Someone save me.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
I tensed. I hadn’t seen Dominic since I’d stormed away from him in the gym. It wouldn’t be him, right?
A second knock. It was him. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did. Because of fucking course it was. Apparently my day hadn’t been shitty enough—the universe wanted to really make me suffer.
It took me forever to get to the door. My limbs felt like I was forcing them through treacle. Dom knocked three more times before I finally got there. I opened the door to find him grinning at me.
“Took your time, Shadow.”
I tried to tell him to go fuck himself, but the words caught in my throat, a cough coming out instead.
“Shadow? What’s wrong?” Dom’s grin faded as he swept forward. His face creased in concern as he put the back of his hand to my forehead and hissed. “Baby, you’re burning up.”
“’M fine,” I muttered, batting his hand away. “What do you want?”
“Forget about that.” Dom nudged me backwards and closed the door. “You’re sick.”
“It’s just a cold.” I coughed again. “Go away.” There was no heat in my demand. If pushed, I’d say it was because I was too sick.
If I was pushed further, I might admit that a small part of me was glad he was here. Feeling this shitty had stripped away some of my armour, exposing my need for company. To be looked after.
Even if it was by Dominic.
My stomach chose that precise second to rumble loudly.
“Let’s get you fed.” Dom nodded determinedly. “You need calories when you’re sick.”
I tried to protest, but he’d already disappeared past me.
“What do you call this, Shadow?” From the rummaging noises, Dom was going through my fridge. “You have practically no food.”
It took seventeen years, but eventually I reached the kitchen.
Dom was bent in half, scowling at the empty shelves. “I mean, seriously. You need protein, Ry. You’re a growing boy.”
I slumped against the counter as a wave of dizziness washed over me. “What are you doing here, Dom?”
“Well, I was just being neighbourly,” Dom said, looking through my similarly empty cupboards. “But now I have a new mission.”
“I’m not sure what passes for neighbourly overseas, but here we don’t barge into people’s private properties whenever we like.”
Dom paused in his search. “Funny, I remember things very differently.”
Our eyes met for a heartbeat. He knew as well as I did that we were thinking about the same thing. How he’d climb in my window. How I’d never stopped him.
How I’d started leaving it open for him.
Unfortunately for Dominic, he didn’t know what had followed. The nights I’d spent wishing to see his silhouette against the moonlight. How I’d refused to close it, even during the storms that had marked the end of summer, just in case he returned.
Until the night I came out of hospital. When I’d resolved to let him go.
I’d locked it then, sealing it away along with all my hopes of any future with Dominic. The night he’d almost died had added several more padlocks.
I wasn’t unlocking any of them now.
“We aren’t kids anymore,” I said. “Things are different.”