By the end of September, Evie had gone on several dates with Alex and found her attraction to him growing with each one. He was effortlessly charming, attentive, and funny, making her laugh and feel attractive without going overboard. On their third date, he took her to the Bandshell Finale at Prospect Park, where they had a sunset picnic, sitting close enough to hear the music but far enough away that they could talk.
As they walked back to the Tower afterward, he nervously brought up how much he liked spending time with her and said he needed to tell her something important. He explained that he was heavily involved in the BDSM scene, particularly the bondage and discipline aspects. He told her he was a Dom looking for a Sub and thought she would find it empowering to explore her naturally submissive side.
He said it was a fundamental part of who he was, and if they were going to have a relationship, she needed to be open and willing to participate, trusting him to keep her safe and care for her after scenes. He promised he would introduce her to everything slowly, help her find her limits, and explore her kinks at a pace she was comfortable with.
He left her with a couple of websites that explained consent and the different types of dynamics, including one that had a quiz to help her understand where she fell on the spectrum and what potential kinks she might have. He walked her to the elevators in the lobby, hugged her, kissed her cheek, and told her to reach out when she was ready to talk about everything.
After a few days of reading, taking the test, and learning some surprising things about herself, she found herself deep in a rabbit hole about the psychology behind kinks and fetishes. Their fourth date was spent discussing what she had learned about the BDSM community and what she had discovered about herself. By the end of it, she felt confident that he would move slowly and keep her firmly within her comfort zone.
Thrilled that she agreed to pursue the relationship, Alex got started immediately on their fifth date. He invited her back to his apartment and showed her the restraints attached to his bed and what he called his treasure chest, a large trunk full of toys and implements he said he would eventually use to punish her, although he reassured her he would build to those slowly.
Then he tied her to his bed and blindfolded her while he explored her body, learning what she responded to. He checked on her often and held her afterward, rubbing the places where the ropes had chafed and stroking her back while he praised her, telling her she had done a great job and that he was proud of her.
Evie found she enjoyed the submissive role far more than she expected and appreciated the aftercare most of all. He was soft, gentle, and attentive afterward, and she felt cared for in a way that surprised her. His dominant side, however, scared her. He was rougher and more insistent than she had anticipated, and he either didn’t hear her use the safe word or chose to ignore it. When she voiced her concerns, he immediately apologized, almost shaken, insisting he had gotten too excited seeing her tied up and naked for the first time and promising it would never happen again.
She decided to let it go. He seemed genuinely remorseful, almost teary, and she assumed it would take a few tries to find a rhythm that worked for both of them. Their next few dates went much better. Alex kept his word, holding back, beinggentle, listening when she said something hurt, and immediately shifting into aftercare when needed. By the time they had been on eight dates, she trusted him enough to have sex with him for the first time.
The foreplay was incredible, and the beginning of their first time together was too. He was careful, slow, full of praise, telling her how beautiful she was and how well she was doing. Eventually, she started to get a little bored and asked if they could switch positions, wanting something she usually enjoyed more. Alex agreed, but continued to be too gentle, so she asked him, politely, to go a little faster and a little harder.
She immediately regretted it.
He pinned her wrists above her head with one hand and thrust into her with a force that made her eyes sting with tears. His other hand pressed between her shoulder blades, forcing her chest and face into the pillows and muffling her cries of pain, which he didn’t seem to notice.
It was only when he finished that he realized he had hurt her. Once again, he apologized profusely, saying he had lost control. He ran a bath, washed her carefully, kissed her shoulders and neck, murmured praise for how “well” she had taken him, and cursed himself for letting things get so out of hand, swearing he would make it up to her.
The abrupt switch left her confused and unsure whether she had overreacted. She gently suggested that maybe they should go their separate ways, no hard feelings, since they didn’t seem to be compatible. To her shock, he dropped to his knees and begged her for another chance, swearing he wouldn’t lose control again. He said the position they had been in reminded him of one of his fantasies about her, and in the excitement of their first time, he had forgotten himself.
