Chapter 1 - The Way It Goes
There were a few things in life that could really just knock you on your ass.
Moving to the Windy City had been quite a change for Dom Melinkey as it was, and moving to come over to take a shot and gamble on love was its own terrifying adventure.
Four years he had been dating Stella long distance and the backstory to that was, in his opinion, sweetly romantic as it could be.
Senior year of high school they had met at a science fair convention hosted by Chicago’s Young Elite Programmers or the fun acronym of Y.E.P. for those who wanted to keep it short.
Stella had been a junior from the city, and he himself was from the very small town of St. Joseph, Illinois. It was about a hundred and forty miles outside of Chicago so about a two-and-a-half-hour ride by bus to get that direction but as far as it went the two locations were as opposing as the various sides of the moon.
They had mutually admired each other's projects. Stella had approached him first, complimenting the complexity of his robotics programming for interactive physical learning and he had swiftly thrown his shot and told her that he loved the language app she had offered up for her project too. It had been some bullshit program that could translate about ten languages through an app on your phone, fed in real-time through a discreet earbud.
Sure, he had known that there were a dozen programs like it already out there but hers had been special if only because he had thought she was so special.
Dom had almost immediately fallen in love with her softly blue eyes and could have composed sonnets over the golden brown bobby little ponytail she had been sporting. She was so petite, a little curvy, and had an amazing set of thighs he could only describe as thicc, munchable, and sexy.
Love at first computer simulation or so it had seemed.
They had dated since, had even gone the miles to each other's junior and senior proms, and been blinded over the fact that life in the real world was a whole other ballgame to play. At the time the biggest travesty that they had faced was that Stella had had to take a two-year break to work after high school when her dad had busted his knee out and they had been risking losing their house.
Whatever, the point was, was that Dom had been committed. He had felt it, planned it, and had gone to Chicago after a year of planning over the phone and in brief weekend visits any time he could get the funds together to go out there. He had gotten his college credits switched over to Urbana-Champaign for Robotics from his smaller school and had really thought…
Fuck but it didn’t matter what he had thought then and he knew that now in brutal hindsight.
He mulled it over at the red light and hit his joint hard to kill that thought before tossing the butt out the window, exhaling it all out before making the right for a small gym he had seen not two blocks down from his apartment.
Dom didn’t feel like getting lost on his way to a larger gym like Planet Fitness, was still trying to get used to the new city arena he found himself in. For the most part he didn’t hate Chicago, but it was like some slap of opposition from everything he had known before in small town Nowhere.
The traffic sucked and the area was a little run-down but then again his whole town growing up had been quaint and all but depleted of any kind of anything new or happening there outside of a few new Dollar Generals.
It sucked that he didn’t know anyone yet, and it sucked more that he was suddenly doing it all alone. Not what he had planned on at twenty-two years old but what could you do?
Dom spotted the lit sign in the shopping mall he was looking for, just a white outline of some jacked dude with a dumbbell in hand, the typical massive planes of glass wall windows that let passersby scope out the patrons within and couldn't even recall the last time he had hit the gym.
At least since he was nineteen maybe twenty before he had gotten sucked into the rabbit hole of an actual college curriculum.
However, he was feeling a little lost lately and he was tired of sitting at his place alone, wasn’t looking to date right then not even causally, and wasn't at the place in his head to even seek out a quick lay.
He had tried to go for the rebound at a bar and looked around at the train wrecks in the place, most drunkenly fawning over college-aged dudes like himself but just couldn’t bring himself to make the approach.
Maybe he wasn’t ready, or maybe he was just feeling so jaded, so shell-shocked still he wasn’t mentally ready for the game of it all. Maybe it was just life in general sucking the soul from him.
Honestly, he was probably just bitter.
That last sounded very likely considering.
He parked, exhaled out his bizarre nerves over attempting this, and swung the door out after steeling his spine for the prospect of something new. He saw only two or three cars parked in front of the entry, otherwise, most of the strip mall was shut down minus a Dollar Store and a Five Below. Even as he noted it he saw the FB start to darken inside while the workers closed shop to go home.
