Chapter 5
1493 Words
On Monday, Louisa showed up for her first day at the clinic. Dr. Dawson spent a good thirty minutes laying out all the rules for her.
The clinic was pretty small. During her shift, there were just two doctors and three nurses working with her.
The actual work wasn't too much—mostly just taking blood pressure, checking patients in, and guiding them to the exam rooms.
The real killer, though, was having to stay on her feet for a full eight-hour shift, plus she constantly had to put on a friendly face and chat with people.
By the time Louisa finally made it home on day one, her heels were aching so much she could barely stand on them.
She was right in the middle of doing the dishes when her phone buzzed on the counter.
She wiped her wet hands and picked it up to see what it was.
It was a bank transfer from Dominic—a full 2,300 bucks.
She stared at the screen, completely thrown off for a second.
Going by the timing, this money had to be from his security gig. He got that promotion, but did he seriously hand over every single dime to her again?
Lately, Louisa felt like Dominic was being super awkward and just plain weird.
To be honest, she was totally clueless about why.
She was doing her absolute best to step up, doing everything she could to be a sweet, supportive partner. So why did Dominic still seem so miserable?
Since she needed to get on his good side before he went back to the Rodgers, she had to at least figure out what was bothering him.
After all, once the truth came out, whether she'd end up dead or just thrown some cash and kicked back to that small town was totally up to his whim.
So that night, Louisa went all out for dinner. She bought some pork ribs and stewed them for over an hour, adding potatoes until the gravy got super thick. She also whipped up a green pepper stir-fry and made a cold cucumber salad.
When Dominic got home, the kitchen was still steaming and smelled amazing.
He swapped his shoes at the door, looked up, and glanced inside.
"You made dinner?"
"Yeah! Come eat while it's hot."
Dominic washed his hands, sat down, and grabbed a rib. He took a bite, then immediately reached for another one with his head down.
Louisa watched him out of the corner of her eye. Seeing him constantly refilling his plate made her relax a bit, especially when he ended up scraping the last bit of gravy onto his meat.
Watching him do that made her want to laugh, but she kept a straight face.
"Is it good?"
"Yeah."
Louisa pushed the cucumber salad toward him. "Have some of this too. It cuts the grease."
Dominic took a bite, chewed it a couple of times, and went right back to his meat.
While they ate, Louisa kept sneaking glances at his face to read his mood.
Thinking he seemed to be in a decent mood, she was just about to say something when his phone rang.
After hanging up, Dominic said, "They're short-staffed at my part-time job. I gotta go help out."
Louisa swallowed her words. "Alright. What time will you be back?"
"Not sure." He wolfed down the rest of his food in a few bites, grabbed his jacket, and headed out.
Louisa cleaned up the kitchen and waited around for a bit. Since he wasn't back yet, she figured she'd just shower and head to bed.
But right in the middle of her shower, the water heater suddenly died.
Just then, she heard the front door open. Dominic was back.
Through the bathroom door, she called out softly, "Dominic?"
A sliver of light peeked through the door c***k as his footsteps came closer. "What's up?"
"The hot water went out. Can you check the heater?"
There was a brief pause outside. "Sure."
As his footsteps faded, Louisa stood in the bathroom with her arms crossed. The tiles were freezing, so she shuffled onto the bath mat and stood on her tiptoes. Her hair was still soapy, and water droplets were dripping down the back of her neck.
After standing there for a while, she took a step back, stepped right on some splashed water, and the edge of the mat flipped up.
Her foot slipped, and she wiped out to the right. She lunged for the towel rack—she managed to grab it, but her ankle twisted badly. The sharp pain made her gasp as she slid straight down the wall into a crouch.
"Louisa?"
Hearing the noise, Dominic called her name.
She gritted her teeth and scrambled to pull the bath towel over herself.
"I twisted my ankle. Can you come in and help me out?"
There was about a two-second silence.
Then the door opened.
Dominic walked in and looked down. He saw her crouching in the corner of the bathroom, wet hair plastered to her face, with one hand still gripping the towel rack.
He stepped inside and knelt down.
"Where does it hurt?"
"My right foot."
Before she could even finish, he had already reached out to cradle her calf, his fingers gently pressing around her ankle.
Louisa let out a sharp, quiet breath.
It hurt like hell.
Dominic set her foot back down and stood up.
"I'll carry you out. We should go to the hospital."
"I don't think the bone's broken. It's just really sore."
"Alright, I'll grab you a stool to sit on while I fix the heater. Rinse off the soap first, and I'll help you put some ointment on it when you're out."
"Okay."
Dominic turned around and brought back a small stool.
Clutching her towel tightly, Louisa sat down with his support.
The bathroom light was stark white and bright. Louisa kept her head down, staring at his collar, her ears burning hot.
Without saying a word, Dominic turned right back around to deal with the water heater.
A moment later, the sound of the heater clicking and igniting echoed.
This thing acted up all the time. It was just getting old.
Dominic knocked on the bathroom door.
"Go ahead and finish up."
"Okay."
"Need a hand?"
It took Louisa a second to process what he meant. Did he just ask if he should help her wash?
Her brain went into overdrive and her face instantly flushed red again. She rushed to say, "No, I can handle it myself!"
"Alright."
Dominic's voice sounded like he genuinely just wanted to help out.
Louisa didn't catch any other vibe from it.
While she was in the bathroom rubbing her burning ears, she had no clue Dominic was standing just outside the door, smiling to himself.
Louisa turned the shower back on. As the hot water poured over her, it took her forever to realize she was still clutching the towel.
She hung it back up, closed her eyes, and let the hot water wash over her for a while, finally managing to calm her blushing face.
When she finished and stepped out, Dominic was still waiting right outside.
Wrapped in her towel at the doorway with her hair dripping, she still couldn't put any weight on her ankle. She leaned against the doorframe and peeked out.
Dominic glanced at her, bent down, and scooped her up again, carrying her over to the bed.
Even through the towel, she could feel the warmth of his palms, making her freeze up completely.
Dominic had already found the sprain ointment.
He set her down on the edge of the bed and started rubbing the medicine in.
Fresh out of the shower, Louisa's skin was still warm, and her damp hair was draped over her shoulders.
She noticed that his movements were getting slower and slower.
So slow it almost felt like he was messing around.
But then again, Dominic had always been pretty detached.
No matter what happened, he never really showed much emotion.
Even after spending so much time together in her past life, Louisa still couldn't read him.
And once he went back to the Rodgers, and their social status became worlds apart, that feeling only grew even stronger.
Because of how he usually acted, Louisa didn't think much of how incredibly slow he was applying the ointment at first.
But as she clutched the edge of her towel, she finally started feeling like the way he was rubbing it in was a bit off.
She couldn't help but ask.
"Are you done yet?"
She heard him let out a calm, casual "Yeah" before he finally let go of her foot.
"We'll see how it looks tomorrow. If it gets worse, we'll head to the hospital."
Louisa let out a tiny sigh of relief.
Only to hear Dominic casually drop another question, "Hey, do we have any condoms left?"
- Writer
