20. Check YesNo
Check Yes Or No
Q
How did one go about asking a woman to be his girlfriend? That was the question Q pondered as he held Sam’s hand on the way to Friendsgiving.
Of course, the other question was, did he even need to?
They’d spent the entire week either talking on the phone or together every evening.
She’d gone home on Monday, just like she’d said, but they’d talked on Tuesday, and he’d asked if she wanted to get dinner together on Wednesday.
Dinner had turned into another night at her place.
He’d noticed she seemed a little skittish about having him back there, so he’d done his best to show how comfortable he was in her apartment without making it into a thing.
It seemed to have worked since she’d let him stay the night again.
Unlike him, she had to get up at the butt crack of dawn for work, but he didn’t mind being woken up early if he got to stay over, so that worked for him.
Thursday was another evening on the phone, then she’d come over last night for dinner and a sleepover.
Q had loved every minute of it. It wasn’t just that the sex was great—it was.
He’d loved being tied up while she had her way with him on Wednesday as much as he’d enjoyed tying her to his bed last night and returning the favor.
He just enjoyed being around her. He didn’t want to date anyone else and sure as hell didn’t want her dating anyone else either.
At the same time, a week seemed too soon to be talking ‘relationship’ over dating.
Wasn’t it?
His last relationship had taken several months of dating before they’d started using the ‘R word.’
Glancing at Sam as he made a turn, he realized they’d been sitting in silence for several long moments. She was staring out the window, one of her legs jiggling nervously. He squeezed her hand.
“Nervous?”
“A little.”
“I could say ‘don’t be,’ but I’ll be honest. This group of people is a lot all at once. At least you already know most of them from the club. So, you kind of know what to expect.” Although she hadn’t actually hung out with the whole group of them outside the club, as far as he knew.
It was a lot louder and more rambunctious when they were all packed into one house, without kink protocols and a lot more people.
Angel had the habit of inviting whoever she wanted, not just their kinky friends, which meant everyone pretended to be vanilla.
He’d already given Sam the heads up that not everyone there would be kinky.
“I guess I’m just nervous what they’ll think about me,” she said after a moment.
“Which is silly, because, like you said, they’ve already met me.
I guess I assumed they didn’t have an opinion about me before, or I didn’t care if anyone had an opinion.
I mean, I cared, but it wasn’t like the end of the world if someone didn’t like me. ”
Laughing, Q gave her hand another squeeze.
“It’s not the end of the world if someone doesn’t like you now. I like you and that’s what matters.”
This time the look she shot him was a little irritated.
“I still care if they like me… especially if they’re your friends and their opinions mean something to you. My friends like you, and if they didn’t, I would wonder why and try to decide if there’s a good reason for it.”
“That’s valid,” Q said ruefully, thinking back to some of his exes and some of his friends’ exes.
When they hadn’t liked someone’s significant other, there had been a good reason.
Sure, sometimes people rubbed each other the wrong way, but none of them had disliked anyone for no reason.
There was a difference between ‘not getting along’ and thinking ‘you shouldn’t be with that person.
’ “Still, I already know they all like you.”
“Yeah, but that was before I was with you. They all liked me when I was just around. They might not like me as your…”
“Girlfriend?” Q suggested, jumping on the chance, even as a little voice in the back of his brain screamed that it was too soon, and he was making a horrible mistake. “I mean, if that’s what you want to be.”
She giggled and the high, happy sound went straight through his chest, relieving the tension around his heart. That didn’t sound like she hated the idea.
“I feel so high school right now, but yes,”—turning to look at him, their gazes caught and held—“I would love to be your girlfriend.”
Q grinned back at her, the emotion expanding inside him making him feel warm all over.
The moment hung until the car behind him honked, and he realized the light had turned green.
Releasing Sam’s hand just long enough to raise his in apology as he put his foot on the gas pedal, he quickly recaptured her fingers. She made a happy sound as their hands found each other again. Q felt the same way.
