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“They are.”
“And Bella and Carm too.”
“Yep.”
“How’s Blanca?” I saw her in Vegas, but my mind was a million different places, so I didn’t get to have a long conversation with her.
“The usual. Single.”
“Maybe the two of you can move in together when you get older.” I laugh, trying to picture it.
He glances at me from the corner of his eye. “Why?”
“You know how brothers and sisters do that after their parents are gone if they don’t have their own families?”
He stops at the light, and we wait for the pedestrian sign to appear on the pole across from us. “I’m not going to live with Blanca. Plus, I’m sure she’ll get married one day.”
“But not you?” I’m poking the bear, I know, but I can’t help myself.
“I am married.” He smirks at me.
“Not for long. I always wondered what the turnoff was for you. Whether you were against the institution of marriage as a whole or—”
He shoots me an expression to say, “You want to talk about this now?”
I nod.
“I enjoy my work. I like money. I’m not good at multitasking. I tend to be laser-focused on one goal at a time to the detriment of everything else.”
“I think you’re wrong about the multitasking part, but I agree that work and money are what you’re most obsessed with. But you can have that and a wife.”
“Technically, I already do.”
I tilt my head in a “come on” manner.
“We both know that when it came to you, my work was our Achilles’ heel. It was our weakness in spite of our overall strength, and it destroyed anything we could’ve built.”
I swallow past the lump in my throat at the reminder that once upon a time, he chose work over me. “Maybe one day you’ll meet a woman who will make you feel differently.”
He stops us before we hit his parents’ street. Backing me up into an alley, he positions me against the brick wall. “Let me be clear. If there was a woman in this world who could change me, it’d be you.”
His eyes lock with mine, and though I can’t read what’s in them, I lean forward, wanting to kiss him. All those feelings for him haven’t died inside me—I just try to ignore them. But with his admission, I want to believe that I could be enough for him. Enough for him to put work aside and make me his priority. But since he stays upright, not showing any signs of admitting anything to himself, I choose to quiet my heart.
Without any other words, he takes my hand and pulls me back onto the street. We walk in silence up the steps of his childhood home and he opens the door to a packed house. We both smile and play our part as spouses. For the first time ever, I realize with certainty that there’s never going to be a happy ever after for Dom and me.
