"What's the word?"
"What word?" I asked Dominic, who had this overwhelmed look on his face.
"Like when you are overwhelmed."
"Overstimulated?"
"Yes. I'm feeling that right now," Dominic said.
In his defense, a lot was going on.
This was his second day in the hospital, and all he wanted to do was go home.
Isabella, Matteo, and Leo all swarmed him this morning with a bunch of questions, and truthfully, I was doing the same.
We also decided that keeping Isabella in the dark about who Dominic actually killed was probably for the best, because no 12-year-old needs to know that.
I rubbed Dominic's hand, "You're okay. Well, try to get you out of here as soon as possible, but they are all here because they love you."
Dominic let out a long sigh, "God, now I sound like an asshole."
"You're not, everyone will leave soon and…"
Leo cut me off, "I found your acting videos, so you can submit those as part of your application once you do the writing essay part," and he handed me the computer that he brought.
"Thank you," I said, taking the computer and putting it off to the side.
I felt a hand grab my waist and pull me closer. I turned around and shot Dominic a look, "Stop, you are going to hurt yourself."
"No, I won't," he whined.
"What did you want to say?"
"Can I see the video?"
"Didn't you guys already look at them when you stalked me?" I asked, and he started to raise his hands like he wasn't in the wrong, "No, no. I hardly looked. Come on, let me see!"
"No!" I said sternly.
"You're no fun."
"I don't care," I said.
After an hour had gone by, Isabella had to be dragged out because she had to go to school.
"Can't I just miss it? My dad is literally on his deathbed," Isabella said as the bodyguard held her gently, laughing.
"I'm not arguing with you about this, you are fucking…" Dominic took a deep breath, "My sweet, most beautiful daughter. Your education is very important to me, and it should be very important to you. You have been sitting in here for about 2 hours, and have said about 4 words to me, and I love you, but you can go to school and then come back, it's not a big deal."
Her eyes lit up, "Can I miss basketball?"
"No."
"Bruh."
"Now go, I will be okay," Dominic said.
"Okay, bye whatever, love you all," Isabella waved, and just like that, she was gone.
A couple…okay, like 45 minutes had gone by, and I was writing one of the four essays I needed for this stupid college application, and Dominic was peering at me like a cat.
I leaned over and kissed him and then went back to writing.
"Thank you!" he said, looking like a child.
"You're so weird," I said, laughing.
I smiled down at him, and then I heard laughter on the other side of the room, and Dominic and I looked up.
"Oh, what the fuck?" Dominic whispered to me.
I looked over at Matteo and Leo with wide eyes, "took the words right out of my mouth."
Leo was fully sitting on Matteo's lap, watching something on Matteo's phone.
Matteo had a hand rubbing up and down Leo's bare legs, and they watched a video.
I looked back at Dominic, who was looking up at me with wide eyes.
"What the fuck?" He whispered again, and I started laughing, "I'm on my deathbed, and he's sitting on his lap when there are literal chairs next to him."
I pushed him slightly, "let them have their moment."
"In front of me, fuck no," Dominic said, and I started laughing, "why are you laughing, this isn't funny?" Dominic added, which, truthfully, made me laugh harder.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's not funny at all," I said, trying to hide my laughter.
Something about Dominic getting mad over this was just so funny to me.
"I'm gonna tell them they should be ashamed!" Dominic whisper yelled at me.
"Don't," I said, pushing him lightly.
He wrapped his hands around my waist.
"Question."
"What?"
"Did your mom teach you Spanish?"
I turned and gave him a weird look, "Yes? Why?" I asked him. Holy 180.
"Teach me some words," he said with a cute look on his face.
"Okay, weird, that's so random," I said, and he just continued to give me the cute look. "Why did your eye just twitch?"
"My eye did what?" he asked, as his eye twitched.
"You just did it again!" I said, and I squinted at him, "What are you hiding?"
"Nothing!" he said, raising his hands up, "I just feel bad that you never speak Spanish around me, and I don't want to make you feel like you can't."
"That doesn't make any sense," I said, raising my eyebrow at him.
"Okay, okay, the real reason is…I think it would be sexy if you spoke Spanish to me," Dominic said.
"You're so weird," I said, and I pushed him gently.
"See! That's why I didn't want to say it."
"My Spanish is not sexy, it's just bad," I said, laughing. "Okay," I shut the laptop and fully turned around towards him.
"Come sit on my lap," he said, weirdly turning his body.
"No," I pointed at him, "you need to heal, are you slow?"
He sighed, "Okay, what words do you wanna know?"
He looked around, "How do you say bed?" he said, pointing at the hospital bed.
"Cama."
"Cama?" He said, "Yes," I said, nodding.
"How do you say man?" he asked, pointing at Matteo and Leo.
"Hombre or hombres."
"Now, how do you say those men are disgusting?"
I started laughing, "Estos hombres son asquerosos."
"Asquersos?"
"Close enough."
"Okay, interesting, now how do you say ring?" he asked, grabbing my finger.
"Anillo, I think."
"And how do you say I love you?" he asked, and I pushed him, "te amo."
"Te amo," he said and kissed my neck.
"You are weird."
"How do I say you're the love of my life and I don't wanna spend a single day without you?"
I rolled my eyes, "okay meat ridder, we are doing too much right now."
"Just tell me," he asked, squeezing my stomach.
"Eres el amor de mi vida y no quiero pasar ni un solo día sin ti."
"Now that was sexy," he said, and I started laughing, "you are so weird."
"Sí, I am."
I rolled my eyes, "Now you are starting to feel like those random movies or books that have random Spanish, I'm sobbing."
And then the two of us started to laugh.
"I feel like us speaking broken Korean would somehow be worse," Dominic laughed, and I felt myself start to cackle as I pushed Dominic.
"You guys are being very loud," a voice said, and both of us turned to Leo almost like clockwork.
Dominic pointed at him, "I know the freak sitting on Matteo's LAP isn't talking," I said.
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Dominic said, and we both watched as Leo quickly slid off Matteo's lap into the seat next to him.
Fucking weirdos, a whole room of them.
"We are in a hospital; you guys need to lower your voices, " Leo said, repeating what he said earlier.
"Gay ass," Dominic muttered, and I felt myself start to laugh again as I held onto his arm.
"Right," Leo said.
After my laughter calmed down, I opened back up the computer and continued to write the essay I was working on.
"Te amo," Dominic said as one of his evil hands squeezed my thigh.
"I love you too."
He must have hit his head either the day of the stabbing or in surgery, because why is he trying to learn Spanish?
I smiled.
I mean, it still meant a lot, even if my man was concussed and delirious. He's trying to learn for me, and that makes me really happy.
It makes me so fucking happy.