Sam
“And you’ve met my girlfriend, Sam.”
That was about the fifth time Q had ‘reintroduced’ her to someone she already knew, emphasizing that she was his girlfriend, and it still hadn’t gotten old.
Pure happiness rushed through her every single time.
From the twinkling amusement in Leigh’s and Jared’s eyes, they thought it was endearing as well.
“We have, I’m so glad we’ll have a chance to get to know you better,” Leigh said, leaning into Jared’s side, her eyes bright with interest. “So, you’re official now?”
“As of about thirty minutes ago when we were in the car on the way over.” Q was preening and Sam laughed. He looked so darn smug, it was impossible not to take his attitude as a compliment.
“Oh! My baby!”
To Sam’s surprise, he suddenly dropped her hand and darted off into the crowd of people, leaving her standing there staring after him with Jared and Leigh.
“Um…”
“Don’t worry, he’ll be back in a moment,” Leigh reassured her, amusement on her face. “Melody just woke up from her nap.”
Melody? It took a moment for the name to click in Sam’s head—she knew everyone here, but she didn’t know-know them. Melody was Angel and Adam’s almost one year old daughter.
Leigh hadn’t lied. Q was back almost as quickly as he’d left, grinning from ear to ear as the baby tugged on one of his ears.
“Coo! Coo!”
“Oh my God. Is that how she says Q?” As if her ovaries weren’t already freaking out. She wasn’t even sure she wanted kids, but seeing the adorableness of Q holding a grinning baby was enough to make her question the possibility.
Damn, she had it bad.
“Yes, it is. My name was her first word.” The smug expression on his face stayed in place when Angel popped up next to him, shaking her head.
“Her first word was ‘Mama,’ you dingleberry.” Angel reached up to push a blonde lock of hair off of Melody’s face.
Despite the fact Angel was half-Asian, her daughter had ended up with blonde hair and blue eyes, like her father and apparently one of Angel’s grandparents, though the rest of her facial features were pure Angel.
“Wow, she looks exactly like you,” Sam said, staring. Angel brightened, beaming at Sam as if she’d just said something brilliant.
“Thank you! That’s what I keep telling people, but all they see is the hair and eye color and they say she looks like Adam.”
“I mean, sure, but she has your face.” Sam wasn’t exaggerating. Other than her coloring, Melody looked like a little ‘mini-me.’ She could understand how people could be distracted by the hair and eyes, they were striking. Melody was a gorgeous little girl.
“Every kid says ‘mamama’ when they’re learning how to make noises, but that doesn’t mean she was actually saying ‘Mama,’” Q argued, ignoring Angel and Sam’s conversations.
“She said Mama first, Leigh, tell him.”
“I am not going to be a part of this argument,” Leigh said, laughing and holding her hands up in the gesture of surrender. “I don’t even see why it matters, she says both now… and now, she’s signing for milk, which means I think she needs Mama.”
“Ha.” Angel stole her daughter back from Q.
Melody reached for her, her chubby little fists squeezing together.
“Yes, I see you’re hungry, baby. Let’s go take care of that.
Which is what I meant to do before you were stolen from me.
” Holding her daughter possessively to her chest, she whisked away from them, heading for the seating on the other side of the room.
Seeing her coming, Patrick immediately jumped up from his seat to let her take it.
“Was Melody using sign language?” Sam was in awe as she watched Angel sit down.
The shirt she was wearing had a hidden layer, so it only took Angel a moment to whisk her boob out and pop her nipple into Melody’s mouth.
The baby reached up to play with one of Angel’s curls as she began to feed, while the conversation continued on around them, clearly expanding to include Angel.
“Yeah, she got some Baby Signing Time DVDs. They’re amazing. Melody could tell Angel she wanted milk or ‘more’ before she could talk.” Q and Angel acted like siblings, and she could totally hear the pride coming out in his voice, as if he was actually Melody’s uncle.
