“I’ll admit, I was expecting more of a fight from you,” Eric confessed, his hand tightening around Andie’s as they walked down the sidewalk towards the corner cafe.

“So was I,” she replied with a smile. “But then you showed up and just having you near me healed some of the ache from my heart.”

He turned to look at her, wondering if she knew just how horrible the last forty-eight hours had been. Clearly, she did, from her own perspective—she had been miserable. So had he. The ache that she felt, he had felt it too, and in the same fashion as her’s, it healed the second she opened the door and made herself available to him.

“Listen, I was thinking…” he cleared his throat as he removed his hand from around her’s and tucked his arm around her shoulders instead. “Maybe we should talk to somebody.”

“Talk to somebody about what?”

“About you and me… all of your concerns and my part in creating those concerns.”

Andie shook her head. “Nobody would understand us.”

“What’s not to understand? We’ll cut a few details from the story, like how I had to spank you when we were kids because you acted like a naughty little girl all the time,” Eric teased, grinning at the red blush that crawled up Andie’s face.

“If you try to tell any professional counselor that, I’ll behave horribly for a full month and drive you mad.”

“If you behave horribly for a month then you won’t be sitting down for a month,” Eric countered smoothly, kissing the side of her temple as she pouted.

“You wouldn’t be such a bully.”

“On the contrary, sweet girl, I can be quite a bully if I need to be.”

“I think you mean that.” Andie squinted up at him, her heart fluttering at the devilish spark in his eye.

“Of course I do.”

Slipping her hand back into Eric’s, Andie walked on with the corner cafe now in view.

“I’ll think about talking to somebody professional,” she told him, her eyes fixed straight ahead.

Eric smiled, although Andie didn’t see it. He didn’t respond. His hand tightened around her’s supportively.

“I wonder if Morgan will ever understand us…” Andie hummed softly and Eric knew the question wasn’t necessarily for him. She was thinking out loud and giving him the opportunity to offer a response if he wanted to.

He thought about it for a moment before saying: "If anyone can get her to understand, it’s Teddy.”

“I hope she likes him as much as I do,” she sighed.

“Oh? And how much is that?”

“Almost as much as I like you,” Andie replied cheekily.

* * *

“Is it all about control?”

“That’s a complicated question.”

“Seems pretty straightforward to me.”

“You don’t know enough about it to understand my answer to your question.”

“Well, that’s why I’m asking questions, isn’t it?”

“Not the right questions—not yet. Let me explain a little more.”

“Answer my questions and I’ll develop enough of a foundation of understanding to fully understand everything you’re trying to explain to me.”

“Or you could take the answers that I choose to give you when I choose to give them to you.”

“That sounds like something you would say to Andie.”

“It is.”

“Okay, but I’m not Andie.”

“So I can tell.”

“So, now that we have confirmed how unlike Andie I am, why don’t you answer my question.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, woman.”

Teddy was nearly ready to tear his hair from his head. He settled for grinding his teeth and tightening his grip around the arm of the chair that he was sitting in when he would rather be shaking some sense into the girl across the table from him. Never before had he met a more infuriating woman.

With an exasperated sigh, Teddy dropped his head back and closed his eyes.

“Has anybody ever told you how horribly stubborn you are?”

“No.”

Teddy could hear a pleased smile in Morgan’s voice and he lowered his head and opened his eyes to see it; her lips were pulled up in a little smirk that expressed how much she was enjoying his frustration. It sparked a flame in him that she wasn’t ready for.

Narrowing his eyes, Teddy leaned forward and clasped his hands on the table. Morgan leaned back as a response.

“Are you intentionally trying to press my buttons? Because it’s working.”

Morgan’s smile widened, but she tried to hide it. It was almost cute which only aggravated Teddy more.

“I’m assuming women don’t usually challenge you like this?”

“Plenty of women challenge me—see, this is where your knowledge of what I do is so misinformed. It isn’t about controlling the female population or expecting subservient behavior and respect from every woman I encounter. It’s a connection that two people share and it’s agreed upon. My partner benefits from it as much as I do.”

