Page 111 of Between Love and Loathing
My mother whispered out, “That can’t be right. I mean, Clara, you know I didn’t mean what I said.”
“Mrs. Milton and Anastasia, I’m going to say this one time, and I want you to listen very carefully before you’re thrown out of our building. My future wife may allow you to treat her badly but let me be crystal fucking clear:Iwon’t ever allow it again.”
“But you’re broken up—” Anastasia started.
“Doesn’t mean I’m not going to marry her, Anastasia. I am going to. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life protecting her from feeling the pain you delivered today. Do you understand?”
Neither of them answered because they probably were so embarrassed for being called out on their actions, they thought they could be silent in hopes it would disappear.
“I said, Do. You. Understand?” Dominic repeated pointedly this time. They muttered yes and Dominic turned to me. “Cupcake, would you likeyoursecurity to escort this woman and her daughter off the premises?”
“Clara, be reasonable—” my mother whimpered.
Evie scoffed and I shook my head. Reasonable was finally seeing the truth and acting on it. “Yes. I’d like them escorted off the property and a record filed on their behavior.”
When they were waved toward the door, they went willingly and Evie followed. “I’m leaving you two to discuss this ‘future wife’ thing. And Clara”—she pulled me close and hugged me—“Sorry, I told Dom where you were when he called but I love you. Remember, I love you.”
When I tried to say thank you, she held up her hand. “There’s no thank yous in families.” And then she was gone too.
In their place was silence, heavy with questions and pain and echoes of what had just happened in that room. I tried to fill it with lies. “It doesn’t happen often that she—”
“You’re a shit liar, Clara. I’ve told you that time and time again.”
I took a breath and then one tear rolled over my reddened cheek. “Right.”
He was there within a second to pull me close. To let me break down and expel whatever pain I had. It was the pain of losing a mother and a sister, the idea of them that I thought I could create. “I guess you know what it means to love the idea of something,” I murmured.
He nodded over my head and smoothed my hair. He then whispered, “But sometimes the real thing becomes better than the idea ever was.”
I thought of Evie and me, of how she’d been my estranged stepsister for so long but still stepped into the line of fire for me in a way my sister never had. Sometimes choosing a family instead of keeping the one you were given was the right choice.
Yet, I didn’t know if he was talking about Evie and me. He might have been talking about me and him, but how could he when he wasn’t sure we were even made to be together? He wanted tobelieveit. That was all he’d said that night on the beach.
And then, his phone call with Natya solidified it. My heart lurched thinking about it. “I don’t want to talk about ideas today, Dominic. I just need space and time to think.”
I couldn’t.
“I’m staying over today.” He didn’t wait for me to invite him. “And we’re lying in bed for most of it. You need rest. Were you packing all night?”
“No… Well, maybe.” I sighed. “You used to never want to stay in your bed with a woman, Dominic.”
“Yeah, and now it’s only my bed ifyou’rein it.” He pulled at his neck and looked toward the ceiling. “Please, Clara. I don’t beg, but I will for you. Let me sleep here, and then I’ll leave you alone all week if you want. You have my word. One week for you to think.”
I chewed at my cheek and then rubbed away the tears but winced at the rash forming there.
“Fuck, baby. Let me take care of you. Just for today.”
“I don’t want to talk about us at all.” It was too much right now.
“Fine. If you agree that you’re going to go to a doctor about that rash.”
I nodded because it was all too much. I was so tired. Too tired to fight him on sleeping arrangements. I was too tired to fight against what my heart wanted when it was latched to him anyway. I fell back into my bed, “Stay on your side, Dominic Hardy.”
He got into the bed and even though I was on the edge of my side, he grabbed me and yanked me over to his so he could spoon me. “Only if you’re on my side with me.”
* * *
I slept like a baby,and the next morning, he’d made me breakfast with paprika in my eggs and a note on the counter.
