“You just said a lot of pretty words to me,” he says, his eyes not wavering from mine, like he’s trying to see inside me. He sits back on his heels. “So I’m just curious,” Dom continues, “what it is you like most about the plays. Is it their elegance or their…deception?”
I swallow hard. He stands up slowly and he’s so close to me that I can see his individual eyelashes. They’re dry now. The storm is still raging outside, and I can hear the rain beating on his windows like it wants to come in and cover us. I feel like my answer will matter more than it should. That he’s asking because this will reveal something about me that Dom is desperate to know.
“Can’t I like both?” I ask, sounding bothered and breathless.
“But which,” Dom asks, “do you like more?”
I reach up to adjust glasses that aren’t on my face. I must have left them in the bathroom when I changed. I drop my hand, unsure of where to put it. I want to touch him, but I just hold on to my own fingers again.
“I like that he can use beauty to reveal the scariest, worst parts of being human,” I say, watching Dom’s dark eyes. “I like that the truth is only hidden if you don’t read closely enough.” I think about Ms. Novak and my dad—there were signs everywhere that I ignored. Dom’s eyes flicker, and he kind of grins.
I want to know why.
Dom nods and moves a single wet braid from where it hangs over my forehead, and every part of me is aflame. And then, all at once, I can’t take it anymore: the smell of his skin on the clothes that I’m wearing, the inscrutable look in his eye. The way that I decided to trust my heart and him tonight over everyone and everything else. I lean forward without thinking and kiss him.
He kisses me back. Dom puts his warm hand on the back of my neck and I reach around him and wrap my arms tight around his torso. I haven’t kissed a boy since last summer, and even though it’s a freezing cold night instead of a humid, hot day, I’m so glad this is happening now—in Dom’s warm bedroom, in the middle of a storm—right after he asked me why I love Shakespeare.
He backs me toward the door and I trip over my wet boots, and when I almost break away laughing he doesn’t let me. I’m glad. His lips curl against mine in a smile, but we keep kissing, all hot mouths and wet hair and hands. We make out against the door, and his arms rest against the wood on either side of my head, making his body feel like it’s filling the whole room. All I can see is him. When I lift my hands to wrap my arms around his neck, I accidentally hit the light switch. The room goes dark, and then I do break away, giggling. I say, “Oops,” and I feel his flirty whisper against my cheek in the sudden darkness.
“You move fast,” he says.
“It was an accident,” I reply, slapping at his chest, and then I blindly grope the wall for the switch. But when I find it, it’s already flipped up, in the on position, which is strange. I flick it down, but the room still stays dark.
“Oh shit,” I say. “I think the power’s out.”
I feel more than see Dom grin. “Nice,” he says, and for a second I’m laughing too hard to kiss him more.
Dom has his phone in his pocket, so he pulls it out, flips on the flashlight, and shines it above us, so we can see each other’s faces.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hi,” I say. I feel exposed and suddenly shy in the bright light from his phone. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say or do next. My face is burning because I can’t believe what has just happened, but I hope Dom can’t tell.
He reaches out and puts another rogue braid behind my ear. He kisses me again, soft and slow, and I close my eyes until I feel like I’m sinking into the floor. He pulls away for a second, and I go up on my tiptoes to give him another peck on the lips. He says, “As much as I want to do this until the power comes back, I think Lolly and Pop will be home soon, and I don’t want them to trip on anything downstairs. I was supposed to come home to make sure all the windows were closed against the rain, and since I’ve been a bit…distracted, there could be puddles.”
I nod. “Oh,” I say, and then I blush at the fact that I can distract Dominic Grey. “Sorry. Let’s clean up, and find candles and stuff.”
He pushes away from where he’s leaning against the door, and I step forward, but he doesn’t go any farther at first. “Just one more,” he says, and before I can ask One more what? his lips are on mine again.
“Okay,” he says a few minutes later. “Okay, what were we doing?” I grin a little. I press my thumb against my lips, then dip my finger into the hollow in his throat before tracing a long line of gentle pecks across his collarbone and up his neck. It’s as magical as I thought it’d be. I look up at him and his eyes are closed; his brow is furrowed like he’s genuinely confused.
He stares down at me and I stare right back. I can tell already: he’s going to be another end to everything I knew to be true.
But maybe a new beginning is exactly what I need.
“Making sure your grandparents don’t break a hip when they get home?” I answer.
“Right,” he says, nodding. But he doesn’t move.
“Dom. We need towels or a mop. We need to find candles.”
He points at me, his eyes coming into focus a little more. “Right, yes. Mop. Candles.”
He takes my hand again and pulls me forward, and I’m surprised that a touch as casual as this one makes me feel almost as heady and lost as kissing him does.
SPINNING STORIES
We fill his hallway with light. Candles glow softly from every corner of Dom’s entryway, the kitchen, and atop the bricked-over fireplace in the den. I think, but don’t say aloud, a line from The Merchant of Venice every time a wick catches and brightens another corner of the house. How far that little candle throws his beams!
There is only a slight spray of water under two of the upstairs windows, and I leave Dom downstairs to clean that up with the thick towel I used to dry off.
My phone buzzes and it’s Sydney.
Ok. I think I know how I’m going to murder Sloane.
But I’m Dom-drunk, and the rumor feels like something that happened a lifetime ago.
I send a cry-laughing emoji. Let’s talk about it later. I’m at Dom’s.
She sends back about eighty-seven exclamation points, and I smile and click my phone’s power button so that the screen goes dark.
Dom finds me a few minutes later, and kisses me hard and long against the damp curtains.
We put small tea light candles on the right side of each stair so Lolly can pick her way up without any trouble. For Pop, we leave a battery-operated lantern on the kitchen counter so he can make his way through the house regardless of where he decides to go. And in each bathroom we leave a scented candle so that they smell sweet and are lit with a soft, golden kind of shine. In Dom’s room, along with candles, we light incense.