Life with Aleksander

Ballet during the day and at night.....the very thing Luke had called me. It made my stomach twist uncomfortably, but his words rang through my head like a hammer on a bell.

A live in fuck toy.

My dreams of becoming the prima Ballerina in New York seemed like garbage when this was haunting me. All I could do to soothe myself was remember that in the end the price was worth what I was paying. It would be worth selling this part of my soul if I could help the one person in this world that I loved more than anything.

After I was showered and gathered my things from my locker a black Cadillac was outside of the theater waiting for me, just like I had been instructed.

"Good evening, I'm Antonio. I'll be your driver." The man had a genuine smile on his face, and I found comfort in that. I gave him a weak smile in return. "I was advised to take you home so you could collect some personal items before I drop you off."

"Oh, well, that's nice." I pushed to keep the smile on my face. It made sense that I would need personal items from my place before packing up and leaving it all behind for three months. It would be a good time to make sure I could clean the place out too since I had no idea when I would be back.

"What's the address, miss.....?" He trailed off.
"Oh, Rhea. You can call me Rhea." I took a deep breath and forced myself to relax into the backseat. "21 West End Avenue."

"Perfect, that's barely five minutes from here." Antonio chirped back and pushed the car into drive. We rolled away from the theater and into the rest of traffic.

"Yeah, I normally walk home since it's so close." I picked at my fingers in my lap to keep myself from chewing on my lip. The distraction didn't help much.

My apartment was insanely expensive. As most were in Manhattan. But I saved a tone of money walking and reserving myself to one good meal a day. I knew if I wasn't paying for medical treatments, I could afford life on a ballerina's salary alone, but that wasn't an option.

"Good idea, live close to work saves time in the city. Traffic here can be a pain if you don't know the streets." I could here the heavy accent on him as he spoke. Definitely a born and bred New Yorker. "Should only take us twenty minutes to get to 87th street once you grab your things."

"East end?" My heart skipped a beat. That was closer to the hospital than my apartment was.

"Yeah, boss man likes the park over there," Antonio added. The lights outside the window blurred as I got lost in thought again. Just because I would be closer to Papa didn't mean I would have the free time to see him anymore.

"Is Aleksander a good man to work for?" I wasn't sure why I asked, and I didn't know if Antonio would answer my question. But he seemed happy to be Aleksander's private driver.

"Oh, he's the best. Tips fantastically, doesn't mind if I need time off, and he asks about my family." Antonio beamed as he bragged about working for Aleksander. I took some small consolidation in that.

"I'm glad to hear that." I sighed, keeping my eyes on the passing city outside.
We were at my apartment in the blink of an eye it felt like. Antonio waited as I rushed up to pack a few bags of my personal items.
Thankfully I didn't keep an extensive wardrobe. When I was a young girl just starting with the NYC Ballet, I was out every weekend shopping with other dancers, but it was too excessive now.

One bag for personal care items and one large suitcase of basics from my closet were the extent of what I thought I would need. After that I threw out half the items in my fridge.

Before flicking off the light to my small studio apartment I looked around the bare space. White Walls and mismatched furniture that didn't quite feel like home, but I would miss it for the next three months all the same.

It had been my first place, and my safe place. No one had ever been here with me and I hardly did more than sleep anyway. But it had been mine. My sanctuary when the ballet was stressful, and the meetings made me hate myself.

For now, I had to let it go and force myself to live through the uncertainty of the next three months. I reminded myself that Aleksander had been nice to me, and I locked the door.

Aleksander Makalov was handsome, rich, and he knew how to make my body sing with untold pleasure. That had to be worth the nerves weighing me down. It had to be worth the price of the last fraction of my soul I was giving up.

Antonio helped me get my belongings in the back of the car. And by helped, he begged me to get in the car so he could load it all up in the trunk by himself. His eagerness to do a good job was refreshing breeze when I had a gloomy cloud over my head.

It was close to midnight, but that didn't mean anything on a Thursday night. Not in this city atleast. The streets were still full, and people still littered the side walks. Restaurants and clubs were still open, and lights were on every which way you turned your head.

When I leaned my head on the glass and looked to the sky, I wish I could see the stars. Even if it wasn't a cloudy night, I knew I wouldn't see them. Not with the lights hiding them away.

The car ride felt longer than it was. Twenty minutes that went by as if it were two hours. Mostly because my mind was scattered with every possible thought and every insane possibility of what my life was about to become.