Second Impressions
Characters: Dominic and Susanna Setting: the gym, afternoon Warning: Language
Dominic had decided to follow Carmel's suggestion, and head to the gym after he'd been up properly for a while. He wasn't quite sure how to go about dealing with things, and he guessed he'd just do it like he did everything else with Meg--wing it. So far, that worked pretty well. Maybe he was overthinking things to begin with. Who knew. He wanted to just be over it, and not have to deal with it at all, but that wasn't proving to be the case.
He didn't work out often, but he wasn't exactly a stranger to a routine. So, he went in at around eleven, and had started slow, building up as time went on. He was on the cooling down stage after noon had come and gone, opting to get finished up with the bike in there.
Susanna enjoyed going to the gym in the afternoon, so after having a very light lunch, she’d gone back to her room to change into her workout clothes and headed toward the gym. She came up short when she looked through the glass walls and spotted a man in there already, recognizing him pretty quickly as her neighbor. She debated just coming back later, but she needed to talk to him. She had to at least try to smooth things over even a little bit. So, Susanna squared her shoulders and continued on to the entrance. She schooled her expression to meek and almost embarrassed as she ‘noticed’ him when she went in. “Dominic,” she greeted him, biting her lip to show hesitance.
Susanna was granted a bare half glance, Dominic already dismissing her before he even acknowledged her in return. "Susanna." he said back. Though he didn't expect anything more than that. The woman had literally walked away mid conversation. So he was pretty much expecting her to ignore his presence outright, the greeting only serving to hint at the barest brush of polite standards.
It took a lot of effort, more than she wanted to admit to, to not let it show just how frustrating the way he brushed her off was. Susanna came further into the gym, forcing herself to give him a friendly smile. “I wanted to apologize for the way I behaved yesterday. It was very rude of me, and the only thing I can say in my defense is that I was on my way to my room with the intention of napping to attempt to relieve myself of a migraine when we met. I wasn’t in the best of moods because of that, and I reacted poorly. I’m very sorry,” she said, infusing her tone with a note of honesty.
The smile was lost on him, being he wasn't actually paying attention to her even as she came properly into the gym area. When she started talking, he arched a brow and looked in her direction again, a bit of a skeptical, incredulous look on his features. "...okaaaay." he said, not sure what she was even really doing. "Did I say something that gave you the impression you needed to apologize?" he asked. Because he was pretty sure he hadn't. Sure, he'd thought she was a dismissive bitch, but he hadn't actually said that to her. He'd just let her walk off, apparently too good to talk to him, or whatever had prompted the departure. Of course, she could have spoken to Carmel or Meg, though if she'd run into Meg, he would expect bruises on her.
Susanna tensed automatically at the utterly dismissive tone and body language coming from him. God damn it, why did he have to be so difficult? She was trying, wasn’t she? Following proper social protocol. “No, you did not, but I was unable to sleep when I returned to my room because I couldn’t stop thinking about our meeting. I was rude, though that wasn’t my intention at the time.” Damn it, was she going to need Cal’s help after all? She was fairly confident that she’d earned some sympathy from him.
Dominic laughed, shaking his head. "You couldn't sleep, because you were utterly rude, abrasive and dismissive, so much so that you literally up and walked away mid-conversation. Right. Because that behavior really lends itself towards overwhelming guilt and regret afterwards." he told her, shaking his head, clearly not believing her. "You kinda think I'm an idiot, huh?"
He smirked, eyeing her. “Look, it was really, stunningly obvious you had absolutely no time or even the slightest bit of interest in me either to talk to or have anything to do with. Which is fine, by the way, I don’t actually care. It’s no skin off my ass that you’ve got the personality of sandpaper. It’s fine. I didn’t cry myself to sleep over it or anything.”
“I did not just up and walk away.” Susanna cut herself off, breathing in deeply to try to steady herself. Clearly Dominic was not believing that she hadn’t felt well, which was ironic because that actually had been true. Some people were just utter idiots. “Whether you believe me or not does not change the facts. I did not realize at the time how rude I was being, and it was only after when I thought back over how things went that I realized it.”
Susanna flinched slightly, looking away. “It’s very small of you to judge someone so thoroughly on one terrible first meeting. I’m not... accustomed to games of twenty questions, or even people being particularly interested in anything more personal than my name. I don’t even know why I’m trying to explain things to you. You’ve clearly already written off any possibility of amicability.” She sighed softly, but still crossed over to the open space to begin stretching. Just because things were clearly not getting any better with Dominic didn’t mean that she was going to be run off from using the facilities.
Dominic laughed again, seeing her get all huffy there. "Really? You didn't just cut everything off, right in the middle of a conversation and walk away? What, I was meant to not notice? Or, you expect me to fall in line with whatever bullshit you decide to spew, like I wasn't there, on the receiving end of it?" he asked, getting down off the bike.
"It's not 'small' of me, it's me not being pissed on and calling it sunshine. I'm sure you're used to people doing that with you. If you took half a second to listen to anything I had to say or think about me at all, you probably would have caught that I'm from the same circles as you. New York, upper class, lots of zeroes behind the family name. So I'm positive you get away with a hell of a lot, and people just take it. I'm not one of them. If you want to hand out shit, that's fine, but don't expect me to grovel at your feet for it. As for you 'not being accustomed', what the fuck ever, sister. You claim to be a dancer, I'm betting nine out of ten conversations you have with people are all about you, your career, everything else."
He grabbed his towel and put it around his neck. "And one more thing?" he said. "Your snit fit right here, because I didn't just immediately accept even more bullshit from you? Really doesn't sell me on the fact that it was anything but a ruse. One second of me being understandably suspicious of your motives, and you immediately fall apart and throw a fit. So we can add 'childish' on top of everything else. Good job on that second impression." he told her with a wink. "Enjoy your workout."
How much fucking effort was she going to have to put into this? Susanna was have to exercise every ounce of control she had to keep from truly throwing a fit. “I excused myself, there is a difference. I was overwhelmed, exhausted, and had a migraine. You may not believe it, but that is the truth.” She watched as he got off the bike, and then listened with growing agitation at his near rant that was much too casually said to really be called a rant. He was completely missing the damn point, and yes, she was beyond frustrated that he wasn’t accepting the olive branch of sorts that she’d been attempting to hold out.
“Please, tell me how I’ve fallen apart and thrown a fit? I am not allowed to be frustrated that an honest apology was tossed back in my face?” That stupid, fucking, cocky ass hole. God, she wanted to bash his face in when he winked at her. How was it that this had gone completely off course? It had to be because of him. He was an idiot, incapable of understanding when someone was being honest with him. Well she certainly wasn’t going to attempt this with him again. If he couldn’t be reasonable for one goddamn minute, then he wasn’t worth her time.
"Call it whatever you want. I just know it for what it was." Dominic told her, unphased. "And sure, you can be. But I doubt it's because of your 'honesty'. I think it's because you aren't getting your way, Princess. All you need to do is stamp your feet and whine to anyone who'll listen, and the entire image is complete." He laughed again. "Good luck with that attitude problem, you're going to need it." he told her, before heading out of the gym, chuckling at her as he went.
It was glaringly obvious that there was nothing Susanna was going to be able to do to win Dominic over, and she merely shook her head, trying her best not to glare as he left the gym. As she started stretching, she forced herself to focus on her breathing, to try to calm herself. It wouldn’t do her any good to get herself worked up. The last time a man had called her out on things, she’d ended up in this mess. She couldn’t allow another man to cause her to slip up. As nearly therapeutic as imagining slitting his throat was, she couldn’t afford to go there. And so she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t, she repeated in her mind.