Sweet and Simple

The next few days went by without a hitch; Elijah and Ariel worked all day, every day, on the script and Dom spent the days either listening to music, watching TV in the other room, or hanging out at the beach. He went up to LA for a day, as well, and when he came back he was more quiet than he was when he’d left. Elijah wasn’t sure what was wrong with him, and Ariel didn’t seem to notice that he was not himself. Though, Elijah shouldn’t have expected much else, since she barely knew him to begin with.

Four days after the Viper Room, Dom and Elijah had had a little bit of a row; Elijah couldn’t even remember what it was about, or how it’d started, but he did remember that Dom wasn’t speaking to him.

This was both annoying and difficult, as they were still sharing the house until Dom’s got finished, and that didn’t seem to be happening any time soon.

He recalled vaguely that Dom was upset about Ariel, but Elijah didn’t know why. He assumed Dom had a thing for her, probably because Dom had told Elijah in confidence that he ‘quite fancied the pants off her’, but he hadn’t made any sort of move, and Elijah hadn’t yet encouraged him. Secretly, he thought Ariel loathed Dom, and this upset Elijah because it was very hard to not love Dom from the very first second you met him, but then again, there is an exception to every rule.

“There’s this premiere tonight, I’m supposed to go. I was going to take Dom, but he’s being an arse---”

“I meant to ask you if he’s always like that,” she replied blandly, looking up from her lunch (an In and Out burger - something she’d come to crave like chocolate in the last couple of days).

“Sometimes, but not always. Just with girls, mostly. I mean, he can’t help himself. He needs to be adored by women he fancies…and if they don’t adore him, he goes a bit overboard. Anyway. Do you want to go with me? Just as friends, of course.”

Ariel’s face remained stoic as she surveyed Elijah, who was getting a bit nervous being under her critical gaze. Eventually, she nodded. “Sure. I’ll go.” She stood up. “Can I ask you something first, though?”

Elijah, looking relieved, but apprehensive, replied, “Er, yeah. Of course.”

“Did you say Dom fancies me?”

Describing Elijah’s facial expression as one of shock was an understatement. He recovered after a few moments. “I may have said that, yes.”

Her face was unreadable, as was her voice. “Huh.”

“Do you…uh…fancy him?”

“Nope.” She gave him a wane smile, and brushed past him to go upstairs. “I’ll be ready in a half hour. Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” he called over his shoulder. “That’s fine.”

He then plopped down onto the sofa, wondering if she were telling the truth, and wondering why he cared. And then wondering some more, but this time wondering if he should tell Dom what she’d said.

*

“Where’ve you guys been?” Dom asked curiously, looking up from the TV Guide; he’d been about to decide whether to watch a made-for-tv movie or just go get pissed somewhere.

Ariel and Elijah entered the room, Elijah wearing jeans a suit jacket and Ariel wearing a flowing skirt and nice blouse.

“We went to that premiere,” Elijah replied, watching as Ariel yawned and fell onto the couch beside Dom. “I’m going to go to bed. I’m beat.”

“Oh, really?” Dom asked, glancing at Ariel, and then looking back at Elijah, who was headed for the stairs. “I was just about to watch a really cheesy movie on Lifetime.”

Elijah yawned. “I told you not to watch that channel. Everything on there makes you cry.” He waved vaguely. “Night.”

Ariel said “Good night” through a yawn and snuggled deeper against the couch.

“How was the premiere?” Dom asked, turning the volume down on the television.

“Okay, I guess. The movie was good, but all the reporters kept yelling things at Elijah like ‘Whose the girl?’ and ‘Elijah, are you dating?’ and it was really weird.”

Dom was surprised she’d offered so much information, since she rarely spoke to him in anything but a serious way, and even then it was quick answers.

Dom swallowed. “Because you’re dating him?”

Ariel laughed a little and looked up at him; she was leaned over on the couch so that her head was nearly in his lap. “We’re not dating. We went as friends.”

“Oh,” Dom couldn’t help but be relieved. He didn’t know why, exactly, but this girl was someone he wanted to have a chance with, despite the fact that it seemed she wasn’t interested. That just made him want to try harder.

Dom slid down further on the couch so he was closer to her; he tucked an errant piece of hair behind her ear. His voice was soft when he spoke, and she could feel his breath on her face. “Your hair’s coming out of your Executive Girl bun.”

She laughed. “That’s okay. Sometimes you gotta let your hair down.”

His eyes widened. “Have you been drinking?”

Ariel sat up, and Dom felt sure she was about to slap him, but she didn’t; she was looking at him impassively. “No, I have not been drinking.”

Dom nodded slowly and looked back at the TV, unsure of what to say next. He wanted to tell her he liked her, fancied her like mad, but for some reason he just couldn’t. He couldn’t face the sort of rejection that was inevitable in this situation.

“I think I want to go for a swim,” Ariel said suddenly, watching as a swim competition took place on the screen.

