Chapter 4
Arden
Arden didn’t quite know what to do.
Teddy was clearly upset, and all of her own instincts were yelling at her to step in and look after the other woman, but if calling her ‘baby girl’ was overstepping, goodness knows how she’d respond to anything else.
They ate their food in relative silence, and she thought hard about what to do.
“Did you get a text back from Briar? You need to check in with her.”
“Oh!” Teddy pulled her phone from her pocket and started scrolling through some messages.
“Yes, she said that she’s looking forward to seeing me, and that you’re good people.
” She took a selfie, fingers posed in a cute v-sign, typing a message to send with it.
Picking at her fries, Teddy waited for a reply.
Beeps heralded the arrival of two texts in quick succession.
“B says that she’s glad I checked in; she was starting to worry.
” Then a third beep that made Teddy laugh and flash Arden a cheeky grin.
“And that I’m to be a good girl for you. ”
Arden stuttered. Actually stuttered. She’d never stuttered in her damn life and wasn’t about to start now. Clearing her throat, she said, “So I’m not to call you baby girl, but you’re allowed to say that you’re going to be a good girl for me?”
There was a momentary flash of panic, before Teddy settled back in the booth with a laugh. “Yeah, though I’m never quite as good as I’m supposed to be.”
Her words were light, but there was an echo of something there that Arden didn’t like. “As you’re supposed to be?”
“I’ve never—” she cut off, and narrowed her eyes, thinking. “You know what the club is, right?”
“A club for Littles? Yeah.”
“Okay. And you’re okay talking about—” Teddy waved her fork in the air to indicate the end of the sentence.
“Yeah, I’m okay with talking about Littles.”
The other woman flushed, her red cheeks clashing with her pink hair. “Fine, well I’m not very good at being a Little.”
Arden frowned. “How can you not be good at being a Little?”
“I’m a bit too emotional, really. Too quick to get upset and have a tantrum, like just now about ‘baby girl’. It’s a marvel Cristina put up with me as long as she did.”
Arden stabbed at a fry on her plate and tried not to let the stream of obscenities she was thinking leave her mouth. “That kind of sounds like bullshit to me—on her part, not yours.”
“Oh no, she had a point. You saw me out there.”
“I saw you put a boundary in place, which I respected. There was nothing about you being too anything. Emotions are emotions.”
“Huh.” Teddy didn’t say anything for a long time, and Arden wondered whether she’d overstepped again. But just as she was about to ask if Teddy was okay, the other woman said, “You really didn’t think that that was too much?”
“You could never be too much,” Arden said. And meant it.
“Huh.” Teddy went back to her milkshake, and they fell into silence once more. This time, though, it felt more comfortable, as if Teddy was using the quiet to think through her own thoughts.
“What about bratting?”
“What about bratting?”
“Do you think it’s bratting if you say you don’t like something, or don’t want to do something?”
Arden considered the question. “I think it all depends on the tone of voice. If you’re being playful and trying to get a rise out of your partner, then sure, it could be bratting. But saying no is not inherently bratty. That’s knowing your limits.”
“But what if the other person gets upset?”
Arden shifted in her seat. “Look, people aren’t always going to like it if you say no to something they want to do or try, and they do get to be disappointed.
But they don’t get to be an asshole to you about it.
They don’t get to berate you, or have a go at you, or even try to talk you out of your decision. ”
“I don’t like spanks.” The statement burst out of Teddy, and she looked vaguely horrified and slapped her hand over her mouth.
Arden glanced around. No one was near, or even looking in their direction. “It’s okay, nobody heard. And so what?”
“All Littles like spanks. Or should like spanks. And Littles are usually bratty and naughty and—”
“If your cousin heard how you’re speaking right now, you’d be in the biggest trouble,” said Arden. “I’m tempted to tell you off myself.”
Teddy’s eyes widened and Arden had to close hers not to lose herself in their depths. “What?”
“There is no right or wrong way to be a Little, just like there’s no right or wrong way to be a Domme. Everyone is different, and that’s okay. Eat your greens.”
Teddy narrowed her eyes but speared a load of peas and worked on diminishing the pile that was on her plate.
“It sounds to me that whatever else your ex was, she certainly wasn’t a very good partner to your Little, and we can’t have that. Your Little deserves only the best.”
“She does?”
“Fuck yeah, she does. She deserves a Daddy Domme who’ll spoil her and treat her, and hold a safe space for her to have big emotions in.”
Teddy was looking at her thoughtfully now.
“What?”
“You sound like you have some experience.”
Arden didn’t have experience, not proper long-term committed experience. She was never in one place long enough for any of that, but she certainly knew how to make a Little girl feel special. And never, never would she have let her Teddy feel insufficient.