Authors: Alice Dee
“Uh no.” Dominic got up and brushed off his pants. “We’re going to dinner. It’s our anniversary.”
“Oh,” Josephine said, looking confused.
“No.” Tristan smiled at Josephine and then at Dominic. “Babe, we’re going with my parents to celebrate my father’s birthday, remember?”
Dominic hoped she was joking. If she was, Josephine surely wasn’t in on it.
"Nobody told me anything.” Josephine said to Tristan.
“You didn’t tell me either,” Dominic said.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Josephine said, stepping out of the den.
“Tristan, you’re kidding, right?”
“I told you tonight’s my dad’s birthday.”
“You never said we were going anywhere with them. I told you I made reservations for us.”
“Our anniversary was Wednesday.”
He bit down on his tongue. “I told you Monday that I was making plans for us to go out tonight. You knew that. I even made the reservations for that place you’ve been wanting to go to since we moved out here.”
Tristan shook her head.
“Well I don’t remember that.”
“Tris!”
“Don’t yell at me! What’s the big deal anyway, we can go out tomorrow?”
“Do you have a mental retardation?”
“Dominic!” Tristan snapped, sliding the den door closed so no one could hear them. “Don’t talk to me like that!”
“You’re not doing this, not tonight. Not tonight.”
“We can still celebrate. We can celebrate both!”
“What do you really have planned?”
“What are you talking about?” Tristan crossed her arms and followed Dominic to the other side of the room.
“Sounds like you just don’t want me to go. And Josephine looked like she didn’t know what you were talking about.”
“Josephine has an accent.”
“What the hell does that mean? Do her ears have an accent?!”
Dominic knew tonight was already ruined, that their plans were soaked because Tristan was raining all over this. He had an unsettling feeling in his stomach.
“All right Tristan, whatever. I’m leaving. Have fun.” Dominic left the roses on the sofa and walked out of the house angry on the phone.
He sat in his truck and closed his eyes, squeezing the phone in one hand. There was that feeling in his stomach again, that feeling that his relationship was in trouble, that feeling things were heading south, that tinge of regret moving out here. He didn’t want to ask himself ‘why’, why he did it, why he moved out here, why he made this mistake, because he didn’t want to think of it as a mistake. Dominic was far from home, Tristan was all he had out here. He didn’t want to lose her.
Tristan came bouncing down the sidewalk, tapped on his passenger side window. He sighed, opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Can we talk? Just open the door?”
Instead he rolled down the window some.
“I’m sorry. You were right, okay?”
“What does that even mean?” He said flatly.
“Let’s go to the restaurant.”
He looked from her shoulder length hair that was hanging in big loose curls, pinned back on one side of her head, slanting her eye. She looked good and he almost gave in.
“I already cancelled our reservations.”
“We’ll go somewhere else.”
“Go spend time with your dad.”
“Dominic,” she said with a head tilt.
But all of that didn’t just happen for nothing.
“I’ll talk to you later,” he said, starting up the truck.
“Wait.” She kept trying to open the door but Dominic wouldn’t unlock it. He drove off leaving her standing on the curb. When he looked through his rear view mirror he saw her still standing there and it made him feel bad. But she messed up everything tonight and he had to stand his ground and make her realize it.
9… The Make up
There was gentle knocking against Dominic’s door. Dominic didn’t hear it at first. He was watching a movie and dozing off on the couch. When the knock got louder he glanced at his watch. It was nearing mid night. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, lazily walked to the door and opened it to find exactly whom he expected. Tristan was in her little strapless skimpy dress, her hair still in the same ‘do, with a bottle of wine and two goblets.
“I’ve come with a peace offering.”
Dominic had simmered down by now but he was still a little upset that she still went out wherever and put him on the back burner.
Hope woke from her coma a quarter to twelve. It was her first night off in days, her first Saturday off ever. She sat up and sat on the edge of her bed until her vision cleared. Her head was still heavy with sleep and it took great effort to pull her body out of bed. She dragged her feet to the kitchen area and opened her fridge to grab a fruit drink. She popped it open, it softly fizzed, brought it to her mouth, heard ruckus coming from the other side of her wall.
