11. Tony
ELEVEN
tony
“ W here’s your Daddy?”
I’d cleared it with Abel before I showed up here. There was no way I would’ve done it otherwise.
“Kitchen.” Sergio blinked. “Why? I’m not actually five. I can open the door myself, y’know. Just saying.”
I scrubbed a hand down my face. Yeah, we were off to a bad start. Figures .
“May I come in, Sergio?”
The boy just moved to the side. I was going to toe off my shoes by the entrance, but I remembered what Jaime said last night when I had to remind him of it—again. Only Kara and Erika seemed to appreciate manners in their friend group.
“For the record, I don’t understand why you’re here, and I’m still questioning if you’re having a weird stroke.”
I snorted. He’d made his confusion clear over text earlier. “Pretty sure a stroke doesn’t last an entire week.”
Let’s face it, if this was all due to some medical condition, it hadn’t started when I texted Abel and Sergio yesterday. It started when I hadn’t kicked Jaime out the second he barged in unannounced with demands he had no business making.
“Okaaaay.” Sergio led the way to the first room in their new house. Abel stood at the kitchen counter, prepping something that looked suspiciously like chocolate milk. “So what’s this about?”
I sighed. That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?
“Can we sit down?”
Sergio watched me for a second. It was eerie, how open he was about it. Eventually, though, he nodded and hopped on one of the stools by the kitchen island.
I followed suit, choosing one opposite of him. I sighed. No one would say I was used to public speaking with how nervous I was about this. There was not a single fiber in my being that genuinely wanted to be here.
It had been a long time coming, though.
It was the right thing to do, too.
“I’m running a workshop next week,” I said.
It was not what this was all about, but it was as good a starting point as any.
“Uh, I mean, yeah?” Sergio scratched his eyebrow. Abel sat down next to him and slid the cup of chocolate milk his way while downing a glass of water. “I’m not volunteering for that.”
I blinked.
“I was not going to propose you did.” However, it gave me a better opening. Kind of. “I was planning to ask Jaime.”
Sergio paused, using the cup of chocolate milk to hide his mouth. Not that he was much better than Jaime at keeping what he was thinking or feeling from showing all over his face. The main difference was that Jaime tried to hide it with snark and a sharp tongue.
In Sergio’s case, hiding his mouth didn’t take away from the way he was scrunching up his nose. “Okay. Congrats? I think.”
All right, this was not working or going anywhere. I licked my lips as I leaned back. “I should’ve had this talk with you years ago. Definitely after everything blew up last year.”
“About Jaime?” Sergio frowned. “I don’t know what’s gotten into the two of you, but, like, I’m not going to tell you who you can or can’t fuck.”
“The two of us?”
I knew that talking with Sergio meant preparing oneself to be sidetracked with every topic under the sun he could think of. I thought I’d come prepared.
Clearly, I had not.
“Jaime came by, too.” Sergio huffed. “The day after he went to your place? I think. Didn’t make sense then, either, but at least he brought gifts. Just saying.”
I frowned. Jaime had mentioned talking to Sergio, but he hadn’t mentioned gifts. I caught the half-exasperated, half-fond look Abel gave Sergio, though. As far as I was concerned, it meant that follow-up questions were not worth the hassle.
“I’m not here to ask you for permission to do whatever it is I’m doing with Jaime.”
I steeled myself for the emotion that would cross Sergio’s face.
For the anger.
Of course, anger was nowhere to be seen. Shock, maybe. More confusion, definitely.
I sighed. “As I said, I should’ve come here a long time ago. To explain. And apologize. And clear the air.”
“I’m good.”
That was why his jaw clenched the way it did?
“Little bird,” Abel warned.
It was definitely a good thing that I’d thought to include him. Abel and I hadn’t gotten off to the best start, and I hadn’t cleared the air with him yet, either, but he was a Daddy through and through.
Sergio was his number one priority, too. I didn’t need to be a part of the inner circle to see as much. There were times when it was slightly nauseating, the way Abel’s gaze never strayed far from wherever Sergio was.
“What?” Sergio sputtered before crossing his arms over his chest. “You all are more upset about the whole thing than I am?—”
“If I may, last time we talked, you lost your shit,” I interrupted. Sergio could go for hours arguing over absolutely nothing and not run out of steam. I raised my palms in the air when he glared at me. “It was warranted, but not the reaction of someone who’s good .”
