1.2 | The Prince of Thieves

Chapter 19

Hana had asked for the couch. There was no sense in Dom changing his sheets for her, but he had insisted that she use his room, and had even gone to the trouble of digging out clean sheets and a pillow case. 

Amidst her protests, he had begun to change out the bedspread with quick, expert hands, while Hana, feeling sorry for the trouble she had brought with her, stood by the door not daring to intrude into his pristine room. The whole scenario brought back fond memories of her first few weeks in New York, when she had stayed at the Puzzle Box and had to change the bedspread for her and Leon. A little smile automatically tugged at the side of her mouth; she would never forget the face he had made at her 'assault'.

What she would give to see it again, she mused as she held a hand out to receive the old sheets.

'You're a guest,' Dom had stated earlier in a firm tone that warned her against any opposition. 'You should take the bed.'

Realising that there was no way she could dissuade him, she silently began to strip the pillow of its cover and stuffed it into the clean case. Mickey, nonchalant as ever, had gone to shower and prepare for his 'hot date'. They worked in silence fraught with awkwardness. Dom's trademark frostiness forbade small talk, and she obediently handed the old pillow case to him upon his command.

'You look like you want to say something,' he stated almost accusatorially when he had the old sheets gathered in his arms. His blue eyes regarded her carefully and his face remained impassive as she held the pillow to herself.

He's not going to hurt you, she scolded herself. He's just cold. Colder than Leon even.

He was one of Leon's closest aides, one whom she had close to zero interaction with. Though they were of the same age, she found him difficult to get close to. Maybe it was her naiveté he found that made her not worth his attention, or maybe it was his standoffishness that made her steer clear from him.

Hana shrugged her shoulders like it meant nothing at all and muttered something under her breath about Leon and the alliance with the Kei-Shiragata.

'If it's about today,' he said,' Then you have to ask him. I cannot answer on his behalf.'

'I know.' She shot him a grateful smile. It was difficult for him to offer his thoughts too. 'Thanks Dom.'

After grabbing some things for himself, Dom had left her the room. She found that she could finally breathe a sigh of relieve and she started to unpack a few of her things, lining her bottles of facial products on his desk. It was a jarring contrast to the primness of the rest of his room. Mickey had left the house sometime ago, leaving the two of them to stick to their own separate corners of the house. Dom was sitting at the little dining table to do his work – she could hear the clickety-clack of his keyboard – while she had decided to keep to the room. It was better for the two of them, she felt – and she knew he felt too – that their awkward encounters be kept to a minimum.

She had three missed calls and dozens of messages from Leon. She knew she should have called him, but she was too tired to talk, and she would rather speak with him face to face. Besides, she didn't quite know what to say. Hello, I'm staying with Mickey and Dom, sounded trivial while What the hell were you doing? was too confrontational. Maybe Let's talk would be better, but he had already said it. She spent a long time trying to fall asleep on the bed in the silent room, burrowing down under the borrowed quilt.

~

'When can I see him again?' she mused. It was more for herself than for him, for he had been giving her indefinite responses. I'll ask him soon. He's a busy person, you know? She knew as much as him that he would never come. Not again. Not now when he had other issues to settle, but that, Sofiya did not know.