Ask Me to Stay

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dominic's POV

I should've just done it!

Two days passed since I realized Vera was jonesing for some kinky sex and then threw it in her face because I was still angry. And every time I see her move about the house I regret it just a little bit more. 

I've distracted myself with work, dreading coming home to an empty house aside from her adorable little self. Kara works, come homes, complains about it, goes to sleep. As Vera so kindly pointed out, the love here is unfortunately lost. 

"Heh, yeah. Paris was fun, yeah." I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning my chair back on two legs. Three relatively close-ish friends sat around me, a pint in front of us all. 

"That's all we get? C'mon man, spill the details. Kara must have really loved ya up for that one." Antony, one of the newer of my friends asked. 

"I actually didn't take Kara," I coughed out, staring down at the table. I could feel their eyes on me waiting for the other half of that statement. "Yeah, I took her little sister." 

"Awe man, that's nice. Kinda like a father-daughter type bond, I see ya." Antony continued, sipping at his drink. 

"Yeah man, Dom's not really the father type. More of the stone-cold-heartbreaker deal. Right?" Eddie, my old dormmate from university. He knows I have someone on the side, just not that it's Kara's seventeen-year-old sister. 

"Yeah, Uhm..." I sighed, gulping down, realizing why I stay at home so much. "She's into architecture, and sorta had a dream of going to Paris. Kara and I agreed that it would mean more for Vera than her." 

"Awe...cute." Antony ended, taking a slow gulp from his glass. 

"So what about the woman?" Reese, a friend by association, he's Eddie's childhood best friend and came as a package deal. 

"Kara?" 

"No...the woman?" Reese sang out lowly. I shot a glare at Eddie, desperately wanting to desert the group. 

"Sorry, Dom," he mumbled, leaning back a safe distance while nursing his own beer. 

"Get me three shots and I might be in a forgiving mood," I grumbled, turning my gaze to Reese. "And as for the woman...pretty sure that's over. But she's frustratingly unreadable so I have no clue. I flew her out to Paris for some time together, which both enjoyed, heavily. But now she wants me to leave Kara, so..." I shrugged, finishing off my drink and sliding the glass to the center of the table. 

"Well..." Antony began, sounding as if he knew the answer to it all. "If she's in it for the money then fuck her. But if she loves ya, man...that might mean something. You never seem too enthused with being with Kara. Maybe it's time to move on." He sounded, wise with words and slightly tipsy from shitty beer. 

"It's not quite that simple. See, she's quite a bit younger than me and still sees the world in rose-colored glasses. She doesn't understand my reasoning for keeping things under wraps. I tried telling her that we could wait until after she was out of scho-university, but that wasn't good enough. So now she's just being a spiteful little...brat about everything." I didn't know how to warp the "fucking other people/no we're not" situation to fit my narrative here so I left it out. "We've just been having issues lately and it's making things fucking miserable. It's either her or Kara, and she's asking me to choose."

"Dom," Eddie sighed, putting his hand on my shoulder and sliding the newly arrived shots my way. "If it's this big of a conundrum, the choosing I mean, then maybe you should be thinking about how a five-year-long relationship is sorta losing compared to the less-than-a-year long affair."