Chapter 8
Dominic
Three days later
Dominic had let Marley pick the place they met for lunch. It was called Gino's and he had imagined that it would be a sit-down Italian restaurant, but he was wrong—it was fast food, and it was burgers. He had just arrived there, and he could see that it was extremely casual—similar to Shake Shack.
He smiled at her choice. She was either an easygoing date or she just wanted to get it over quickly. He chose to believe she was easygoing. The burger place was in a building that was less than a mile from his apartment. It was on the first floor, but you had to walk inside the building to get to it, so he hadn't seen it from the street. It was a busy building, and he had to park a couple of blocks away.
Being February, it was cold out, and he had on his own jacket and scarf, plus hers. Both of them were under his coat, so she couldn't see it. He doubled hers over and draped it next to his.
He spotted her the instant he walked into the restaurant. He decided he would hand her the scarf when he first walked up to her because he knew she must be anxious to get it.
It was one of those restaurants where you order at the counter, so he planned on hesitating near the entrance to hand it to her.
She caught sight of him, and she smiled and waved. He remembered her from the restaurant, but that night she had been all dressed up with her hair down, and now she was dressed casually in tennis shoes and sweats with her hair in a ponytail. He hated her sweatshirt, but that was just because it said the name of a team he had a rivalry with in college. She probably had no idea. He tried not to hold it against her. How could he? It was impossible to be mad at this woman. She was adorable. She had a jacket draped over her arm, and she grinned at him, squinting those eyes. She was sporty, quirky, artsy, and somehow still normal and natural. She had her own style, her own way about her, and it was different than other girls.
She was dressed so casually today that he wondered if she was working like she said she would be. He assumed she was meeting him on her lunch break.
She stood up straight and took a nervous deep breath, smiling at him. He saw her chest rise and fall, and he was smitten. This woman was beautiful. He had something she wanted, and she was nervous and expectant because of it. Dominic could not stop looking at her. She was simply gorgeous, and Dominic was proud of himself for planning for this very moment.
He had prepared for these feelings.
For a few weeks, he was seeing a woman in Milwaukee. They had gone on four dates, but Dominic had called her and told her things were off the minute Marley had gotten in touch with him. It had been going well, so the other woman was confused, but it was also a fresh relationship, so that made it easier.
One look at Marley, and he realized it was all worth it.
"Hello," she said.
"Hey, I have your scarf." He stepped to the side so they would be out of the way, and she turned to face him as he took off his coat and scarves and fished hers from his hand.
"It's cold out there," he said.
"I know. I can't take it. I'm ready for spr-r-ring." She shivered and clacked her teeth when she said the words, and Dominic smiled at her.
She was wonderful.
He handed the striped scarf to her and he watched her face change from happy to serious to disbelieving to curious to… tears welled in her already shimmering eyes. Her face crumpled. The waterworks happened instantly. Suddenly, there was liquid falling from her eyes onto her cheeks. "I’m sorry," she said, covering her face and laughing and crying at the same time. She wiped her eyes. "It's just happiness. I'm so sorry. Hang on…"
She held the scarf close to her face and stared at it like it was unreal—like it was unbelievable. Then she placed it around her neck and looked up at him, their eyes meeting. Hers were full of tears—joy, relief.
She melted him… just the way she looked at him melted him.
"How do you have this?" she asked. She blinked and a tear dropped onto her cheek. She quickly wiped it away like it was nothing.
"It's a whole story. Do you want to take a second and then grab a burger? I'll tell you the whole thing."
"Yeah, sure," she said, easily getting herself together. "Have you been here before?"
"No, I've never seen it."
"Yeah, it's kind of hidden. It's delish, though. I work in this building sometimes."
"Sometimes?" he asked with a tilt of his head.
"It's a kids' clothing store upstairs," she said. "It's pretty big, actually. They hired me seasonally last Christmas. I was saving for a car. I'm technically not on the schedule, I’m a sub, but they call me just about every weekend because someone calls in sick. I had to come pick up my paycheck today, so I thought this was a good spot."
