Chapter 23 - Oleg

Raisa is sitting at the vanity, struggling to get her hair the way she wants it.

We are leaving for our date soon and she looks incredible, dressed in that pale blue long summer dress that floats around her body like water. But she is starting to grumble because her hair won’t pin up properly.

I step behind her, watching her in the mirror.

“Let me braid it,” I chuckle. For some reason, her frustration is just cute to me.

“You can braid?” She stares at me through the mirror.

“My sister taught me how to. She refused to wear any other style for about a year of her life, so I got really good at it. Hand me the brush.”

I pull her hair loose from the style she tries to put it in, then brush long strokes down her back, smoothing out the curls.

Raisa watches me intently in the mirror as I work from the top, braiding a French plait all the way down her back. She touches her hair carefully, feeling the neat twists.

Picking up the hand-held mirro,r I show her what I’ve done. “Is that ok?”

“Oleg, this is amazing. I might be going through a year of only wanting braids too now. You really are good at that.”

She stands up, finally looking pleased with her hair. “I’m ready,” she says, smiling and happy.

“Let’s get going. “

We walk out to the car together and she looks absolutely gorgeous this afternoon.

We are going to a little Turkish restaurant at the edge of town. It’s a quaint venue and the owners are an old married couple who have been running the place for what seems like their entire lives. I think his parents owned it before he took over with his wife. It’s a lovely, warm and inviting place and I know Raisa will enjoy it.

I hold the door open for Raisa as she lifts her dress and climbs into the car.

I climb into the driver’s side and we head out onto the road. The sun is already starting to set and the sky is bright with streaks of pink and orange.

Raisa reaches out and takes one of my hands off the steering wheel. She places it on her leg and smiles as she stares out of the window.

My heart thunders wildly in my chest. She has been so affectionate these last few days. I really love this side of her, the side that actually asks for me to touch her.

My phone rings loudly in my pocket and I shift to the side to pull it out, staring down at the screen. It’s my warehouse manager.

I slide the green button to answer the call and it connects to the car system.

“Damon. How are you this afternoon?” I ask.

“Sir, there was an accident on site—Luke has been injured."

“Is it bad? What happened?”

“Just a stupid mistake, really—where are you?”

I glance at Raisa. “I’m actually just around the corner from the warehouse. I’ll be two minutes.”

I hang up and glance at Raisa. “Sorry, I want to go and make sure he is ok.”

“Of course, there is no need to apologize.”

Parking outside the warehouse, we both hurry out of the car and run in through the massive doors.

The manager is there to meet us.

“Sir, we called the ambulance, but they are taking forever to get here and he’s losing a lot of blood.”

Damon hurries us over to where Luke is lying on the warehouse floor, looking like he is in a lot of pain.

A pool of blood has formed around his leg where something sliced through his work pants.

I am about to ask Damon for more information when Raisa kneels down next to Luke. “Shit,” she mutters. Then turns to me. “I need the first aid kit and your belt.”

“Get the kit,” I say to Damon, not asking any questions, just pulling my belt loose.

She wraps my belt around his upper thigh and pulls it tight, buckling it closed. The bleeding slows as Damon arrives with the first aid kit and hands it to her. He looks worried.

“Does she know what she’s doing?” he whispers to me, too soft for Raisa to hear. Luke’s eyes roll back in his head and his body goes limp as he loses consciousness.

I nod, but I’ve never seen her at work before. I hope, for Luke’s sake, that she does know what she’s doing.

“You—press down here,” she says to the man kneeling on Luke’s other side, holding his hand. He does as he’s told while she digs around in the first aid kit, looking for something. Finally, she pulls out a pair of scissors and what looks like weird long-nose pliers, but steel and shining.

She works quickly to cut away his pants, pulling the material away from the wound. “Hold him down,” she says sternly.

Then, she pours a clear liquid over the wound.

“Hold him,” she warns.

“He’s unconscious.”

“I don’t care. Hold him.”

She pushes the pliers into the wound, clamping them down over something and suddenly, the blood stops flowing completely.

She breathes a sigh of relief. Not letting go of the pliers she leans back slightly. “That was close,” she mutters.

“What happened? What did you do?” Damon asks nervously, staring at the still-unconscious Luke.

“He’s going to be ok, but he needs to get to the hospital quickly,” she says.

Behind us, medics flow into the building. Damon waves them towards us.

“What’s going on?” the medic asks, eyeing Raisa and her grip on the pliers.

“He cut his femoral artery, lost consciousness about two minutes go.”

The medic leans over, examining Raisa’s fix.

“You managed to get the artery. That’s incredible. Are you a doctor?” the medic asks.

“I’m learning,” she says.

“Well, you just saved this man’s life. If he was already losing consciousness, he didn’t have much time left before he bled out.”

Raisa smiles tightly as medics work together to get Luke onto a stretcher. One of the medics takes over Raisa’s grip on the pliers.

Then they rush out, carrying Luke towards the ambulance.

