“You’re such a cocky bastard.”
“And you’re a brat.”
Anticipating yet another argument, I quickly step out of the hot tub. Boiling water splashes around me, accompanied by swirling steam. Just as I put some distance between us, Dominik’s hand abruptly grabs my arm, preventing me from walking away. I turn my head and look down at him, feeling an inexplicable surge of anger building up inside me.
“Don’t leave. Please,” he declares, his eyes heavy with exhaustion. The same type of fatigue I feel from our constant back and forth.
“Why? We’re just going to fight if I stay.”
“Then let’s not. Can we just stop for one night? I’m tired of fighting with you. Can we just have one normal night where you pretend you don’t hate me? I don’t want to fight.” His voice is quiet as he waves an imaginary white flag in front of my face.
Everything inside me is screaming for me to surrender the anger. Because in truth, I’m tired too. Tired of feeling angry and defeated all the time. Tired of feeling like an utter failure and that I can’t do anything right. I’m tired of fighting off whatever this has become between us.
“I don’t want to fight either,” I confess.
A ceasefire sounds like exactly what I need right now.
“Let’s call a penalty box timeout.”
My chest tightens. “A what?”
“A timeout. Where we step into a box and leave all the bullshit outside. A breather,” he whispers as his hand trails down my arm and pulls me to sit down beside him, our fingers intertwined. I’m not doing anything to stop it either as I lower myself, planting my wet ass on the cold tile.
“Here,” Dominik says, moving off the towel he was just sitting on to offer me the space. Even though I’m already wet and he’s sitting in nothing but white, skin-tight boxers.
Don’t look down.
God, just remembering how Runi suffocated me with his dick has my core tingling.
Cut it out.
I can’t help it.
“It’s okay. You take the towel. I’m already wet.” I try to move off the towel, but he stops me.
Oh, fucking hell, why did I just say that?
He laughs, biting his lip. “Wet already, huh?”
“I’m going to cut you.”
Dominik closes his eyes, groaning in pleasure. “Don’t threaten me with a good time, little butterfly.”
For God’s sake. I’m losing this battle quickly.
Maybe I can lower my angry mask for the night and take a momentary pause. Not like I can go stay anywhere else, because then the team would think we got into a fight. It would be in my best interest to make the best out of a shitty situation that’s not in my control.
Resting my hand on his thigh, he gently traces circles on my palm with his thumb. We sit in silence, our legs immersed in the warm water. I fix my gaze on the rhythmic movements of his thumb, observing its repetitive pattern.
The hot tub’s gurgling suddenly stops. Despite the heavy silence, I can’t bring myself to interrupt the intimate hand dance between Dominik and me. The silence feels dense, like the steam surrounding us.
“What are we doing, Dominik?”
I feel his body shift closer to mine. “We’re figuring it out. One day at a time.”
“There is nothing to figure out. There is no future here. I need you to let me go.”
His touch disappears, and my hand remains on his thigh. I pull away and look up. He’s staring at an empty cement wallby the pool. His expression seems lost, as if he’s grappling with something profound. Maybe my honesty offended him.
