily limit of bullshit hours ago.
“I thought you would like a trip to where you could get away and enjoy something that was not another data point! You’ve been so stressed lately, barely having any time for life outside of work to see any of your friends, or even me. Plus, with the wedding just about to get underway I figured this is the best time to give you a break before things get even more crazed around here.” Adrian, not recognizing the thin ice his actions have put him on, says the very thing that can make Rose’s temper flare from the barely leashed grasp she has over it.
“I told you there was no way I could take time off of work right now! We are in the midst of several different trials that are all increasingly time sensitive and delicate, not to mention I have a paper I need to finalize before it’s published next month. And don’t even get me started on the wedding duties that have already begun.” The curly haired brunette’s voice rises with each reason she gives, no care for the neighbors she is probably disturbing, exasperated because she has had this argument with him before under different circumstances.
The stress of the day has gone from a chaotic buzz beneath her skin to a whirlwind that is threatening to send her into a spiral that will derail her abilities for the rest of the evening. Falling back on her tried and trusted techniques of pacing and timing her inhales and exhales to every fourth and sixth step respectively. With every cycle of breathing she is able to ground down into her body with the certainty that she doesn’t have time for this shit.
The couple has less than thirty minutes before they need to meet their friends at a karaoke bar to celebrate Lissa’s and Christian’s engagement party. It wasn’t the couple’s formal engagement party, but it was the first time all their friends could get together to celebrate the happy news. Rose was already running late, due to a data mixup that kept her back at the lab for an extra two hours. She hadn’t even gotten to fix the problem fully before she had to leave to even have a chance of making it to the party on time. As Lissa’s maid of honor she could not miss the first party to celebrate her best friend’s joy. So, Rose was ready to sacrifice her precious sleep schedule and add to her growing level of burnout in order to balance the duties of friendship with the responsibilities of her job.
“Excuse me for doing something nice for the girlfriend I have barely seen in months. Whenever I do actually get to see you, our conversations are all about your work stress or you're either half asleep when I am talking. We haven’t even had sex in months! I thought you would be grateful for the chance to get away, and spend some time together instead of choosing some test tubes over me.” Adrian shouts back, his own dark temper lashing out to wound her.
Gaping at him in shock as his words slip past her defenses. Despite his words, this wasn’t about trying to give her a fun break from her stress, this was about care-taking Adrian’s sexual and emotional needs. They were good until the demands of her career picked up and Rose couldn’t keep putting Adrian’s needs and wants first in her world.
What did she expect from the only son of a real estate tycoon, whose job consisted of throwing lavish parties to sweet talk other rich people into buying art?
To Adrian life was all about seeking out pleasure, living life riskily and to the fullest with very few cares of the consequences he may incur. But to Rose, who although can appreciate living life on the wild side, the meaning of life was about doing her best to help others.
When the couple first met, Rose’s career was quiet but steady and her broken heart had her leaning into her wild side when she was able to. Rose was drawn to the life that seemed to seek out Adrian; the wild parties and impossible adventures that he continuously found himself in to the exotic travel locales he frequented on the drop of a hat. The first few months of their relationship were exciting and filled with surprises that pushed the bounds of her near limitless comfort zones and led to epic stories. The adventure that seemed to never end with Adrian helped alleviate the weight of her loneliness and broken heart; she had even thought that part of her had begun healing. Then there was the sex too. Adrian had talents that kept her on her toes both literally and figuratively, leaving her feeling alive without as much of a comedown as sex with strangers left her. The highs of their time together combined with the ease to the weight Rose had been carrying for years, had pushed her residual doubts over their differences aside.
Those doubts were now coming back to haunt her like rabid poltergeists straight from grade a horror movies.
Her career as a neurochemist had hit the fast forward button in the past seven months when she made an incredible breakthrough on her years-long research project. To make the kind of breakthrough she had made at her age of 26 was incredible. With the possibilities of her discovery, the drive that has always pushed Rose reached a fever pitch and her priorities shifted towards the lives she might be helping and away from her own.
At first Adrian was excited for her and tried to be supportive of her changing career needs, but when Rose began turning down parties and concerts to stay in a windowless lab all night Adrian’s insecurities and resentment began to build. Adrian pushed more trips on her thinking he could tempt her away from her work, growing moody and withdrawn when she had to turn him down. While Rose grew more frustrated at his responsible free attitude; choosing to focus on her job instead of trying to keep explaining her priorities to her boyfriend who was too caught up in his experience.