"Aren't you on lunch break from another job?"
"No, I worked yesterday for someone else, so I didn't have to… hang on…"
They were in line at the register by then, and she gestured in front of them. "Do you want to look at the menu?"
"I'll just have a cheeseburger and fries," he said.
She smiled at him and then looked at the lady behind the register. "Two cheeseburgers, one with bacon, and two orders of fries. I'll take a drink." She glanced at him.
"I'll take a drink also, and some bacon on that second burger."
"Oh no, the bacon one is yours," she said, causing him to smile.
"Oh, great. Well, that's it, then."
The guy at the counter gave them the total, and Marley reached for her purse.
"No, I've got this," he said.
Marley glanced at him with the most serious, impassive expression. "Oh, no, I wouldn't hear of it after you just gave me this. I owe you way more than lunch."
She was so certain of herself that Dominic just stood there and let her pay for the food. He didn't want to do it, but she took over and wouldn't let him approach the register. Dominic was significantly larger than her, and he smiled at her boldness and spunk. The guy taking their order was smiling at her, too.
They finished the transaction, and he handed her a number and two cups.
She and Dominic absentmindedly went through the motions of making their drinks at a nearby drink station. He thought about her ordering bacon on his burger, and he smiled at the whole interaction. She was too funny.
"What would you have done if I would have said I didn't want bacon?" he asked, thinking of her order.
She smiled at him, sitting on her stool. "I would have eaten it and given you the other one."
"You're funny," he said.
She grinned. "I think you're funny. What's the story with the scarf?" she asked as they finally got settled. "I feel like this is fiction, still. I can't wait to hear about how you got it."
They were sitting at a high-top table for three. It felt just like the first time they met, except there was no jazz and low lighting or ambiance. It was fast food, with fluorescent lighting, and she was still beautiful. She was glowing with that colorful scarf resting proudly over her shoulders. He didn't even care about the sweatshirt.
"I saw you at a bus stop that day," he said. "You were close enough to my apartment that I saw you through my window—I'm on the third floor. You were alone at first, but then there was a guy talking to you. You looked nervous, and then you took off, going across the street. But something happened with your scarf. It was hanging behind you, and he reached out for it. Then you walked off, and he hid it from you. He put it behind his back."
"You're kidding!" she said with a serious, stunned expression.
"No. He held it behind himself, and you walked off. I thought he was going to hand it back to you, but he didn’t. So, I ran down the stairs and across the street in my undershirt and bare feet, and I took it right out of his hand. What, Marley? Are you crying?"
"I'm sorry, I’m just happy and thankful." She was being lighthearted and smiling, and the tears just easily fell from her eyes. She smiled and wiped them away. "I'm just so thankful you did that. I'm thinking about all the times I've prayed that I could get it back, and I just never thought… I had given up hope that I would ever see it again."
She picked up the scarf from where it was hanging on her chest and gazed at it closely.
"I learned to knit to replicate it, and I'm checking it out to see how close I've been. The ladies at the yarn store are going to be so happy to see the real deal. They've been helping me try to match it. All we had to go on was pictures and my memories, and yarn just feels so different once you knit it up than it does in the ball… I'm sorry. I shouldn’t get started about knitting. Back to the story."
She set the scarf back in its place and stared at him, her eyes still glossy.
"What did you tell that guy when you went down there? I can't believe you caught him. I can't believe you did it barefoot!"
"You should have seen me," he said smiling at her. "I was flying down those stairs. I think I almost knocked a lady's wig off in the lobby."
"Really?"
"No, but I was trucking. I moved so fast I didn't even feel the cold."
She clutched the scarf as she continued to look at him. "I don’t know how to thank you, Dominic. It's insane that you saw me through your window. I can't even believe this story."
"I know, I watched out for you so much when it first happened. I kept thinking you would come back to that bus stop."
"Do you mean that same night? I did go back. I went, but I didn't stay long. I was concentrating on the buses I took home. I thought I lost it on a bus. I searched busses all night."
