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“Nobody likes an insta-love trope,” I agreed.
His brows furrowed, but a coy smile lifted from his mouth as he shook off his confusion. “I’d been stumbling through darkness for so long, and meeting you cast a light to my shadows. That spark existed from the very first moment. It felt kismet. It felt like fate.
“That night was the first time I thought about Allie in over two years without guilt or devastation. You were talking about those reality tv shows you liked so much, and Allie used to love those shows too. I just… I can’t explain it, Macie. You were so bright. So light. So full of life. You made me think of her in a way that made me smile, and didn’t make me want to cry. I almost felt as if…” He huffed and shook his head. “If she was there. Telling me it was time for me to wake up. Time to come back and learn how to live again.” His eyes glistened and his lip trembled as he whispered, “You made me want that.”
“You garnered all that from one evening?”
He nodded immediately. “Yes. But that wasn’t all. Over the past several months, especially within the last few weeks, those feelings have only grown stronger. I’ve gotten to know you in ways that Iknownobody else does, and it’s only made me want you more. There is nothing about you I don’t like, Mace.”
I gasped at his confession. Swallowing the lump in my throat that threatened to reduce me to a puddle of tears in the middle of a crowded corporate holiday party, I gathered my composure and huffed a laugh. “So, then why did it take you six months to make a move?”
He shrugged. “You left. And when you came back, you’d gone through a significant break up. I wanted to give you time to get over that. To adjust to living here. You had a lot of life changes going on, and I didn’t want to be a rebound. I wanted to wait until you were ready.”
I shook my head, stunned at his confessions. “So, why now?”
“Because I can’t stay away from you anymore.” He sighed. “Carter called me that night and asked me to come help you remove that Christmas tree from your living room. Before then, I’d done my best to keep my distance. Let you heal. I knew you were attracted to me, but I also knew that once I had you, I’d never be able to let you go.” He grabbed my hand and brought it to his chest. “When I came over that night and I found out you were going on a date with someone else, I decided that I was done staying away. I wasn’t going to lose you to another man before I even had the chance to show you who I am.” He smiled softly. “Before I had the chance to show you that we were fucking made for each other.”
The music around us, the people dancing, the world itself seemed to disappear. The only thing I could see was him. His voice was all I heard. His hand on my back was all I felt.
“If you’re still not ready for this then I’ll give you whatever you are ready for. I’ll wait until you’re ready for me.” He moved my hand from his chest and brought it up to his neck so that it met my other hand, he then brought both of his own to my hips and tugged me tighter. “But there is no one in this world I’d rather spend the last minute of this year, and the first one of the next year with than you, Macie. No one I’d rather take baths with. No one I’d rather run errands with, or argue with, or celebrate every birthday with. No woman in this world I’d rather have on my arm. So I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give me, for as long as you’re willing to give it.”
“I thought you hated me,” I whispered.
It was a stupid response, but I was still attempting to process everything he’d just said.
He dead-panned. “We both know I never hated you. I just liked butting heads with you. I still do, and that won’t stop.” His lips twitched. “I told you, the night I met you I thought you were the sparkliest thing I’d ever seen. Your sparkles brought me back to life, but after you moved here, you seemed dulled. I felt like when we… bickered, I put some of that spark back into you. Even though I was trying to keep my distance, I just realized I’d do anything to make you feel the way you make me feel. I’d do anything to make you sparkle, Mace.”
My lip began to tremble as tears built behind my eyes. The corner of his mouth tilted upward in a coy smile. I fought to keep my breathing steady as I stared into his beautiful, kind, genuine face and wondered how someone like him could feel so fiercely about someone like me.
“Dom, I…” I trailed off, trying to compose myself. “It’s not about you. About what I want to give or what I want to get from you. It’s about what I am.” I tried to swallow those tears. “I’m always too much. I’m fun for a while, and then the loud, the wild, the reckless, the speaking without thinking, the yelling at strangers in bars, the dancing on tables– it adds up over time. You’ll grow tired, and frustrated, and impatient. You’ll want out. And I…” One of those building tears escaped down my face. “I can’t do that to myself again.”
He hushed me, swiping a thumb across my cheek.
“Stop, Mace. Stop, stop.” He cupped my face and tilted my head upward. “You’re loud, wild, and reckless. That is all true. That is what makes you sparkle. Glitter. Fuckingshine. And some people might say that’s too much, but do you know why I think that is?”
I could only shake my head in response.
“Because most people don’t shine like you do, Macie, and they don’t want to be cast farther into darkness by the shadow you create.” He paused, staring at me intently. As if he wanted to ensure I absorbed every word. “So, they tell you you’re too much to handle. But that isn’t your fault. Their insecurities are not yours to bear.”
We both jumped as the noise in the room increased. For the first time, I noticed the massive screen taking up the entirety of a wall on the far side of the room. There were thirty seconds until midnight, and everyone around us began counting down.
Dom, with his hand still on my cheek, moved my head back to face him, unconcerned with what was happening around us. “And you know what else? I like loud, I like crazy. I like wild, and even a little reckless.”
Fifteen seconds.
He leaned in, his lips hovering just above mine. “I like playing with you, Mace,” he rasped. “So, fuck all of those people who’ve ever told you otherwise, because you’re not too much. Not too much for me. You were meant for me. You’re everything I’ve ever dreamed of.”
It felt like the entire room was counting downforus.
10…9…8…
His lips were almost touching mine, but not quite. He was waiting. And as my eyes roamed across his features, his appeared brighter than I’d ever seen them. They were no longer just burning flames, but exploding fireworks too. Glitter and sparkle and shine.
It felt as if he knew everything I am, accepted it, and wanted all of it too.
6…5…4…
I could see the truth there, in his face. That he was finally laying himself bare for someone. That, maybe, I split him open and he was offering it all to me. I knew a small part of me would always be afraid, but that I’d never been one not to take a risk. I’ve never guarded anything as heavily as I did my own heart. But as Dominic Evans looked at me with those pleading eyes, his heartfelt confessions, and his beautiful soul, I wanted nothing more than to give every piece of myself to him too.
