For those that wanted to know more about Misha before he met Froo, here is his story and how he came to be in England which is where he met her and fell in love, and his time with Suzanne the woman in his past.
His passion for Suzanne becomes an obsession, as she plunges down into a self destructive whirlpool, so for those that believe that life's many experiences make up a rich and interesting tapestry....here is Misha's story.
To read about Misha and Froo please read the companion story Taking the Risk Chapter's 1-21 under Novels and Novella's.
*
He walked into the bedroom with the black coffee and helped her to sit up to drink it. The hangover was bad, and she was looking a mess.
"God my head hurts."
He didn't say anything, just handed her the coffee and walked out to the kitchen.. The scene at Robin and Joanie's had hurt him badly. She had hit him before, but it had been in private when she had been drunk or high at home and he had tried to stop her. Never retaliating by hitting her back he just retreated into a place inside of himself now, going through the motions, hating her when she got like this.
It wasn't all the time she was like this, just every so often. When things set her off, when she couldn't cope, going on benders, drinking for days and taking the coke or pills to make her high, hyper and vicious. This time was losing out a role to another student at College in an Internet Commercial.
Rejection always started her off.
He moved to the Microwave, looking for any hidden drugs behind it, then walked over to a cupboard and took down the boxes looking behind to see if she had stashed them there. Moving around the apartment he looked in her favourite spots that he knew she might put them. Finding none he went back into the bedroom and leaning his shoulder against the doorframe watched her as she lay there; looking like the woman he was in love with, but feeling resentful that the demon was back having taken over her body.
"You pleased with yourself Suzy? Enjoyed the scene you played out last night at Robin and Joanie's?"
He heard her mumble an apology.
"What? I didn't hear you."
Turning over she half shouted, "I'm sorry. OK."
Turning around he left her, grabbing his jacket and walking out of the apartment. Strolling down the road he bought the Sunday papers and settled into the small restaurant over the road to have his breakfast, reading them but not really taking the words and the meaning in. His mind was almost numb, exhausted with ups and downs, the highs and lows of living with Suzanne.
He knew in his heart that he really shouldn't take her with to meet his family, just in case she made a big scene, but he couldn't refuse to take her. They were a couple and his mother had told him on the phone how much she was looking forward to meeting her. Meeting the woman he was living with and sharing his life. The woman his family back home hadn't yet met but had been told about by Uncle Dmitri.
How had it come to this mess?
Sober and clean she was the woman he loved, drunk and high she was a nightmare.
*
Suzanne was washed and dressed by the time he returned to the apartment, sitting on the couch, a look of regret on her face. He walked over and threw the paper down on the table knocking off some of her mess piled up on it, then walked into the bedroom to put his jacket in the cupboard.
She followed him in, watching his studied movements, absorbing his silent anger at her. "I'm sorry Misha. It won't happen again."
"You're damn right it won't." he snarled as he turned around. "You have a choice, you can either get help and stop, or get out and we're finished. I'm not putting up with this anymore."
Arms crossed around her middle, he watched the expression on her face turn from worry to shock. "Please, you don't mean it."
"I mean it Suzanne. We're over if you don't stop. You go and see a councillor at college, find out what help they can give you. You're not going to have another drink or take any more coke or Ecstasy, no more pills, no more disappearing into the cloakroom when we go out clubbing and coming out high, no more me watching you have furtive conversations with people at the club, no more misbehaviour in front of my friends."
She walked over to him, looking up, tears in her eyes. "I'm scared."
"So am I. That you might get worse. That one day the stuff will be lethal for you. That you'll get hurt. That you'll hurt me!"
She stepped forward putting her arms around his body. He stood still, his arms by his sides, rigid and unyielding.
"If you stay sober and clean for the next month you can come with me to California and meet my family. If you don't.....I go alone.... and when I return I want to see you gone."
Nodding against his chest she clung onto him.