"Gin, sorry about before. Any chance we can catch up?" he asks looking nervous, his eyes roaming around the room before settling on my face.
"Sure. I need to get to the library, I was going to go with Drew straight from here. Then I have a break till eleven, you want to talk now or later?"
“Hey, Gin, I will go by myself, I am good,” Drew says quickly.
"I'm good now. Drew you okay if I take Ginny for a bit?" Dom turns to ask Drew. They share a secret look which leaves me wondering before he nods back.
"My lady," Dom sweeps his arms out indicating which way he wants me to go. I grab my satchel and a water, heading out to the side door, leading to the campus gardens, which is quickly becoming my favourite part of St Josephs.
"You need a jacket over your blazer?" Dom offers quietly, surprising me a bit. I thought he was further behind me.
"I'm okay at the moment. Are you okay Dom? I am worried about you."
"Come on, let's walk and talk," he says before dropping his hand to my lower back and steering me further away from the café and the people all rushing around the campus.
We walk a little while, it is a beautiful morning. Dom leaves his hand on me and I am surprised that it feels okay. But that's the thing about Dom, he does make me feel okay. His touch might not be explosive like Hunter's but it is still, crazy nice.
"Here?" he offers once we reach a grassed area, surrounded by several pink and cream rose bushes.
"As good as any place Dom," I reply before sitting down in the sun. We both sit on the grass putting the campus and the sun on our back. The morning is quiet, the gardens full of birds and butterflies. The smell of the flowers and the sculptured plants around us is strangely soothing and I give him a few minutes before I turn to look at him.
"Spill."
Dom closes his eyes before looking at me. The look in his eyes is a mix of so many things, confusion, hope, determination, wariness.
"Couple of things Ginny, some involve you and some don't," a small frustrated laugh falls from his mouth and he rubs his hands over his face before looking at me again, more determined almost.
"I can't do ‘friends’ with you," he finishes and then stops. He keeps his eyes locked with mine as he spills his guts and heart by the looks of it. I can't even respond, after a few minutes of staring intently at him, he starts again.
"I tried. Honest, I tried. But Gin, I just can't. I know that it is going to change things between us, but...." he pauses for a moment like he needs time to gather his thoughts or get them in the right order, or maybe find a bit of courage. "Sorry, I just don't want to fuck this up any more than I have. I promised you I could be your friend but I can't. I am not sure what to do, but I can't look at you and be happy that I can't kiss you, hold your hand. Just be with you. Ask Drew or Caleb, you, consume me. All I do is talk about you, it drives them crazy," he looks at me begging me to understand.
"Okay," is all I can offer, my mind is shooting around a million miles in all directions.
"Okay?" he looks at me shaking his head a little.
"Yeah Dom, I am sorry but that is all I have at the moment. Let your words sink in before you start getting annoyed at me because I can't respond how you want. So, okay?" I ask again.
Dom drops his head in his hands and hides his face for a few moments from me.
"I totally screwed this up. Gin, sorry," he peeks at me through his fingers still spread over his face, his big eyes begging me to understand.
"So tell me about the other shit going down. Drew sort of mentioned something about you getting hassled, what's that all about?" I ask, my hand reaching out to touch his knee so that he can see that we are okay.
I go to pull my hand away from him but Dom grabs a hold of it, his eyes cut to mine real quick as if he is asking for my permission, I cut him a small smile but pull my hand from his.
"Let me think Dom, honestly, before I make a decision, let me think," I ask him again, "I am repeating myself for a reason, like you I don't want to mess this up. Now stop avoiding the other topic and I want specifics on the freaky shit going on, like now!" I half snarl, half smile at him.
"It started pretty much straight after the welcome dinner, which is weird, cause like the number of new students I haven't even had the chance to upset anyway yet, sheesh my magic takes a little bit longer!"
We giggle a little bit and then I cock my eyebrow at him urging him to get back on track.
"Okay, so I keep getting calls in the middle of the night to both my phones. I have also been getting unmarked envelopes of silly pictures slid under my door, someone is mucking around on my insta, ordered me bad food and my clothes got stolen at training. So nothing too bad, but enough to be a concern. I just can't figure out what the fuck I have done to warrant someone's attention," he finishes, "any ideas?"
Yeah I have a few ideas, but I just need to figure out what is going on.
"Seriously, Dom? You have to do something, but I got nothing, Dom. You are a real sweetie. Did you kick someone's cat maybe?" I offer. "I know it is serious but like you said, you are the most non-asshole person I know, maybe I am the wrong person to ask. Have you reported it?" I ask
"Yeah, I had to, they stole my clothes. And," he pauses to look over my shoulder, "they broke into my room Gin. I was in the shower but the threat was scary enough that I had to call administration. Admin took photos and stuff. It's okay, it sort of stopped after that, maybe they saw that I wouldn't just let it go. But that is not right, no-one should think it is okay," he finished quickly.
