Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

A/N: Thanks to Mandi96 and JuseaPeterson for beta-ing this for me.

Vampire Love: The Worst Kind of Love

Chapter 3-Change

It had been an agonizingly long week, but finally the day arrived when Dom would be returning to work. I picked up a black permanent marker and drew an "X" through yesterday's date on my Twilight calendar.

The week was uneventful, save for that first day: that first day was pretty much how the rest of the following days went. RJ was the only one who was really friendly towards me. Lily and Casey stuck to ignoring me, and it seemed that I was never put in the same room as Theo. If I did happen to be in the same room as Theo, I was never alone. RJ, Casey, or Lily was always there with the two of us. I wondered why that was.

I don't know why I had such high hopes for today, but I did. I shouldn't have, because after all, the last time that I was around Dominic, he acted as if he couldn't stand to be around me. Why would today be any different? Then again, maybe a little time off was exactly what he needed. Maybe he would come back a changed person: a nicer person.

I decided to skip breakfast. I was much too eager to go to work. I couldn't possibly sit myself down and actually bother to take the time to eat breakfast when I was already bubbling with anticipation. So I exited through the front door and began the all-too-familiar trek to Jungle Karma Pizza.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I found that the door was locked. I reached into my purse to get my set of keys, but as I was doing so, I realized that someone had opened the door for me. I expected it to be RJ, but I was surprised when I looked up, key in hand, to see that it was none other than Dominic. My jaw dropped, and that wasn't the only thing that dropped. My keys clattered on the ground and I bent down to pick them up. I wasn't the only one who had that idea, and Dom and I ended up having a meeting of the minds: literally.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, rubbing the top of my head. I know the term "hard-headed" is an expression, but his head really felt like it was made of stone. It was a good thing I carried around a bottle of Tylenol in my purse. I had a feeling I'd need those all too soon.

I allowed Dom to pick up my key for me. As I took it from him, I saw that he was actually smiling at me. Now I've never had any cavities, but I was somewhat envious of the pearly whites he was flashing at me. It was a delayed response, but I closed my jaw, and consciously pressed my lips together so my teeth weren't visible. Compared to his, they were horrible looking I'm sure.

My eyes moved up from his teeth to his eyes, which I happened to notice weren't black as coal like the last time I saw him. In fact, they were what could best be described as a topaz color. That was unusual to say the least. People usually have eyes that are brown, blue, green, or hazel, but topaz? It seemed that he was in a better mood. Maybe I could use his eyes as an indicator of whether or not he was in a pleasant mood.

"Good morning Fran. So, did you miss me?" he asked in the sweetest sounding voice I have ever heard in my life.

"You were gone? I hadn't even noticed," I replied as I walked past him, smirking.

I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away from him. I didn't dare to turn around because his mere gaze was enough to send my heart soaring. Even so, I felt my cheeks already start to heat up.

"So you and I are going to be working together today. I hope that's not a problem," he said. With his voice, I'm sure he could read the phone book and make it sound interesting.

I stopped in my tracks. My breath hitched in my throat. I could feel my heart pump much more rapidly than it had prior to the moment he told me this. My knees felt wobbly and I wouldn't be surprised if they gave out on me any second now.

"What?!" I replied in a voice that was much higher in pitch than I intended. I cleared my throat before continuing. "N-no problem at all."

He laughed heartily. I debated which sound I could listen to all day: his voice or his laugh. I probably sounded like a dork when I laughed.

"If it's not a problem, then why are you stuttering? Better yet, if it's not a problem, then why can't you look me in the eyes when you talk to me?" he questioned.

What I wanted to say to him was, "You have no idea what effect your gaze has on me. It makes me forget even the simplest of things, like how to speak coherently for starters."

I spun around on my heels. I refused to look into his eyes. Instead I looked at his torso. After doing so, I realized that I may as well have been looking at his eyes. His green Jungle Karma Pizza t-shirt clung snugly to his chest displaying the contours of the musculature of his chest.

I honed my resolve and decided to try to prove him wrong. I took a chance and looked up from his toned chest to his gorgeous liquid butterscotch eyes. My heart fluttered, and I had to remind myself to breathe.

"S-see? I can too look you in the eyes!" I exclaimed.

"Maybe, b-but you're s-still s-stuttering," he replied giving me a crooked smile that I was starting to love.

Great! Now he was mocking me. I rolled my eyes at him. I didn't know what had caused the change in Dom, but whatever it was, I wasn't about to ask, no matter how curious I was about it. The Dom before me now was the Dom that I used to love being around so much. What's more was that when I was with him, time seemed to stand still. When he was gone, conversely, time seemed to drag on forever. That couldn't just be a coincidence, could it?

"You're horrible," I commented taking great care to keep my stuttering in check to the point where I was over-enunciating words.

The next thing I knew, he was standing in front of me. How did he get there so fast? He was at least ten feet behind me the last time I checked. He was looking up at me through his eyelashes. My heart skipped a beat.

"Ah, come on. You can't mean that. After all, you are still talking to me," he said grinning what was becoming an all-too-familiar grin.

