The cold war 40

Chapter 10 – Loose ends

Two years later.

After almost seventeen hours of travelling including a short layover in Moscow, An exhausted Bunny exited the plane in Vladivostok international airport and felt a blast of cold air around her thighs.

She shivered and pulled her down jacket tightly around her upper body, she had been told Russia would be freezing this time of year, but even so, the reality was a shock to the system.

Tottering into the main terminal building, she saw a sign for arrivals and made her way towards passport control, regretting not wearing a more comfortable pair of footwear for the long journey.

With almost everyone else on the flight being local, there was no queue for international arrivals. Making her way up to the window, she placed her recently acquired, updated passport through the small opening in the glass window before smiling at the man on the other side.

“Where do you come from”? The bearded man asked through the glass pane, his eyes darting between Bunny and the picture in her passport.

“New York”, Bunny replied cheerfully.

“This is business or pleasure”? The man shot back.

“Pleasure, I’m just visiting an old friend”, Bunny replied lifting her foot to ease the pain in her calf muscles.

“And how long you stay”? The man asked raising an eyebrow.

“Just ten days, then I’m heading home again”, Bunny answered feeling a little nervous being grilled by the miserable-looking man.

There was a pause before the man took one last look at Bunny and nodded. She watched as he picked up his rubber stamp and slammed it down onto her passport, “welcome to Russia, enjoy your stay”, he said as Bunny felt a huge sense of relief, knowing she had passed the first hurdle.

Through passport control she trotted following the signs for baggage collection. Having practiced a lot in the last six months, her Russian was now up to a level where she could easily converse and read the airport signs, not that she wanted the man at passport control to know that.

After collecting her suitcase, she wheeled it out through immigration without any trouble to emerge in a large almost deserted arrivals hall. With the flight arriving a little early, she knew Irina wouldn’t be there yet to pick her up, so she kicked on the brakes on her bright pink suitcase with the toe of her tall platform boots and sat down on top to wait for her to arrive.

(See image 10.1)

Perched on the edge of her suitcase, looking around the terminal, a place she never thought she would ever be, Bunny thought back to how much her life had changed in the last few years. For starters, being a she, was still new to her, having adopted female pronouns to describe herself a few months back after coming to the realisation that she was never going back to her life as Ben. These days, she was very comfortable thinking of herself as a woman and the thought of going back to being boring bland old Ben just felt wrong.

With the court proceedings having dragged on for almost a year and a half, she and Jake had finally had their day in court where they had testified and seen Danila get what he deserved, life in prison, serving multiple life sentences for human trafficking and attempted murder.

Looking up, the hairs on the back of Bunny’s neck stood on end and her eyes widened as she suddenly saw Irina enter the terminal. Clambering to her feet Bunny was a bag of nerves as she watched the slim blonde walk towards him. Her mind whirled, thinking about what she was going to say to her after years of not speaking having lost touch after she and her mother had returned to Russia.

But she needn’t have worried as she saw the beaming smile appear on Irina’s face as she strutted over on her own tall high heeled shoes, “oh my god, bunny”, Irina squealed as she approached, “It’s so great to see you, you look amazing”, she added throwing her arms around her, almost knocking her off her feet in the process.

“You too, Reeny”, Bunny replied gripping her tightly, “I’ve missed you”.

“Me too”, Irina excitedly announced, “I can’t believe you're actually here, I can’t wait to show you around, we're going to have so much fun”.

As the pair parted a more serious look returned to Bunny’s face, “that sounds fun, but first I think I need to speak to your mother”, he said in a sombre voice, "and to be honest with you, I'm dreading it".

Irina nodded, “don't worry, she's going to meet us in a restaurant in the city, she’s really eager to see you and explain everything”, Irina said, “are you hungry”?

“Not really”, Bunny answered honestly, “it’s been a long journey to get here”.

“That’s ok”, Irina answered smiling, “you can just have something light, are you ready to go”?

Bunny took a deep breath, wrapped her long sparkly nails around the handle of her suitcase and extended to waist height, “as I’ll ever be”, she replied pursing her plump lips into a little smile.

“Really don’t worry, everything will be fine, just listen to what, Mamulya has to say, she’s not a bad person, she has just made a few mistakes in her life”, Irina said smiling back.

“Ok”, Bunny replied, “I’m prepared to hear her out”.

“That's the spirit, now come on sis”, Irina said linking her arm through Bunny’s, “let's get out of here, I do hope you’ve packed some warmer clothes in that case of yours, that dress is really cute but you’re going to be pretty cold if not”.

Bunny snorted and shook her head, knowing Irina was right, it was just like her to put fashion before practicality.

A private car picked them up just outside the terminal as Bunny jumped straight in already chilled to the bone after only a few seconds out in the freezing air of Vladivostok.

driving into the city, Irina tried to make conversation and Bunny tried to act enthusiastically, he was genuinely pleased to see Irina but with the meeting with Elena, the woman who had turned his life upside down and driven his father to an early grave, it was pretty hard to focus.

Forty minutes later, they pulled up outside the restaurant as the two sexily dressed young women quickly jumped out of the car and rushed inside to escape the cold, stiletto heels clicking loudly on the icy ground and teeth chattering.

Entering the building, Bunny suddenly felt the colour drain from her face as she laid eyes on Elena across the room sat at a corner table. Irina rushed on ahead and greeted her mother affectionately as Bunny slowly trudged over, her knees feeling weak and her boots feeling like lead blocks attached to her tired legs.

Approaching the table, nobody spoke as Bunny gracefully took a seat opposite the mother and daughter before staring across with her heart pounding in her chest.

“Thank you for come”. Elena announced trying to smile but failing due to the ridiculous amount of Botox she’d had injected into her face, leaving it stiff and almost scary looking, “I am so glad you accept invitation, I have want explain things to you for very long time”.

(See image 10.2)