Chapter Twenty-Five Amanda
Chapter Twenty-Five
Amanda
A manda wasn’t naturally a liar. In fact, she actually had a pretty big personal policy against lying, but there she was, flat out lying to Dominic. She had all but directly said that she didn’t want to continue a relationship with him, and there was nothing further from the truth. But she’d told him—in not so many words—that she wasn’t going to be able to meet all his daily needs, and he’d agreed that that didn’t make them a match.
That had become abundantly clear in the bathroom when she’d seen how quickly he’d been physically turned on by her. Sure, she was flattered. It was quite an ego boost to know that someone as handsome and wonderful as Dominic felt that strongly about her, but it was also a very— very —large reminder of what she wasn’t going to be able to give him. Of course, he’d want physical intimacy to be a big part of his life going forward, and he deserved that, just like she told him.
He’d already lost so much, she wasn’t going to ask him to give that up, too.
Add to all of that that he was also moving in less than two months, and it was a pretty clear reason to cut things off romantically now, before even more feelings got involved.
Yet here she was in his kitchen, cooking a pot of spaghetti for him for dinner and feeling like her heart had been shattered into a million pieces. Literal tears were streaming down her cheeks as she stirred the noodles in boiling water and tried to convince herself to buck up and give it a rest.
She was not someone who cried over a man. Hell, she couldn’t even understand what she was crying about. This had been her decision just as much as it had been his.
“Okay, so I got some garlic bread,” Ellen’s voice came through the hallway behind her and into the kitchen.
She didn’t turn around, because she wasn’t about to let the older woman see her crying. Instead, she quickly and surreptitiously wiped at her cheeks and leaned her face over the steam from the pot. She could blame her red cheeks on that easily if Ellen noticed anything.
“But I also got some eggs, veggies, and other staples like milk. Dominic always goes through so much milk,” Ellen continued. “Plus, some ice cream for me. I’m going to write my name on it, so he doesn’t steal any.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Amanda commented quietly, still not turning around fully.
“Oh, shit.” Ellen sighed. “Yeah, I guess he can’t read that. That’s going to take some getting used to. Well, just don’t tell him I bought ice cream, I guess.”
“My lips are sealed,” she replied, steadying her voice.
“This is… this is all really hard,” Ellen admitted out loud, though it didn’t seem like she was talking directly to Amanda. More so like she was processing everything on her own. She placed the bags of groceries down on the kitchen island and began unpacking them. “Oh, by the way—are we expecting company? There was a car coming up the driveway as I was unloading.”
“Really?” Amanda pulled away from the stove and turned off the burner, the noodles fully cooked through now. “Let me go check.”
She walked past Ellen and looked at herself in the hall mirror before getting to the front door. Any hint of tears was gone, and aside from some red cheeks and sweat on her brow and upper lip, she looked fine. She wiped at the sweat anyway, then opened the front door and walked out onto the porch.
Sure enough, a small red sports car was pulling up right next to where Ellen had parked Nola’s car that she’d taken to the grocery store. A woman with bright blonde hair was behind the steering wheel and didn’t move to get out, but the woman in the passenger seat immediately opened her door and stepped onto the gravel.
She was extremely tall and beautiful and wearing a pair of stiletto heels. She spotted Amanda on the porch and waved to her. “Hello?”
“Hi?” Amanda called back, unsure who this was.
“Is this Dominic Gage’s house?” the woman asked.
Shit, the tabloids had figured out where he lived. She was not about to let his privacy be even further invaded after that damn video from yesterday had gone viral.
“Who?” she replied. “I don’t know who that is. I think you have the wrong place.”
“Shit.” The woman looked perplexed and pulled out her phone, scrolling through it. “Let me call him. I must have the wrong address.”
She had his phone number? “How do you know him?” Amanda asked, stepping down the porch steps.
“I used to be married to him,” she replied with a slight laugh. “I promise, I’m not a stalker.”
“Wait, you’re Melinda?” Amanda stood up straighter.
Melinda lifted one brow. “So, this is where Dominic lives?”
“Yes,” Amanda admitted. “Sorry, I thought you might be the tabloids.”
She nodded her head and walked toward the porch steps carefully, her stiletto heels getting repeatedly stuck in the gravel. “Fair thought. It makes me feel a lot better to know he has people like you watching out for him.”