She knew he was home but he probably wasn’t alone. It was Saturday after all, and she could hear the noises that were coming from his TV. She found herself curious as to whether he was alone or not. She pressed her ear to the wall and listened for a second female voice but heard nothing.
She went back to her bed and flicked on her own TV, flipped through the channels with the volume off. She had satellite TV but it did no good. She had hundreds of channels and nothing to watch. She stopped on one channel that showed an overly flirty news anchor woman, wearing practically nothing. Hope didn’t know where the hell this came from, but ever since the incident with Zefar, she found herself really into her neighbor, paying attention to things she never did before-like wondering when he was home or not. The knocking on Dominic’s door snapped her out of it. She flicked off the TV leaving everything completely dark, and went to the window.
There was a chick standing outside with a bottle of champagne in her hand, head tilted, talking to Dominic. Hope couldn’t see him but she could hear the roughness of his voice. She’d seen the girl before but never really paid her any attention. She now knew the chick was Dominic’s girlfriend. Hope saw his thick arm extend from inside his apartment, taking his girlfriend’s hand. She was yapping away, smiling huge and a half second later she was out of view, the door closed. Hope moved away from the window and flopped down on her bed. She put her hands to her stomach.
“Go away butterflies,” she whispered into the darkness.
***
“Already?” Hope leaned back against her wall with ice cream in one hand, a spoon in the other, and her phone cradled on her shoulder. “It’s only been like, two weeks, at most.”
“Yeah,” Shamayla said. “But he’s sooo nice. They’re going out Thursday night and we’re both off that night so I was wondering if you want to go with us?”
Hope paused, put her spoon to her tongue.
“Us?”
“Me, Justin, the guys…” There was a moment of silence between the girls till Shamayla spoke up again. “Your neighbor…”
Hope dug her spoon into the ice cream.
“What about him?”
“He’s going to be there too.”
“So?”
“Oh come on.”
“Come on what, Shamayla?”
“I saw the way he was looking at you that night. I saw how you were looking at him.”
Hope smiled.
“How was he looking at me?”
“Didn’t you two disappear that night? That’s right!” She said, snapping her fingers. “You disappeared!”
“I drove him home, that’s it. He
is
my next door neighbor.”
“And nothing happened?”
“No, nothing. He has a girlfriend.”
“Yeah, but from what I’ve heard, she’s a ho!”
“That’s none of my business and I’m not interested in him. He isn’t interested in me, either. Watch, he’ll take his girlfriend and you’ll see for yourself.”
“Is that why you don’t want to go?”
“Who said I didn’t want to go?”
“So you do?”
“No.”
“Hope, come on. We’re gonna hit the strip, it’ll be fun.”
“Like that’s something new to me.” Hope rolled her eyes and lay down with a pillow between her knees.
“Please, I’ll be like, the outcast.”
“I have to think about it,” she mumbled.
“Just do it for me, please.”
“I’ll think about it Shamayla.”
“Okay. I’m a let you go now. I’ll see you tonight at work and please have your mind made up by then.”
10… Night at the Flamingo
For the past half hour Justin was trying to convince Dominic to blow off Tristan for a change. He unexpectedly dropped the bomb that Shamayla had convinced Hope to join the group for a night of club hopping. Dominic was all for it until Justin said Hope would be there too. Suddenly Dominic felt weird about the situation, like it made him uncomfortable that she’d be there. Justin noticed and thought it was because Dominic kind of had a thing for Hope and didn’t want Tristan anywhere near. What Dominic hated was that this was kind of true.
“It’s not that,” Dominic insisted. “I don’t know, it’s not that.”
But no matter how hard Dominic tried to deny it to himself, he felt he’d be smearing Tristan in Hope’s face, even though they were nothing to one another.
“Tristan doesn’t like me to gamble, she doesn’t like me to have fun. I just won’t have a good time with her.”
That was explanation enough for Justin. Tristan was a bitch.
“Then blow her off,” insisted Justin. “Dude, she’s going to ruin your good time, your vibe.”
“My vibe?”