“But you’re like that with Andie, and Andie isn’t in a relationship with you—she’s with Eric. Unless you three are in some weird poly…thing…” A frown took place of the smirk and she crossed her arms over her chest in a manner that said she was judging him.

Teddy leaned back, a smile playing around the corners of his mouth. “So judgy… Would you be so against finding out that Andie plays some dungeon games with me?”

Morgan gaped. “Dungeon games?”

Teddy wasn’t nearly as talented at hiding his pleasure, and he threw his head back and laughed loudly.

“I’m kidding, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it after that poly comment.”

He was still chuckling as Morgan threw the sleeve from her cup across the table at him. It bounced off his chest with a soft thud.

“To answer your question… Andie respects me out of context.”

“Meaning?” she pressed, still fuming.

“Meaning… She respects me because of what I stand for, and because she trusts me. We’re friends as well. If we were strangers, I wouldn’t expect her to behave herself around me—why should she? Her respect should not be given away; it is earned. I work for it, just as Eric works for it.”

Crossing her arms, and still visibly upset with Teddy for the little joke he played on her—which he was still smiling about—Morgan averted her eyes and focused on something far away.

“I just don’t understand why anyone would want to feel that… powerless.”

Frowning thoughtfully, Teddy studied her as she appeared to be thinking so painfully hard that he almost felt compelled to tell her to stop before she hurt herself. His silence caught her attention, however, and she turned her eyes to his and they looked at it other for a silent moment. When he spoke, he kept his voice low and his tone gentle.

“Do you know what the terms submissive and dominant are? Not their definitions per se, but their roles in the sort of lifestyle I’m trying to explain?”

Morgan nodded. “And you don’t have to avoid using the acronym for Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadochism and Masochism. I know what BDSM is.”

Teddy smiled patiently. Yes, he had been explaining it differently, using words like “lifestyle” in lieu of “BDSM” so as not to frighten her.

“I didn’t think you knew what it meant,” he explained smoothly.

“I know what it means.”

Pursing his lips, he shrugged his response. “I believe you know what it stands for, but I don’t believe that you know what it means. But—one thing at a time. I was explaining—now that I know you’re familiar with the terms that I’ll be using to better explain this—I’m not a submissive, and submission does not come naturally to me. But, from what I understand, relinquishing power to another human being—somebody that you trust—can be quite euphoric. It stimulates the same kind of Adrenaline that people experience when feeling brave. You’re all but daring yourself to give up all control—do you know how much courage that takes?”

“So it is all about control?” She retorted, bringing the conversation to a full circle. “Whether it’s a lack of it or obtaining all of it—an important factor to all of this is control.”

Teddy sighed. “Yes—control has a lot to do with it. But did you hear anything else I said?”

“Yes, yes, adrenaline and courage—I get it.”

Teddy was grinding his teeth again. That spark that she was so good at lighting was getting bigger. He almost couldn’t believe it—because Teddy was so good at keeping a level head—but this exasperating girl was actually making him angry.

“If you are not going to take this seriously, then I am not going to have this conversation with you,” he told her, not bothering to keep his tone in check. She was waking the very thing inside him that she was so against, and after remaining considerate of her feelings on the subject and keeping it away, he just didn’t care if it came out anymore.

“I think I’m starting to see the root of the problem,” he continued, leaning far over the table and forcing her all the way back in her chair. “To you, it really is all about the control. You like to keep it, you don’t want to share it, and you sure as hell don’t want anybody else to have it.”

“I’m not a control freak—" she tried to argue, but Teddy wasn’t finished.

“It’s a defense mechanism left over from feeling so out of control as a child when your brother had the common sense to discipline you lest you turn into a self-entitled brat—which we can clearly see didn’t work so well—"

“How dare you!”

