Two Can Play Recap Part 8: "I Want to Be With You"

This Two Can Play recap part 8 runs up to chapter 200, with spoilers. Romantic scenes are kept closed-door.

The fingerprint house

Celeste stops the bodyguards from hitting Felix ("He's my brother"). Over his shoulder she sees Seraphine watching from a distance, smiling, and smiles back. She now knows exactly who is behind this. Back in the car she remembers the boy who beat up three bullies for her at school and promised he would always protect her. Then she covers the handprint with the makeup she had packed "just in case".

The address leads to a white mansion. The door opens to her right thumb. This house has family photographs on the walls. One shows a teenage Dominic with his parents, and Celeste realises this is not one of his hideouts. This is where he lives. He has put her fingerprint on the door of his home.

He's in shorts and a T-shirt, and he has been cooking. Every dish on the table is her favourite, although she never told him what they were. "You did not have to go through the trouble." "But I love the trouble."

The wrong sentence

She has rehearsed the break-up line. He comes out of the shower in a towel (we later learn that was deliberate). Her carefully planned sentence comes out as:

"Dominic… I want to be with you."

"Do you mean that?" He smiles wider than she has ever seen and kisses her. And the doorbell rings.

Granny

"Granny?" Celeste thought Dominic had no family left. In fact he had hidden his grandmother in another city for years so nobody could use her against him. Now that the threat has passed she is back, and she has brought a young woman: "This here is Imelda. Dominic's beautiful fiancée."

Dominic's chapter explains it. When his marriage to Sera fell apart, his grandmother suggested an alliance with the family who had looked after her, and he agreed without much thought, before Celeste meant anything to him. Today he had arranged for her to be driven to a different mansion. She had written down this address and came here anyway.

"The food is only for her"

Celeste picks up her bag and says goodnight at five in the afternoon. Dominic, still in the towel, stops her at the door and begs her to stay the night. Then he introduces her properly: "I cooked for her. That should tell you how important she is to me." When Imelda goes to lift the lids on the pots, he stops her: "Everything here is Celeste's favorite. The food is only for her." Celeste says she doesn't mind. "But I do."

His grandmother slams the table. He agreed to marry Imelda, and if he breaks his promise she will never forgive him.

"I have fallen in love with you"

In the bedroom, with Celeste in his white shirt, Dominic says what he has been holding back: "I have fallen in love with you." He tells her about the bar "almost two years ago" (chapter 5 said almost three; the book isn't consistent). He felt a connection, then Seraphine came over instead and Celeste walked out. He had to marry to keep up his cover, so he married the woman who was available and tried to forget. "Rosewood felt like what was bound to happen from the start."

"Will you give me a chance?" "Yes. Of course."

They say "I love you" for the first time. Afterwards they plan the divorce: Celeste's lawyer is ready, and Dominic promises to speed things up. Then a pinky promise, which he admits is childish: "Since this feels like a dream, let us promise to never wake up from this dream." "Deal."

The morning after

Imelda confronts Celeste in the hallway. She has had her looked up, calls her a gold digger and adds an insult. Celeste slaps her. Imelda falls into Granny, and both end up on the floor.

Dominic comes out, takes Celeste's hand, kisses her palm and asks, "Does your palm hurt?"

Then, so everyone can hear: "Even if the world stands against you, I will never let you go." He tells Imelda her family can ask for anything else. He tells his grandmother: "I am determined to make her my wife." Anyone who comes between them, he adds, will have him to deal with, family or not.

He notices the faded handprint on her cheek. She protects Felix by blaming "a product". He rides to Helix in her car, stares at her the whole way, and gets out in front of the building without caring who sees.

Pat's secret, Sierra's call

Pat is quiet, and she says it's a failed experiment. When she hears everything she changes her mind about Dominic ("He didn't owe you anything… You are lucky"), and gives one piece of advice: serve Julian the divorce now, not in two weeks. Then she admits she spent the night with "a stranger". She keeps Kingsley's name to herself.

Celeste's phone rings. It's Sierra, Felix's fiancée, sobbing. Their wedding is three months away. "Felix is cheating on me." Two days ago, on the way to choose rings, Seraphine called crying, and Felix left Sierra at the roadside to go to her.

What we noticed

• The arc ends the "game" the way the best slow burns do: with both leads trying to be careful and failing at the same moment.
• Dominic's answer to his grandmother is the clearest statement of what he wants in 200 chapters: marriage.
• The next arc is set up. Scarlett has been sent after Dominic, Sera has Felix, Sierra has heard everything, and Julian hasn't been served yet.

Previous: [Part 7](/posts/two-can-play-recap-part-7-the-flash-drive) · Start from [Part 1](/posts/two-can-play-recap-part-1-the-betrayal-and-the-pact).