#showmancingthestone

[astoldbyzeke]

“Trudy only comes a couple times a week on the weeks that I’m in town.”

I stopped pouring the coffee beans into the machine and glanced at him. He turned around and winked.  “I’m still damn good at making breakfast, though.”

I smiled and shook my head, resuming making coffee.  This was probably the least awkward “morning after” I’d ever had, besides with my ex, and I wasn’t sure what to think of it.  Maybe because we’d become such good friends, it took the awkward part out.

Ugh. Friends. 

“So I’m going out of town tomorrow for about a week for some meetings and shoots, but next weekend I’d love for you to come spend the weekend at my place.”

I nearly choked on my eggs.  “Your place?”

“Sure, I’ve got a lot of room and I should probably go there at some point.”

“Okay,” I nodded slowly. I’m going to go to Dominic Sawyer’s huge house. I assume it’s huge. Wow.

“Also next month there’s this charity gala, and I’d love for you to be my date.”

“Isn’t that what I’m here for?” I asked, regretting it immediately.

He waited a beat.  Something flashed across his face but it was gone before I could figure out what it was.  “I suppose.” 

I quickly excused myself to shower and get dressed.

[astoldbyzeke]

I pushed her back onto the couch, our controllers clattering to the floor below.  I kept waiting for her to pull back or say something.  When she didn’t, I deepened the kiss.  A guttural growl ripped from my lips as the itch to pull her clothes off intensified.  It felt like an electric charge was pulsing through my entire body, illuminated completely by her and all that she was.  Was this what the whole soulmates thing was about? 

She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me down.  Gripping my shirt, she began to tug it towards my head.  I pulled back slightly to look at her.  Her lids were heavy and we were both panting.  Paisley bit down on her lower lip and nodded at me.  My eyebrows shot up toward my hairline.  She smiled and pulled me back to her lips.

[astoldbyzeke]

[astoldbyzeke]

DOMINIC

I stumbled back a half step as she threw herself on me. It took me about .05 seconds to wrap my arms around her and nuzzle into her neck.  Maybe she had missed me as much as I had missed her?  This was unfamiliar territory. I barely knew her, and yet I missed her when she wasn’t around.  Normally when I’m dating someone (real or not), when I leave town it’s like a breath of fresh air when I can do my own thing and not have to put up with them hanging off me.

Yet this time, every minute of downtime I would call, FaceTime or text Paisley.  She was witty, funny, smart, beyond gorgeous, and I was really enjoying getting to know her.  

[astoldbyzeke]

---DOMINIC---

Damn can that woman make a mean taco.  And I don’t mean that in a dirty way. She wasn’t exactly the most graceful person when eating said tacos, though.  I laughed a lot, but she laughed along with me.

I offered to do the dishes, since she cooked, and she seemed impressed, like nobody had ever offered.

“My ex wasn’t home all that much,” was all she would say about it, with a shrug as she went to take a shower.

As I was finishing up, she came out of the bathroom with a devilish look on her face.  I eyed her up and down, looking at her baggy PJ shirt and PJ pants.  How the hell did she manage to look sexy in that outfit?  “What?” I asked.  

“Care to play some Call of Duty?”

My mouth nearly dropped to the floor.  She has Call of Duty? And plays it?

Please Lord let me beat this girl to keep my masculinity.

[astoldbyzeke]

[astoldbyzeke]

After over a week of not seeing him, I flew to the door faster than I’d like to admit and yanked it open.  There he stood in all his beautiful glory.  He let himself in and I couldn’t help it--I launched myself at him.

[astoldbyzeke]

I wandered over to my mirror and stared at myself.  Time to try to clean myself up decently.  I really shouldn’t think about what he thinks of me, since him showing interest is most likely just to keep up the appearance, but I still did.

[astoldbyzeke]

There was a new fire lit under my ass during the next week. I queued up 4 blog posts, had 3 new videos for YouTube, which was great considering I only posted a video once a week and one blog post a week as well.

Dominic and I talked daily on the phone as well as texting, and he vowed he’d take me to Brindleton Bay, since apparently it was gorgeous. He was busy while he was gone but still made time to talk, which was impressive to me.  So far so good.  I still hadn’t told him about the “trolls IRL”, which Maggie didn’t agree with, but I figured waiting until I saw him in person was best.

I was writing another blog post up (about internet hate, actually...) when my phone vibrated beside me on the desk.

[astoldbyzeke]

Once we got our food, we walked to a table and began to eat.  I picked at my food.  After a few minutes, Maggie put her hand on mine.

“They’re wrong, you know,” she said with a smile. “You’re gorgeous and they’re just jealous.”