Honestly, if Rose wasn’t so close to her years of hard work paying off she would have broken up with him by now due to their different ways of handling life. However, with how entrenched Adrian was in her social circle and the messiness of her own current mental state, Rose kept up the relationship. She knew it wasn’t fair to him or to her, but with barely any executive function left she couldn’t figure out how to detach amicably with the man standing in front of her.
Maybe waiting for a time to make a friendly end to things was not possible anymore.With that thought Rose’s pent up truth comes rushing out in a wave of freedom.
Pausing in her pacing to look him in the eyes she says, “Adrian, I can’t keep having this argument with you. My career is too important not only to me, but what this breakthrough can mean to Andre's company, and most importantly what it can mean to others. You want a life free from responsibilities? That is your prerogative. You want to go to Italy for three weeks? Okay, then go enjoy yourself. You want more sex in your life? Then go out and get it, just don’t expect me to be seeing to those needs anymore.”
The severity of her words and the finality within them sends Adrian’s stomach tumbling out of his ass. Rose was breaking up with him, doing the very thing he had tried to prevent with this vacation.
“You’re breaking up with me?” He asks the question, needing to hear the words plainly and break through the incredulity he is facing.
Rose wasn’t sure if he was actually upset about the end of their relationship, or the fact that she was the one ending things. Adrian Ivashkov rarely had rejection aimed his way, it was one of the reasons why he had pursued the hardheaded beauty in front of him. She was a rarity in his world, one that was now ripping his heart out.
“Yes, I am, and I should have done this before I let things go on this long. We aren’t a good match romantically. Our priorities don’t align anymore, if they ever truly did, and I can’t keep dedicating my limited energy to trying to fix a problem that will keep coming up again and again. We live life differently,” Rose lets the weariness she has felt for months shine through her words.
Adrian’s face clearly shows the pain and betrayal he feels at her words. He has heard time and time again from his parents that he is too irresponsible, and a waste of their time. At one point he thought he met his match in Rose, a woman to join him in the adventures of life while pushing him to take on the weight of reality that sometimes crushed him beneath its waves.Now, he is being proven wrong while his deepest fears are cutting him to the quick once more.
Dark, ugly emotions roil inside his body, eddying his thoughts slowly from his head until he responds with words aimed to hurt the woman in front of him.
“So, that’s it then, I’m not mature enough to be worth your precious energy to fix this. Good to know, I shouldn’t have wasted my time or money on you. You weren’t worth it.”
Rose recoils as if he had backhanded her. All the times she expressed her distress over him throwing money at her, all those wounds their unequal money dynamic reopened, are now thrown back in her face as if she is some ungrateful brat. Echoes of her own mother’s words of Rose’s selfish, greedy, and inconsiderate nature thrum through her, leaving her shaking in the wake of the memories.
Seething Rose responds, “I never asked for a dime that you spent on me, I never needed any of it. And I will be happier without it.”
With her limit beyond passed, Rose storms out of the living room and towards the bathroom in her bedroom, slamming the two doors between them as she goes.
Checking her phone Rose lets out a string of curses in English, Turkish and Russian. She only has ten minutes before she is supposed to be at the club to greet her group of friends, and there is no way she will make it in time when she has yet to shower the sterile smell of the lab off her skin.
With a defeated sigh, she opens the text chain she has with Mia and Lissa and types out a quick message apologizing and letting them know she is going to be very late. A few short responses back from both girls, encouraging her that all was well and to enjoy the distraction that was ‘her talented boyfriend’; had Rose jumping into a freezing shower to purge the rekindled negativity of her emotions.
* * *
Thirty seven minutes later Rose is finishing the final touches of her makeup, angling her cat eye sharp enough to kill a man. What can she say? ‘Vigilante Shit’ is the song she is currently rallying around, so she might as well own the inspiration for the night. And damn was she planning to own it.
Standing in front of her mirror, in her thigh high boots, black stockings and underwear Rose briefly considers saying fuck it to the dress and going as is. She does look gods damned delectable.
