24. June 16th

JUNE 16TH

Sylvan

Sylvanonce again sat in the lounge at Tribe while TB finished meeting with the team. She'd started in his office. An hour later and nothing had been accomplished. Perhaps a change of scenery? The office was so sterile, and on top of that, she felt like she was invading his space, which was stupid since he'd already told her he hardly ever went in there. But the uncomfortableness remained, so that's when she'd moved to the break room.

She'd been here another hour and was getting more and more frustrated. She'd tried working on her newest manuscript, but the chair at the table was uncomfortable. She'd tried editing a paper copy of her up-and-coming book, but her brain wouldn't stay focused, and she worried she was making it worse, not better. She'd tried reading a book, but she kept picturing TB as the hero and herself as the heroine, and that wouldn't do at all.

She vaulted herself off of the couch and began frantically pacing back and forth between it and the window.

Sassafras! The man is a menace, even when he's not in the room!

Cherry walked into the lounge to get the new coffee urn and saw Sylvan pacing. On her pass back to the couch, Sylvan swore she saw a grin on Cherry's face, but since she was in profile, Sylvan wasn't one hundred percent sure. She threw herself back down on the couch. Even pacing was frustrating her.

"TB? Or your novel?" Cherry asked without turning around.

Sylvan sighed in response.

"I'll take that as a ‘yes' to both."

Out of her peripheral vision, Sylvan saw the impeccably suited Cherry standing with a teacup in her hand. Looking up at the administrative assistant, she saw the teacup being extended out to her, which she gratefully took with a quiet "Thank you."

"May I?" Cherry gestured to the couch.

Sylvan nodded and sipped her tea. Cherry perched on the arm, crossing her perfectly toned legs, one hand laying on top of the other on her thigh. Sylvan stared in silence at the woman's burgundy painted nails, the gold glitter swirl overlay winking in the fluorescent lights. They sat for a few moments like that before Sylvan burst out with, "His name should be Total Butthead! Why is he so… so…?"

"Buttheaded?" Cherry supplied.

"Yes! That! And aggravating! Closed off! Domineering! Frustrating!" She looked at Cherry's sympathetic expression. "Disturbing," she finished.

Cherry smiled. "The puzzle that is our beloved Total Bastard."

Sylvan snorted. "The man drives me kookoo."

"I'm guessing the feeling is mutual."

Sylvan shook her head in denial. She sat hunched over the teacup, elbows on her thighs, staring into its depths as if somehow the answers she was looking for were in it.

"I don't even think he likes me very much sometimes. I thought he did, when we were first getting to know each other online. I mean, he was very polite and helpful with my research. And then when we met at the club…" She blushed as she snuck a peek at Cherry. "I really thought he was attracted to me. Now? I get glimpses of someone who"s capable of feeling, like earlier when I was sick, but other times he's pushing me away so hard it's like I'm going over the edge of the Cliffs of Insanity."

"Mmm. Yes, he's definitely more of The Man in Black than Wesley."

They both snickered at the analogy.

"Unfortunately," Cherry continued, "that sounds exactly like TB. You know, he doesn't let others see the softer side of him. But his past has been darker than most of the guys, and he doesn't believe he deserves anything good because of the choices he's made. I'll share my secret." Cherry lowered her volume. "He leaves me chocolate eclairs, my favorite, on my desk on my birthday every year, but he never admits to it. I had to catch him in the act on the security cameras to figure out who it was."

Sylvan melted a little inside. "What happened to him? Why is he so shut off from the world? All he sees is the negative."

Cherry sat up straight, smoothing her hands down the already impeccable skirt of her navy blue suit, clasping her hands in her lap, mimicking a prim school teacher. "Hopefully, someday, he'll share that story with you. Waters is probably the only one who's privy to all of it since he did the intel and recruiting."

She grabbed hold of Sylvan's wrist. Her voice was almost pleading in its intensity. "Don't give up on him. He's a better man than he believes himself to be. Oh, he'll try to convince you otherwise, but he's been different since he connected with you. And it doesn't hurt that he's halfway in love with you."

Sylvan outright laughed at that. "You could not be farther from the truth. He sees me as a silly little girl, living in my castle surrounded by briars and thorns, awaiting true love's first kiss to wake me so that I can live my happily ever after."

Cherry smiled. "I think the prince already did that. Getting to you was the easy part. Unfortunately, he didn't think about what happened after he awakened you with his kiss."

"I have a million creative ideas," Sylvan mumbled under her breath.

Cherry chuckled at that. "Oh, I'm sure you do. And I'm sure he has just as many, if not more, about what to do with you. But now he's a little torn. I don't know a lot about the world of kink, but I'm guessing he's feeling a little vulnerable right now, and that's not normal for a Dominant personality. That vulnerability is warring with his need to protect you, and if he allows himself to be vulnerable with you, my guess is that makes him feel weak. Like he might fail because he's distracted by his feelings for you."

"I've yet to see him show weakness of any kind."

Cherry smiled sadly. "TB has… abandonment issues. It goes back a long way. They'll probably always be with him. They certainly won't go away overnight. He sees his friend fall in love with a strong woman, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's jealous of that. If there's anything that TB needs, it's love. But it's been so long since he's truly had it, he doesn't recognize what's right in front of him or what he's feeling, and he certainly doesn't know how to handle it.

"Knowing TB, loving someone means giving up control. He does not do that well, which is probably why the Dominant factor in his personality is so incredibly strong. And people respond to it, even men."

"I don't want him to give up his control." She looked at Cherry, eyes wide, realizing how that might sound. "I don't mean the Dominant thing."

Cherry full-out laughed. "Oh, yes, you do. But I understand that it's not just that."

She gave Sylvan's arm a quick squeeze, then stood up to return to her desk. "All of my boys are desperately in need of someone to love them. Please don't give up on him." She walked to the door and turned back before exiting. "You're good for him, Sylvan. He needs to balance out the darkness, and you do that. Everyone sees it except for the two of you, which is often how it is in your books. So instinctively, you know this. Give him space to work it out. He'll get there eventually."

With that, she walked down the hall to her desk. Sylvan sat quietly, contemplating the tea in her cup, thinking hard about Cherry's words.

Is she right? Can I reach him?

Suddenly, something clicked in her head. She stood up, crossed to the table, and sat down. She was so focused she didn't notice the uncomfortableness of the chair.

All the elements were there. She had characters. She had a what, where, and when. The how and why might be murky yet, but that's what she was best at—weaving the world of the characters into a story.

So, in her head, like a spider spinning her web, she began to weave a plot.

At the top of a new page in a new document, she centered her title.

Seduction of the Bastard Wolf.

She began to type.