"Oh, gosh," he said, imagining what she had gone through.
"Double Decker, bro! I'm sorry to interrupt, but can I grab a pic since you're not eating yet?"
"Yeah, sure, man," Dominic said. A guy stood next to Dominic and Dominic posed as the guy took a selfie of the two of them.
Dominic and his brother did the same hand signal when they posed for photographs, an inward-facing peace sign, which was a 2 for the twins.
"That's awesome, bro, go Cats! I can't believe I ran into you. I love your dad, bro. What's with the traitor, though? She a spy or something?"
"Oh, no, man, she's cool. We're gonna toss it in the fire later… roast some marshmallows."
The guy laughed and shook Dominic's hand. "Thanks for the picture, man."
"No problem," Dominic said.
He turned a little as the guy walked away. It wasn't rare for him to get approached in Chicago, but it was always low-key.
"Am I the traitor he was talking about?" Marley asked quietly when he walked away. She had a worried expression, and he smiled at her.
"You are. Your sweater. It's killing me, actually, I was trying to ignore it. Notre Dame's all right as a college, I guess, but they're our rivals in Football."
"Oh, really? Oh, shoot. You played them at your school?"
"Yes, we did," he said, smiling since that was an understatement. It was a gigantic rivalry.
"I'm so sorry. A guy at my old job gave me this."
A wave of jealousy hit him. "Was it because he liked you?"
"No, it was because it was too small for him. He was getting rid of it."
"What about the guy at the bus stop, the one who had your scarf?"
"He liked me," she said. "He was a customer at Abercrombie, and he had gotten my number from someone. I blocked him, and he would still come into my work."
"Is that why you quit?"
"No, but it was a bonus. I'm so sorry about this," she said, fixing her scarf so that it was covering as much of the logo as possible.
"I'll have to put an X through it."
"Or better yet, I'll just give you a Northwestern sweatshirt. I have about two hundred of them if you want one."
"Yeah, that's a good idea. I see those around. Is that the right college, Northwestern?"
He smiled. "Yes, it is."
" Twenty-seven! " the guy at the restaurant yelled it louder as if it wasn’t the first time he said it.
Dominic glanced at the table and saw that it was their number so they paused their conversation long enough to go pick up their hamburgers and French fries. Marley stayed back with their drinks. He saw her bless her food before she ate, and then she just dug in, taking a huge bite of the burger, not shy at all. She sat up and smiled at him as she chewed. She lifted her eyebrows. She didn't care what anyone thought of her. Aside from the sweater, she was the vision of perfection. Heck, even with the sweater she was pretty perfect. Maybe Notre Dame wasn't so bad. Dominic had to smile at himself for the thought.
"I went to the restaurant to ask that guy, Tom, about you, but he had nothing."
"Oh, yeah, I never did give him my number or anything." She sighed. "Oh, man, you went to the restaurant? How sweet. You really tried to get this thing back to me. You posted that picture, too. You tried to give it back as hard as I tried to find it—we just never connected."
"I went to the restaurant before I had the scarf."
"What?"
"I went to the restaurant before I ever had your scarf. I had seen you at that bus stop before, and I don't know, I went back there to try to get in touch with you. We had talked, but I didn't have much to go on in the way of finding you. I figured that post was my best hope since the restaurant was a dead end."
"That was a great picture. Thank you for doing that."
"Did you just see it right before you reached out?"
"Yes," she said.
They ate for a minute and he smiled at her.
"What?" she said. "Why are you smiling?"
"Because you had no idea I had your scarf, and were stalking my page."
"I-I I was. I don't have an excuse. Your page was interesting…"
"I'm just messing with you."
"No, I was stuck in the dentist office, waiting for Joan, so I was bored."
"Oh, thanks," he said sarcastically.
"No, I mean, your pictures were great. You must like photography."
"I'm glad you were looking at my feed, Marley. I just admitted that I went looking for you before I ever had your scarf. I think I want you stalking my page."