Page 31 of Masters of Control

Q hadn’t exactly cornered her when she and the others had come upstairs and joined the guys, but she’d stepped over to the fridge to get something, and he’d followed. It was the most private he could get without following her to the bathroom, and he definitely wasn’t doing that. He had kept his voice low, though, and no one else seemed to have noticed or heard him.

“Um, okay.”

“Why did you and Noelle stop being friends?” When her lips pursed, Q rushed on, so she didn’t think he was just being nosy. “She’s in the new subs class with me, and she’s been making friends with Sam, and some of the things I’ve heard her say… Well, I just wanted to make sure I had both sides of the story.”

“Oh…” Iris blinked again, her eyelashes fluttering so quickly it almost looked like she was batting them. “Um, well, mostly because when we were living together, she decided to end our lease with the apartment building and didn’t tell me until after she’d already done it.”

It was Q’s turn to blink in surprise. Noelle sure as hell hadn’t mentioned anything about that when he’d been within hearing. Granted, he hadn’t talked to her much directly, but the impression he’d gotten was that Iris had ended the friendship, not Noelle.

“Oh my God, are y’all talking about Cunt Rag?” Rae appeared at Q’s elbow, practically quivering with angry energy.

Iris face palmed, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. Rae’s words, not spoken quietly, had drawn the attention from everyone else in the room. Quick as a flash, Domi was on the other side of the island, across from him and Iris, while the others ambled over more slowly. The scowl on Rae’s face made her look like a small, mean faerie.

“Do I even dare ask who ‘Cunt Rag’ is?” Asad wondered aloud, positioning himself next to Domi and leaning on the island. Law had moved in beside him, putting him closest to where Q, Rae, and Domi were. Avery and Connor ended up on the other side of Domi, and Connor’s lips turned down in a frown.

“Noelle,” Rae said at the same time Law spoke.

“Someone they should not be calling that.” Law gave Rae a stern look. She looked away from him, shrugging, but she didn’t appear particularly repentant.

“We’re not at either of the clubs,” Rae said, more than a hint of sass in her voice. Q had known she was a brat, but damn.

Still, he’d heard similar from Olivia, who called Jared’s ex, Marissa, “Truck Stop.” He wasn’t sure what that actually meant and didn’t think she really had a definition either, but it sure as hell sounded bad. Cunt Rag felt like it was in the same league, except he knew exactly what it was, with no ambivalence about its meaning.

“Don’t even try saying she’s not that bad,” Domi said, pointing a finger across the counter at Iris. Iris closed her mouth and the refrigerator door at the same time, shooting an apologetic look at Q. He really hadn’t meant to draw everyone’s attention, but he wasn’t upset that he had.

It sounded like he was about to get all the tea, but not from Iris. She looked both uncomfortable with and relieved by Domi’s order.

“I was surprised to see her in the submissive class.” Q made it a statement rather than a question. Clearly, he’d hit on a sensitive topic, and he wanted to know more, but he also didn’t want to put Iris on the spot with an audience. It was one thing to have a private conversation, but now everyone was involved.

Domi and Rae made identical faces, and even Avery, who he tended to think was the chillest out of the bunch of them, frowned. Iris’ expression was carefully blank—something he recognized as a ‘bad sign’ from having lived with a woman for years.

“I’m not.” Rae snorted. “I bet she expected Iris to come chasing after her, full of apologies, even though Noelle basically kicked her out of her own apartment. When she realized Iris was moving on with her life, she couldn’t handle it.”

“She is not a nice person,” Domi chimed in. “She seems like she is. She acts like she is. But as soon as Iris was out of the room, Noelle started talking shit about her, even though they were supposedly best friends. She acted like she was joking, but she was definitely waiting to see if we would join in.”

“Noelle can be abrasive. And kind of needy. She’s the kind of person who will talk shit about others to feel better about herself, but it’s mostly because she’s insecure,” Iris said, her tone defensive.

“Which doesn’t excuse the bad behavior. People can be insecure without being assholes.” Rae’s uncompromising tone was ruthless.

It was also making him worried.

If he hadn’t already known something had gone down between Noelle and Iris, he wouldn’t have been wary of her and would have probably been drawn in and believed everything she said. The way Sam did. Now, he also had to worry that these women would be at odds with Sam because she was becoming friends with Noelle.

“She’s not always that bad.” Iris threw her hands up.

Q didn’t question why she was still defending her ex-friend. He’d seen this before with his friend Leigh and her ex, Michael. He hadn’t gotten it until he’d talked about it with Angel, who was also Leigh’s best friend.

Michael had been toxic and emotionally abusive. A big part of that was making Leigh feel as though she was the one being unreasonable—that she had done something wrong, that she could have tried harder. Now, Leigh could look back with clear eyes and had told him that part of her hadn’t wanted to admit that everyone was right about Michael and how he’d treated her.

She hadn’t wanted to admit how badly he’d made her feel because then, she would have had to admit she’d stayed with someone when she shouldn’t have. Would have had to admit that all of her friends were right about him.

That was especially hard because it’s not like people were bad all the time. Michael could be really great to Leigh. He’d especially loved the grand gestures that made him look good to other people. Heck, if Q hadn’t been living with Angel and heard the girls talking about him, he would have thought Michael was a pretty amazing boyfriend.

“Nobody’s bad all the time, people are complex,” Avery said, chiming in for the first time. “If she was bad all the time, it would have been easy to end the friendship. If she was bad all the time, you wouldn’t feel guilt over it. If she was bad all the time, no one would want to be her friend. It’s not like toxic people are always toxic, which is actually what makes them even more toxic.”

“That hurt my head,” Asad complained, rubbing his forehead and making everyone snicker, which helped lessen the tension in the room.

“She’s right, though.” Rae gave Iris a hard look. “Just because she wasn’t always a crap person, didn’t mean you have to put up with her crap. I still think it’s bullshit that she’s being allowed in the club.”