“Wow.” Sam knew little about babies, but that sounded pretty cool.
“It’s been fun learning with her,” Leigh said, grinning. “Kind of handy for kink, too, for when you can’t talk.” She held both her hands up in the air, twisting her wrists back and forth. “All done.”
Sam cracked up and Q laughed while Jared shook his head and shrugged, though his dark eyes were filled with amusement. Taller and broader than all of them, he was like a giant-sized Q, who wasn’t exactly a small guy. Jared was a lot quieter than Q, though.
“She’s not wrong,” he admitted with a slow smile. “Though I like ‘more’ better.”
“That’s harder to do one-handed.” Leigh pressed the tips of her fingers to her thumbs and tapped them together, like the tips of her fingers were kissing each other. Yeah, that one would be harder to do one handed.
“Oh, hey! Andrew, Kate, Law, and Iris are here!” Q said, straightening up and waving.
A little fission of trepidation fizzed through Sam.
She’d never spent time with Iris, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to after a lot of the things Noelle had said about her.
Especially since it was unlikely Iris didn’t know Sam and Noelle had been spending time together.
It was a group gathering, though, so Iris would have to be polite even if she was upset about that, right?
“I’m gonna go grab another drink,” Leigh said, glancing into her cup, then up at Jared. “Join me?”
“Of course.” His big hand splayed over her lower back, guiding her toward where the drinks were set up, which was far away from Q and Sam.
She kinda wished she could join them, but she plastered a smile on her face as Law and Iris came over, holding hands, Law slightly in front of her, pushing their way past others who gave them a nod or a wave.
Kate and Andrew were waylaid by some of their other friends, leaving Law and Iris to continue on to Q and Sam.
Adam and Angel had a big house, even bigger than Q’s, but as more people arrived, the rooms were becoming more crowded.
A few people had gone out on the back porch, even though it was a particularly cold day for November.
So, Iris and Law slid right into the place Jared and Leigh had just vacated, which was about the only place they could stand at this point.
Iris gave Q a hug, which he returned with one hand, his other still in Sam’s, before pulling away and everyone greeted each other.
“And you know my girlfriend, Sam.”
Yup, still potent enough to make her blush and warm with happiness.
“Sam, whom I’ve now had in two classes as a student and is volunteering to help with the current one? Yes, I believe we’ve met before.” Law’s tone was especially dry, and Sam pressed her lips together to hide her smile as Iris elbowed him in the side. “Oof.”
“Ignore him, he gets weird about being called my boyfriend. I’m Iris. I don’t think we’ve met officially.” Iris seemed perfectly friendly, though maybe a little nervous, as she reached out her hand for Sam to shake.
“We haven’t, but it’s nice to meet you.” She let go of Q’s hand to shake Iris’, relieved to see she wasn’t the only one a little anxious over this meeting.
“I’m excited Q has a girlfriend now. When I hang out with Law, Q, Connor, and Asad, I always have fun, but the testosterone can get a little out of hand. It’ll be nice to have someone else there.” Iris smiled, but it didn’t quite make it to her eyes, which were pinned anxiously on Sam’s face.
“Oh gosh, I can only imagine, especially with the Persian Excursion there,” Sam replied, smiling back. Her answer seemed to soothe some of Iris’ anxieties, and the other woman relaxed.
Had she been nervous that Sam wouldn’t like her?
Maybe?
Either way, as they started to chat it became easier to forget the things Noelle had said about her.
Iris was perfectly friendly, and Noelle’s name never came up.
By the time everyone was sitting around the table—which was long enough it went through two rooms so it could fit everyone—Sam was comfortable being across from her and Law, talking with them.
The table was way too big for everyone to talk to each other, so it ended up being segmented with those across from each other.
The conversations did shift some, so she also ended up chatting with Angel, who was sitting beside her, and Patrick and Lexie, who were sitting across from Angel, but she spent the most time talking with Iris and Law.
And she enjoyed it.