Apologies

"OK so now you need to glide forward darling, you've got the other things down now." I said to Natasha who was surprisingly happy to learn from me despite how she always seemed to hate me everytime we talked.

She started gliding as she slowly went further and further while I cheered for her as I followed close by just in case. She smiled and laughed as she finally got to skate, she called out to her mother to show her that she could skate now. Vicky was all smiles as she saw her daughter skating and Josh was smiling too. After she skated for a few minutes we sat down by the bench so she could rest while we wat he'd everyone else skate.

"I don't hate you." Natasha said out of the blue which made me look towards her.

I just smiled and nodded.

"Thank you Natasha." I replied to her.

"It's Tasha." She said as her face turned red as she blushed.

"My friends and family call me Tasha." She added.

I smiled once more and nodded.

"OK Tasha, you can call me Ana if you want." I said to her which made her smile.

"Can, can I call you mum instead?" She asked which caught me off guard.

I didn't answer for a bit which made her face turn red again, I smiled finally and nodded.

"Yeah no problem Tasha, you can call me mum." I said to her which made her beam with a smile.

"I, I'm sorry for not being friendly towards you because you are my dad's girlfriend." Natasha said and I just sat there listening to her as she continued talking.

"When dad first introduced you at Caleb's party I hated you because I felt like you were taking my dad away from me. He was never around much and its only now that I realised that it was because mother did not want him to be part of our lives despite her being the one that caused their marriage to end." Natasha spoke with great maturity for a 12 year old.

"Mother doesn't like the fact that dad is happier without her or the fact that dad got rich after they divorced or the fact that as she put it 'got himself a hot girlfriend'." Both Natasha and I laughed as she said the last part.

"But I realised now that it's because she was jealous and also angry with herself for doing what she did which made her and dad's marriage end. Now from what I've been seeing it seems she and Herman are about to divorce too." Natasha said as she sighed.

She talked a bit more and poured her heart out towards me.

"Tasha you know I think they'll be fine. I've seen it a couple of times when people who have divorced finally move on with their lives but one of them usually the one who initiated the divorce is regretting their decision buts it's usually mostly because they are seeing someone they once loved happy." I said to Natasha who was listening.

"So don't worry your mother and Herman won't divorce any time soon." I said to Natasha who nodded.

We talked a lot more before I had to go on the ice to show an over confident Olga that between the three of us meaning Zlata, Me and her she was number three when it came to ice skating. I wasn't even going to try challenging Zlata because that was a pretty much set in stone answer, I would get my butt handed to me in ice. I skated circles around Olga who eventually huffed in annoyance before skating off after giving me $20 which I told Natasha to split with Stella.

After the skating competition we sat down to have lunch before Mr Stanzione brought out some Vodka, spirits and a few other heavy drinks he had gotten on his way back from the ice skating park.

"Now we have more than one drinking Russian." Mr Stanzione said as he placed the liquids on the table.

"I'm all fired up and I want to see if any of you can drink us Americans under the table or if we will win." Mr Stanzione said causing Josh, Herman, Teresa, Mrs Stanzione and Vicky to nod.

I looked at Olga, Zlata and Sergei who all just chuckled.

"Challange accepted but what are the stakes?" I answered as Olga nodded.

"Hmm, let's see. The winners get choose which Christmas tree we get tomorrow and also the looser get to pay for the liquor tomorrow." Mr Stanzione said causing me and the other Russians to grin.

"OK, we'll give you a very nice list for the liquor we want bought tomorrow." I grinned.

"Oh hoho, confident are we?" Herman said as he sat down.

"Confident? No we are just speaking facts. We used to drink more people under the table during the weekend back in Moscow and those were seasoned Russians who drank vodka with almost anything." Zlata grinned as she reached for her bag and brought out a very special kind of Vodka.

She had brought out of her bag a bottle of Spirytus Rektyfikowany the most potent of all commercial Vodkas that we had drank in our lives. She grinned as she put the bottle gently onto the table while Mr Stanzione looked like he had just seen a ghost. He reached out his hand towards the bottle with his hands shaking slightly.

"Is... Is this what I think it is?" He asked as he picked up the bottle with so much care that I came to realise he was a fellow kindred spirit in the love of Vodka.

In my last life I was not a drinker but ever since I became Ana I had been drinking often, mostly during the weekends but I had yet to taste Spirytus Rektyfikowany for myself but I knew that the previous me had already drank this before a couple of times. After Mr Stanzione inspected the bottle he took off all of the glasses on the table before going to get a bag in his and Mrs Stanzione's bedroom.

"This needs a special kind of glass to drink it." He mumbled as he walked towards the bedroom.

He soon returned with a black luxurious looking bag which made Mrs Stanzione gasp in surprise before Mr Stanzione laid down the deep black glasses. He then opened the Spirytus Rektyfikowany bottle and poured some in each glass which we all took a glass each.

"За здоровье!" Zlata, Olga, Sergei an I all said as we drank our glasses.

Hearing our salute, Mr Stanzione did the same.

"za zda-ró-vye." He said but his accent and pronunciations were all off but its the thought that counts.

Seeing his gesture everyone wh was drinking followed suit while I could see Maya looking like she wanted to get in on the action but she had to baby sit the kids. I just chuckled ad shook my head.

"What did that mean?" Herman asked.

"To your health." Sergei replied before the drinking game began.

Around cup 14 all the Americans were down and some how I was now representing them as Mrs Stanzione said I was dating an American because I was Josh's girlfriend. I just sighed and continued drinking with the other three, and like how it always played out in university it came down to me with Sergei at around round 30.

"Ви знаєте Ана? Мені шкода, що я зробив або намагався зробити з вами в університеті. Я був поза дурним, божевільний навіть я не знаю, що прийшло мені. Я страшно вибачте за все це." Sergei mumbled in his drunk state which made Olga and Zlata gasp in surprise.

Sergei was a lot of things but apologetic wasn't one of them so him saying he was sorry was a huge deal even if he was drunk. I just chuckled.

"Це прекрасно gei, я довго простив вас, але насолоджувався штампуванням вас у обличчя кожен раз, коли я бачив тебе і залишався злитися з вами, було просто тому, що це було весело, щоб зробити це, ніж щось інше. Ти мій брат, і я люблю тебе, тому що ви робите мою сестру щасливою, хоча іноді ви іноді." I replied with a chuckle while Olga and Zlata laughed as well.

We continued drinking well into the morning when the alcohol finished just before Sergei passed out.

"And the winner as always... Anastasia." Zlata said as she smiled while looking at her downed husband.

"Is there ever going to be anyone who can drink you under the table?" Zlata asked.

I giggled as I sat on my boyfriend's lap.

"Probably when my child grows up." I replied which made Josh stiffen slightly as my sisters laughed.

We talked and laughed a bit more before finally calling it a night. I went to take a shower after managing to drag Josh into bed since he had fallen asleep while we were talking. I finished with my shower and brushed my teeth before going to sleep in Josh's embrace.