21. Girlfriend Privileges
Girlfriend Privileges
Q
“I ate too much.” Q groaned, leaning back against the couch and rubbing his stomach right above where Sam’s head rested in his lap. “I feel like I’m going to explode.”
“I told you two pieces of pie were too many,” she teased, then winced when he poked her stomach. “Hey!”
“You can’t tell me you’re not feeling it, too.”
Yeah, she was. Sam had done a lot of work to be happy with her body and feel okay eating what she wanted to eat, but she may have overdone it a bit today.
Everything had just been so good. It turned out Angel had done a lot of the desserts, but her friend Justin had done most of the actual cooking.
He was as good as a professional chef, and Sam had already been full before the desserts came out.
She hadn’t been able to say no to a piece of apple pie, but unlike Q, she had refrained from choosing a second option. Though she had had one bite each of his pecan chocolate chip and the pumpkin.
Girlfriend privileges.
He hadn’t even protested.
“I didn’t say I wasn’t,” she retorted, poking him back. He groaned again, rubbing the spot where she’d gotten him, and she giggled.
“Did you have fun?”
“I did.” She closed her eyes as his fingers stroked through her hair, spreading it out across the thigh she wasn’t resting on. The scalp massage felt good.
“You and Iris seemed to get along well.” His tone was cautious. Careful.
“We did.” She wasn’t sure how much more she wanted to say.
Clearly, he’d realized there was cause for possible friction since she was friends with Noelle, but she expected him to be on Iris’ side.
He’d never been rude to Noelle when they’d interacted, but she wouldn’t expect him to be, no matter how he felt personally. “She seems really nice.”
Keeping her eyes closed was easier than opening them and studying his expression since she wasn’t sure what he would see in hers.
Iris had been really nice, but it was impossible to forget the things Noelle had said and the sadness over the ending of their friendship. She didn’t really know what to do about that.
It had been a while since she’d had any close friends, but she was pretty sure befriending a friend’s ex-bestie was as big a no-no as dating a friend’s ex-boyfriend.
Maybe bigger. She would still be polite to Iris when she was around her, and if she enjoyed the other woman’s company…
well, it wasn’t like she was choosing to hang out with her. It was just a side effect of dating Q.
But she did feel just a little guilty.
“I’m glad,” Q said. “I wasn’t sure how it would go after the things Noelle was saying about her.”
Sam’s eyes popped open in surprise, looking up at him. It wasn’t the best angle, but it gave her a fairly decent view of his expression. He looked more thoughtful than anything else, his gaze meeting hers, and one of his eyebrows lifting questioningly, as if wondering what had startled her.
“Noelle said something to you?”
Now that she hadn’t known. When had he and Noelle been around each other without her there to hear what Noelle was saying? She didn’t think Noelle had ever said anything about Iris while Q was around.
“The first day of class before you got there.” His fingers rubbed over her scalp, and she felt her eyelids drooping back down again. “She said something about losing her best friend because she didn’t understand kink and made it sound like Iris had ditched her.”
“I didn’t realize she’d said something to all of you.
” Sam blinked. That was kind of ballsy. Noelle hadn’t even known any of them yet.
That was a heck of a lot to put out in front of strangers, but then, not everyone was as closed-off as Sam was.
Some people didn’t mind sharing their personal business, and that was fine, even if it wasn’t what she would be comfortable with.
But wow.
Q snorted.
“Yeah, I don’t think she knew any of us knew Iris, or she wouldn’t have said anything. According to Iris, Noelle canceled their rental lease without telling her, which was what ended it fully.”
She’d canceled the rental lease without telling Iris? Wow that was… Sam opened her mouth. Closed it.
“Do you know why she did that?” There must have been some reason. Noelle seemed sincerely upset by the end of the friendship… maybe she’d canceled the lease because of something to do with the kink?
Though she hadn’t mentioned it.
“No, but it sounded like she and Iris were already on the outs.” Q tugged gently on her hair, and Sam opened her eyes.
“I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how to bring it up until now.
I know you two are friends and don’t expect you to change that based on third-hand information, but… I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Thank you,” she said after a moment, not sure what else to say. It sounded like Iris and Noelle had their own sides of the story. Which wasn’t going to change how she treated either of them, but it was also nice to know that Q was looking out for her.
“Of course, pretty girl.” He tugged her hair again. Not in a hard way, it felt really good, adding to the head massage. “Now want to get up here and fuck me?”
Sam groaned. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she wasn’t sure she could move. He wasn’t joking. As he played with her hair, she could feel a bulge slowly growing beside her cheek. If she turned her head, she’d be able to nuzzle it, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to encourage him.
“I think I’m too full. You can fuck me if you want to, though.”
Now it was Q’s turn to groan.
“I’m not sure I can get into a good position for that… what if we just roll onto the floor? I can spoon you or something.”
She cracked one eye open and gave him an arch look.
“I have to admit, I thought my first night as your official girlfriend that you would have better moves to wow me,” she said, suppressing her laughter when he glared at her.
“Okay, well now you’ve done it. Prepare for your world to be rocked.”
