A Few Sips Ch. 06

"I did. My parents were both like me, and they had six of us. Four boys and two girls." He told her as he started to cut into his food.

"So you have brothers and sisters? That's cool."

"Well, Bryant, the oldest, he died a long time ago. I haven't seen my other two brothers in a long time. A really long time. I wouldn't even know what they call themselves these days. My sisters, Ashley and Gerthe, they live in Europe. I see them every so often."

"So you weren't named Samir originally?" Domino felt like she pried, he gave her a look saying so, but smiled anyway and answered her.

"No, I change my name sometimes, depending on where I am, or the situation."

"Does Alexandru change his name?"

Samir shook his head and grinned wider, "No, he's been Alexandru since he was born...centuries ago."

"Centuries?"

Samir nodded, "If he wants to tell you just how old he is, I'll let him be the one to. It seems mean for me to tell you just how old your boyfriend is."

"Oh, nice."

"I'm older than him, though. By a substantial margin." He chuckled.

"Really?"

"Really. like...really old."

"Now you have to tell me how old you are."

"No way, I like you thinking that I'm this young guy. You might not look at me the same if you realize I've been qualifying for AARP for the last...many years."

"Not fair."

"I'm over two thousand years old, Domino. That's as close as you're going to get."

Domino's eyes widened and she gasped at him a little. "Are you serious?"

He nodded, "I was born in Rome, during their time in the sun."

She nodded, it seemed really unbelievable to think that he could be that old and look the way he did. Domino realized that he would have seen so many things happen, like, everything, really. The birth of Christ, the Crusades, the Industrial Revolution. Man, he knew the entire history of the world. But then she frowned a little, he would have met a countless number of humans, and they would live, and then they would die, and he would still be there. That made her sad. He must be very lonely. Immortality was not as easy as it sounded. She shivered, she had told Alexandru that she wanted him to change her after she gave birth, but would she one day regret that? Her child would be immortal, the man she loved would be. It had to be the right choice.

"So what do you want to do today?" He asked, he was nearly done with his food.

"I've made you waste almost the whole morning waiting for me to get up, I'm sorry." Domino looked at the clock on the wall.

He shook his head, "I got down here about 9:30 am. I got up at seven and ate and exercised even."

"You already ate breakfast and then you ate all of that?" Domino looked to his empty plate.

Samir smiled, "That makes sense, I guess. I don't know what I want to do today. I don't really know this place very well."

"Well, we could stay down here and play pool," She made a face at him apparently that told him she didn't want to do that, "Or we could watch a movie?"

Domino shook her head, "Is it nice outside?"

Samir nodded, "It's really nice outside. Can you go out with that pole?"

She nodded, "Yup. It rolls pretty easy, I just need to make sure to limit it to a few hours at a time, then I have to get a new battery for the pump."

"Can you bring a battery with you, and we can go out and go fishing on the far side of the lake."

"Mr. Hughes said not to swim in the lake."

"Yeah, you can't swim in it, but you can fish out of it. Let's go upstairs and grab a battery from the boss and I'll get my fishing gear."

"Okay." She was going to fish, she couldn't remember the last time she'd done that, but it sounded much more fun than sitting in the spa.

They walked upstairs after cleaning the dishes in the sink and made their way to the room off the foyer where Mr. Hughes kept his office. Domino knocked softly, and then opened the door and stepped inside, her eyes going straight to the man standing on the other side of the desk as she did so. She gasped and stopped in her tracks, feeling Samir bump her lightly as he stopped a little less quickly than she had. Mr. Hughes had his coat off, and his shirt, and she was struck my two things at the same time. First, his body was almost completely covered in tattoos in some strange language that looked pretty archaic. There were a few that looked to be fading, but his arms to the wrist and his torso to the neck and disappearing under his black slacks was a sea of words. The second thing she noticed, since he happened to have his back turned slightly towards them, was that where his wings had once been, there was nothing left but bloody stumps that they had interrupted him redressing. It wasn't a new wound, the blood covering it had long since congealed and darkened, but Domino knew it was painful. She could see it on every line of his face and every tightened muscle of his strong looking body.

Sweet Jesus, that's why he looked the way he did, so filled with misery. He had cut off his wings. He had cut OFF his wings. Her mouth fell open and she took a few steps into the room so that Samir could come all the way inside and shut the door behind him.

"Mr. Hughes, what happened?" Samir asked carefully, apparently he had not know what his boss had done, did anyone?

"You should both go."

Domino shook her head and walked over to him, lugging her dumb pole along with her. It made her look less serious than she felt, and she wanted him to know she wasn't going to take no as an answer.

"Sit down sideways on your chair, Mr. Hughes. I want to help you." She waved her arm at his chair and he frowned at her with his piercing gray eyes for several moments before he begrudgingly sat down on the chair.

"Do you have an actual first aid kit in here?" She asked, taking the bloody bandage from him and throwing it in the trash.

"In the cabinet, there." Mr. Hughes nodded behind her.

"Samir, see if there is some salve or something in there. Mr. Hughes, whatever made you do this to yourself? This has got to be really painful." She bit her lip as tears came to her eyes.

He looked up at her without saying anything at first and she got the tiniest smidgen of agony in the stormy depths of his gaze before he blocked it back behind a heavily guarded wall, "They should have taken them from me when I fell. I didn't deserve them."

"You don't deserve this. You don't. I don't know what has made you feel this way, but you deserve better, you don't deserve THIS." Domino took the medical salve that Samir handed her, and together, without saying anything more, the two of them worked carefully and slowly on the broken stumps to make sure that they were clean and dressed properly.

"Thank you." He said a little while later as Samir helped him slowly put his shirt and jacket back on. "I would request that you keep this to yourselves."

"Of course. I'll come up every day to check it to make sure it continues to heal. I wish you hadn't done it, I don't understand, but I'll keep taking care of it." Domino replied, looking from the fallen angel to the man who had moved to stand at her side near the door.

"All right. Now, why did the two of you come here?" Mr. Hughes sat down in his chair.

"I wanted to grab an extra battery for this contraption of torture. Samir is taking me fishing." She explained.

He nodded and bent to the side to pick up a battery that was on a docking station behind his desk. "Be sure to bring the other one back in here after to recharge. And remember, do not go in the lake."

Domino frowned, what the hell was in the lake?

"I'm taking her to the far side, so that we don't bother him so much." Samir said and they watched Mr. Hughes nod.

"Fine. It's been stocked so you should have an enjoyable day." Mr. Hughes said in a way that made her feel like they hadn't just walked into the room a short time ago and seen how the man had disfigured himself in such a terrible way.

Samir stood looking at Mr. Hughes with a slight frown on his face, but whatever he wanted to say, he didn't. They left the room as quietly as they had entered and Samir deposited her on the back patio and he went back inside the spa to fetch his fishing gear. Eventually, they were walking side by side towards a path that meandered around the lake. It was nice outside, and not overly hot for this time of year, which was nice. Samir set things up on the side of the lake, setting out his tackle and bait and when a golf cart type vehicle pulled up with a couple of chairs in it, he took them out and arranged them by the side of the water.

"So we're not going to talk about why an angel would cut off his wings?" Domino said gently a while later, her line out bobbing in the water that lapped lazily around the lake.

"Nope, we are definitely not going to talk about that."