Page 20 of Torrid Love
“You missed me?”
Oh, now I have your attention.
I roll my eyes. “Of course, silly. Didn’t you miss me?”
Silence.
“You didn’t?” I press.
“I missed you too, Rod,” she says in a soft voice.
I take a step forward. She takes one back. I do it again. She mirrors me, but this time her back hits the wall.
“I like knowing that,” I say.
Her eyes gleam with amusement. “You do?”
“Yeah. I’d hate for this to be one-sided.”
She frowns.
There’s such an aura of vulnerability around her right now.
Impulsively, I reach out and stroke her silky hair.
She gives me a shy smile.
“You look so different,” I say.
“In a bad way?”
“In the best possible way.”
Her mouth lifts into a smile. “Thanks.”
“What’s up with the transformation?” I twist a strand of her hair around my index finger affectionately. “You haven’t been a blonde since you were seventeen.”
She flinches at my words and her face contorts into an expression I can’t read.
What was that about?
“Did I say something wrong?” I ask.
She shakes her head.
“Dom, talk to me.”
She clears her throat. “No, you didn’t. You know how I never like going down memory lane.”
“You lost me.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she shrugs. “Johanna’s hairdresser suggested a change. I was ready for something new––I guess something old in my case.”
One day, out of the blue, Dom started dying her blonde hair jet-black. It was a dramatic change. It happened during a dark period in her life when she walked around with this gray cloud hovering over her head. She was constantly depressed. She retreated into a shell and I didn’t know how to help her. Since the first day I came to her rescue, I’ve wanted to take care of her. Protect her. Somehow, in this case, I felt I had failed her. I just didn’t know how. No matter how many times I asked her what was going on, she never opened up. I thought it was because my career was on fire and I was getting a lot more attention than ever before. She assured me I was wrong. In the end, I chalked off her moodiness to growing pains. God knows I was a handful.
“Good call on the part of the hairdresser. He has a good eye.”
“Hername is Elka,” she giggles.