Raisa stands up, the front of her summer dress is sticky with blood.

She wipes her hands down the soft fabric, trying to clean them off a little.

“You save his life,” Damon says, excitedly, then grabs her into a tight hug, ignoring the mess. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Then he turns to run towards the ambulance to drive with Luke.

“Luke is his son,” I say to Raisa as she stares after him. “You just stopped a father from having to see his son die. What you did was incredible. You didn’t even hesitate.”

I stare at her in awe and admiration.

“I did ok, didn’t I?” She smiles—proud of herself.

“You did better than ok, little flower.”

“I guess we need to go home and shower,” she sighs, frowning at her ruined dress.

“There are showers in the back of the warehouse. I am going to shoot into town and by the time you get out, I’ll be back with a new dress.”

“Are you sure? That seems like a lot of trouble—“

I reach out and run my hand over her cheek. “Nothing is too much trouble for you, Raisa.”

She grins up at me, tilting her face into my hand.

“Tony here will show you where the showers are.” I gesture towards the man standing nearby. “There are towels in the locker room. I won’t be long. I promise.”

Rushing out to the car, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed with gratitude. She just saved a man’s life. Not only would we have lost Luke, but also Damon for a while. He would have struggled with the pain of losing his child—our entire workforce would have been affected.

She did such an incredible job.

In town, I stop at a late-night boutique and choose another long flowing dress for Raisa. This one is gold, with a sparkle to the fabric. It looks beautiful and I know it is going to look even better on her.

I drive back to the warehouse, constantly thinking about her.

She keeps surprising me.

Back at the warehouse, I find Raisa waiting in the bathroom, a big towel wrapped around her.

“I’m coming in,” I call from the doorway, in case there are any other women in there.

“I’m alone,” Raisa calls back to me.

I sit down on the locker room bench next to her and take her face in my hands, pulling her into a kiss.

She melts against me, wrapping her hands around my neck. I keep my lips locked with hers for as long as I can before I have to pull away.

Smiling, I tuck a stray curl behind her ear. “Raisa, what you did this evening—you know—I know grown men, hardcore, strong-willed men who would have panicked seeing that amount of blood. But you just knelt down next to him, took one look at it and knew exactly what to do. Honestly, you blow me away. And not just with this—with everything you do. You are an incredible woman. You have determination—your confidence—the fact that you don’t let anyone stand in the way of your dreams—Raisa. You are incredible. I am so grateful to have you in my life—“ I take a slow breath. “I just want you to know how much I appreciate you.”

Raisa’s cheeks are bright pink when the shy smile spreads across her face.

“Oleg—I was just doing what I was taught to do—“ she stammers.

“No, you weren’t taught to stay calm like that—and I’m not only talking about this—I’m talking about everything.”

She bites her lower lip, her eyes shining.

I tilt her face up with my hand beneath her chin. I stare into her bright blue eyes as I say it again, “you are an incredible woman and I am so grateful to have you in my life.”

She leans forward and kisses me, and it is the perfect answer.

I pull the gold dress out of the boutique bag and hold it up for her. “I hope you like it.”

“It’s perfect,” she says, letting the towel drop to her feet.

I help her slide the dress over her head and tie it at the back. She spins around, letting the heavy gold fabric flow out around her.

“You look incredible.”

“Wow. I love it.” She says, feeling the fabric between her fingertips.

“Come on, I told the restaurant we would be a little late. But let’s get going. I think we both need a drink.”

“I feel bad that I’m still hungry after all of that.” She raises her brows at me, looking guilty.

I crack up laughing, “well, we should be celebrating life with a good meal.”

Once we are in the car my phone buzzes. I pull it out to check the message from Damon.

Damon: Luke had stitches, they closed up the wound and fixed the damage. Tell that girl of yours that she literally saved his life. The doctor explained to me what she did and she is an angel. Thank you. Please tell her I said that.

Me: I’ll make sure to pass the message on. Let me know if you or Luke need anything. I’ll have some fresh clothes and food sent to the hospital for you.

Damon: Thank you Oleg, you are always so good to us. Luke is coming out of recovery now. They will let me see him soon.

“Raisa, Luke is perfectly great. You literally saved his life and Damon just messaged to let you know how grateful he is.”

I reach the message out to her and she is grinning from ear to ear.

I run my hand over her leg. “It looks like you were always meant to be a doctor. You definitely chose the right goals for yourself. I’ll help you reach your dreams, whatever you need.”

Raisa and I have a really lovely evening at the Turkish restaurant. The food is incredible and the quiet, intimate venue is exactly our style.

Watching her chatting away happily my thoughts are drifting, wondering how I got so lucky to find her—in these strange circumstances—and that even after I did everything to her, she is still so good to me.

I don’t know what I did in life to deserve someone so amazing.

All know is that I will do anything to keep her close to me.

I never want to lose her.

I have to make sure she is happy and that she has everything she could ever want or need.