Page 78 of Masters of Control

“Oh, you did, did you? What did she say?”

“Hmm… this is a conundrum,” Freddy said, tilting his head and putting his finger on his chin. “Normally, I would never betray a fellow sub, but with you and Sam the lines are a little blurry. Are you approaching me as a fellow sub right now or are you asking as Master Q?”

“Sub. Definitely sub. I want to know how to fix this.” He gave Freddy his most pleading look. “I don’t know what I did to make her feel like she couldn’t talk to me or trust me. I missed her this week, and I know we need to talk, but Sam, I mean Mistress Samantha, plays her cards pretty close to the vest. She always has.”

“Well, that’s something to think about. It sounds to me that what happened was she didn’t tell you everything about her job search, you got angry when you found out, then you stopped talking to her because she didn’t talk to you.” Freddy raised his eyebrows at Q, as if asking if he wanted to challenge the summary of events.

Q opened his mouth and closed it.

Shit. When he put it like that…

“I needed some space to think,” he replied defensively.

“Oh, you’re not the asshole here. I don’t think there are any assholes here, just a rough situation. Though I’d love to hear your side of it.” Freddy beamed at him, and Law was now staring expectantly at Q, so he sighed and went over it again. At least one of the servers came by to get his drink order while he was doing so.

As he wrapped up, including the fact that they’d been texting since Christmas day, but he still didn’t know what he wanted to say to her once they saw her in person, both Law and Freddy were looking thoughtful.

“I’m going to agree with Freddy—no assholes here. You were both upset and taking a step back isn’t the worst thing in the world.”

“Right, but what do I say to her now?” Q scrubbed his hand over his head, the bristles of his curls soft against his palm.

“Tell her that you were hurt she didn’t talk to you, that you wish she had felt she could, and that you don’t want her to go anywhere, but you’ll support whatever decision she makes.” Law shrugged his shoulders when both Freddy and Q stared at him. “What?”

“Iris has done good work with you,” Freddy said, and then turned back to Q, jerking his thumb at Law. “What he said. You two are crazy about each other. I can tell. But you said it yourself, she’s always kept her cards close to her chest. The real question is, can you accept her as she is?”

That was a hard question.

“I don’t know if I can accept being kept out of the loop on something so important,” he admitted.

“That’s fair, but you should talk that through with her. Maybe she’ll be willing to bend a bit, but you’re also going to have to compromise.” Freddy grinned.

“Have you ever thought about being a couple’s counselor instead of a divorce lawyer?” Law asked, amused. “I think you’d be good at it.”

“Of course, I would, but that’s partly from years of watching people go through divorces. Half the time, the biggest problems stem from a failure to communicate, whether it’s failure to listen or failure to truly try to see the other’s point of view.” He pointed a finger at Q. “You have to decide. What’s a deal breaker? And what’s an argument that you two can work through and come out stronger on the other side?”

It was not a deal breaker. Q didn’t want things with Sam to end. He just didn’t know where they went from here, which meant that Freddy was 100% correct.

They needed to talk.

He looked at Freddy and Law.

“It’s not a deal breaker. I still want to be with her. I just want her to tell me when something important is going on in her life. I want her to let me in. Do either of you have any advice on how to make that happen?”

As it turned out, they did.

31

You Were Supposed to Call!

Sam

Q had come home today but so far, he hadn’t called or texted. Sam was about five minutes away from breaking out the emergency ice cream. She’d bought it months ago and saved it for when it was desperately needed, so it was probably frostbitten to all hell, but she was feeling the urge. It would be nice if she felt the urge to eat something cheaper, like saltines, but no, she wanted ice cream.

Grr.

She was sitting around her apartment, doing absolutely nothing, waiting for her phone to go off, like a pathetic caricature of a heartbroken girl. Ice cream was only going to add to that.

That didn’t stop her from wanting it.