However, Rose has been looking forward to an excuse to break out the short black dress that has been too fancy for any of her latest shenanigans. The garment was short, barely passing her ass short, t-shirt style cut made entirely of lace without an under slip to hide her body beneath. The modest strapless bra and boyshort underwear beneath her tights were what would keep the important bits covered, while still highlighting her assets. Why not look incredible when she’d rather be in bed eating ice cream and donuts than going out to celebrate a successful love story?
Rose ruffles her hair more out of habit than a need to add volume to her glorious dark locks, then heads to where her dress is laid out on her bed. A careful overhead maneuver and some minor adjustments has the dress sitting exactly as she hoped it would.
Double checking her purse has her evening’s necessities, she heads out of her bedroom still humming the tune to the Taylor Swift song that is fueling her current level of take no shit confidence.
However, the unexpected sight in her living room has her drawing up short and her emotions petering on the edge of a possible crash. Adrian is lounging on her couch, she assumed he’d have stormed out and head to the bar early to begin downing the start of many drinks. Upon her entry he firmly kept his eyes on the phone he had been focusing on, prolonging the awkwardness and reveling in his brief petty win.
“What are you still doing here? I thought you would have left already.” Rose asks, her earlier anger mostly cooled during her time getting ready, now her voice just belies her angst with cold indifference.
Adrian, finally deigning to acknowledge her presence at her words, looks her over from head to toe and a flicker of something unknown eclipses his features before he reigns his look of cool indifference back into place.
“We both have to attend Lissa’s engagement party tonight, I figured we should attempt civility for the happy couple by still showing up together. We don’t have to let our break up overshadow their night.”
His words, although mature and similar to the same conclusion she had come to, held a tone of scorn that rankles Rose further, but she won’t let him get to her. Taking an intentional inhale and letting the breath out as long as she could manage.
“Yeah, that’s a decent plan. Are you ready to go then?” Rose’s tone remains even despite her desire to snark back at him. She walks toward the kitchen to down a glass of water, as Adrian rises and heads to the front door.
“Yeah, I’m all packed and ready,” He replies, grabbing the keys he left by the door a bag in hand already.
His words have Rose examining the duffel bag he holds, and then taking a quick inventory of the apartment around them. The fancy salt Adrian usually keeps on the counter is missing, so is the cashmere blanket he brought over on one of his first nights at her place because he wanted to ‘spoil’ her, along with some other items of his that usually float throughout her space. They hadn’t reached the point of moving in together, but with so much of their time spent together in the months they'd dated a decent amount of his belongings had made their home at her place. Seeing the collection packed away and held in his hand brought a sense of finality to the situation between them, and Rose would be lying if she said she didn’t feel either sad or relieved at the sight.
Today was a shitshow, she would examine her mess of emotions tomorrow.
Rose has never had to spend time with an ex in close quarters right after they broke up, well except for Mason but they barely even considered their month of dating as a relationship. The only other man that she had considered a true ex, and not just the end of a fling, had been on a whole other continent when things between them were ended. So, Rose is unsure how to handle this current strained situation, and was really looking forward to both the presence of others and at least a shot of something strong to ease the tension.
Noting her perusal of the room around them, Adrian chimes in with a scornful voice, “Don’t worry I didn’t steal anything, there’s nothing here I’d want anyway.”
“That’s not what I was thinking. I’m just not too sure on how to handle things tonight, I don’t wanna ruin Lissa’s night.”
“No, we wouldn’t want to ruin Lissa’s night,” with a sigh the green eyed man standing in her entryway scrubs his face with his hand, as if he is trying to reign himself in or erase her from his memory. “Alright, here’s how it is gonna go, we won’t bring up the breakup and we won’t be hostile towards each other, but I’m not going to pretend to be a happy couple with you tonight.”
If Rose wasn’t trying hard to attempt civility before they left, him taking charge of the situation like she was his subordinate would set her off again. Instead she bit her tongue to keep her temper in check and nodded in silent agreement.
“Okay, if that is settled can we get the fuck on with the show?” Adrian asks as he already begins unlocking her apartment.
Rose refills her empty glass with water and leaves it on the counter for when she comes home later, before grabbing her coat and following Adrian out the door.
* * *
The drive across town in Adrian’s flashy sports car passes quickly. The man next to her pushes the speed limit in his haste to be out of her presence, and is either unaware of Rose's discomfort at the speed or may be purposely ignoring it.
