I didn’t know if my reaction was a relief to be coming home or…
Or disappointment.
Perhaps both.
A huge part of me was happy to be back. To get back to the home I’d tried to build for myself and to the freedom that was taken away from me.
Yet the disappointment was there, and I couldn’t figure out why for the life of me.
I should not feel disappointed. I had wanted to go home since he’d drugged me and taken me back to his home.
But this made little sense.
Why would he bring me back here without any of the stuff I had bought this afternoon?
Unless he was planning on returning everything.
Then why the hell did he have Lucy take me shopping in the first place?
Dominic turned off the engine and held his hand back for me. Quietly, I grabbed it and climbed off the bike. He followed suit, and gently—much more gently than I would have thought he was capable of—he took the helmet off my head.
I looked up at him, and we didn’t turn away from each other for three long seconds.
I broke the spell and turned to my apartment building first.
He did the same.
It hadn’t been that long since I’d left, but it felt like ages ago.
The building looked different, like I was coming back to a life that wasn’t my own.
Dominic also looked up at the building. No doubt he knew which apartment was mine.
It seemed very little went on in this city that he didn’t know about.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulder before leading me to my apartment.
I didn’t know why he was acting like this, and why he’d suddenly decided to let me come home.
But the closer we got, the more excited I became, and the easier it was for me to forget about the disappointment. I might reflect on it once I was in my bed tonight, wondering if I would see him again because whether or not I wanted to admit it to myself, I was attracted to Dominic. There was no point in denying it to myself.
For a moment in time, there had been some change to my monotonous life.
It felt a little fucked-up that I thought I would remember my time with him with some fondness, but then again,Imight just be a little messed up.
I shook my head a little at the thought as we arrived at the door, my eyebrows pulling down a little at the beginning of a frown. It took a second for my brain to comprehend that there was something off about the door.
I glanced at Dominic from under his arm, but as usual, his face was impassive, telling me nothing.
My mouth suddenly felt dry, and I licked my lips when Dominic took a small key from his pocket.
It looked nothing like my own key, which probably made sense because the door in front of me wasn’t my apartment door.
It was my apartment, with my apartment number hooked in front, but the door was different. The color teal was wrong. It was about a shade or two different from the original and from all the other doors around. Even the doorknob was different.
I had a bad feeling about this.
Dominic unlocked the door, but he didn’t push it open.