"No I'm not. I'm ignoring you," I replied dramatically turning my head away from him to prove my point.

"So talking to me is you ignoring me?" I inwardly snickered at that remark.

"I'm only talking to you to tell you that I'm ignoring you."

"You do realize that makes no sense, right?"

It took every ounce of self-control I had not to full out laugh in response, but somehow I managed not to. I walked past him to the kitchen stubbornly refusing to make eye contact with him. I had a feeling that with Dom here, this was going to be a good day.

As the day progressed, Dom and I would occasionally come across Casey, Lily, or RJ. Those encounters were completely different from each other depending on who we came into contact with.

When we saw RJ, he would always give me a warm, no teeth smile. Aside from Dominic, RJ was the only other person who was nice to me. He was the only other person who even acknowledged my existence.

When we saw Casey, he still refused to look at me. Instead, he turned his attention to Dom. Casey narrowed his eyes at him like he was trying to make him feel guilty about something. My guess was that Casey was trying to make Dom feel guilty about hanging around me so much. Aside from anger, there was also—confusion—in Casey's eyes. I'm no mind reader, but Casey probably couldn't figure out why Dom liked being around me so much. I didn't even know why Dom liked being around me so much. So long as he was around me though, I had no complaints.

When we saw Lily, on the other hand, she was actually looking at me. The look in her eyes as she watched me was a bit harder to read, but she was looking at me with—curiosity. It was like she was truly seeing me for the first time and was genuinely fascinated by what she saw. I don't know what she thought was so fascinating about me. I didn't think I was the least bit fascinating.

During our lunch break, Dom sat in a booth with me while Casey, Lily, and Theo sat at a table on the opposite end of the pizza parlor. Casey and Lily resumed their bombardment of gazes. Dom paid no heed to said gazes. I was having a bit more difficulty with that.

Theo once more decided to gaze at me. When he looked at me, I couldn't help but feel like I was under a microscope. He carefully watched my every move, no exceptions. I subtly shielded my eyes with my hand, but I still knew he was watching me, shield or not.

I don't know if the others had a chance to talk to him about his behavior the other day, but from the way Theo was still looking at me, the answer was apparently "no." In an effort to forget about the way Theo was gazing at me, I decided to look at Dom instead. I noticed that he hadn't so much as touched the food before him.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked, my voice laden with curiosity.

"Not anymore," he replied, flashing me a crooked grin like it was some sort of inside joke that I didn't understand.

I had to mentally remind myself to breathe because the mere sound of Dominic's sweet voice caused me to stop breathing yet again.

There's a saying—absence makes the heart grow fonder. I never quite fully grasped the meaning behind that saying until I experienced it firsthand. I was rather fond of Dom before he went away. Now that he was back, I was even fonder of him; a feat that I didn't think was even possible.

My decision to skip breakfast came back to bite me in the butt. I was much hungrier than I originally thought. Dom had an amused expression on his face as he watched me scarf down my lunch—spaghetti with meatball marinara sauce. I loved spaghetti almost as much as I loved pizza. It's a good thing too. Italian food is pretty much the only food served at Jungle Karma Pizza.

I twirled a few strands of spaghetti around my fork before stabbing a meatball. I shoved the food into my mouth as Dom was looking at me intently. The difference between how Dom looked at me and how Theo looked at me was as clear as night and day. When Dom looked at me, I felt at ease, albeit somewhat self-conscious, but at ease nonetheless. Conversely, when Theo looked at me, it was creepy.

"You seem to be in a better mood," I commented before I could stop myself. I desperately needed to work on my brain-mouth filter.

"What do you mean?" Dom asked me inquisitively.

"Well, it's just that the last time I saw you, it was like you were avoiding me. Or at the very least, you didn't enjoy being around me. I was afraid it was because you hated me."

"I could never hate you."

I felt my cheeks begin to heat up, and I bashfully looked down at my now empty plate; anything to keep Dom from knowing that I was blushing although he probably was already aware of it.

"I didn't like being away from you any more than you liked me being away," Dom explained in his melodious voice.

I was on the verge of hyperventilating now. Not only was he saying all the right things, but he was saying them in a voice that I could listen to for days without getting sick of hearing it.

An impish grin appeared on my face as an idea popped into my head. "Who ever said I missed you while you were away? Actually, quite the opposite; those seven days were the best days of my life," I remarked.

"Is that so?" Dom asked arching an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah! Today would have been another great day too had you not showed up and ruined it."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

I sneaked a peek at him and saw that a smile was tugging on his lips. There was a twinkle in his eyes that captivated me. I felt like I could get lost in his eyes. I was grateful to him for playing along. The last thing I wanted was for him to take me seriously right now. If only he knew how much I had truly missed him.

"You should be sorry," I commented.

"Oh, I am. Although I'm curious. How many days did you say I was gone?" he asked me.

"Seven. Why?"

"It just seems to me that you would only notice how many days I was away if you in fact missed me. Curious."

"What?! I only counted the days because I knew a good thing like that couldn't last long."

"I missed you too, Fran." Those words put me on cloud nine.

To Be Continued…