The Ideal Deal

6

"How are you two coping with the loss of your families?" a lady with short, curly hair asked. She was a brunette and had soft looking eyes. She also appeared to be a bit young- maybe 24.

The question pinched my heart. I was truly hoping that no one would ask about our families, but I should have known better. After all, it was one of the hot topics to discuss.

As I thought about the fact that my family truly was gone, my eyes began to water. Dominic, who was seated beside me, looked down at me. He noticed that I was beginning to get a bit emotional, so he held my hands and chose to answer the question.

"I think I can speak for both Summer and myself when I say that we're trying very hardly to get through this time. I personally have trouble sleeping at night because it's always the last thing on my mind and the first thing on my mind when I wake up. I-I-it sucks and f-feels unfair," Dominic answered, and I looked up to him and noticed that his eyes were starting to water. "I miss them....a lot, and though I try not to think about it so that I can make it through the day, it still haunts me."

Dominic bit his bottom lip and stared at the floor, and I knew he was doing it so that he wouldn't cry, but seeing him the way he was and being able to relate made a tear trickle down my eye. I quickly wiped it away and sniffled. I hated crying. I felt that it made me look weak.

"Like Dominic, I try not to think much about it, but it also makes me lose sleep at night and is also the first thing on my mind. It hurts so much, and I would love to say that I'm managing, but every moment of silence that I receive in a day causes me to mentally fall apart," I added.

With a follow up question, the lady asked, "Do you think that the fact that you both lost your families the same time brought you closer?"

"We actually never spoke about it," Dominic answered. "We both tend to try to hide our emotions. We don't like talking about our feelings, so we avoid the topic altogether. Some would say that it's the Aquarius in us, especially because we share the same birthday."

I added, "And not communicating right away isn't problematic because we both understand and respect each other's space and know that when we're both ready to talk about it, we will."

Another person, a guy this time, asked, "When have you two found out that you were in love with each other? Your families have been rivals for quite some time, and no one has ever seen you two hanging out."

"There was a time when our parents were good friends, so Dominic, Michael, Autumn, and I would spend a lot of time with each other. We actually hated those times because the Winter Children didn't like the King children, and vice versa. Dominic would always tease me about how dumb he thought my name was and he would bully me about a bunch of other things as well," I truthfully told. "I had my fair share of bullying him as well, but the point is that though we always teased each other, there was always an element of flirting there."

I looked up at Dominic, and he lightly smirked. The story was true so far. Dominic used to always flirt with me, but I never took it seriously because I knew he was only joking.

"As we got older," Dominic continued, "our flirting became a little bit more mature and developed a bit." Now, that was a lie. We still despised each other, but in a weird way, we were actually...friends.

"He'd tease me in a way that would actually make me blush, rather than want to punch him in the face," I lied. I still wanted to punch that pretty face of his. "But when our feelings for each other started to become more real, our families had a falling out, and we split up as well."

Dominic smiled, "We still mocked each other if we happened to be in the same place, like a convention or so." Now, that was factual, only our mockery was anything but playful. They were like knives and shards of glasses. I admit, I often wanted to kick him in his balls. "Then, she went to college, and since we weren't seeing each other anymore and I was getting older, I started dating."

A reporter called out, "But you were still dating other women when she was around for holidays."

Dominic nodded, "I was dating while she was around, yes, but that was because she never admitted her feelings for me. I never admitted my feelings for her either, but her going away for college was different. She was actually gone for a long while, and whenever she'd visit, I wouldn't know about it due to the family rivalry."

"When I came back from college three months ago, Dominic wasn't in a relationship and neither was I. We didn't see each other much because he had work and all, but from time to time we'd see each other around. One day when we met up, we confessed our feelings for each other. I guess we got tired of playing games. It was a surprise to me that Dominic proposed to me, especially because we had never tried dating each other," I continued the story that Dominic and I had thought of last night and rehearsed together. "We didn't want to tell anyone about our relationship as yet. We were planning to wait until Christmas to break the news to our families, but when we lost them, we realized that life's too precious to spend it not doing what we want and living in fear of how we feel about each other."

"So you two aren't just together but are actually married?" the guy questioned, and Dominic and I nodded in response.

"When you've felt the same exact way, only a bit more intensely with each year that passes, about someone for so many years, it's only right that you act on your feelings," Dominic shrugged.

I smiled, "We still have a lot to learn about each other and all, but we definitely don't regret marrying each other or see us parting."

A woman asked, "What are your plans for your businesses? Will you be merging them or keeping them as competitors?"

The question actually took both Dominic and me by surprise, as we never thought about that.

"We never really thought about it," I answered. "Right now, it'll remain as competitors, and I guess my husband and I will be talking about this later."

A guy questioned, "Is it true that you are expecting?"

Dominic joked, "Are you calling my wife fat," causing everyone, including myself to chuckle. "I don't know where that rumor came from, but to burst your bubble, we aren't expecting anything except another successful year for our businesses and for our marriage."

"Including children?" the guy pried, causing everyone to chuckle once more.

Dominic looked at me raised his eyebrows, and I playfully rolled my eyes at him before confessing, "I'm still a virgin, and I don't know when I'll be ready to give myself to someone."

Dominic then winked, "I'm a patient man," causing everyone, excluding Dominic and I to chuckle. I didn't laugh because I felt that Dominic was actually being serious, being that he brought up having sex with me the other day, so instead of laughing, I just blushed shyly. "I was being serious," Dominic added, causing our audience to laugh again and me to blush even more.

"This is what he always does," I playfully complained, causing them to laugh even more. It was true- Dominic always teased me until he got the response he wanted from me, whether that was blushing from him saying something vulgar or punching him for saying something that annoyed me. Either way, he was always bothering me, and it truly had been like that since I knew him.