It was a good time to come down. He checked his watch, saw it was around nine, and made a mental note of it.
Dom jingled his keys nervously in his shorts pockets and wasn’t sure why he was so antsy over this. It wasn’t like he was that out of shape or anything. Hell, he was fit, twenty-two, didn’t smoke, and had a naturally decent figure any way you cut it.
He didn't know. Deep down, Dom had a feeling that it was more what this represented for him; some harkening call to pull a trigger and make himself more appealing for when he did have to make that inevitable plunge back onto the market.
It felt like the heralding of a new era and kind of felt like the second he walked through these doors he was doing something solely for himself and that meant he was no longer including Stella in his life plans, ambitions, or long-term goals.
No sooner had he caught the outside door to go in though than his phone buzzed in his pocket.
He pulled it, hoping to God it was either his mom or one of his brothers, but no. No, no. Dom wasn't that fucking lucky in his life.
He frowned at the caller ID instantly pissed off all over again.
Fucking fuck with the woman now.
It was the eighth time she had called him that week and each time he had hit the fuck-you button. Last week had been slightly less worse but it was like the longer he put her off the more she was escalating on her end. Between the calling, the endless streams of texts, messages on Tumblr, Insta, and X she was close to driving him up the wall.
After a moment of hesitation, he let the door handle go, strolled down the sidewalk a few feet away, and finally answered the fucking call.
“Yeah?”
“Dom?” Stella’s voice was almost choked, tremulous, and thick with emotion. She sounded so devastated that part of him wanted to feel bad just from habit alone but the other half of him wanted to drop-kick her right into the sun.
“What the hell do you want, Stella?” He couldn’t keep the snap from his tone and rubbed his forehead. “I don’t really want to fucking talk to you right now.”
“I just…please can you come over so we can talk?” She barely warbled it out without breaking down. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
His brain felt like it was bleeding at this point every time she opened her mouth. It was the same thing she had been asking for and saying in various media outlets for four weeks straight and he was so fucking beyond talking it out. “Yeah, you said that like fifty times. And texted it. And left me voice mails about it. I don’t know how many fucking times I have to tell you I don’t give a shit.”
“Dom…” Her voice broke and he felt that spike of anger hit him hard all over again and barely battled it back. “It was just like, a one time mistake. Please, I just want to see you. I miss you so much.”
Dom couldn’t help the bitter laugh that escaped him. “Yeah? That’s really funny because you didn’t seem to miss me a month ago, right?”
She was quiet on the other end, sniffling and he knew she was crying but you know funny thing but he had also spent his own week after that fun little surprise devastated and crying so she could really shove it.
Finally, she spoke up seconds before he was compelled to hang up the phone. “I was just drinking and I don’t know, it just escalated, and it was just so stupid. I don’t know why you can’t forgive me. It was one time and we’ve been together for four years, Dominic. Four years and you’re going to just trash it?”
It was like the one thing Stella could have said that would have just sent him right over that ledge.
His temper broke and he couldn’t keep his voice from rising to a shout. “Me?! I didn’t trash shit, Stella!” His voice almost broke on it when he threw an arm wide around him. “I’m not the one who got walked in on with some other fucking dude's dick in my mouth!”
Dom heard her squeak of protest like she was daring to be offended by that, couldn’t handle even talking to her in general at this point, and hung up the damn phone before he blew a gasket and got arrested.
He shoved it back into his pocket, blew out a breath, and turned riled to a thousand and ready to maybe go punch a wall for an hour. Instead, Dom paused dead seeing he was no longer alone on the previously empty sidewalk.
There was another guy at the door, clearly going in and in his heated moment Dom hadn’t even noticed him park or walk up.
