She giggled before pushing her food away and reclining backward as well. Dominic dropped his arm around her, pulling her into the curve of his body. She remained stiff for a moment, before allowing her body to conform to his. “Do you guys discuss women’s products often?” she asked.
“More than you know,” he mumbled under his breath as the movie started again. Within a few minutes of twirling Gwen’s hair and watching the movie, he found something happening that he would never admit to his friends. He was drawn to the plight of Jennifer Lopez and her future mother-in-law from hell. At one point, he yelled out, “The bitch tried to kill her with those nuts!” while waving angrily at Jane Fonda’s character.
Gwen dropped a comforting hand onto his thigh, whispering, “It’s okay. It will all work out in the end. I agree, though—the woman is crazy. I’d just pack up and leave a man before I’d put up with that from his mother.” Dominic made a mental note right then to tell his mom to keep the crazy under wraps when she finally met Gwen. He didn’t want his family scaring her off.
When the movie ended, he felt like he’d been through an emotional wringer. Why in the world did women watch stuff like that? He’d take an action movie any day where they just blew shit up. It gave you a good adrenaline rush, but you didn’t feel like crying when it was over. He’d found himself all tied up into knots while waiting to see if the evil mother was going to stop her son from marrying the woman of his dreams. And to think, Gwen had admitted to watching the movie fifty times. Damn! He’d need a prescription for Prozac by the second viewing. “Um . . . great movie, babe. A tad on the scary side, but entertaining.”
Gwen burst out laughing. “What do you mean scary? It’s a romantic comedy. I don’t think there’s supposed to be much suspense to it.”
Dominic looked at her incredulously. “You’ve gotta be kidding. Did you see all of that crap that Mr. Perfect’s mother was doing? I mean, poor Jennifer didn’t know what she’d be facing each day. And feeding someone nuts who’s allergic to them? That’s attempted murder! So what if Jennifer got to marry the guy in the end and the mother pretended to be happy about it. You know as well as I do about how long that’s gonna last. She’ll be up to her old shit as soon as the honeymoon is over, mark my words!”
When he finished his tirade, Gwen was staring at him with her mouth hung open. She swallowed a few times before patting him on the head like a dog. “Um, you do realize that the movie wasn’t a true story, right? In addition, there wasn’t a sequel, so nothing happened after the honeymoon. You know, because it wasn’t real.”
Getting to his feet, Dominic started clearing off their dinner from the table, feeling like an idiot. He refused to meet Gwen’s eyes as he stacked the cartons of cold Chinese food before taking them to the kitchen. He had just made a first-class fool out of himself, and he was embarrassed and okay, a little pissed off about it. Men didn’t handle feelings like that well, and he was no exception. Now thanks to his rant, there was no way she could doubt how taken in he had been by her choice in movies. He knew it was crazy, but he wanted to blame the whole humiliating thing on her. A voice in the rational part of his mind said that she’d encouraged him to go home, but no, he’d been determined to stick it out. It pissed him off even further that he was actually so bent out of shape over such silliness. This sounded more like Gage than him. Heck, he’d said something similar when he’d admitted to watching commercials mainly pertaining to women’s products. At least he’d been watching a lingerie show for perverted reasons, though. Dominic couldn’t claim the same.
When he stomped back into the living room, Gwen was standing there looking at him warily. “Everything okay?” she asked, as she studied his no doubt closed-off expression. He knew then that he needed to go home for the night. If he stayed here, he’d say something he didn’t mean. She didn’t deserve to have her feelings hurt because he was acting like a total jerk. He fucking knew that, but he still couldn’t shake it off. What was wrong with him tonight?
“It’s fine, babe.” He forced himself to answer lightly. “Just a little tired from the trip and lack of sleep last night.” He pulled her tense form against him before saying, “I’m going to stay at my place tonight. I’ll sleep so deeply that I’m likely to snore the bedroom down. Believe me, you don’t want that.” She laughed, but it sounded strained. He pressed a light kiss to her lips before releasing her and going toward the door. When he reached it, he turned, remembering what Gage had said about him showing interest and concern over the possible pregnancy. It was the last thing he wanted to talk about tonight, but he didn’t want her to think that he didn’t care—because he did, more than she knew. “So . . . um how much longer until you know something, about, you know, whether you’re pregnant or not?”
Dominic saw her freeze at his question. Maybe he was mistaken, but she didn’t really look happy or relieved by his question. He was beginning to regret even bringing the subject up, when she finally said, “Probably this week or weekend one way or another.”
Trying to sound like he was halfway knowledgeable, he quoted off Gage’s statement. “Isn’t there some test that tells you early? Maybe you could take one of those. At least then we’d know.” When she bit her trembling lip and her eyes looked like they were watering, Dominic felt a moment’s panic. This wasn’t going at all like he thought it would. To say this hadn’t been his ideal evening was putting it mildly. Feeling ashamed of how he had been acting, he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close to him once again. “Did I say something wrong?” he asked. That was a loaded question because he’d probably said nothing right since he’d arrived.