“Thanks Maggie,” I said with what I hoped passed for a smile. “We should get going pretty quickly so you can make your flight.”

She looked at me for a moment then nodded.

[astoldbyzeke]

Sunday night, Magnolia and I went for a quick bite to eat before her flight home at (where else) but the food stands near my apartment. I had to review a few more anyways...

As we waited for our food (Indian food is her vice), a group of young women passed behind us and, in passing, I heard one say, “That’s Dominic Sawyer’s girlfriend,” and another reply, “Ugh. She’s an ugly cow.”

Magnolia’s head whipped around and her hand clenched into a fist.

“Maggie, leave it,” I whispered.

She turned back toward me and tried to smile again, though we were both unsettled by what we’d heard.

[astoldbyzeke]

“I make my own money,” she said, shaking her head.  She seemed to be thinking about it.

“I have a contract written up just in case.  It’s for a year of public appearances and exclusivity, non-disclosure agreements for both of us, of course. You can think about it, or you can sign it here and I’ll get my lawyer to send it to your lawyer.”

“We’ll need to lay the groundwork. It seems every relationship is seen on Instagram or Snapchat before the tabloids now.”

“Are you agreeing?”

“What have I got to lose?” She laughed humourlessly. “I’ve had a shitty year and I don’t want a relationship right now, so I might as well help you and myself out.  What’s a year of going to glam parties and all that shit?”

“Well I wouldn’t put it that way,” I laughed. “Okay so let’s get some paperwork out of the way, then we can get to know each other.”

[astoldbyzeke]

Once I got to the juicy bit with Dominic, I was honest about how we met and started talking, but left out the part where he (basically) stalked me and asked to use me as a beard.  Okay, maybe not “beard”, but what do you call me? A mistress? Gross.  “Fake girlfriend” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “beard”. 

“Are you two officially dating then?”

“Not officially.  Just seeing each other and seeing how it goes.  We both have busy schedules so we’ll see if we can make it work.”

Maggie was quite for a minute, then sighed.  “I hate you. I mean I love your guts but I am so jealous.”

“Maybe once you move here you will find someone famous to date,” I laughed.  Magnolia was a model and had been tossing the idea of moving to San Myshuno around for a long time, since there were more job opportunities.

“I think it’s an imminent probability that I’ll be moving here.”

We were a couple hours into catching up when I heard my text tone on my phone.

“It’s Dominic,” I smiled.  That wasn’t even put on.  I was genuinely happy to hear from him.

[astoldbyzeke]

The winter passed slowly, almost excruciatingly so.  The great part about running a blog and YouTube was that I could pick up and move to the city of San Myshuno and not have to find work or leave my job.  It was close enough to Windenburg that I could commute to meetings that were held there. The days were getting longer and warmer and, in the process, thawing my cold, dead heart. Just kidding.  It’ll stay that way.

They say spring is the season of rebirth. New beginnings and all that shit.  Maybe spring in San Myshuno could rebuild my life. Who knows?

[astoldbyzeke]

When another moment passed and Ryver had said nothing, I shook my head and quietly muttered, “Goodbye Ryver.”

As I turned to walk away, he grabbed my wrist. “I really loved you, Paisley,” he said with sad eyes.  As much as I felt I should cry in this moment, all I could do was hate him. And his whore.

“Yeah, I thought I loved you too. I’ll send for my things. We’re done.”

It came out shakily, but it came out.  He dropped my wrist and I walked out of my beautiful rental home in beautiful Windenburg.  There was no way I was staying in this town, not with the 2 of them in it.

Sigh.

Yep, autumn was a bitch.

[astoldbyzeke]

“I should get going. I should get these contracts set in stone and I think I have a dinner meeting to get to.”  Dominic pushed away from the table and stood.

“I’ll walk you out,” I offered, not entirely sure why. It wasn’t hard to find the door in my small apartment.

Once at the door, he grabbed my wrist and spun me before I could grab the door knob.  My eyebrows shot up quizzically and he placed his fingers under my chin, lifting my eyes to meet his (though he wasn’t that much taller).  I waited for him to speak, my heart growing louder and beating faster.  It was a long moment of looking at each other before he spoke.

“I’m looking forward to dating you, Paisley.”

“Oh, it’ll be a hoot,” I joked.  The one corner of his mouth quirked into a slight smile.  He continued to look at me, and I saw his gaze flicker to my mouth then back up to my eyes.

“I’ll call you tomorrow.”

He dropped his hand from my face and pulled open the door, shooting a quick grin my way before he left.

My skin tingled where he had touched me for the rest of the day.