Page 102 of Until I Own You

Up until Bridget, the two of us were in the same boat. He works too hard in finance, and I work too hard in tech. The difference is, I know what I like, and he doesn’t even have the wherewithal to guess at what he likes.

I can see the Dom in him. We’ve talked some about the lifestyle and I’ve tried to take him to the Underground on a few occasions, but he gets too nervous.

It is okay. Everyone must come into their own at their own pace.

“Yeah, it was like a domino effect after Dad met Sonia,” Abigail says, her usual brashness eclipsed by discontent. “It’s just the four of us left.”

Bridget’s eyes flash to mine for the briefest second.

“We need to be going out and wingmanning each other!” Abigail says with a bright smile. “Then we don’t have to sit at the kids’ table!”

Jack grunts. “This isn’t the kids’ table. We are literally all at the same table.”

She waves him off. “Oh, hush, you.”

I laugh.

“What do you think, Bridget?” Abigail asks. “We should come up with a plan. We all know each others’ types, it would be perfect, right?”

“I–I–” She shakes her head. “I don’t know, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. What do you think, Seth?”

I don’t know what to say either.

“Could work.” I knock back the rest of my bourbon.

“Please, what happened to my party animal?!” Abigail teases Bridget. “You turned twenty-six and started having to pay for your own health insurance and got boring?”

“No, nothing like that…” Bridget says, eyes downcast into her drink.

Thankfully, Abigail is a little tipsy too. She slams her hands on the table and cries out, “I know! We should go on a trip.”

“Here we go,” Jack mutters.

“I’m serious!” Abgail scoops up another bite of dessert. “We all go on a trip. We relax, we go–a beach! We’re all hot. We hang around, make it clear we aren’t coupled up, and we go have fun. An experiment. Let’s see if we can do it in the best circumstances, not just a crappy New York winter night at a club.”

Jack hesitates. “Well, I guess that’s not the worst idea.”

No, no, noooo. I don’t need Jack agreeing.

Abigail stares eagerly at Bridget. “Well, what do you think?”

Bridget’s anxiety buds to the surface again, a grimace on her lips.

Abigail whips out a hand, flat-palmed. “And don’t ask Seth. You’re your own person.”

Inside, I glower.

Of course, she is her own person. She’s just consented to giving me the reins.

I can’t punish her for other people’s actions. But I can flounder in frustration.

“I…think it’s a good idea,” Bridget says. “Seth, what do you think?”

Her agreement makes me uneasy.

I have to wonder if that’s what she wants. To go meet other men that she can have out in the world.

Am I not enough behind closed doors?

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