He took a deep breath. “I know that.”
“You can’t buy me,” she said angrily. “You don’t need to buy me. You already have me.”
“I’m not trying to buy you,” he objected to the accusation. “I don’t like your job and I want you to quit. Work for me, if you want.”
“Working for you would be like not having a job. I could never show up and you’d still pay me.”
“So?”
She muttered a growl and looked away.
“Well then, find another job. Something less stressful,” he suggested.
“This is exactly what I was talking about,” she declared with frustration.
“What does that mean?”
“You can’t relate. You have no idea what it’s like to look for a new job, let alone work for anyone other than yourself. You have no idea what it’s like to have to work to put food on the table.” She shook her head and looked away.
Viktor slid away from her and leaned back on the couch. “So I’m just a rich snob who doesn’t understand common people,” he rephrased her words.
“That’s not what I said.”
“That is exactly what you said,” he countered.
“No. It’s not,” she insisted. “I don’t think you’re a rich snob.”
“I just can’t relate to common people,” he said without looking at her, clearly upset.
She softened her tone and reached out to touch his hand. “How could you?”
“Please don’t touch me right now,” was all he replied.
She withdrew her hand, somewhat surprised by how angry he appeared. She was scared to say anything else and for the next few moments they sat in silence until Viktor got up and retrieved his laptop from its bag and sat in one of the recliners with it, leaving her alone on the couch.
As the minutes passed, the silence grew more painful. Clearly angry, Viktor continued to act as if she wasn’t even there. Amanda just wanted to cry but didn’t want to do it in front of him. She set her glass down, walked to the bathroom and shut the door. She broke down, trying to cry quietly so Viktor wouldn’t hear. She didn’t understand how everything went so badly so quickly.
She cried for 5 minutes but then didn’t want to leave because her eyes were red and puffy. She splashed cold water on her face and waited a few minutes. She tried to think about something else so she wouldn’t start crying again but it didn’t work and moments later she was sobbing into her hands. She decided she would just have to spend the rest of the flight in the bathroom.
When she didn’t come out after 20 minutes, Viktor figured she was crying and his anger slowly morphed into regret. He put his laptop away and walked to the bathroom door. “Amanda, can we talk?”
“No,” she answered angrily with a stuffy nose, confirming his suspicion.
“We’re both hurt and angry. I don’t want to feel hurt and angry. Can you please come out so we can talk?”
A few seconds passed before the door slowly opened. She stared down at the floor, unable to bring herself to look at him. Her eyes and nose were red and she looked utterly dejected.
“You look how I feel,” he remarked. She burst into tears again and he gently pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” she cried into his chest. “I don’t understand what went wrong.”
“That’s why we need to talk.”
He held her for a few minutes until she calmed down and then he walked her over to the sofa and they sat down. He brushed her tears away and held her face. “I still love you,” he said.
“I love you too,” she replied as more tears fell.
“I got angry because you mistook my concern for your well-being as me being out-of-touch,” he explained. “I don’t like how much stress this job puts you under. I’m afraid you’re going to get cancer or a heart attack or something else as a result. I don’t want you to work there. I’m worried about you.”
“All jobs are stressful, Viktor. If I got another job, I’d just have different stresses,” she reasoned.
“Some jobs are more stressful than others,” he disagreed. “If you worked for me, you would have no stress.”
She chuckled. “I’d have no work.”
He smiled and brushed her hair back. “What’s so wrong with that?”
“It’s the same as letting you support me.”
“Why can’t I support you? Why is that so horrible? You’d have more time to spend with your mother.”
“And if we break up?” She looked into his eyes. “It’s financial suicide.”
“I would never do that to you. Even if we broke up, I wouldn’t just leave you in the lurch like that.”
“You say that now.”
“I’ve never done that to any of my girlfriends, even Tatiana.”
She looked stunned. “You still support your ex-girlfriends?”
He chuckled, thinking he should have worded that better. “No. I gave Tatiana a lump sum to cover her for the year.”
“Still,” Amanda replied. “If I’m financially dependent on you, how will you know if I’m staying with you because I love you or because I don’t want to lose my support?”
“You don’t have to keep proving yourself. I know you love me.”
“I can’t do it, Viktor. I just can’t.”
“Seems to me, the real issue is that you don’t trust me,” he stated.
“I do trust you.”
“I think you fear I’ll abandon you the way your father did, leaving you and your mother with nothing.”
She tensed. “I never told you about that.”
“Your mother told me.”
“Great … thanks, mom,” she said sarcastically.
“You don’t think that’s something I should know?”
“No, because now you’re using it against me.”
“I’m not using it against you, Amanda. I’m expressing my thoughts and feelings. You don’t have to agree with me but that’s what I think.”
“But you wouldn’t think that if she hadn’t told you.”
“You’re right. I would just be thoroughly confused, wondering what was wrong with you.”
She huffed, not wanting to accept that her father had any bearing on her thoughts or actions.
“Okay,” Viktor said, thinking they should wrap it up before