“—so, to prevent yourself from ever feeling so out of control again, you have devised a method of absolute control in all relationships, friendships included, which explains how much of a hold you had over Andie back in Florida—"

“I would never—"

“—And you have zero intention of letting that control go; it doesn’t matter who you hurt along the way—”

“Shut up for five seconds, you arrogant ass hole!” Morgan raged, nearly rising from her seat. “Obviously I do care who I hurt, otherwise I wouldn’t have apologized to Andie and admitted my mistakes to her and to you, you ugly bastard! And it is none of your business how I conduct my relationships! I may not like feeling as out-of-control as your submissives, but that doesn’t mean I’m some stuck-up control freak that can’t be tolerated. I don’t like being vulnerable, okay? I don’t understand why anyone would like to feel so exposed and open to hurt and humiliation! Frankly, I think anybody who enjoys that is absolutely bat-shit! And you’re just as bat-shit as they are for taking advantage of them in their moment of vulnerability!”

Morgan was heaving, tears were in her eyes, she was standing, and the cafe was quiet. Teddy was looking at her like she had grown a second head, and Eric and Andie were standing in the doorway—having witnessed her entire fit.

When she saw her friend, Morgan was immediately regretful.

“Fuck,” she breathed, slowly lowering herself into the chair behind her. She was expecting this to be the end of her friendship where Andie would storm out of the cafe with tears in her eyes. She was surprised when Andie rushed to her, tugging her from the chair and hugging her tightly.

“What the hell did you say to her?” she hissed at Teddy, who didn’t acknowledge the question. His eyes were on Morgan, who was regretfully darting her eyes up to his for brief peeks through a curtain of sunflower hair as Andie squished her in her arms.

Teddy was frowning, but he wasn’t angry anymore. He was… he didn’t know…very fucking confused.

Eric approached from behind, placing a hand on Teddy’s shoulder. “Let’s go someplace else—we have attracted a whole lot of attention in here.”

The four of them walked from the cafe where the other patrons were tittering quietly about them behind their backs. Outside, the sun was peeking out from behind a cloud.

Andie was talking to Morgan a few yards away, too quietly for Teddy to hear, so Eric turned him away and walked him another few yards away.

“What the hell happened, man?”

Teddy opened his mouth to respond but he wasn’t sure where to start. He mustered a shrug before settling for a baffled shake of his head.

“I have no idea, Eric. I got mad.”

“You? Captain cool-head who puts the rest of us men to shame—you got mad?”

“So mad. She got under my skin and I ripped into her. I shouldn’t have—doesn’t matter how badly she was pressing my buttons—that’s not how I usually handle things.”

“I don’t think your usual method of handling things would have gone over too well either.”

Teddy managed a half-hearted glare at his friend before looking past his head and watching the exchange between Andie and Morgan. They looked similar in size and hair color—both small, both blond—but Teddy found something to admire in Morgan that he never took notice of in Andie. Like how her hair was a little sunnier in color compared to the sandy blond of Andie’s hair. It was almost yellow, and right now, the wind was lifting it. It wasn’t as full as Andie’s, but it was longer. He also noticed a spattering of freckles across her arms and shoulders—which were sharper and bonier than Andie’s. She was a college student though—probably living off of ramen and bread.

Jesus, he felt bad. He had been so mad, and if he were to recall the full conversation with her, he might feel irked again, but right now—he just felt bad. And from what he could tell of the exchange in front of him, Morgan was feeling bad too.

“I’m going to go apologize,” Teddy decided, stepping toward the girls before stopping to address his friend one more time. “Hold up—did you guys make up?”

“Of course we did,” Eric answered with a smile. “Thank you for the part you played.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t necessary. Morgan was already regretful of how much her behavior influenced Andie’s decision to leave you.”

“That’s what Andie said—that Morgan was trying to talk her into coming back home with me.”

“I think I’ve been too hard on her,” Teddy sighed.

“Yeah, maybe you and me both.” Eric smiled and offered a supporting clap to Teddy back. “Go apologies so that we can all move on from this in harmonious peace.”

“Yeah, we’ll see…” Teddy grumbled as he worked his way over to Morgan. He would apologize, and he would mean it, but that didn’t mean that he and Morgan would emerge from this as unlikely friends. More than likely, they would exchange polite regrets for the things that both of them had said, and then he, Andie, and Eric, would go back home to Florida, and Morgan would stay in Chicago, and they would likely never see each other ever again.