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“Oh.” I blinked. “Oh.”
He didn’t loosen his grasp on me. If anything, he pulled me tighter.
“And you wore red,” he said tightly.
“I wasn’t dressing for you.”
“Who were you dressing for?”
“Emmy,” I blurted without thinking. At Dominic’s confused glance, I continued, “I just mean, she dressed me. This is her idea. I was ready to curl up in bed and order room service tonight, but this is her first big magical event, and I wanted her to get the full experience.”
“Nice friend you are.”
“Nah, she’s the nice one. I’m just trying to keep her around.”
“Why are you so attached to your apartment?”
“Are you kidding me?” I looked up at him. “It’s not just some apartment. It’s my home. The place I’ve lived all my life. Not to mention, it’s rent controlled, and if I lose it, I won’t be able to afford another place in The Hollow.”
“You could get a different job.”
“There’s the jackass coming back. For a second, I thought I might’ve been wrong about you.”
“I’m just saying,” Dominic insisted. “You have more talents than driving an old car around with sketchy passengers.”
“It’s really none of your business.”
“Maybe not, but it is one of my curiosities.”
“Which I don’t feel like indulging.”
“I don’t buy your lies.”
“My lies?” I could feel the shock on my face. “Just because you don’t have a heart, and don’t get attached to a home or a friend or a dog, that doesn’t mean other people are robotic vampires like you.”
“It’s not financial, your ties to that apartment, and if you say it is you’re lying.” Dominic sounded so assured with his assessment. “Yet in your speech, you focused on the fact that you couldn’t afford another place here.”
“It’s true.”
“So what?” Dom watched me. “You seem like you abhor the very thought of magic. So why haven’t you moved to Montana and gotten a job as a kindergarten teacher? Why haven’t you severed your connections with The Hollow and found someplace you’d actually like to live?”
“You really are a pompous jerk,” I said, backing away from Dominic, letting my fingers slip out of his grasp. “Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Trixie.”
“No. You’re insensitive and degrading, and I’m done with this conversation.”
“I’m just saying that I think you deserve better.” Dominic caught my wrist before I could move away. He stepped closer, tentatively, slowly, gauging my reaction. “You’re beautiful. Smart. Powerful. I’m just trying to understand you.”
I paused, seeing that look in Dominic’s eye again. He looked at me like I was the one puzzle in his long, long life that he couldn’t solve. As if it killed him that I was a conundrum that didn’t fit neatly into a box.
“I’m not a puzzle to solve,” I said. “You don’t have to understand me. I’m a person. I have feelings, even if you don’t understand what that’s like. I don’t owe you any explanations, Dom.”
“No,” he murmured back, “you don’t. But I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“Well, try.” I was trembling as his hand came up, touched my chin, tilted my face so that if I moved forward an inch, our lips would be touching. “Because this doesn’t make sense. None of it. Sometimes, that’s life. Now let me go.”
“Trixie—”