“Hey! Just tell her you’re feeling sick and you’re not going out after all!”
Dominic’s front door opened and in walked Tristan in a floral print summer dress. She was practically “busting” out of it.
“Too late,” Justin said under his breath.
“Hey Baby,” she squealed, squeezing Dominic in her arms. “Hi Justin!”
“Hey,” he said with a forced smile. “Hey Tristan.” He shot Dominic a look.
“You’re uh, early,” said Dominic.
“I was alone at the house and bored.” She sat down on the couch and twirled strands of her hair.
“Where we going?” she asked, looking at Justin.
“There’s a club or two I want to check out, hit up somewhere to eat afterwards.”
“Right,” she said with a nod. “Sounds fun already.”
Justin knew she was being sarcastic and told Dominic he needed to go outside for some fresh air. It was a good thing because Hope had just pulled in. Shamayla stepped out of the passenger’s side, in a little tight black dress and stilettos, and the whole 9. Justin smiled and Shamayla smiled when she saw him standing upstairs staring down at her.
Hope followed Shamayla up the stairs, watched Justin take her in his arms with an amorous smile on his face. It seemed that he absolutely adored her, even if they had known each other just a brief amount of time. Justin kissed Shamayla’s cheek and told her she looked like a model. Dominic’s door opened and out stepped Dominic, closing the door behind him. He saw Hope immediately in a deep V-cut purple dress, her hair loose with no accessories but a thin chained necklace with a tiny cross settled just above where her cleavage began. When their eyes met she felt her heart pause. She hadn’t seen him in a while and his facial features had become a blur. She’d forgotten what he looked like. He was looking really good. The flutter feeling returned but she didn’t want to stare or let on that he tested her sexual appetite, so she tried unsuccessfully to make only brief eye contact.
“Hi,” Dominic said, involuntarily smiling at her eyes. To his surprise she smiled too. Shamayla and Justin both noticed and Shamayla whispered something to Justin.
“You look very pretty,” Dominic said as Hope came up a little closer.
She smiled wider. “Thank you.”
The door opened again and Hope looked from Dominic to Tristan who was standing in the door way.
“What are ya’ll doing out here?”
Dominic’s and Hope’s smiles dwindled away.
“Oh, Tris, this is Shamayla and Hope,” Dominic said to his girlfriend. “This is Tristan.”
Tristan shook Shamayla’s hand and then reached out for Hope’s, looking her up and down. She didn’t mean to be so observable and obvious for that matter, but she couldn’t help it. She decided instantly that she didn’t like Hope. Hope could feel the hostile vibe Tristan was exerting and wanted nothing more than to go inside her apartment and be away from all this. When she saw Shamayla’s face, she knew that Shamayla knew exactly what was going on in her head.
“Hope’s riding with us,” Shamayla said to Justin, breaking the painfully awkward silence.
“Might as well leave now,” Dominic said. “I’m going to lock up.”
Shamayla walked next to Hope on the way to Justin’s car. When Dominic and Tristan made it down stairs, Hope could hear Tristan complaining about not wanting to take Dominic’s truck. Dominic shrugged it off and said they were taking it anyway. She pouted, making her appear childish but ended up getting in the truck.
On the way to the city Hope sat in the back seat expressionless and quiet, the blinking neons flashing and rolling off of her face. She couldn’t get her mind off Dominic and his girlfriend-geez, her ass was FAT and she had massive tits. Hope took in a painful breath of reality. She didn’t have a body like Tristan’s so what could Dominic want with her? After coming to that conclusion, Hope’s mind wandered again. She remembered the way Dominic acted around her, the way he smiled. He told her she was pretty. Maybe he was into her…or maybe she was just over analyzing.
Justin pulled into a second story garage and parked the car a few spots away from Dominic’s truck. Tristan made it a point to hang on to Dominic’s arm, appearing like a clingy child to both Hope and Shamayla. As the foursome and Hope, feeling completely out of place, walked out of the garage, Dominic saw Hope playfully shudder. Damned girl. Did she ever bring a sweater? He felt himself wanting to go back to his truck and get his hoodie to wrap around her like the last time but it wasn’t an option.