Page 215 of By A Thread

Subject: Getting to know me

I can’t breathe without you. Nothing makes sense anymore. I’m an asshole without you. Ask Gola. She’s #TeamAlly. Along with everyone else in this building.

Buddy finally felt bad enough to eat lunch with me. He told me that you introduced his wife to Christian and that she’s consulting on some of his adaptive designs. That’s just like you. Connecting people.

Sometimes I feel like I’m holding my breath all day just waiting for someone to say your name around me. I don’t ever want a life without your name in it.

Love,

Dom

* * *

To: Ally

From: Dominic

Subject: Getting to know me

I took a page out of your book with Brownie. He misses you almost as much as I do. So I dressed him up in the sweatshirt you left behind. Picture attached. I had a few drinks with Elton—who confirmed my dumbass diagnosis—on the deck last night. I may have had one too many, and I tried to wear your Halston to bed.

I got it stuck over my head and shoulders, and for a few seconds thought I was going to suffocate and die.

By the way, I owe you a new dress on top of everything else I owe you.

I know what you brought to my life. I know nothing I gave you could ever compare. But I’m going to fix that.

In the meantime, Brownie and I are still hoping you’ll walk back into our lives. He doesn’t know that I don’t deserve you. Please don’t tell him.

Love,

Dom

* * *

To: Ally

From: Dominic

Subject: Getting to know me

The first time I saw you—before you yelled at me and sagely said “Fuck You” with pepperoni—I was infatuated with your hair. I called you Sex Hair in my head because I wanted to put my hands in your hair while I kissed you.

Love,

Dom

* * *

To: Ally

From: Dominic

Subject: Getting to know me

When I was a freshman in college, my roommate lied and said he didn’t have a place to go for Christmas break so I would invite him home with me and he could attend my parents’ annual New Year’s bash. Think models, champagne, caviar, fireworks. He snuck twenty of his closest asshole friends into the party, and I had to break his friend’s nose when he wouldn’t let a seventeen-year-old model out of a bedroom.

Elena dated me thinking I could make her a household name, and when tipping off the paparazzi every time we went out didn’t work, she started sleeping with my father.