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Strolling into Liam’s dojo, Adam was almost surprised how relaxed he felt. Life was good. Fantastic even. He greeted Justin and Chris who were already there and stretching out, waiting for Liam to finish whatever he was doing in the office. Sitting down on the mat beside them he started going through his own warm-up stretches, although he felt a lot less tense than he normally did.
“How’s Angel doing?” Chris asked, when Adam settled down into horse stance once he was done warming up.
“She’s good.” A little smile stretched across Adam’s face, which was what inevitably happened any time he thought about Angel. They’d had a great weekend together and then yesterday he’d gone to her parents’ house for dinner, which had been both enlightening and entertaining. Just as she’d promised, her father had slowly opened up during the evening, although he still hadn’t talked very much in comparison to her mother. Then again, as far as Adam could tell, not too many people talked very much in comparison to Mrs. Jones.
“Got you whipped already, huh?” Justin teased him. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile at the mention of a woman.”
“Angel’s special,” Adam said, perfectly willing to admit it. More and more special to him every day.
He’d always considered himself a pretty decisive person, but he hadn’t realized how much until he’d started dating Angel. When Justin and Chris had first started dating Jessica and then Liam had gotten involved with Hilary, he’d refrained from commenting on how fast their relationships had moved in his opinion. Adam was of the opinion that there were always surprises in a relationship and it was best to get to know everything about your partner before becoming as involved as his friends had.
Now he wondered if they had felt the same inevitable rightness to their relationships as he did right now with Angel. A more negative part of him wondered if that’s what his parents had felt and look how it backfired on them. But so far his friends’ relationships seemed to be going well, no major surprises or revelations from Hilary or Jessica. Could he have that with Angel?
Although he didn’t tell her, he was already thinking in a very long-term kind of way. Wanting her at his house every weekend. Every night, but he’d take weekends for now. Wanting her to meet his parents. Wanting to impress hers. Wanting promises and assurances for a future.
And it shocked him that he wanted all of those things now. What had happened to his careful planning? His control over his emotions until he could be sure there weren’t any more unpleasant surprises coming his way? Sometimes he wondered if he’d uncovered all of them. Angel was refreshingly blunt and honest, now they were past that first big lie, so he didn’t think she was hiding anything from him, but what other things—like all male housemates—did she not consider relevant?
When she was around, these thoughts didn’t even occur to him. When she wasn’t, they would trickle through his head; insidious little doubts gnawing at him. He was self-aware enough to know those doubts didn’t have anything to do with her though, they had to do with his mom. Once, a long time ago, he’d asked his mom why she’d up and left the way she had. Her answer had been about what he’d expected; she hadn’t felt like she could talk to his father about what was wrong. Which was a combination of his dad having a strong personality while his mom was passive aggressive. Angel wasn’t his mom, and he knew that intellectually, but the insecurity and the worries still plagued the back of his mind.
He nearly fell over from horse stance when he figured out why.
Holy hell. I think I’m in love with her. When had that happened? Dumbass. He should have realized it when he first started thinking about whether or not he might have a real future with her. Sure, that was something smart to think about at his age anyway, the possibility of a future, but it was more than that.
“Yeah he’s got it bad,” Chris said, snickering. He glanced over at Justin, sharing one of their knowing little looks which had a wealth of conversation packed into it. “Remember when we first looked like that?”
“So how serious are we talking?” Justin asked. “Cuz Jessica and Hilary like her a lot. Lexie and Olivia do too. You’d better do right by her or they’re going to be in a snit.”
Adam chuckled at the threat. “You’ve been spending too much time with Hilary. A snit?”
Justin shrugged. “It’s descriptive.”
“Well if you’re going to be gossiping like a bunch of old ladies at least you’re in horse stance while you do it,” Liam said as he walked into the room. He cast amused looks over all three of them. “What are we talking about?”
“Adam and Angel.”
“Ah. Rick’s jealous as hell of you by the way,” Liam said.
“Once he moves he’ll have better luck finding someone. The way the submissives all jump to play with him at the club, it’s not like he’s going to have any trouble finding willing prospects.” Adam frowned, remembering. “They’re getting ballsier too, I had more than one of them coming to me at the party last week.”
“You’re not the only one,” Liam said, looking amused. “Although Andrew didn’t seem cut up about it.”
“It felt wrong,” said Adam grumpily.
“You can work it out here. Shake out your muscles and we can start forms.”
After putting his friends through a grueling workout, Liam suggested they all go for a beer. Sending a text to Angel that he was going to be late in calling her, Adam was surprised at how disappointed he felt when she told him she was going to bed early and she’d talk to him tomorrow.
Did she feel this constant need for his company? While he liked that she was pretty independent, he couldn’t help but feel a little put out when she took his absence so easily. Which was insane, because if she was clingy then he wouldn’t have liked that either. Maybe a little clingy would be nice.
It occurred to Adam, when he sat down with Liam, Justin, and Chris at the nearby bar that the conversational topics among his friends had shifted drastically. Even more so now the three guys apparently felt he could be included on the relationship talk. Not that they didn’t bring up sports or work or their friends or their usual inside jokes, but the talk about women was a lot more specific and a lot more serious. Especially for Chris and Justin.
“We aren’t sure what to do,” Chris said a little glumly, rounding up his explanation to Adam of the current struggle he and Justin were having with their relationship. Primarily, how to marry her when only one of them could do so legally.
“Have you talked to Jessica about it at all?”
“No.”
“Don’t you think maybe you should?”