“Oh,” Dom said in surprise, glancing at her oddly. “Sure. Yeah. Er, I could get some towels and join you?”

Ariel nodded. “If you want to.” She stood up and went towards the stairs. “I’ll just change into my suit.”

“Shit, I don’t have one. Well…” he glanced around the room. “Elijah’s probably wouldn’t fit. He’s right small. Maybe I’ll just wear boxers. Would that be okay?”

Ariel’s cheeks colored slightly, and her heartbeat quickened, but her face remained calm and collected. “That’s fine.”

*

“It’s really lovely here at night,” Ariel said, doing a bit of a backstroke; she had to keep moving, otherwise she’d remember that it was colder in there than she thought it’d be. It wasn’t even that cold, but when you go from being terribly hot, to suddenly have a chill come over you, it tends to make things seem colder than they really are.

“Where, in the pool?” Dom joked from a chair, where he was taking off his shoes.

“No,” she laughed. “In LA. It’s really quite hot during the day, but then as the sun goes down there’s this fantastic breeze…and it’s just amazing, and wonderful.”

Dom smiled at her, and she quickly continued to swim around. “Yes, it is lovely here.”

The sun had set long ago, and the moon was shining brightly in the sky, cascading down onto the water and making everything seem brighter than it really was. There were a few lights on in the house, but they didn’t shed much light onto the pool, which meant that they could see things in front of them, but not in the distance.

Ariel hadn’t really known why she’d packed her suit, but then she figured subconsciously she’d have wanted to go to the beach or something on this trip; if work allowed it, that is. She contemplated leaving an oversized t-shirt over her purple bikini (which did actually cover most of her, despite the trend with bikinis these days), but then figured it’d be harder to swim, and would be annoying, so she’d tossed it off and jumped into the water.

She wasn’t the type of girl to go parading herself around, but it didn’t seem to matter since it was just she and Dom, and they were in a private pool, and not at a crowded beach where she’d be ogled the entire time.

“How’s the water?” Dom asked, pulling his t-shirt off and then reaching to unbuckle his belt.

“A bit chilly, but nice.” Ariel dunked herself under and came back up, smoothing her hair back off her face. She tried to avert her gaze as Dom was undressing, but couldn’t seem to look away. There was something about him that demanded attention.

Her eyes traveled up from his feet, to his eyes and she saw that he was grinning at her; she blushed and turned away, swimming to the other side of the pool in an attempt to calm her racing heart.

Pretty soon she heard the obvious sound of jeans being dropped to the cement and then felt the ripples in the water, and the splash of water as Dom dived into the deep end. He swam over to her, smiling broadly.

“This feels good,” he commented, reaching a hand out to grab the side of the pool.

“Mmm. Yes.” Ariel didn’t dare move away from him, for fear he’d think she was rude, so she stayed stationary, bobbing up and down in one spot.

“You can stand, you know. You’re only three feet deep.” Dom’s grin was cheeky, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

She stood up, whisking hair out of her face again. “I was afraid I’d be cold if I stood up.”

Dom stood up beside her, closer than she expected him to. “You probably don’t get to swim much in New York, huh?”

Ariel was quite surprised by the randomness of this question, and the normalcy of it, but when she responded, her voice didn’t betray her surprise. “Not really. I mean, at the gym, but I don’t have time to go there much. I get my exercise walking to and from work.”

“How far is that?”

“Oh, God,” she looked around, trying to come up with a figure. “Ten blocks, maybe more. I don’t really know. I’ve never counted.” She smiled a bit. “I will when I get home, and I’ll email you and let you know how many.”

“That would be good, as I’m very curious,” Dom replied, his voice soft. “I’m quite the mathematician, you know.”

Ariel smirked. “Oh, yes, I can tell that about you.”

“What else can you tell about me?” He asked, and all of a sudden he was standing closer to her; close enough so they were nearly touching.

Her stomach knotted itself, unknotted, and then felt like it was going to rebel and fly up her throat. She swallowed, her heart beating fast against her chest. When she spoke, her voice was barely audible. “I…I don’t know.”

He reached out to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear, and her breath hitched in her throat. “Can you tell I fancy you rotten?”

Despite herself, she laughed. “Who says that besides Austin Powers?”

Dom chuckled lazily. “I just did.”

“Yes, I can tell. Well, maybe not tell…because Elijah actually told me you fancied me, so it sort of took the guesswork out of it.”

“Bloody Elijah,” Dom remarked lightly, his lips quirked into a smile. “But he was telling the truth.”

Ariel swallowed, hard, and closed her eyes because Dom’s face was coming closer and closer and she wasn’t sure what she should do; she wanted to run, but something stopped her. Maybe she did fancy him after all, and just hadn’t realized it.

When his lips came in contact with hers, she was sure she stopped breathing.

The odd thing was that she didn’t seem to care.