Since the accident in her sophomore year of high school that killed both of Lissa’s parents and left the two girls in the hospital for over a month, Rose has never felt completely safe anytime she is in a car. The memories of the crash, and what it stole from the two girls, never seem far from her mind unless she is behind the wheel. Luckily, if you can call it that, Lissa didn’t lose her whole family in one horrific moment. Her older brother, Andre, was off at his freshman year of college otherwise he would have been in the car with the family on their annual spring break camping trip.
Beyond the trauma of the whole experience, the extended stay in the hospital is what pushed both Andre and Rose towards medical fields for their careers. Andre kept the business degree he had initially pursued as a minor and began pre-med courses alongside which he then developed into a masters degree in biotechnology. He now owns a burgeoning company that specializes in researching and evaluating medical treatments while creating more accessible avenues for patients to receive treatment. With the inheritance that came from Andre’s parent’s death, and the wickedly smart brain of his, the almost decade old company was making incredible waves in the medical industrial complex. Not long before Rose graduated with her own split Master degrees in neurochemistry and biology, Andre had expanded his company to pursue researching new medicinal routes for a handful of neurological conditions like MS, Alzheimers and Parkinsons. Rose had become an integral researcher in this department.
The two shared a special passion for these neurological conditions since Olena Belikov, a woman who was like a surrogate mother to the both of them, had been diagnosed with a progressive case of MS. Andre, knowing Rose’s intense work ethic and passion for the field, had ensured a spot in his company for when she graduated and was able to work beyond intern hours for him.
It may be nepotism, a fact that still rubbed Rose the wrong way and was often commented on by others, but the truth is Rose had been earning her keep since she was still an unpaid intern; especially with the recent breakthrough Rose has been putting all her energy towards.
And if this work could help just one person, then Rose would handle any nasty comments people said behind her back or to her face.
Olena Belikov was worth it.
Despite the fact that her son shattered Rose’s heart into thousands of pieces, the woman continued to show up to all of Rose’s college soccer games and kept respectfully, asking Rose to come to family dinners, until the stubborn young woman finally gave in. With the gaping hole that both her own mother’s cruel actions and the death of Rhea Dragomir had left in the young woman, Olena had been a balm to a young woman in desperate need for a maternal figure in her life. Now, Rose just hoped she could do something to help the woman so dear to her heart.
When Adrian takes a turn too quickly for Rose’s peace of mind, her hand flies to the ‘oh shit’ handle above her head and she squeezes her eyes shut as horrific images blur through her mind.
“Adrian, please slow down,” her quiet request from the passenger side is the first words to break the stony silence between them.
With a quick glance over at Rose, Adrian realizes what his speed has been doing to the young woman. As he adjusts his driving to a more reasonable speed, he quietly apologizes to her. Even with them hurting and broken up, he can still remember the panic attacks he’d seen Rose go through when driving had been too much for her; he didn’t want to put her through that.
Adrian may not understand her work ethic or the responsibilities Rose clings to, but he still cared in his own ways.
* * *
Within ten minutes of Adrian’s speed reduction, and no further dialogue between the two, the former couple pull up to the valet in front of their evening’s venue. The place was a bougie karaoke bar that brought a certain level of elegance and prestige, despite the majority of off key and embarrassingly drunk singers it catered to.
The Dragomir siblings loved it.
The bar was massive, with both a dance floor that acts as a traditional nightclub and bar setup, and a couple large private rooms as well that were perfect for private parties and individual karaoke rooms for smaller crowds.
Tonight’s party was being held in a VIP private room that would have their own bar, bartender and their own balcony overlooking the club’s main floor. It was the same Room that Andre had reserved when Rose and Lissa had celebrated their 21st birthdays, and held some bittersweet memories of its own. It was where Christian and Lissa had met for the first time before they proceeded to make out not long after, much to the horror of Andre and delighted ribbing of Rose. It was also where Rose first found out that her, then, boyfriend, Dimitri Belikov was considering a job that would take him across the world from her and hadn’t even told her.
That was the first crack of heartbreak that pulverized Rose’s heart for years.
How lucky was Rose to not only go back into that very room tonight with the boyfriend she freshly broke up with, but also be there with that very aforementioned heart-stomper as well.
Rose needed a fucking drink.