The cold war 20

Chapter 11 - His date with the devil

“Am I really doing this”? Ben thought to himself, not for the first time that day.

Having spent the last few hours getting ready for his, so-called date, Ben had stepped outside to get some air. He now stood dressed to the nines, staring out over the sprawling city in front of him, watching, through his long dark lashes, as the sun crept down towards the horizon.

Feeling the cold chill of the wind circling around his legs, through his semi-opaque dark hose, Ben tugged on the sides of his little fur jacket, pulling it tightly around his upper body.

Being November, it wasn’t particularly warm out on the patio, outside his apartment, and it wasn't helped by the fact, he was currently wearing a little black dress, its thin material, hugging his feminine looking frame, perfect for a summer evening out clubbing. But at that moment, Ben wasn’t too worried about the cold, he had more pressing issues on his mind.

After his encounter with Danila a few days back, Irina had returned to the office to find him in a state on the sofa. She made him a coffee and after 20 minutes of just holding and rocking him gently in her arms, he'd finally calmed down enough to tell her what had happened.

When he finished his story, she looked almost as pale as him.

“Well, you’re not going”, Irina announced”, “you heard what Mamulya said, “we need to stay away from him”.

Ben looked at her with a worried look in his slightly puffy looking eyes, “I know, but If I don’t go, I think he’s going to do something… something... bad to you and Mamulya”, Ben said with a shaky voice.

“Why”? Irina shot back, “what did he say”?

Over the next couple of minutes, Irina listened intently, asking the odd question here and there as Ben told her about Danila having followed them, how he knew where they lived, and the comments he had made. When he finished speaking, the pair sat for a moment silently thinking of a way out of the predicament.

“I think... I have to go”, Ben mumbled quietly.

“You can’t”, Irina replied loudly, “it’s too dangerous”.

Ben gave her a weak smile, “I don’t want to, trust me, but if I don’t and something happened to you and Mamulya, I would never forgive myself".

"You can't go alone", Irina said, looking him straight in the eyes.

Ben went on to tell her, how he had tried to get out of the meeting by telling Danila that Jake was his boyfriend and how Danila had invited him along.

"Will he go"? Irina asked.

Ben smiled, "Yeah, I think so, I'll have to ask, but he's never let me down before".

Irina sighed, “ok, but I’m coming too”, she announced, “I’ll stay out of sight and keep an eye on things, that way if I sense, even a sniff of anything strange going down, I’ll call the police”.

Ben nodded, “thank you, Reeny, you know, I never expected any of this to happen, I'm scared”.

Irina reached out, pulling Ben into her arms once more, “I know, I know”, she said in a soothing voice, stroking the top of his head, “I’ll be with you, I won’t let anything bad happen, I promise”.

Back on the patio, Ben could feel a dull ache starting to form in his toes. and worryingly he had only just put on his shoes for the evening. The shiny leather pumps were brand new and would definitely add an extra level of discomfort to his evening, given their height and the way the back of his nylon clad foot kept slipping out the back with every step he took.

Looking down past his shapely legs, towards the towering designer pumps he was perched on top of, Ben still found it hard to imagine why anyone would ever pay so much money for a pair of shoes as uncomfortable and unpractical as these.

The shoes, along with the dress he currently wore, had arrived the day before by courier, a gift from Danila. They were accompanied by a note that read, “looking forward to seeing you my sexy little Zaychik”, it wasn’t signed but it was obvious who it was from.

So, not wanting to anger his scary Russian dinner date, Ben had squeezed himself into the revealing black dress and slipped on his expensive new shoes, which Irina informed him were worth over a thousand dollars.

Fully dressed, with his makeup carefully applied and his hair styled, Ben had never felt so nervous in his life as Irina told him he looked beautiful and tried to help him settle his nerves with a few shots of vodka.

It helped a little, but Ben still couldn’t shake the feeling that they should have told Elena what they were doing that evening.

With her mother out of the City on a business trip, didn't want to worry her, and had persuaded Ben not to call her.

He felt guilty having promised to tell Elena if Danila contacted him, but not wanting to go behind Irina’s back, Ben had gone along with her idea, hoping she really did have things under control as she kept telling him.

“Oh, wow, you look amazing”, came a voice from behind, snapping, Ben out of his chain of thought,

Quickly spinning around, feeling the skirt of his dress flare out and brush past his upper legs, Ben came face to face with a grinning Jake, leaning against the doorframe, holding a single red rose, “so, ready to get going”?

(See image 11.1)