Page 131 of Masters of Control

Freddy

Back at Marquis. It was a good thing he loved this place since in some ways it had become a home away from home. Heck, sometimes, it felt more like home than his apartment did. Freddy loved being around people, and his apartment didn’t come with that. None of his neighbors were overly friendly or interested in doing more than the typical wave or nod as they passed each other in the hall. Friendly, but not friends.

Whereas at Marquis, he felt like he was constantly surrounded by friends.

Great until they kept interrupting his date with Mistress Camille. Shane had taken to glaring at people who saw Freddy and lit up, coming over to say hi. Thankfully, she didn’t seem bothered by the interruptions.

“You sure are popular,” she teased, taking a sip of her red wine. They’d gotten drinks and appetizers. He hadn’t told her they probably weren’t going to be charged for any of it, since it was Shane on duty. Freddy had seen Olivia pass through and whisper something to the bartender. He was surrounded by matchmakers and interruptions.

“I have a lot of friends, and the subs know I’m always here to talk with if they need someone.” He shrugged. It didn’t really mean he was popular, more that he was in demand, which was fine. He liked being there for them and making sure they were taken care of.

“What about when you need someone?” she asked, tilting her head at him curiously.

Freddy opened his mouth to answer… then closed it as something a little painful tightened in his chest. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a lot of friends. He did. Of course, he did. He always had. But who did he call when he needed someone?

“Lexie,” he said after a moment. “She’s a good friend.” But not his best friend because he didn’t have one—or, at least, she might be his best friend, but he wasn’t hers, which was fine. He’d learned a long time ago to be happy with what he got. He hadn’t had a best friend in high school or college, but he’d always had a lot of good friends. If he was in serious trouble, he always had someone he could call.

It wasn’t quite the same as having a best friend but more than some people had, and he’d made up his mind to be grateful. Camille’s question still pricked that old wound.

“Freddy’s one of those people who gives and gives and has trouble asking for anything for himself,” Shane said, sliding a plate of burrata Caprese salad in front of them. Freddy gave him a dark look, Shane easily ignored. “Any given weekend, you’ll find him in here, listening to someone else’s problems.”

“I’m not always listening to someone’s problems,” he argued.

“No, but you’re almost always here in case someone is having one.”

“I just like working here. It’s less lonely.” Shane’s words were striking a chord. There were other places he could go work where he would be less likely to be interrupted. But he liked being here, where his people were… where someone could find him if they needed him.

Crap.

Shane might be on to something.

“I see.” Camille smiled sympathetically at him as she moved some of the burrata and tomato to her plate. The finely chopped basil decorating it stuck easily to the food. “I’m more of an introvert myself.”

“I am definitely an extrovert.” He smiled at her, noticing that Shane was making himself scarce now that he’d said what he felt he needed to say. Meddling bartender.

Meddling Dom is more like it.

That was exactly what it felt like… a well-meaning Dom telling on him to his Dominant—annoying and yet heart-warming. It felt odd to have someone looking after him. The Dominants around the clubs tended to assume he had his shit together and often treated him similar to one of their own outside of scenes. It also felt really nice, especially since Shane was putting Mistress Camille in the position of being Freddy’s Dominant.

It might be a little presumptive, but that was also why they were here. That’s what Freddy wanted her to be and, hopefully, what she planned to be for him.

“How often do you come here on the weekends?” she asked.

“Most Saturdays,” he admitted. “If I don’t have other plans.”

She raised her eyebrow at him.

“How often do you make plans for Saturday mornings?”

Sheepishly, he shrugged his shoulder. “Ah, not often.”

It didn’t take her long to pry more information out of him, information he was reluctant to give because the more he talked, the more he realized Shane was right. Not only that, the more he had to start looking at some of the choices he made and examining the reasons behind them.

Was he actually happy not having a best friend? Or did he just keep people at a distance because he was afraid of being rejected? Or of ending up having someone he considered a best friend but who only considered him a friend… again? And how much did that play into his desire to be there for everyone else?

Camille

Although they’d hit it off with the chemistry and the sex, and she’d seen his professional side at work, this was an unexpected and seemingly vulnerable side of Freddy. She was glad Shane had said something. She wasn’t sure she would have noticed Freddy’s quirk of personality on her own, though she liked to think she would have picked up on it, eventually.