Always The Second Choice

7. Sleeping Arrangements

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"Ask." Nicola rolled her eyes as she glanced over at George and Blair looking intently at her.

"Ask what?" Blair tried to be nonchalant but George elbowed her in the ribs. She winced and glared at the graphic designer before stepping forward. "Boss, the staff are concerned. You are going to give that jer-ntleman you call your husband a second chance?" 

Nicola blew a strand of her lion's mane away from her eyes and leaned back against her chair, turning from side to side. "Do you think I should?" 

"Abso-fucking-lutely not." George did not waste a second in replying. 

"Then why do you think I will?" Nicola wiggled her eyebrows at them. 

"Why put a hold on the moving out then?" Blair asked. "We can arrange you a new place if you just say the word. You don't have to stay with him. You don't have to lift a finger. We will take care of everything." 

"As much as I appreciate your zest, I will stay with him until the whole scandal blows over and then divorce him." She shrugged. 

"Why?" George asked. 

Nicola sighed as if she was having to explain something to a toddler. "If our company goes under and has to lay off members, who lose their job first - me or Heather?" 

"Heather, duh." George was still clueless. "But what does that have to do with your divorce? It's not like our company will go under just because you did not forgive a cheating ass-ertive husband." 

"Nice save," Blair murmured. "But that's not what she meant."

"You can curse him all you want. I will curse him with you." Nicola nodded for them to sit down which they did. "What I am saying is that if something happens to his company because of the scandal, then his employees will have to suffer. I have a company of my own so I understand that. So I don't want my personal matter becoming the cause of someone's unemployment. Hence, I will wait till things  blow over and then get my fucking free chit."  

"Ohhhh..." George nodded. 

"You getting me now, Campell?" 

"Yep!" He gave her a thumbs up. "You are super cool. I got it!" 

Nicola rolled her eyes and turned to Blair who, too, had both her thumbs up. 

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"What do you mean? Does it make any sense for a married couple to sleep separately?"

Dominic had come back to the apartment in the evening to find Nicola hauling her belongings to the guest bedroom.

"We are getting a divorce." Nicola shrugged.

"I thought we had this discussion. We are working on our marriage right?" He took a step towards her, taking in the scent of her soap and all his senses coming alive.

"You know how in the movies, the judge allows six months to work on a marriage before divorce?" She took a step back. She knew what those dark eyes meant and she was not going to give it to him.

"Yes?"

"I am giving this marriage another six months."

Dominic nodded. He could work with that.

"Then why are you moving into the spare room?"

"This is a marriage in crisis. Sex is a no-no." She shrugged. "There is no place for complications."

Dominic looked at her as if he was a puppy who just got kicked.

"Six months without sex?"

"You could always have sex with your Natasha."

"For the last time, Nicola, I am not having an affair. We are just friends."

"That's not what she thinks. Or anybody else thinks."

"I never even touched her intimately." He said. "I treated her like a friend, an emotional and intellectual companion. Maybe I was not clear about my intentions and that has hurt her feelings. And I will fix that as well."

Nicola wanted to point out that that's what is called emotional cheating but she decided she did not care.

Dominic did not want to be with her. He was being petty and business-minded. He would give her what she wanted on a silver platter when these six months were up and that's all that mattered.

Nicola squared her shoulders, hating the ever-present pain in her chest that he would fix his relationship with Natasha more willingly than he would the relationship with her. It was something she could not push away or forgive no matter how much she tried.

There were moments in life when she believed herself to be the problem. The undeserving woman.

But now, she had proven her worth to people who actually mattered. And she was not going to beg for love, attention, or recognition. Not anymore.

"Anyway, do what you want. I am not going to sleep with you."

Dominic huffed and covered the distance between them. "If you want to play like this, then I will promise you that I won't lay a finger on you unless you beg me to."

Nicola rolled her eyes. 

Did this man really think he was that irresistible?

"I think that will work perfectly for our arrangement."

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Nicola huffed as she turned to the other side. The mattress in the spare room did not feel quite right yet. Maybe because it was her first time in it.

Nicky did not function well in unfamiliar places.

"Can't believe I gave up my own bed to him when he was the one who cheated." She whined to herself. "He must be sleeping like a dead fish like he did yesterday."

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Dominic was too aware of everything. The ticking of the clock, the fluttering of pages of one of the magazines on the coffee table, the creaking of the bed every time he turned - which he seemed to be doing a lot - and the absence of a warm body next to him. Which he had gotten used to in the last two years - he just wasn't aware of it till tonight.

Dominic was not a cuddler. He didn't like how people tangled themselves together when they slept. But it was one of his guilty pleasures watching Nicola sleep, her chest rising up and down as she took steady slow breaths, her eyebrows always pinched together as if she was a slave to all the worries in the world.

He had lied to himself when he thought he had not seen her smile in forever. The truth was, if he was exceptionally lucky, he would catch a glimpse of a smile on her sleeping face. But they always felt like a fever dream to him, ones he wasn't so sure he had actually seen. So maybe they didn't exactly count?

Dominic let out a heavy sigh. "What are you doing, Dom? You slept just fine yesterday without her by your side." Sure, it was on the couch and he was dead tired but it was still valid. "Why are you acting like a lovesick puppy?"

"Sleep!" He ordered himself as he covered his face with a pillow. "SLEEP!" He screamed into it.

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The next update is on June 1, Saturday.