Fuck.
I should’ve texted him privately to make sure he didn’t go through with it.
It was probably too late now.
“Babes?”
“Yeah.” I gulped. This was going to be fine, banner or not. Santos was here, and he was going to help, and actually see the inside of the club for the first time. I was excited about showing the two floors to him. “Are you still sure I shouldn’t have done a slide presentation?”
“Positive.” He snorted. “I might not know as much about kink as you do, but even I know you don’t capture a kinky audience with those.”
“I don’t know.” I wrinkled my nose. “Some kinksters are real nerdy.”
I wouldn’t say it applied to us in the inner circles—maybe Cece and their pack were the nerdiest because of all the gaming—but there were so many memes, there had to be something to it. And a high possibility that at least a few of the people attending tonight would be big into DnD campaigns and all the theoretical stuff many people bypassed.
“You’ll be fine.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true,” he countered.
Yeah, it was on me. I wouldn’t have expected him to say anything different. It didn’t mean that I had to like it, less so when I didn’t have a quick retort at the ready.
By the time I could’ve thought of something, like how he didn’t even know the people who were attending, or how I didn’t know he had one of those crystal balls that saw into the future, we were already in the club, anyway. I had gone through the motions of changing in the locker room, and I’d even had time to show Santos around a bit. A couple of the rooms were being used, so I didn’t show him those, but I did enough before the stomach cramps arrived.
I should’ve made those slides. They might’ve looked tacky because I hadn’t done them since I graduated, but it would’ve given me something to use as a crutch. Something that would take the focus off me, and the corset and fishnets that were becoming my usual outfit when I was here—bar a skirt because I’d thought it would be a good idea if everyone saw my new pink cage.
If I was honest with myself, I’d wanted to show off, and I’d always felt comfortable around the club simply wearing underwear or other revealing clothes, so I had forgotten about how everything was exacerbated when I was anxious.
Anxious sounded oddly better than terrified.
“Ev, you ready?” Abel asked.
I didn’t know he was coming. I’d accepted that Sergio would be here, but I thought his Daddy was staying home.
My shoulders slumped down at the sight of him in his usual bulldog harness and dark-washed jeans. Sergio didn’t just chill because Abel was in the same room, but it was easier to calm him down.
This was fine.
I just had to repeat the mantra enough times to believe it. It had worked in the past. No reason why it wouldn’t now.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. Abel didn’t need to be a Daddy to clearly see that I was bullshitting my way through it, but I was sure his Daddy senses, however those worked, weren’t helping my case. “Is everyone here already?”
Erika had said she’d set up the room for me, so I’d been hanging out with Santos by the main bar upstairs. The couches weren’t the most comfortable because someone just wanted them to be leather, but they were better than standing in the room while people walked in.
I wasn’t good at small talk.
“They should be,” he said. “Want me to check with Erika? She’s the one who will know.”
“It’s fine.” I would not survive him going in there for any amount of time and having to wait for a verdict, so I turned to Santos and ignored the worried look on his face. “You’re coming in?”
“I already told you I would.”
“You can change your mind.”
It was important that I reminded him, for his sake and mine, but he just rolled his eyes and pushed me to his side. Would it be acceptable if I ran the workshop from his lap?
Probably not.
