WICKED ✓

17

Stella

With the Winter break over, life continues the way it had always done. Everything goes back to how it was before I met Dom. Sleeping on the couch of my family home isn't ideal, but it's better than Sabine and Soleil having to share a room again while I look for an apartment. While the kids are off at school, I follow my routine of getting ahead of my classwork, completing the next two weeks' worth of assignments so that I can't possibly have any time to think about him.

My heart hurts thinking about Dominic. Deep down, I know that he'd never betrayed me or lied to me, but what he does in his free time isn't something I am able to accept. Despite the guilt niggling at my brain, I didn't, and wouldn't, call the police to turn him in. 

To make myself feel better, I try to convince myself that I fell in love with a man who doesn't truly exist in any way other than the way that he told me about. As far as I know, his name isn't really Dominic. But when I'm alone at night, his touch is the one I crave. His company is the one I desire. His warmth is the one I seek. I want Dominic in every way that he exists. 

Needing to get out of the house for some air, I throw on a light jacket and step into the bring chill of the Winter. The sun warms my face and I slip my hands into my pockets as I walk through the gate on the front lawn. Turning right on the sidewalk, I continue straight down the road until I make it to a small park, empty of anyone because it is the middle of a school day. 

I walk towards an empty black bench and sit down, feeling the cold seeping through the thick denim of my jeans. Breathing out through my mouth, I watch my breath take shape and disappear as quickly as it had formed. My eyes focus and unfocus on the sparse trees in the distance as someone sits on the other end of the bench.

The familiar scent hits me first, prompting me to turn to the side to face him. His jaw is lightly covered with facial hair, but it looks good on him. His head is still shaved and scarred and is tilted back, looking up at the clear sky with squinted eyes. I wait for him to speak first.

"Hi Stella." I hear Dominic's voice for the first time in three weeks and shiver. Staring. Waiting.

"Hi Dominic. Here to kill me?" I joke, but his presence unnerves me as long as I don't know his intentions.

"Not even a little bit. I'm here to take my babygirl home." My breath catches at his words and his use of the nickname for me. My eyes meet his and I try to read his expression that is usually perfectly hidden, but now, everything is written on his face. 

I'm sorry.

I'm guilty.

I'm afraid.

I'm lost.

"I found this great girl, and I did something really stupid and lost her." He says and I can't help but smile hopelessly, playing along.

"What did you do?"

"I didn't tell her who I am." 

"Yes you did. I know who you are. You didn't tell me what you do." 

"Did." He corrects and my eyebrows furrow. "I didn't tell you what I did. Past-tense." He smiles hopefully and my eyes widen.

"Dom?"

"I haven't finished, and I'm not going to. I can live with myself for not doing what I set out to do. I cannot, however, live with myself for not doing what I didn't set out to do." He says, standing up before walking in front of me and kneeling down on both knees so that our eyes are level with each other's.

"What didn't you set out to do?"

"I didn't set out to fall in love with you Stella. And I couldn't live with myself if I didn't fight to keep what we found." My heart is beating a mile a minute and my hands reach out for Dominic's face. Despite what I know he's done, and what I don't know he's done, I can't help but think that if I don't know this man, then I don't know a thing at all.

I don't need to know everything about him to love him. Just everything that matters. 

I know the way that he treats me, and the way he makes me feel. I know the way we fit perfectly together and the way he lights up any room he's in. I know that we have something that doesn't always come around in a person's lifetime, and I know that my instincts are telling me to hold onto him with both hands and not to let go.

"I'm gonna fight like hell for this. For us"

"You better."

THE END