Sergio just huffed. I paid more attention to Abel. It was easy to see that he was measuring every word I said, testing me. I had no doubt he’d have no problem kicking me out if I overstepped in the slightest. I wasn’t angry about it. I would do the same if I was someone’s Daddy and had the kind of dynamic they had. I respected it.
Just as I respected the glint of approval in his eyes.
“I should’ve never asked you to see me at my office.” I winced. That whole series of events was one I avoided thinking about as much as I could. The entire thing was blurry around the edges, hazy in that way that made me question if I was remembering it right or if maybe I was either adding or omitting some key elements. “I definitely shouldn’t have riled you up or made a move on you. That handjob should’ve never happened, Sergio. Do you understand that?”
Instead of pinning me with a biting answer, Sergio hopped off the stool he’d been on and went to Abel. I watched as Sergio pushed him until he could make room for himself on his lap.
I was glad he could have that support.
If my arm itched because I, too, craved to have a boy to curl my arm around? It didn’t matter.
“Okay, here’s the thing.” Sergio blew hot air on his hands before splaying them over the marble counter. “I really, really could not care less about the handjob. Seriously. That’s not… It was inconsequential then, and it is inconsequential now. And don’t you dare crack a joke about me using big words. Either of you.”
I shared a quick look with Abel, then shook my head. Cracking jokes had been nowhere near the front of my mind, and I doubted his Daddy was thinking any different.
“All right,” I acquiesced. “What was consequential, then?”
The corner of Sergio’s lip twitched upward.
“You…” He sighed. “You never brought up your brother. And you were mean later, at the club, every single time. Even though I would’ve never outed you. Or confronted you about anything. And then , when Erika and Daddy forced us to talk about it or whatever, and I asked you why you never did anything, you?—”
“It’s gonna sound bad,” I prefaced. It had been a long-ass week. When Erika had mentioned squaring up my history with Sergio, I didn’t think I’d be rehashing the past like this. I probably should have, but… Long-ass week. “I guess the way I justified things in my head was that, if the bullying had bothered you so much, you would’ve just… stopped flaunting it.”
“I remember,” I said, cutting him off. It was twice in a short span of time. Not my best moment. “I was wrong. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
It felt like bad ideas kept following me around, as of late. I’d been debating with myself. Coming here was too soon, too fast. My nervous system was just starting to regulate at the idea of being around Jaime. Rehashing the past—Sergio’s past, to be more precise—had always felt like the final boss I had to level up for.
I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing here.
“I mean, yeah. You were.” Sergio scoffed. “Do you also think Jaime’s going to stop flaunting anything?”
I frowned. That really hadn’t been the best way to word anything while I’d tried to explain my very flawed logic when thinking about the homophobic bullying Sergio had been a victim of.
“No. No.” Bile rose up in my throat. “That’s not—did he say anything to you?”
Fuck. Now I was fumbling like a teenager in front of the guy who definitely had no interest in seeing me like this.
Being vulnerable was hard enough with the people I knew I could rely on—and not something I’d gotten a lot of experience with, given the number of people who fell under that category was limited.
“No.” Sergio scrunched up his nose. “To be honest, I didn’t let them talk a whole lot after they gave me a rundown of the whole thing. So, who knows. But they’re my friend. I have a right to care about them.”
“Yeah.” I glanced up at the white ceiling. I didn’t miss how Sergio emphasized the pronouns. I just didn’t think getting into it would get us anywhere. I heard the rest of what he was saying, though. Sergio had a reputation for having taken Kara, the other Little in their inner circle, under his wing. He was her self-appointed protector and took his duty seriously. I imagined some of that protectiveness spilled out to the rest of his friends. “It’s good that you do. I don’t have any plans to take Jaime away from you. And I don’t have any plans to see Jaime upset because I’m getting between the two of you.”
“Sounds like a you problem,” Sergio blurted out. I was pretty sure Abel pinched his skin. Or maybe Sergio just squirmed because he was thinking faster than he could talk. Both he and Jaime had that problem. “I don’t like not liking people, for the record. Right now, I don’t like you. At all. But I don’t like that. And it’s really unfair, but you’re not giving me any reason to change my mind about you, and hooking up with my friend does not count. And Daddy says I don’t have to just take everything people give me and make my peace with it, so that’s what I’m doing here. I’m also making it clear so I get rewards later. Cough, cough. But anyway. My point is, I don’t like you, and I’m not going to lift a finger to like you, but you’re welcome to do the work or whatever.”
