Page 76 of 4th Degree

Still, I can only stare at him in confusion.

“How about this,” he starts. “Put your phone on Do Not Disturb so only emergency calls come through, and stick around to roll. Don’t look at the time, don’t worry about when you’re getting out of here, just…take an afternoon to yourself. No work, no school, no pressure.”

I…don’t even know what that looks like.

“And then what? I go home and bask in my defeat?”

An amused half-smile appears on his face. “No, then you let me take you somewhere. Give me one afternoon, Skylar. Give yourself one afternoon.” When I still hesitate, he adds softly, “It’s okay to find your happy, remember?”

I glance back at my phone, at the still-open notification on it. And I try to look at its face-value: one shift, not canceled by me, and there’s nothing else I can do about it tonight. I can tackle this problem tomorrow.

Taking a deep breath, I turn back to Dominic. “Alright. One afternoon.”

He’s beaming when we step onto the mat.

“So…where are we going?”

It’s been ten minutes since we got into his car and pulled out of the city. Ten minutes of recapping training and avoiding the obvious subject. The only hint he gave me at the gym was to say he hopes I brought comfortable clothes to change into.

He seems downright giddy behind the wheel. Or as giddy as he’s capable of looking. But he’s clearly proud of himself for getting me to agree to come with him.

And if I’m being honest, I’m a little giddy myself. I’ve never been surprised with something like this.

“Are we going somewhere fighting related?” I ask, too curious to let it drop.

He shakes his head.

“Are we road tripping?”

“Okay, no more guessing,” he finally interrupts. “A surprise is a surprise. I’m not giving it away before we get there.”

I pout as I lean back in my seat, even though I’m secretly delighted. He glances over at me and sighs when he sees my expression.

“How about this. You can ask me any questions you want, but nothing related to this.”

I raise an eyebrow in his direction. “You’re giving me free rein to ask you whatever I want?”

“Yes. For the next thirty minutes.”

I have to bite down on my smile that he gave away even that much, but he does too, so I know he did it on purpose.

“Okay, fine.” I tap my chin in thought. I can ask him any question? “Tell me about the worst fight of your career. Why was it your worst and how did you feel about it afterwards?”

A pause. Then…

“I lied. You can ask any question that isn’t about where we’re going, fighting, school, or work.”

I frown. “Why not?”

“Because the whole point of today is to separate from our everyday lives. No talking about anything we think about on a normal day.”

I let out an exaggerated huff. But secretly, I don’t mind—I love the idea and I’ll take any excuse to get to know him better.

I start to pepper him with every random question I can think of.

“Favorite music genre?”

“Favorite food?”

---