Page 112 of Play Room Actor

“Maybe another time. Thanks.”

As Theo left the hall, I walked down the side corridor, climbed onto the stage, and followed Dominic into the dressing room, because that’s where he must’ve gone—he wasn’t likely to leave the theater wearing the blue coat.

I stopped in front of the dressing room and listened. The door was slightly ajar, but I didn’t hear any voices, only the clink of a hanger. I stepped inside and had the pleasure of seeing Dominic shirtless. He was hanging up his ruffled shirt and widened his eyes when he saw me.

“Kilian … You here, in the dressing room?”

His voice was cool and distant. Quickly, he pulled on a white T-shirt and cleared his throat. I had stopped in the doorway, struggling to find the right words.

“Are you feeling better?” Dominic asked, his tone cautious.

I nodded and forced a sad smile. “Do you have a moment for me?” The distance between us felt like a black hole, and it hurt deep in my soul that Dominic seemed so unreachable despite being only sixteen feet away.

I shut the door behind me and turned to face him.

“I wanted to thank you,” I said. “Thank you for picking me up in Engelberg. And … I’m sorry. I probably said things to you I shouldn’t have.”

Something changed in Dominic’s expression, and his brows furrowed. “Probably?” He stepped out from behind the coat rack and rubbed his forearm with his right hand. “You don’t remember Engelberg?”

“I remember Engelberg, but … The trip home is a bit hazy. I’m sorry.”

There was silence for a while, and I didn’t know how to break it. I licked my lips and shifted my weight from one foot to the other.

“You scared me,” Dominic confessed with a sadness to his voice. “When we stopped for gas, you ran into the street to take a picture. You almost got run over by a truck. And just before we reached our destination, you seriously tried to jump off the bike.”

“I didn’t want to put you in danger. If something happened to you, something I was responsible for … I couldn’t live with that. You have to believe me.”

The sadness in Dominic’s gaze practically ripped my heart apart.

“I would understand if you didn’t want anything to do with me anymore,” I continued, my voice trembling. My body was shaking with fear, and I could hardly breathe. “But … I … uh … I don’t know if I want to live without you.”

“You were in the clinic for two weeks, and I had no idea how you were. Yaël said everything was fine, but I knew nothing was okay. She was trying to protect me, but … it drove me crazy not knowing what was going on. I can’t live like that.”

“Then … I guess you don’t have a choice but to marry me.”

Dominic scowled and turned away from me.

“No!” I stepped closer to him. “Please!”

“Listen, I know I wasn’t honest with you—”

“I don’t care.”

“You weren’t honest either,” he said with a frown. “You’d think that would balance things out, but …”

“But what?”

Dominic shook his head in disbelief. “How can I trust you if …”

“What?” I was afraid my heart was about to burst from my chest, and I held my breath.

“How can I trust you if you don’t trust me?”

It felt like a right hook followed by a punch to the stomach, knocking the air from my lungs.

“I do trust you,” I said breathlessly. My body was gasping for air, and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

“All this time, you’ve kept me in the dark,” Dominic continued. “Even when I came to your place, thinking you were lying in bed with a fever. In the end, it was your sister who told me you had some … I don’t know … some mental health issue. Don’t you think—after everything we’ve been through—that I deserved to hear it from you?”