Still Falling | ✓

18 | stay

But I still had my reservations about the prospect of someone getting too close to me, whether they wanted something serious with me or not. I stared at the screen, debating picking it. I resigned and did.

"There you are, Amanda Jane Reed." Came the subtle playfulness in his husky voice.

"You promised not to use it!"

"Yeah, well, you haven't exactly been a good girl."

I closed my books and shut my laptop before laying on my back on the floor. "Because I ghosted you?" I was being direct, I knew. But I felt too exhausted to beat around the bush.

"I wasn't expecting you to admit that so quickly."

I sighed and stared up at the lights above. Even on a conversation with Dom, I was still very obsessed about Finn's wellbeing.

"I'm sorry I did. It's so difficult to find where my mind's at these days."

"You don't sound too good," his tone switched to a softer one, "are you alright?"

"Honestly? I don't know."

"Does Amanda Jane Reed want to talk about it?"

"I'll never live through that," I muttered sourly. "But I really appreciate your concern."

"Okay, seeing you're not so eager to talk about it, is there anything I could do to make you feel better?"

I contemplated, then, "Nothing I can think of right now." I didn't get people try to do this a lot. One of the exceptions was Nate, but he was my best friend and knew just what made me tick without having to ask. Another was my family, and we were close knit enough for them to know me inside out. So what I told Dominic was the truth.

"It's unfortunate that we haven't known ourselves enough. Now I'm going to have to come up with something you might not like that much."

I let out a tiny scoff. "I'm sure whatever it is won't be that bad. And ultimately, it's the thought that counts. Thanks. You don't have to by the way."

"Oh, I want to."

"Okay, this is the point where I veer this lovely conversation away from my woes. How are you?"

He sighed, but not a sad, exhausted kind. It signalled the start of a perhaps, positive answer.

"I'm doing fine. It's been a good week for me actually. My team and I delivered to a client last week and we've been getting glowing reviews and feedback, and a ton of referrals. We always deliver, but this was one of our most challenging contracts."

I didn't remember what he did. Fuck. Did he ever tell me? He must've, because I felt it in the back of my mind, somewhere, a piece of information I'd absentmindedly kept there. I thought harder, wading through memories of conversation and it finally came to me. Senior architect.

"That sounds fantastic, Dominic. You're good at what you do."

"Thank you, thank you. It should be easier thank it is, but some clients have zero patience and with their expectations above the clouds. But I love the challenge still. I love reaching above those clouds."

"That's so inspirational. I'm feeling a need to reach past some clouds too," I said, lifting a hand above my head like he could possibly see me.

He laughed. I put the phone on speaker, set it down next to my head and dropped my hands on my stomach.

"Is Finn Harris still your neighbor?"

My breathing hitched. "Yeah," came my delayed response.

"That's interesting."