Page 71 of Secret Submission

She’d told him how she handled her mom, how she hung up when her mom brought her ex up. How she’d immediately left the last time her mom had sprung her ex on her in person.

Not that he had any issues close to what she had with her parents, but how would he feel if she got in the middle of how he wanted to handle an issue with them? How would he feel if she flat-out ignored what he said he wanted to do?

That was the other reason he’d been up all night. He kept trying to think of how to apologize. What to say. What to do. How to make it up to her. And he kept coming up short. He didn’t know what to do or say.

The urge to text her, to call her, to at least try was strong, but after ignoring what she’d said she wanted yesterday, the least he could do was give her the space she’d requested now. No matter how much it strained him.

She’d said they would talk later.

While it was technically later, that didn’t mean she was ready. She would reach out when she was. He firmly believed she was not ghosting him. He was pretty sure. It would be hard to ghost someone who was a member of the same kink club unless she decided to stop being a member and stop teaching. There was no way she would be willing to take things that far, even if she was incredibly upset with him.

He hoped she wasn’t too upset with him.

Dammit.

He hoped he got a chance to apologize.

Knocking on the door made him jump to his feet before his brain had even fully registered the sound, heart pounding in his chest.

Julie?

Connor rushed to the door… only to look through the window beside it and feel his heart sink at the familiar, brown, bald head he spotted in front of it. Not Julie. Law. For a moment, he imagined the worst—Julie had sent Law to break up with him for her.

Then he shook off that thought. There was no way Julie would do that. First, she would handle her own breakups. Second, if she was going to send someone to break up with him for some odd reason, it wouldn’t be Law.

New worry rushed through him. If Law wasn’t here at Julie’s behest, why the hell was he knocking on Connor’s door in the middle of the day? What was wrong? Why hadn’t anyone called him?

He yanked the door open and found himself looking down at both Law and Iris, who he hadn’t realized was on Law’s other side. They both stared up at him, as though they were surprised.

“What?” he asked, blinking back at them. “What’s going on?”

“That’s supposed to be my question to you,” Law replied. “Can we come in?”

Baffled, Connor nodded, stepping back to let them pass by. Iris paused to hug him, which he sorely needed, and he hugged her back, though he kept his emotions in check. The last thing she needed was him melting down all over her just because she’d hugged him.

“So… what?” he asked again as he closed the door behind them, turning to face them.

Law crossed his arms over her chest and raised his eyebrows.

“That’s what I want to know. You haven’t answered any texts since last night or the call I made this morning, then when I called you at work just to check in and make sure you were okay, they said you hadn’t come in. You never call out sick.” Law’s gaze sharpened. “So, now I’m here to find out why you’re not at work and why you aren’t answering your texts.”

“I’m here for moral support and because Law and I were supposed to meet up for lunch,” Iris chirped, smiling at him, though he could see the concern in her expression as well. She was just as worried as Law, though she showed it differently.

Oh.

Oh.

They weren’t here to tell him something bad had happened to someone else. They were here because they thought something bad had happened to him. And it was lunchtime. They were supposed to be on a lunch date but had come to check on him instead.

His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since Julie’s parents’ house yesterday. No dinner, no breakfast.

“Right, um, can I get you guys something to eat?” he started moving toward the kitchen.

“Connor!” Law practically shouted his name, and Connor stopped in his tracks as his friend glared at him, flinging his hands in the air. “I don’t want lunch. I want to know what’s going on! What happened? What’s wrong?”

Oh. Right.

“Well, we can eat lunch at the same time,” Connor pointed out. It would be easier to talk if he had something else to focus on.

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