I…
That was not what I’d expected.
Well, I’d expected a rambling monologue at some point. Those were Sergio’s preferred method of communication. I hadn’t expected the content of it.
“Um.” I cleared my throat.
It felt raspier than usual, all of a sudden.
“Oh, and I’m not planning to get in the middle of Jaime and you? Same as I never planned to out you back when I saw you were a member at Plumas? Because I’m not an asshole?” Sergio cocked his head to the side. “Just saying, but everyone assuming I am is getting kind of tiring.”
Who did he mean by everyone? Well, I didn’t know that it mattered. I heard what he was saying, and I had definitely thought he would out me, back when I caught sight of him at the club. Hell, I’d even subtly asked Erika about his vetting process back then. I still wondered how she hadn’t connected the dots—or why she hadn’t mentioned it in any of her talks with me since everything came to light.
There were so many things about this group I didn’t understand yet, no matter how much I thought I did just from watching the way they gelled together.
“You’re right. Assumptions are a bitch.”
If it came out more loaded than intended? I shrugged it off. I definitely didn’t avoid Abel’s piercing glance from his spot holding his boy.
“Good.” Sergio nodded emphatically. “Oh, I guess I was an asshole to Jen and Marga, even though Daddy and everyone else keeps saying it was a trauma response or whatever. But, uh, I am sorry about that. I apologized to them, too, but… Yeah. I was mean to them.”
I hummed. Truth be told, I didn’t hear about what went down that day from the two girls. I read about it later in the group chats we had for Plumas, and by then, Marga and Jen had already told me they were out of the contract and any other dynamics we had. It had been a blur of a visit. I hadn’t had a lot of spoons around that time to worry, put up a fight, or wonder about anything else other than what the next step in my life was going to look like.
At that point in time, I wasn’t sure how my place in the university was going to hold. I didn’t know how or when my family was going to retaliate. I remembered I kept closing my eyes and imagining an earthquake between my feet, making me lose my footing as a crack opened up in the earth and swallowed me whole.
So, I remembered reading about the fight between Sergio and the two girls, and the LEGO incident that ended up with an ER visit and Sergio wearing an eye patch for a few days. That was it.
If I had actually been together with Marga and Jen, I would’ve appreciated Sergio coming to me to talk about it. I repeated the thought to myself until I could bring myself back to the present, to the two men now staring at me as if I’d grown a second head. Or as if I was about to lose it in front of them.
I would love to say the former was likelier.
I wasn’t so sure.
“It’s okay. I was glad to see your eye healed just fine.”
I grimaced. That was probably the most awkward response I’d given him.
The two of them felt it, too. Abel had a better poker face than Sergio did, but it wasn’t perfect. And this was painful.
“Why are you holding a workshop on spanking, anyway?” Sergio sputtered. It shocked both Abel and me. “I mean, no offense to you D-types, and Daddy, this is not an opening! But what’s so hard about spanking you all need a class on it?”
I widened my eyes. Abel coughed behind his fist to hide a spurt of laughter.
“Next time we get a newbie Domm, ask them to spank you.” I raised an eyebrow. “That’ll give you your answer.”
Sergio scrunched up his nose. “You’re dreaming if you think I’m going to willingly ask someone to spank me. It’s called survival skills.”
Abel kept with his coughing stint. “You have some of those now, little bird?”
I shook my head. “I’m going to take this as my cue to leave.”
I’d been shaken enough for one day, and I hadn’t landed on solid ground quite yet.
Jaime wasn’t going to fix it, but I shot off a text to him anyway before I started my car.
Tony
I haven’t received any drafted emails yet, pup. Should I be worried?
The answer came right away, before I could drop my phone on the center console.
Jaime
I was going to work on it this weekend. I had like three deadlines this week
Tony
I thought those weren’t a thing in private education.
Jaime
Very funny
They are if you’re on a scholarship
Tony
I’m about to start driving. Behave.
Jaime
I’ve literally done nothing
I didn’t answer. My willpower to not be roped into whatever it was Jaime was scheming was not at its best right this minute.