He was dressed down in a fit white tee and dark gray zip-up hoodie, a shorter cut of matching gray shorts that flashed some powerfully cut thighs despite the weather and he was so fit, lean, and svelte it was clear that it wasn’t the guy's first rodeo in a gym. He had a sporty black backpack on and looked ready to fucking rock out that night.
His hood was up over a short light brown cut that left just a wayward fluff poke free on top and dear sweet Jesus but a blind mind could have told you he was fucking gorgeous.
From that smoothly strong angle of jawline and cheekbones that were cut and honed, it was like God had come for him with a pair of chisels. They traced his face with some exquisite angle that directly pointed the eye to a warmly curved lush mouth, and the effect gave him a serious appeal that was akin to being a weapon of mass destruction. He had a high arch of brow and each defined feature glowed with that fanatical type of edge some men got when they worked out with a fervor that touched every part of their body to the micro-centimeter.
Dom aspired but seeing another dude like that at that exact second of his life instantly made him sort of flounder and feel like a country bumpkin.
This man was just so clearly city chic while Dom was rolling up in last night’s band tee and jersey drawstrings that he felt like he was suddenly twelve trying to play football with his older brothers at Thanksgiving again.
And Dom could tell the guy was older probably later twenties for sure; just peak MAN top to bottom. Then here he was screaming like a little jilted baby boy outside in public at his fucking ex on the phone like some imbecile.
It made him want to jump back into his car and just speed the hell out of there and find a new spot entirely.
However, the second he thought it rife with awkward-feeling everything, the man caught the door and said something to him that he was instantly grateful for.
He said, “You first. You need to go run that one out, my dude.” Then he grinned and flashed a lot of really nice pearly whites when Dom laughed abruptly at the mild call out.
After a long second, Dom nodded, lips curving just a smidge over that very spot-on observation. “Thanks. I think I needed that said out loud.”
Amusingly, his strange savior just widened the door like a doorman and ushered him within with a broad dramatic sweep of an arm. “Please. After you.”
Dom grinned on the way by and for whatever reason had a moment of not really being able to fully meet those pretty, heavy-lidded dark eyes on the way past. “Thanks.”
Then he had to fumble his phone back out to find his Brivo Pass app to unlock the inner door, almost tight in the nape he was so aware of this guy joining him quietly in the tiny space between access door one and locked access door two.
Thank God it actually unlocked. For whatever fucking reason he could feel his cheeks were a little hot, and the dude was almost making him sweat it out just standing that close behind him.
He had no idea why but chalked it up to high stress, being emotional and this guy being mildly nice and funny when he needed it desperately. Still, holy damn but he was literally warm and a little buzzy over the proximity, and all the dude was doing was standing idly in wait checking his phone.
When the door opened, Dom quickly grabbed the handle before it could relock, and swung it back with some cutesy reply locked and loaded to return the favor. Instead, like a fool, he stepped back and into the guy so hard he actually bumped him back a few steps.
“Fuck me.” Dom turned, red hot, eyes so distressed when the guy just laughed in surprise and thank God, good-natured humor over the sudden shove back. “Sorry. I was trying to open the door…for…you…” He trailed off under that very brightly amused look, eyes a little tight when he forced an uncomfortable smile and then abruptly blurted out. “I’m new.”
He just grinned on the way by, glanced back, and said brightly, “I can tell.” Then he chuckled and went toward the treadmills which was exactly where Dom had planned on going of course.
Great, now this guy thought he was an idiot, would think he was trailing him like a confused puppy, and on top of that, his first thought when he watched the guy walking that way was so unexpected it made him falter big time internally.
He found himself looking at the guy's very high, round, perfectly supple cut of ass and before he could stop himself admired it accordingly for the biteable apple it was.
God damn it.
He rubbed his temple but went in, color high, and had no idea what the hell was wrong with him tonight.
Fun times.
He put his head down, fished out his earbuds, and couldn’t help the sigh that exhaled from his lips while he tried to get his shit together.
Just another thing to flog himself over later he was sure.
Let it pour.
