I didn't have the stomach to return to campus for a two days, especially not after what happened with her. I didn't trust myself not to react if I saw her again. Or smelled that again. But of course, she noticed.
Eleanor stood near the art courtyard, her brows furrowed slightly as she scanned the campus, like something was missing. Or someone.
"Looking for your Thursday savior?" Elise chirped beside her, peeling the skin off a mandarin. She was doing that thing again, the subtle insults.
Eleanor didn't answer.
"I mean," Elise continued, "don't get your hopes up. Word is he's some kind of rich playboy, hopping city to city and never stays long. Seems like he gets bored easily."
Eleanor didn't take the bait. "Then it's a good thing I'm not trying to impress him."
But she was at least confused. I knew that much. I hadn't shown up on campus for days, and she looked for me. I wasn't proud of that thought, but I held onto it anyway.
Elise ate a piece of mandarin and mumbled, "They say he's a total creep."
Eleanor blinked at her. "Where'd you hear that?"
"People talk."
Eleanor offered advice, softly. "Then maybe they should talk less."
I watched from the far side of the quadrangle, hidden behind a column outside the old music wing. She turned and made her way toward the northern side of campus, passing the older buildings where Dom's lectures were usually held. As she passed the fountain, I saw her pause. She squinted then rubbed her eyes.
There was a trickle of water, and my eyes averted to find Dom there. He stood by the edge of the water fountain, his hand hovered over the stone basin, and his gaze made it seem he had been waiting for her. Of course he hadn't. That wasn't Dom. He simply was—always in the right place at the wrong time.
A single droplet rose upward as if gravity had been reversed. It was suspended in thin air, like the water reached out toward Dom's fingertips, responding to something unseen. In that split second, too, it dropped back into the basin.
She rubbed her eyes. By the time she looked again, it was gone.
Dom glanced over, meeting her eyes. "You look like you saw something?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," she said. "Just a trick of light, probably."
Dom studied her, unreadable. "Or, I guess, your eyes see what others ignore."
"Is that supposed to be… a compliment?"
"It's an observation," he said. "Though in your case, perhaps both."
She looked at him sidelong, suspicious. "Is this one of your trick questions or scenarios again? The ones you ask in class when you're trying to see if someone can keep up?"
Dom gave a faint smile. "Would it matter if it was?"
"Probably not," she said. "You'd already know the answer either way."
"And you'd keep up either way."
She added, "Are you even still lecturing on religious symbolism? Because the other day's question didn't sound like it belonged to the curriculum."
Dom gave a soft laugh under his breath. "You noticed."
"How could I not?"
He turned slightly toward her, hands tucked into his pockets now. "Then tell me—why do you keep coming to my lectures, Miss Nielsen?"
She didn't answer right away. The fountain behind him shimmered again, just for a second. She blinked, and it looked normal.
"I've been having dreams," she said finally.
He studied her more closely now. "What kind of dreams?"
"I don't know. The strange kind? They just feel... familiar. But I can't explain why. And most of what I remember from them when I wake up is just a cross… and what I think is a cantillation? So when I read the notice on your lectures, I thought maybe it'd help me understand better."
She squinted at his face. "Actually… I think I've seen you before."
"In... your dreams?"
"No," she said slowly. "Well—I don't know. But I meant at the bar. The night I met Toph, the tall guy with black, slicked back hair who's always wearing a suit. You were with him, weren't you?"
"I was," Dom replied. His voice was calm, but his eyes didn't leave her.
She looked at him with curiosity, then asked, "Are you related, by any chance?"
"Yes, we are very much related."
Her brow rose. "Like brothers?"
He nodded.
She hesitated, then asked, "Hey... do you know where he is? Toph? Is he… okay?"
For a split second, I saw something shift in him—like relief. Like maybe he thought the charm worked after all. But then he must've remembered what she'd said about the dream. Dom raised an eyebrow.
"Hang on, I'm a little lost. At the bar, you looked like you weren't interested. Why are you asking after him?" Dom asked, keeping his voice neutral.
She looked embarrassed. "He walked out on me yesterday without saying a word. Like abruptly. I just wanted to know what I said wrong to him. I don't usually mind people being a bit… guarded. But something about the way he reacted—I don't know. It felt like I'd really crossed a line without knowing it."
Dom gave her a long look. Then said, almost gently, "You know, you're unusually kind."
"He hasn't done anything to make me unkind," she replied, shrugging. "I mean, he's a bit... I don't know—intense, maybe? But he hasn't actually done anything to offend me."
Dom gave a small, unreadable smile. "Not yet, anyway."
She huffed a soft laugh. "You say that like it's inevitable."
Every part of me wanted to go down there, interrupt, insert myself back into the picture. Something about the way she looked at him—just looked, not stared, nor lingered—still made my jaw tighten. She shouldn't have looked at all—is what I would've demanded from her. But I didn't, I stayed out of sight. Because I couldn't explain what was happening to me around her. Not yet.
Just as I was about to slip away, something pulled me back: a figure loitering beyond the garden fence.
Hmm. Just who do we have here?