Amanda hadn’t thought much about what Melinda might be like or what she might look like, but meeting her in person exceeded any expectations. This woman was drop-dead gorgeous. Literally an absolute bombshell. Plus, she seemed genuinely nice and kind, at least from first impressions.
“Is he expecting you?” Amanda asked as Melinda finally made it to the porch steps. “He just fell asleep.”
“Definitely don’t wake him up,” Melinda said. “And, no, he’s probably not expecting me. I texted and called him, said I was coming here to check on him. But he didn’t respond.”
“I think Ellen has his phone, actually,” Amanda commented, opening the front door for her. “She’s in the kitchen.”
“Oh, his mom is here?” Melinda’s face split into a huge smile. “I love her.”
A pit was slowly starting to form in Amanda’s gut as the small-town hospitality side of her began battling with the protective, girlfriend/not-a-girlfriend side of her.
“Does your friend want to come in, too?” Amanda asked, gesturing toward the woman sitting in the car still. “She doesn’t have to stay out here. You guys can wait inside until he wakes up.”
“They, not she,” Melinda corrected her use of pronouns. “That’s my partner; and yeah, I’ll ask them to come in. Dominic hasn’t met them yet, so this might be a little weird. But I think he’d be okay with it from talking to him on the phone about it.”
“Oh!” Amanda looked back out toward the car, which Melinda was waving to and gesturing for the person to come in. “That’s your partner? Like… like romantically?”
“Yeah, this is Emmy Jac,” Melinda introduced her partner as they stepped out of the driver’s seat of the car and walked up toward the porch.
Emmy Jac was actually wearing sensible shoes on gravel—a pair of colorful Toms with blue unicorns on them. They perfectly complemented the blue vest they were wearing over a pair of skintight black jeans, with dangly hoop earrings.
“I’m sorry,” Melinda continued. “I never actually got your name.”
“I’m Amanda,” she told her, offering her hand. “I live in the yellow house next door.”
Melinda shook her hand as Emmy Jac got onto the porch, and they exchanged a handshake with Amanda as well.
“It’s great to meet you, Amanda,” Emmy Jac said.
“I feel like I’ve seen you before,” Amanda commented, narrowing her eyes and racking her brain. Emmy Jac’s face looked so familiar, and the way their slicked-back hair was styled was too unique to forget. “Are you in a band? Wait… oh my God, the Kinetic Kind! You’re in the Kinetic Kind, aren’t you?”
Emmy Jac grinned and let out a small laugh. “Yeah, I’m the lead singer.”
“That’s actually how we met,” Melinda added, sliding her hand around Emmy Jac’s back and pulling them against her side. “I had meet and greet tickets to a concert, and I was just enamored. They are so incredible. If you haven’t seen them perform live, you absolutely have to. Emmy, can we get Amanda tickets to the Cleveland show this fall?”
“Of course,” Emmy Jac agreed, placing a soft kiss on Melinda’s cheek. It was actually really endearing to see the affection between them, but it made Amanda all the more aware of the disparity in her own life right now. “I’ll make sure my assistant gets them to you, Amanda. Any friend of Melinda’s is a friend of mine.”
“Actually, this is Dominic’s neighbor,” Melinda corrected them. “We just met, but I can absolutely see us being friends. Right, Amanda?”
The way Melinda said that would have felt phony from anyone else, but there was an authenticity in Melinda’s tone and mannerisms that was beyond charismatic; she was actually connecting. Amanda wanted not to love the ex of the man she was clearly hung up on, but there was nothing unlikable about Melinda so far.
“Uh… yes, of course,” Amanda replied, ushering them into the house. She wasn’t sure if she should clarify to Melinda and Emmy Jac that she was not just a neighbor. But she also kind of was just a neighbor now.
“Is that Melinda?” Ellen’s voice called out from the kitchen. She popped out into the hallway with the biggest smile on her face. “Oh my God! Come here and give me a hug!”
Melinda threw her arms up in the air. “Mom!”
Amanda was pretty sure that this was the moment she should either disappear or melt into the floor, but instead she was frozen in place like a deer in the headlights, like she’d intruded on someone else’s family reunion.
Melinda and Ellen hugged tightly before Melinda pulled away and motioned toward her partner. “Ellen, this is Emmy Jac.”
