I can’t breathe.
“Excuse me,” he said suddenly, standing up with the same abruptness. “I need to use the bathroom.”
Splash some cold water on his face. Figure out what the fuck was going on. What he was going to do next. How this changed things.
He stumbled away from the table.
The revelation did change things, didn’t it? Hell, it changed everything. Not that he thought BDSM would be some kind of magic bullet, a guarantee things would work out with him and Domi, that he wouldn’t end up in a relationship like his parents… but he’d thought it gave them more of a chance. He’d seen the happy couples around Stronghold and thought it meant something.
But everything was still a crapshoot.
“Mitch… Mitch!” Domi caught up to him before he could reach the safety of the men’s room. Grabbed his arm. He turned around reluctantly, emotions simmering and bubbling under the surface, barely contained. “What’s going on?”
“I need a minute, Domi.” His voice came out distant, harsh, and she flinched, but he couldn’t do anything about that. It was all he could do to keep his emotions under control, which meant locking them down entirely.
“Fine then, just one question.” Her dark eyes flashed with hurt. “I introduced you to my parents, but your dad clearly doesn’t know who I am. You didn’t tell him about me, did you?”
Fuck. No, he hadn’t, but he wasn’t going to stand here in the hallway and explain things to her when she was supposed to be eating dinner with her family.
“No. I didn’t. Did you tell Ana’s dad and stepmother you’re seeing someone?” It came out more accusatory than he meant. Domi took a step back. From the way she pressed her lips together, guilt tingeing her expression, he knew he was right. She hadn’t mentioned him to her family either. Sure, he’d met her parents, but they were far away, weren’t they? It wasn’t a big deal to her. She hadn’t even asked him why he hadn’t told his dad, just jumped on him about not doing so. “You’re here having family dinner, all dressed up, and I wasn’t invited, was I? Because I’m not part of the family.”
He knew he was venting his frustration about his own parents on her, but he couldn’t seem to stop. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he should. She’d followed him when he’d clearly needed space and had been ready to throw accusations at him.
“If I’d known you were going to be here, I would have told you,” she said, clearly trying to keep a hold of her temper. For some reason, that made him even angrier.
“Why? So, I would take my dad for dinner somewhere else?”
“No… I mean… I don’t know.” She clenched her fists by her side. “It’s Ana’s birthday, and she wanted to come here—” She cut off as a cold, resigned laugh burst from Mitch’s lips.
“I didn’t even know it was Ana’s birthday.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “This was a bad idea.”
“What was?” Hesitancy crept into her voice, but it was too late.
“This.” He opened his eyes, sweeping out his arm. Hell, he was never going to be able to come back to this restaurant without thinking about tonight. His favorite pasta place was going to be tainted forever. That’s what relationships did. They got people all hopeful, then they shit on everything, ruining it by association. “All of it. You, me. Probably everything. I didn’t even know it was your daughter’s birthday. I have no idea if you were ever going to tell her or your co-parents about me. I didn’t tell my dad about you. Maybe that’s for the best. Makes it easier.”
“Easier?” she repeated, staring up at him as though she didn’t understand what he was saying. Fuck. Was this what breaking up was like? This sucked even more than he’d ever thought it would.
But it was the right thing to do.
“I’m a bad bet, Domi, I always was. We should end this now, while our lives are still separate. Go back and celebrate your daughter’s birthday. You should be there with her, not over here with me. You weren’t even supposed to see me tonight, remember?” He whirled away from the shocked expression on her face, shoving his way into the men’s bathroom where she couldn’t follow.
At least, where she shouldn’t follow. There was a small part of him that worried she would, anyway. Another part that hoped she would.
Standing in front of one of the sinks, he stared at himself in the mirror, gripping the porcelain and waiting… but no petite firecracker came storming through the door to yell at him. Hell, he wasn’t even sure what he would say to her if she did. It really was better this way.
Wasn’t it?
Domi
In shock, feeling completely hollowed out on the inside as if she was an empty doll, moving through space because someone had wound her up and set her into motion, Domi turned away and started walking back to the table. The table she had sent the others to while she’d chased down Mitch.
She wished she hadn’t.
Except…
Was he right? Was it better this way?
Hell, if it was going to happen anyway, better sooner than later, right?
That’s why she’d broken off their arrangement in the first place. To end things before her emotions got involved.
Too late for that now.
She should have been angry, furious, but she couldn’t summon the emotion. She felt like someone had frozen her from the inside out. As she reached the table where her family was sitting, she also realized that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. She pasted a smile on her face for Ana and sat down. The other adults looked at her with worried expressions, Rae more so than the others.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, Mitch isn’t feeling well,” she heard herself say as though from a great distance as though someone else
