Page 46 of Between Love & Ruin

“Excuse me,” he says before stomping his way to where the washrooms are located.

Someone pissed the man-child.

“Thank you, Dom,” I say, and he smiles, his dimples popping up. He is one beautiful man.

Inside and out.

“I didn’t expect you to say that. Hell, I thought you were going to agree with him, and you have no idea how upsetting that would have been for me. I think so highly of you.”

“I would never agree with all the shit that man said, Sienna. " Dominic rests his hand on top of mine. I look at how his hand envelopes mine and how that doesn’t feel strange at all.

How safe just that one touch feels.

“You don’t get how highly I think of you. I don’t think I could put it in words how much…you mean to me.”

My eyebrows furrow, and I frown at myself for feeling the things I am feeling right now.

“I—”

“Sienna,” Mark’s cold voice makes me pull my hand back abruptly. “Let’s go home. I need to talk to you.”

Sienna Hayes

Mark is giving me the most terrible, anxiety-inducing silent treatment right now. After he came back from the restroom, he announced he wanted to talk to me and left, leaving both me and Dominic confused.

I don’t know what part of the lunch pissed him off so bad to treat me this way when it should be the other way around. I should be the one giving him the silent treatment for insulting my career in front of my business partner.

Is he mad because Dominic took my side? Is he mad because I didn’t let him belittle me? Guess we will never know.

“Why are you so mad? If anything, I should be the one with a scowl on my face because my so-called boyfriend disrespected my career like that in front of my business partner,” I finally say as we sit in the cab he booked.

He glares at me, but I don’t back down. Instead, I meet his piercing gaze with my own.

“I didn’t disrespect your career. I just stated the facts. I can’t help it if anything I say goes against your morals or your wishes. I’m your boyfriend, not your puppet.”

“And I am your girlfriend, not your competition. It’s not like I don’t see how much my career growth bothers you. If you cannot be supportive, the least you can do is not be a bitch about it to me.”

“Do not talk to me like that,” he says, and we come to a stop in front of my hotel. He gets out after paying, and I storm after him. I am so done with his behavior.

“Stop right there, Mark,” I yell, and he stops in his tracks. After I kicked him out last night, he managed to find a room in the hotel. “I am done with this relationship and you and your tantrums. If you don’t love me, just say this and we both will be out of this miserable relationship.”

He finally turns around, and the look on his face is absolutely terrifying. I don’t think I have ever seen him look this angry. His eyes look like they could pop out any moment, red veins showing in the sclera. His jaw is tight as he marches towards me, and I straighten my back to face whatever he does now.

I am so tired of walking around him on eggshells. I never know what I say or do is going to upset him, and I just know that I wouldn’t want that for myself for my entire life.

I deserve so much better than that.

“What did you say?” he says, coming so close to me I can smell his cologne that I hate.

It is too sweet for my liking.

“I said we are over. If you don’t love me, say so, and we will be done forever. I do not want a relationship with you if you cannot respect my career, me, or my choices. I am done.”

He narrows his eyes, as if suspecting that this is a joke. Unfortunately for him, it’s not.

“We are not done,” he says. “You know I am not the kind of guy you read about or fantasize about. Yet you fell in love with me. You built something with me. And now that you are here, surrounded by an illusion named Dominic Wolfe, you suddenly want to break up with me? How pathetic is that.”

I scoff. His audacity to bring up the exact things I kept telling myself to sustain this relationship.