Unlucky in Love

“She’s asleep,” Dominic said triumphantly. It was about ten-thirty at night, and Emma finally passed out.

At least she’ll sleep well and long into the morning.

“Thank God,” I replied gratefully, moving over to give Dominic his space back on the bed. “So, I was kind of putting an ad out…for the puppies. I was thinking maybe nine-fifty for the boy and a thousand for the girls.”

“That’s kind of a lot, don’t you think?”

I shook my head. “Purebred Golden Retrievers—it’s a fair amount.”

Dominic looked at me in a confused way. “Boy?”

I nodded, as if it were obvious. “I don’t want to get rid of Cooper—or Blondie for that matter.”

“Three dogs?” he asked incredulously. “Three Golden Retrievers! Do you know how much it will cost just to groom them every month?”

“So, will you be the one to tell our daughter you gave away one of her favorite puppies?”

Dominic chuckled. “She’s a baby—she’ll forget about it.”

I smacked his arm. “We’re keeping Blondie and Cooper.” I said defiantly. “End of discussion.”

“We’ll keep one.”

“You can’t make me choose!” I said, getting up and going to the computer. I had put an ad on Craigslist while Dominic had been taking care of Emma. I checked my e-mail, and I already had two asking for girls.

I would have to hide Blondie when these people came over.

“Em.” I turned to see Dominic looking over my shoulder. “Ember, we can’t have three dogs—it just doesn’t make sense, and it would be too chaotic. What if we wanted to have another baby?”

I shrugged. “Then we’ll have another baby.” I said simply. “Come on, just give in to me one little time,” I said, accentuating my bottom lip in a pouting look.

Dominic kissed the side of my neck. “I give in to you all the time.” He countered, kissing below my ear.

“So what’s one more?” I whispered, turning my head to kiss him. “And what was all that about another baby?” I asked, breaking away quickly as the conversation made it’s way back into my head.

He wanted another baby?

And I thought I was crazy.

“I was just trying to shut you up, but it obviously didn’t work.”

I smiled, despite the obvious dig at me. I kissed him again, and he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me off the chair, pressing me against him. He bit my lip in a way that always made me go off the deep end. My hand went to his neck and pulled him closer to me.

Emma’s crying made me pull away without thinking. We sighed simultaneously.

“I’ll go,” he said, and I sat down on the edge of the bed.

God, that sucks. We haven’t had sex since Europe, and I was hoping we could do it soon. But Emma was more important, and any time we had a moment to ourselves, we either didn’t want to do anything, or we were really tired.

I lay down in bed and curled up on my side. I had demanded that there be an air conditioner in every room, and Dominic had obliged, so it was a blissful sixty-two degrees in my room.

The bed moved, and Dominic wrapped his arm around my waist and turned me to look at him.

“Sorry,” he said.

“For what?” I asked, moving a bit closer to him. “Sorry that we’re parents to a demanding child?” Dominic laughed softly and bent down to kiss me. It wasn’t a quick kiss like saying goodnight, or saying goodbye…it was kind of an NC-17 kiss. I pulled away. “Wait,” I told him, getting up. “We shouldn’t do this.”

Dominic stared at me blankly. “Why?”

“Because we don’t have a condom, and there’s no way in hell I’m risking another pregnancy scare. I’m good with just Emma.”

* * *

Throughout the middle of the night, the air conditioner faltered and shut itself off, and I had to get up every time to restart it. I hated this place. In California, we had central air conditioning, so we didn’t have to worry about this crap.

At about three in the morning, I restarted it again. I noticed Dominic wasn’t in the room, and then I heard Emma crying. I shuffled over to her room, not even bothering to pick up my feet. She was sitting up in her crib, and screaming. There were no tears, but she definitely wanted attention.

I picked her up out of the crib and held her, humming a song to make her settle down and swaying slightly. After a few minutes, she rested her head on my shoulder and her eyes closed. I heard the even breathing coming from Emma, and I gently laid her back down in her crib. Tip-toeing out of the room, I started back to mine after closing the door to her room.

I jumped when I saw a shadow come up the stairs, and then I saw it was Dominic.

“Were you out?” I whispered. “Where the hell did you go at this time at night?”

I followed him into the room. “Technically it’s morning,” he replied, turning back to me once inside the room. He closed the door behind me and pinned me between him and the door.

“What’re you doing?” I asked him. instead of answering, he lifted me up and lay me down on the bed rather roughly. I sighed and rested my head on a pillow. “I already told you no,” I reminded him.

“That was before I had this,” he told me, showing me the little square package. I sighed again.

I moved back to my side, getting out from underneath him. “Dominic, I’m tired, and I’m so not in the mood to have sex.” I said flatly. It was the truth.

“Well, I’m letting you do what you want to do tonight, so why can’t we do what I want to do right now.”

I glared at him. “You’re letting me?” I asked incredulously.

He bit his lip. “Babe, I didn’t mean it like—”

“No, you did.” I said, laughing a little. “It’s funny, really. I ask you for a bunch of stuff and you always say yes, but the one time you want something from me, I say no. How does that make you feel?”

“Like shit, to be honest.”

“Sorry.” I said simply, and then turned over and went back to sleep.