Page 85 of Third Wheel

That made him laugh. At least he could still laugh.

They sat down at the bar where Shane, who seemed like a permanent fixture at Marquis’ bar, was wiping bar glasses dry. A Dom, though he didn’t scene at either club, he was as bald as Mr. Clean but sported a mostly grey goatee. With his position, he almost always knew what was going on between club members, though the gossip never passed through his lips; he was a vault of secrets. So, Zach didn’t have to worry about or care about whatever he overheard. Thankfully, there was no one else at the actual bar, though there were a few people in the booths along the way.

“Have you eaten?” Brian asked, which made Zach’s lips twitch in amusement.

“No, Daddy,” he replied. Brian couldn’t help himself; he was a Daddy Dom through and through, no matter who he was dealing with.

Brian sighed, shaking his head. “One day, I’ll get over hearing that from my friends but never my girlfriend.” He chuckled as soon as he said it though, his eyes light, and he glanced back to look at said girlfriend.

Despite being a Daddy Dom, he’d accepted that Rae was never going to call him ‘Daddy.’ Yet he was perfectly happy with their arrangement. If he could fully accept that from Rae, maybe he could help Zach figure out how to get Kincaid to fully accept him.

They sat down at the bar and ordered. Brian just got a mimosa, while Zach ordered a full meal and a coffee. Now that he was aware of it, hewasstarving. He also didn’t want to start drinking because he had a feeling he wouldn’t stop if he did, andit was way too early in the day for that. Plus, he wanted to be sober later if he was going to make up with Kincaid… or break up with him. His mind shied away from that possibility, even though it felt far too imminent.

“So. Tell me what happened,” Brian said. He sat and listened without interrupting as Zach haltingly went through the events of the morning. Shane was listening, too, though he was pretending not to, as he’d gone back to polishing the barware.

He didn’t spare himself. He knew that he’d fucked up. His problem was that he didn’t know how to make it right when Kincaid was unwilling to listen to him. To really hear him.

Brian sat in silence when he finished, breathing heavily, as if he’d just run a marathon. It kind of felt like he had. An emotional marathon.

“So… what do you think?” he asked when he couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“That’s… a lot.” Brian scrubbed his hands over his face and gave Zach a look. “I think at the base of it, you have to really think about your motivations.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, what are you so scared of when it comes to telling your parents? That they’ll get a divorce? You’re not five anymore. You’re old enough to know that they won’t get a divorce over one argument. If you coming out as ‘not entirely straight’ to your parents and they get into a bad enough fight over it that they divorce, that’s not on you. That’s because they just learned something about the other person that they can’t live with. If they both reject you, then… what? You’ve learned something about them.”

“I don’t like any of this.” Zach propped his elbows on the bar and pressed the heels of his hands into his closed eyes, rubbing the sockets. It felt like there was something weighing down onhis chest, even though he was sitting upright, making it hard for him to breathe. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“That’s because you’re fundamentally insecure.”

The bald statement made both him and Brian spin around in their seats. Zach stared at Olivia. The Dominatrix was wearing her signature red suit, which somehowdidn’tclash with her red hair, and her silvery gaze was uncompromising. She’d pinned him with it more than once during his introduction class, and it was all he could do not to shrivel down now, no matter how indignant he felt.

“I’m not insecure.” He’d literally never been called that in his life. “I’m one of the most confident people I know.”

“You’re secure in yourself; you’re insecure in how others view you,” she replied, coming up beside him to sit down. She waved a finger at Shane, who immediately jumped to get her a glass of water. “You’re so wrapped up in thinking about how other people think of you, you can’t see straight. And when you think you’re losing one of your support systems, you panic. The fact that you’re possibly setting yourself up to lose two has sent that panic into overdrive.”

Zach opened his mouth. Closed it. He didn’t know what to say to that.

Taking a sip of her water, Olivia turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

“You’ve always been led by strong personalities, people with strong convictions because you think that they must have made the right decision. That’s how you ended up being Roland’s friend.”

“That fucking asshole,” Brian muttered from behind Zach as Olivia referenced Zach’s ex-best friend.

Zach winced. That friendship was one of the greatest shames of his life. The one really good thing Roland had ever done for him had been to convince him to come take the Dom class atStronghold—the class Roland got kicked out of after he couldn’t take being taught by a woman. He was in jail now after stalking Olivia and attempting to shoot her.

“I didn’t let Roland lead me anywhere but Stronghold,” he argued. “I didn’t support him.”

“No, because you met other, better personalities that were also strong.” She didn’t break her gaze. “You’re a good person, but you still had trouble standing up to him. It helped that Kincaid, Brian, and Mitch all did because you knew that they were doing the right thing.”

“I don’t sound like a good person when you put it that way,” he muttered.

“You are. You wouldn’t have kept supporting him. You know that. I know that. But you’re bolstered by the people around you. It’s not a bad thing. It’s just that you’re in conflict right now.” Olivia smiled gently at him. “You’re afraid of losing Kincaid. You’re afraid of losing your parents. What Kincaid wants is directly opposed to what you think your parents want, and vice versa. And today, you pulled Amy into it. You keep waiting for the right moment, the right way to do it so that you don’t lose anyone, but in trying not to lose anyone, you’re risking losing everyone.”

The heaviness that hit the pit of Zach’s stomach made it impossible for him to argue. That was exactly what he was afraid of, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

“Not me,” Brian joked, clapping Zach’s shoulder. “I’ll still be here for you, brother.”

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