She wasn’t entirely convinced by his remorse this time, but she decided to give him one last chance, warning him that if he crossed a line or ignored her safe word again, she would walk away.
**********
While she was navigating the start of her relationship with Alex with far less poise than she would have liked, her confidence in her work was growing rapidly. She no longer relied on Tommy for ideas or designs; now she only went to him when she was truly stuck or needed feedback. The integration of HELIX into Tommy and Thorn’s apartment had gone seamlessly, and having four people use it regularly accelerated its learning process so much that Tommy was already eager to install it on the Consulting levels.
HELIX no longer needed clear instructions to turn something on or adjust temperature or volume. It now understood context and recognized multiple users as separate individuals with different preferences and needs. It picked up on patterns and subtle cues: tone of voice, typical wake times, and how warm or cold someone preferred their room at night. Instead of waiting for commands, it predicted what each of them needed and responded automatically.
Integrating the system into each apartment’s existing network enabled HELIX to communicate directly with its infrastructure, making adjustments the moment it sensed a change. If Evie came home sounding tired, HELIX softened the lighting and lowered the AC. If Tommy started yawning while watching TV in bed, it set the sleep timer, dimmed the lights, adjusted the temperature, and closed the blinds. When Nissa laid out her gym clothes for the next morning, it set her alarm for five and turned on the coffee maker so she would have freshcoffee for her protein shake. If Thorn stepped off the elevator in full training gear, HELIX powered up the steam room.
It wasn’t independent thought; it was pattern-matching and common sense, simply automated.
Evie was immensely proud of how far HELIX had come in just five short months and was already working with Tommy to figure out how to integrate it into Sloane Consulting’s system. Together, they outlined the parameters it needed to meet so that it would perform at its best and continue learning how to anticipate what people needed.
They announced the system-wide integration at the quarterly staff meeting in October. After explaining what HELIX was and what it did to Lana, Aaron, and Paula, Tommy clarified that at first, it would simply be learning how to interact with everyone, but eventually, it would support them in the field.
“But that’s down the road,” he reminded them. “And it’s to be used as a tool, not something to do your jobs for you.”
At the end of the meeting, Cole and Lana shared the news that Lana was pregnant and due on May 5th. Thrilled for them, Evie hugged them both tightly. She spent almost as much time with Cole and Lana as she did with Tommy, Nissa, and Thorn, and immediately promised to be the best bonus aunt she could be. Then she leaned down and told the baby to hold off until the eighth so they could share a birthday, making Lana laugh and hug her again.
Nissa, who had known about the announcement ahead of time, brought out a congratulations cake. While they sat around enjoying cake and coffee, the conversation drifted to families, traditions, and family trees. To everyone’s surprise, Cole and Tommy realized their grandfathers had been brothers, making them second cousins.
“I don’t know why I didn’t make the connection before.” Tommy shook his head, genuinely baffled. “I knew Mom’s family was from upstate.”
The joy Evie had been feeling at the pregnancy news drained quietly out of her as she listened to them piece together shared relatives. For a moment, she almost blurted out that she and Tommy were siblings too, a strange mix of jealousy and loss tightening her chest. But she remembered what her mother had told her during one of her recent visits and kept her mouth shut. She turned her attention back to Lana and Nissa’s conversation, doing her best to focus on what they were saying, smiling and engaging in the conversation as best she could.
Shortly after her mother was placed in palliative care, Evie visited her alone and finally asked why she and Tommy were never supposed to know they were related. Della explained that they had kept it quiet so Tommy would not grow up resenting his parents for giving her up.
“He always wanted a brother or sister.” She sighed and leaned back against the pillows, closing her eyes for a moment. “They did not want to give you up, but they felt they were too old to raise another child. Henry would have been in his eighties by the time you graduated high school, and Mary’s health was never the best after all those years of nursing. They didn’t want your upbringing to fall on Tommy’s shoulders.” She paused, studying Evie with a curious expression.
“You haven’t told him yet?”
