Page 108 of Cherry Auction

“Stop it,” I say, heat in my cheeks.

“Never.”

“I’m literally wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Why didn’t you tell me how fancy this place was before we left?” As we walked through the restaurant to this little alcove, everyone was wearing fancy dresses and suitcoats. I’m pretty sure there’s a dress code to get in and I’m breaking it.

“You look perfect.”

I roll my eyes with an unamused huff. “I’m so far from perfect it isn’t even funny.”

“You’re perfect for me.”

I roll my eyesharder.

But Domhn won’t let up. “I mean it. You’re perfect just as you are. You’re the perfectyou.”

Will he think the same thing in ten minutes after I tell him everything?

“Donny, look, it’s been so good being back with you, but we haven’t really talked?—”

“May I interest you in the house cabernet?” interrupts the waiter, holding out a bottle in front of Domhnall’s face.

Domhnall waves it away. “We’ll have a bottle of Château Lafite. The burrata for an appetizer and the Chilean Sea Bass for dinner.”

The waiter nods and starts to walk away but I suck in a breath and speak up, “Actually, I’d like to try the lamb.”

Domhnall looks at me in surprise but nods when thewaiter looks to him. “Of course. Whatever the lady wants. One sea bass and one lamb.”

After the waiter leaves, Domhnall reaches over the tabletop for my hand and I extend it, smiling when our fingers intertwine.

“I apologize if I overstepped. You just always used to like it when I ordered for you so you didn’t have to decide.”

“I know, I know,” I quickly reassure him. “I wasn’t offended. I’m just trying lately to…” I look around the elegant restaurant with all it’s gold accents against sleek black. “To figure out whatIlike. Apparently it’s important. I always used to order fish but that’s just because that’s what the people around me ate. Maybe it’ll turn out that I love lamb, ya know, if I really give it a try?”

Domhn nods in support. “I want to know everything about you, Anna. Even if you’re just figuring it out now. I want to be here with you as you’re discovering yourself.” Then he looks down at his lap. “I mean… if that’s something you’d want.”

“Of course that’s what I want!”

He looks back up at me, his smile shining in his eyes.

I pull my hand back from him. “But there are things you should know?—”

Naturally the waiter comes back right at that moment with the fucking bottle of wine, and he makes a painfully big fucking deal of popping the cork and then pouring each glassin this fancy fucking way that makes me want to punch him in the face.

“Yes, yes, we’ve got it,” Domhn says impatiently, snatching the bottle from him when he takes a long time of settling it in an ice bucket in the center of the table.

“Oh of course, sir!” the waiter says, shrinking back and then disappearing down a hallway.

“You didn’t have to scare the poor kid,” I murmur.

But Domhnall still looks impatient as he looks back to me. “I feel like you’ve been trying to tell me something all day and then that little fucker keeps intruding.” He shakes his head and then reaches for my hand again. “Please, I want to hear what you have to say. Whatever it is, I can take it. If you met someone else while you were away, it’s?—”

“Of course I didn’t meet someone. You think I would’ve spent the last two days in bed with you if I did?”

“I didn’t— I mean, I just?—"

I straighten in my chair and look at him flabbergasted. Then I just blurt it out: “I got a confirmed diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder. What they used to call multiple personalities.”

I stare down at the table, fingernail tracing a groove in the wood. “I’ve got one confirmed alter. It’s not that common to only have one, but I still fit the diagnosis. Dr. Kim is trying to get her to pick a name, but right now she’s stubbornly insisting on going only by her pronouns, she/her. You haven’t met her yet, but it’s only a matter of time before you do.”

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