31. Because of Her

Dom

Despite the Monday deadline, Mia was sitting on my stairs waiting for me. It was something she often did. Once, she told me she used to sit on the stairs as a kid because the curly landline lead wouldn’t stretch any further. Now, she did it because it felt like a safe space.

It told me one thing. She wanted a battle and she’d gone for the higher ground.

Not bloody morally, though. That would have meant my house was empty when I arrived.

I ignored her, setting my keys down on the side and carrying Ghost’s cat basket into the living room. He meowed, happy to be home though he’d probably miss Leonie’s cuddles as much as me.

I’d fucked it. Ruined everything.

I put him down, opened his little door and then shut him in the room.

With a deep breath, I stood in the hallway by the stairs, trying not to remember that it was the wall I’d thrown Leonie up against and the way her clothes had littered my floor.

Mia looked down at her hands resting in her lap, her blonde hair falling forward and covering her face. She’d curled it. I’d complimented it a few months ago and she’d curled it every day since without fail.

“Whatever else you have to say, say it,” I said with a sigh.

“Will you not even let me say goodbye to him?” she asked, looking to the living room.

That I could do. If a goodbye would get her out, fine.

“I didn’t want him to hear,” I said grimly.

She nodded, again looking down at her hands. I hoped it was shame that had her looking away from me.

“Please,” she said, blinking up at me. “Please, Dom.”

“Please, what?”

“Forgive me. It was… I don’t know what it was.”

“I can explain it to you if you would like. It was pathetic.”

She shook her head. “Are you not upset at all?”

“Honestly? No,” I said. She didn’t have her shoes on. When was she going to put her shoes on?

“Is that because there’s someone else?” she asked quietly. Hesitantly, her pooling eyes met mine.

I snorted. “You have someone else. Frankly, it’s none of your business if I’m seeing someone or not.”

“Even when it’s my friend?”

Well, shit.

I turned to her, loosening a deep breath. “Sorry?”

“Leonie,” she raged and wiped her eyes. “You and Leonie. How long has that been going on?”

“I have no idea what you’re on about.”

“Such a good liar. So you cheated first, then, didn’t you? As soon as she broke up with Jared. You’ve been distant, cold. Because of her.”

“What are you even talking about?” I snapped and shut my eyes in frustration. “You honestly—”

“Tell me the truth because I have proof,” she barked, standing and coming down the steps. “I have proof that I’ll go straight to Issy with.”

“Proof?” I asked with a laugh. “Like you’re a detective?”

She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and pressed it with angry fingers. “You forget that I live here, too. I have access to the camera.”

She lifted the phone and I stepped closer to see my porch on the screen. The door opened, a little white sock stretched out, followed by a jeaned leg and then my swooping arms grasping Leonie by the waist and pulling her back in.

I gave her an incredulous look. “And what does that prove?”

“Turn around,” she said.

And, for possibly the first time ever, I followed her instruction. Behind me, on the side table next to my keys, were the pair of earrings Leonie had snarkily taken off when I’d begged her to undress.

“And what does that prove?” I asked again.

Then, next to her on the step, she lifted the tiniest length of a wrapper. The part of the condom I had ripped off with my teeth.

“Found it by the sofa.”

Okay, her case was proven. Solid.

“Unless this is an old one that the two of you have used before.”

“Unless it’s one you used,” I quipped. “Honestly, Mia, there’s nothing you can say or do. It’s over. We’re over. Do what you want with your little flirty video.”

“You can’t tell me it’s just flirty. Issy will see right through it.”

“Issy won’t see shit. Leonie hates me. I don’t like her. We’ve never seen eye to eye.”

“Oh,” she started, throwing her head back with a crazed laugh. “Oh, you don’t like her? So you don’t go and visit her mother in the unit? You don’t update the security cameras at her abandoned childhood home every year?”

“I do that because I feel guilty!” I snarled, looming over her. My words spat on her face. I tried to calm my breathing. I hadn’t realised what I just said. “You need to get the fuck out of my house before I drag you.”

But she reached a gentle hand up to my face and brushed my jaw with her knuckles. “What do you feel guilty about?”

I only shook my head, hands in fists. I had to get a hold of this anger.

“I’m guilty of things, too,” she whispered and stood, her hand still caressing my face. “Neither of us are good, Dom. Let’s be not good together.”

I closed my eyes and stepped back. She followed.

“We got it out of our systems. We just needed a little fresh start, you with her and me with him. But we’re back here now. Full circle.”

Swiping her hand away from me was meant to anger her, but her voice remained calm.

“You’ll get bored of her soon,” she drawled in my ear, her fingers traipsing down my t-shirt. “She’s too… vanilla. Too damn-right dull. Hell, she’s practically your sister.”

I pushed her off. “I was going to let you say goodbye to Ghost. Now, I’m not. Get your fucking shit and get out of my house.”