“Dominique Ortiz!” Shit. That came out even louder than he’d intended, but Domi whirled around and gasped when she saw him. The restaurant had fallen silent, everyone staring at the crazy man standing on a table in the middle of brunch. If she walked away now, everyone would see her reject him, but it didn’t matter.
It was time to face his fears, to show Domi he was willing to put it all out there for her.
To tell her the full truth because even now, he’d been holding back, unwilling to make the declaration when he hadn’t been sure how she would react… if she would reciprocate.
“If you don’t have feelings for me, if you don’t think you could fall in love with me, given the chance, then walk away now. I’ll let you go. I won’t bother you about this again. But if you’re only walking away because you’re scared, because you have the feelings, but you’re afraid to act on them, I know how that feels. Because I love you, Domi.”
Her mouth dropped open, but no noise came out. It felt as if the entire world had come to a halt. There was no noise, no movement, everyone in the restaurant staring at him while he made a complete and utter fool of himself—and it didn’t matter.
None of it mattered except Domi.
“I’ve been in love with you for weeks, but I couldn’t admit it, not even to myself. I tried so hard not to be like my dad, but I became exactly like him. I can’t fix what I’ve already done, but I know he would have never done this. He would have never made himself this vulnerable.” She was still standing there, staring at him without reacting. Fuck. Maybe he needed to let her go. “So, it’s okay if you don’t love me back… I just… I just needed to try.” He dropped his hands, feeling increasingly foolish.
The whole room waited with bated breath. They’d stopped watching him and were now watching Domi, waiting to see what she said. If she’d walk away from him now.
Maybe he should get off the table.
“Be like the girl from Transformers! Get in the car!” a woman shouted from the other side of the room.
Domi’s head whipped around, her nose wrinkling in confusion. “What?”
The dark-haired man sitting next to the woman who had called out had put his hand over her mouth, and Mitch had a jolt of surprise. That was Master Justin and Jessica. The third part of their triad was sitting across from them. Master Chris caught Mitch’s eye and gave him a thumbs-up, then jerked his finger back at Domi.
Oh, right.
Because he was as big a nerd as his dad, he knew exactly what Jessica was talking about, and fuck, it made sense.
Looking back at Domi, he held out his hand in front of him, beckoning, hoping she could come take it.
“In the Transformers movie, one of the main characters hesitates to get into the Transformer when it’s a car. The guy asks her, won’t she always wonder what it would have been like if she’d gotten into the car. I know I’ll always wonder, Domi.” She took a step closer to him. “You’re right. There are no guarantees, but there are missed chances.” Another step. Then another. “I love you, Domi. I don’t want to miss my chance.” She was almost to him, eyes shining with tears.
Her hand reached out, and Mitch crouched down so her fingers could touch his.
“I think… I love you too, Mitch.”
The entire room exploded in applause. Mitch grinned, grabbing her hand and pulling her onto the table with him. She squeaked in surprise but went willingly, then laughed against his lips as he kissed her with all the relief, love, and joy threatening to explode his heart. Kissing him back, she wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him, and he could feel the wetness from the tears on her cheeks, could—
“Mother fucker!” He jerked away from the kiss, jumping in place, one small spot on his ass burning from a fiery sting that felt exactly like…
Mistress Olivia glared up at him, tapping her crop threateningly against her hand.
“Get. Off. My. Table. Now.”
Whoops.
Cheekily, Mitch saluted her, pretending his ass didn’t have a spot that felt as if it had been stung by a bee, and jumped down before helping Domi down. Olivia watched them with narrowed eyes, looking as though she wanted to hit him with the crop again.
“No standing on tables in my restaurant.” She pointed the crop at him threateningly and dropped it after he and Domi nodded their agreement. Behind Olivia, her boyfriend Luke—and one of the actual owners of the restaurant—was at the bar cracking up. She gave Mitch a terse smile. “Good job on making the right decision, though.”
Resting her crop against her shoulder like it was a bat, Olivia sauntered away, causing quite a few whispers throughout the rest of the restaurant. No one said anything directly to her. Past her and Luke, at the end of the bar, Mitch could see the door to the kitchen was wide open, and people were watching from in there as well. He hoped they’d enjoyed the show.
As Olivia moved away, Rae and Avery came rushing out of the hallway next to the booth where he and Domi were sitting, and Mitch blinked in surprise. Had they been there the whole time?
“Holy shit, that was amazing!” Rae slammed into him, wrapping her arms around him in a massive hug. Mitch did his best to hug her back, although he refused to let go of Domi’s hand, so it was a one-armed effort. “I was cheering for you the whole time.” She suddenly pulled back, glaring up at him. “But don’t you ever hurt Domi again.”
“I’ll do my best not to.”
“Do better than that.”
Chuckling, Mitch squeezed Domi’s fingers as Rae pulled away from him, looking between her and Avery. He should have known Domi