He did just that, with nothing more than his hands, mouth, and cock. Apparently, he had room for a second dessert after all, and Sam was not averse to working off some of the food they’d just eaten with her favorite kind of exercise.
Q
Despite the craziness of the holidays, he and Sam quickly settled into a relationship.
Not much really changed. They kept on the way they’d started, spending every other evening together and every other night on the phone.
The biggest change was having the official designation and feeling more secure about what they were doing.
For Thanksgiving he went down to North Carolina to visit his grandmother’s house while Sam stayed home and celebrated with her dad. He’d thought about inviting her, but figured it was probably too soon for that, especially since he had to travel, and she wanted to spend time with her dad.
Of course, he told his family about her, including his mom. Their tradition was for the whole family—all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins—to meet at his grandmother’s for the holidays. Sam would have been perfectly welcome. There were always a bunch of people there… maybe next year.
It surprised him that he was already thinking that far ahead.
“What did your mom say?” Sam asked while they were on the phone later that evening.
“She wants to meet you, of course, but I don’t know when that’s supposed to happen. She usually only comes back to Maryland once or twice a year, and I only go out to see her once a year.”
“Mmm, yeah. I’m not sure I’d be able to take any time off to travel, even if I could afford the actual traveling.”
“I’d pay for your tickets and stuff, you wouldn’t have to worry about that,” he said immediately, then wanted to bite his tongue off when she made another noncommittal humming noise.
He had no problem spending his money to make her life easier, but he knew she didn’t like the idea of it. Some things she was willing to bend on, and he was pretty sure he could talk her around letting him pay for travel to see his side of the family, given enough time.
“Still nothing about a raise from your job?”
“No, I’ve pretty much given up on that.” She sighed.
“I think I might put in some applications to other practices after this weekend. December isn’t exactly prime hiring time, but at least my resume would be out there.
It would make me feel like I’m doing something proactive instead of waiting for something I’m pretty sure isn’t coming. ”
It really sucked because he knew that she liked what she did, and she was otherwise happy where she was, but… she needed to be paid better. Unfortunately, it was a common issue, especially living in their area. There was a reason so many people had housemates and shared spaces.
“That sounds like a good idea. At least then, you know your options.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Anyway...”
Even though she fell silent, Q could tell she wanted to talk about something else. Anything else. So, he went for the obvious.
“What about your dad? Did you tell him you have a boyfriend?”
“I did.” She laughed. “Turns out he had some news for me on that front as well. He has a girlfriend! He was kind of scared to tell me until I told him about you. Apparently, her Christmas tradition is to go on a cruise with her friends, and she invited him to go with her, but he didn’t want to say yes until he’d asked me. ”
“Did you tell him to go?”
“Yeah, I told him he deserves a vacation like that. It’s not like we have to celebrate our holiday on the day of. Plus, I was talking to Morgan about the holidays, and she’s all alone for them so I figured she and I could spend Christmas together if I didn’t have anyone, too.”
Well, there went his hope of convincing Sam to come down to meet his family for Christmas.
If it was too soon for Thanksgiving, it’s definitely too soon for Christmas, dipshit. Thanksgiving doesn’t have the pressure of gifts and everything like that.
It was probably for the best that she had other plans. Otherwise, he’d want to stay with her instead of going to North Carolina again. There was no way his grandma or his mama would be okay with that, especially not for a brand-new girlfriend they hadn’t even met yet.
“That sounds like fun.” It would also mean Morgan was looked after for the holiday.
“Yeah, Kincaid’s going to be there, too. Morgan had already made plans with him because Zach is going out west to see his family and he’s not ‘out’ to them yet about Kincaid.”
Well, that sounded… not good. Q wasn’t close with Kincaid and Zach, but he knew they had been together for a while.
Thanks to the gossip vine at Friendsgiving, he’d heard a few murmurs about Kincaid being out as bi while Zach was only out at the club, which had been causing some friction between them.
They made a good couple, though, so he hoped it wasn’t the case or that they figured it out.
“That should be a fun group, I’m glad you won’t be alone.”
“Me, too. I’ll miss my dad, and it’ll be weird not seeing him on the day of, but he seems really excited about being invited to go with her, and I don’t want to stand in his way.”
There was an odd note in her voice, but Q wasn’t sure if it was because of her dad’s new girlfriend, not seeing him on Christmas, or the idea that she was somehow standing in his way.
“Will you get to meet her?”
“Yeah, but things are so crazy for everyone during December, it probably won’t happen until after the holidays.
” She laughed. “Which is probably for the best. It’ll give me time to get used to the idea of my dad having a girlfriend.
Maybe I can introduce you to him at the same time, and we can make it a whole thing. ”
Q laughed but didn’t hate the idea. That way he could be there for Sam. Even though she was an adult, it couldn’t be easy knowing her dad had a new woman in his life.
“I’d like that,” he said. “Then we’ll just have to figure out a time for you to come meet my family.”
“Sounds good.” The happiness in her voice made him feel a little better that they’d be apart for Christmas.
They were moving fast, yes, but it wasn’t as if they’d just met before they started dating. If anything, this felt like the way things were supposed to have been.