Always The Second Choice

12. Saturday Mornings and Team Lunches

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Dominic imagined a lot of things. Imagined a lot of things and a lot of ways that his relationship with his wife would change after that night. What he did not imagine was for her to go AWOL for the rest of the week and only turn up on Saturday morning, sitting on the breakfast table with a dry toast between her teeth as she typed away leisurely on her laptop. 

"Good morning?" The greeting came out as a question as he made his way to her, barefoot and bare torso, his grey sweatpants hanging low on his waist.

Nicola, in a sack of a tee and her lion's mane a sparrow's nest, looked over at him and stretched her arms above her head. 

The sight was so adorable, what with the toast in her mouth and the sleep in her eyes, that Dominic could not help but smile. Sometimes he tended to forget that this twenty-two-year-old was actually still a kid in comparison to him. 

He clearly was not taking into account the mental age. 

Nicola took out the food from between her teeth and said in a yawn, "Good morning to you too." 

Dominic was testing the waters and he took the response as positive enough. "Busy morning?" 

"Try busy week." Nicola yawned again as she went back to her work. 

Dominic nodded as he took the stool next to her. So, maybe that was where she had been all these days - at work. He had been stupid enough to not give that possibility any importance.

He made a mental note to remember that even though it was not a multi-national company, Nicola was the CEO of a publishing house and she was going through a major adaptation. 

"Mary coming back tomorrow?" He asked as he buttered his toast. There was no food in the house what with the housekeeper gone. 

"Monday." She replied absent-mindedly. 

"What are your plans for lunch?" Dominic tried his luck. 

"Taking my team out for their hard work the past week." Nicola shrugged. 

Dominic raised a brow. That must have been so rewarding for the staff. It was true that he could not do that with his staff members because Nicola had about twenty staff while he had hundreds and even more if he took into account the peripheries and other branches. But if he could do something for them, other than what their team managers did, it could really have a positive effect on the performance of his people. 

He decided to make a mental note of that too. 

"Can I tag along?" He asked. 

Dominic could have pressed for a dinner date, but for the first time he had really looked at his wife and in doing so, he was seeing how hard this week had been on her and how desperately she needed a good night's rest. 

For the first time, he felt like he was doing something right by her. 

Nicola stopped typing, turning to face him with a barely masked amused look on her face. The exhaustion was giving her poker face a hard time. She raised a brow at him. 

"What?" He looked confused. 

"My staff hates you, didn't you know?" There was laughter in her voice even though it was absent on her face. Nicola did not think Dominic would notice but he was hyper-attentive of her and so he did. 

"I am sure you might have cleared the misunderstandings by now." He smiled and that smile faltered when she shook her head, a smile of her own appearing.