Chapter 309
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I took a seat, perching a little nervously on my knees. With the door shut behind us, the living room felt more intimate than it ever had before; we usually only used it for more formal meetings or guests. But now, it felt like it was being used for what it was supposed to be used for, and it was weird, because Dominic was the last person I expected to make that happen.
“What’s wrong?” Dominic asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “It’s just… I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”
“I said I would.”
I looked at him. He was watching me carefully, like he was trying to gauge my reaction.
“Well,” I said. “Let’s see if it’s as beneficial as Amy thinks it’ll be.”
We settled onto the sleeping bags, and Dominic hit play on the movie. It was some explosion-heavy thriller that required exactly zero brain cells to follow. Perfect for a night like this.
At first, it was awkward. We sat stiffly on our respective sleeping bags, keeping a careful distance between us. I focused on the movie and picked at the snacks and tried not to think about how weird this whole situation was.
But as the night went on, I started to relax. Little by little, chip by chip. I found myself laughing whenever Dominic made sarcastic comments about the plot holes. Eventually, I stopped caring so much about my posture, and laid back against my sleeping back with the bowl of popcorn sitting on my chest, refusing to let Dominic have any.
I wasn’t sure how it happened. But somehow, at some point, it did. And the strangest part about all of it was that it didn’t happen consciously, or on purpose, and I didn’t even try to fight it. It just… happened. Like slipping into a pair of well-worn gloves.
Being with him like this, without any reservations, felt like the most natural thing in the world, and it broke my heart.
If only it could have been like this from the beginning, not in this life but in the last… I wondered if any of the bad things that had happened would have still happened then.
As the movie came to an end, turning the room dark as the credits rolled across a black screen, I found myself glancing over at Dominic and mulling that thought over. He had relaxed and eaten himself into a food coma, and was yawning and currently fighting to keep his eyes open. For a moment, he almost looked like the boy I had fallen in love with long ago.
If only the Moon Goddess had sent me back that far. Maybe then, everything would have turned out completely different.
I didn’t mean to fall asleep. But at some point, I must have, because the next thing I knew, I was blinking awake to morning sunlight and the sound of chirping birds.
Slowly, the events of last night came back. There was nothing particularly exciting, no grand moments or deep talks. Just a movie and snacks and one night, just one, that felt almost normal.
It had been… fun. Unreserved in that way that slipped out sometimes, like when he fed me oysters, or when we danced beneath the roving lights of the club. Those tender, brief moments of easiness between us that were always there, lingering just beneath the surface.
Maybe Amy was onto something after all. Maybe we just needed to tend to those moments, to water then, and maybe they would bloom.
Maybe divorce or death didn’t need to be the only options here.
Or so I thought. But then I opened my eyes fully and turned my head, expecting to see Dominic sleeping beside me, and all I saw was an empty space where his sleeping bag had just been.
I sat up, looking around. The living room was clean, the food wrappers and leftovers having been picked up at some point while I slept.
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Just then, I heard the sound of voices outside the window. It sounded like Vivian and Dominic. Curious, I got up and walked over, peeking through the curtains.
My stomach sank as I realized why Dominic had left without saying anything this morning.
He and Vivian were sitting on a bench together in the garden, leaning close. She had her head resting on his shoulder, and his arm was around her, and in that moment, I remembered.
All of this was a performance. The coffee and pastry, the therapist, the exercises, the promises. All of it was just another manipulation tactic to keep my naive heart ensnared, just for a little longer.
And all the while, he would continue to run back to Vivian, just like he always did. Just as he did in my past life, he would continue to do in this one.
I was a fool for thinking, even for one night, that it could be any other way.
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