“I’ve been reading about you two in all the tabloids,” Ellen confessed, throwing her arms around Emmy Jac’s shoulders for a hug. “Don’t tell Dominic that I read the tabloids. He thinks they are garbage, but they have the best photos of you two. I swear, I’ve never seen a sexier couple. I told everyone at my new internship that my daughter is a lesbian now. Gives me street cred.”
“That’s not exactly how this works,” Melinda said, shaking her head but laughing all the same. “But I’ll let you have that.”
Amanda furrowed her brows at the spectacle she was watching. What in the ever-loving hell was going on here?
“I’ve heard so much about you,” Emmy Jac replied to Ellen. “Melinda can’t stop talking about her chosen mom.”
Am I in the twilight zone? Yep, this had to be the twilight zone. Amanda made a mental note to pinch herself in case she was actually disassociating right now, which was a very real possibility given all she was witnessing.
“I was trying to nap, you know.” Dominic walked out of the bedroom, his hands on the wall for support but turning his face in their direction. “Jesus, Melinda, you’re like a goddamn freight train coming into places. I could hear you the second you walked in the house.”
She should leave right now, right? Amanda was pretty sure that this was her cue. Pack up her shit and go because she did not belong in what appeared to be some sort of weird fucking family reunion that she was clearly not a part of.
“There he is! Dom, you look amazing—eye patches and all,” Melinda said as she pounced on him, wrapping him in a huge hug and kissing him on the cheek.
He looked startled at first from the sudden physical contact, but then he returned her hug. “Like I said, I was trying to nap. I just had surgery yesterday, you know. Be gentle with me.”
“Why do you think I’m here?” she replied. “Plus, you have to meet my partner. I brought them with me because you know I won’t make this long of a drive alone.”
“I just had a second devastating eye injury, then surgery, and then my very recently ex-wife brings over her boyfriend to meet me the next day?” Dominic summed up the situation not so accurately. “Well, that’s just fucked up. What kind of karmic retribution is this?”
Melinda smacked Dominic’s upper arm and let out a loud bellowing laugh. “Still the best humor I know. We may be divorced, but you know I love you, Dom, and it’s important to me that we don’t lose that family, even if we’re divorced.”
He wrapped his arm around Melinda’s shoulders. “I love you, too, Mindy. Family first, always. So where’s the guy? I can’t see shit.”
Yeah, she should definitely leave. Honestly, she wasn’t even sure Dominic remembered that she was still here. Now it was just beginning to feel awkward, like if she announced she was still here… would he be still acting so loving toward Melinda?
“I don’t have a boyfriend, Dom,” Melinda clarified. “Did you not actually read the article? I’m dating Emmy Jac, lead singer from the Kinetic Kind.”
Okay, that was it. She’d been punished enough. She was out of here.
“You know what,” Amanda announced loudly, ready to cut her losses and run. “You guys have a lot of catch-up to do, lots of stuff happening here. I’m just going to head on home. I’ll see you tomorrow, Dominic. Let me know if you need any help sooner.”
Dominic turned his face in her direction, and she could tell he definitely was surprised to hear her voice.
Ellen fussed immediately. “What? So soon? Amanda, stay with us. Let’s have some wine and all get to know each other.”
Absolutely not. No, thank you. That was enough heartbreak for one day.
“I’m so tired,” she lied, even though it did feel like a blanket of existential exhaustion was weighing her down. “It was a long drive, you know? I’m going to head home.”
“Amanda, are you sure?” Dominic asked. He reached his hand out, even if he couldn’t see her. “You are absolutely welcome to stay.”
She touched his hand, holding it for a brief moment and giving it a squeeze. “Dom, you’ve got a great support system here. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You really do have the nicest neighbors here, Dom,” Melinda said in her seemingly naturally cooing tone. “Completely get why you moved here.”
Amanda walked toward the front door and opened it quickly, stepping out onto the porch. Part of her almost wanted people to chase after her, beg her to stay. And by people, she meant Dominic. She wanted Dominic to beg her to stay, to beg her to be his actual girlfriend and kick his ex-wife to the curb.
Shit, she didn’t even mean that. She actually really liked Melinda so far, and Emmy Jac seemed cool as hell. But she also hated that she felt so superfluous in the equation right now. And yet, she also knew that that made the most sense. They weren’t together. They’d just made that very clear.
Why did love and life have to be so complicated? Heartbreak certainly wasn’t.