Chapter 28

28

Julie

The door to the Marquis office she shared with Law banged open, and there stood the man himself, glaring at her. Julie raised her eyebrow at him. She was tired. It had been a long day of dealing with other people's problems while trying to sort through her own, and she still needed to call Connor after she was done here tonight. She was kind of dreading it because she didn't know how it was going to go and just thinking about it was tying her up in knots.

"What the hell, Julie?" he asked, storming in. Iris followed behind him, a lot less dramatically, but her expression was pretty blank, which was unusual since she was normally smiling.

"What the hell, Law?" she mimicked as he glared at her from across their desks. "What got up your ass?"

"You. I mean—" He flushed, an undertone of red appearing on his cheeks before shaking his head as though he could shake the embarrassment away, and Iris snickered, moving around to the side where a comfortable seat was placed for anyone who needed to sit down in the office away from the desks. "That's not what I meant. I meant, what the hell did you do to Connor?"

Ice slid through her, making her sit up straighter and freezing her emotions. She should have realized, and she could have kicked herself for not figuring out immediately what his issue was. If she had, she never would have bantered back to him, despite how amusing his response had been, because it was none of his fucking business.

"What happened between me and Connor is between me and Connor, both in the past and anything that happens in the future."

"Is there going to be a future?" Law asked, glaring down at her.

She didn't like the advantage that his height gave her while she was sitting down, but it wasn't as if it would be that much better even when she stood up, so she did her best to ignore the intimidation factor.

"Also between me and Connor. That's an A and B conversation, so you need to see your way out of it." Was she reverting back to grade school? Yes, she was, but it was appropriate. Law was acting like a child.

"You can't dump him just because he was trying to impress your family. That's supposed to be a good thing."

Great. Now, another headache was forming at her temples. The only good thing right now was that she knew Connor wasn't responsible for Law's behavior, and she also knew that it would be wildly unreasonable for her to ask him not to talk about things between them with their friends. Though she might ask him to be a little choosier about which friends he confided in in the future.

If they had a future.

"No one asked him to help," she responded coolly, holding up her hand to stop Law before he could respond. "I have very strongly established boundaries with my parents for a reason, which is also none of your business, and rather than respecting those boundaries, Connor took it upon himself to change them for me. Which is also none of your business. But since you have partial knowledge of the situation and didn't bother to ask me about how I was feeling, the way a good friend would, and just jumped to conclusions and a side, I will tell you that it goes far beyond Connor trying to help."

Law made a disgruntled noise, but he was no longer glaring at her. As much as she understood his protectiveness over Connor, she was getting really tired of it. They were supposed to be friends, too, and he kept jumping to conclusions about her. It felt as though there was a serious double standard at work. She was pretty sure he hadn't done anything like this to any of his male friends—he hadn't been this bad about Morgan and Asad, even though Morgan had been in a position to possibly need actual protecting.

"I'm sorry," he said.

The immediate apology did actually go a little way toward soothing some of her hurt feelings. Not all the way, but it helped release some of the tension that was growing in her shoulders.

"I'm just struggling because he's so hurt, he didn't even go into work today, but here you are going about your day as usual, and I don't really think he did anything wrong. He might not have gone about it in the right way, but he had good intentions."

"Good intentions matter, but they aren't everything," Julie replied, feeling tired and a little judged. Yes, she'd gone about her day as usual because she was distracting herself, letting her brain work through her shit in the background while she did other things. It wasn't how everyone operated, but it was how she operated, and God, she was so tired of people misunderstanding things she did just because it wasn't the same way they would have reacted.

Iris cleared her throat.

"Excuse me, Law, but did I just hear you say that he might not have gone about it in the right way, but he had good intentions?" There was something very pointed in her tone. Law and Julie turned their heads to look at her, but her focus was entirely on Law. Something in her expression made Julie think her fellow Dom had just seriously stepped in it.

"Yes," Law said slowly, as if he sensed the trap but couldn't quite figure out what it was or where it had been laid.

Iris' eyes narrowed.

"And were you or were you not the person who told me ‘impact over intent' when I reached out to your mom about this upcoming Thanksgiving without telling you?"

"That was different." The words came out rushed and not entirely convincing.

"Oh, really? Please enlighten me on how it was different because I'm pretty sure I got both a lecture and a spanking for engaging with your family without talking to you first, even though I was just trying to make things better for both of us and working on getting your mom to like me… you know, as much as she likes your ex. Sounds like a pretty similar situation, actually. "

Law's hand came up, rubbing over his head.

"It's… I mean, I see what you're saying, but it's not the same."

"Sounds the same to me," Julie said, getting to her feet. "However, I don't think this discussion has anything to do with me and everything to do with the two of you, so I'm going to leave you to it. I have a call to make."

Perhaps talking to Connor tonight, after being confronted by Law, wasn't the best timing, but she didn't think it was fair to leave him hanging. At the very least, she could text him and set up a time and place to meet, but the main point was that she wanted to get out of there and away from Law and Iris' back and forth. It wasn't actually an argument yet but if it became one, she didn't need to be there for it.

She had her own relationship issues to work out.

Unfortunately, when she stepped out into the lobby of Marquis, Olivia and Camille were there waiting for her. Since it was a Monday and there were no classes tonight, the club was closed, which meant they were both dressed for work rather than in fetwear. Camille must have come straight from the office.

"Oh, no," she groaned, slumping. "Not you, too."

"Well, you have to admit, we're better than Law, at least," Camille commented, her lips quirking up in a smile.

"You'd better be," Julie grumbled, sighing as she made her way over to her friends. Despite their words, as soon as she reached them, they both opened their arms to hug her.

They knew she was hurting. They knew this wasn't easy for her. The fact that Law was putting everything on her shoulders was definitely a big pain point for her. Did she recognize that she'd behaved unreasonably in some places? Absolutely. But she wasn't the only one who'd been in the wrong. Connor had made mistakes, too. While she was absolutely going to own up to what she'd done wrong, she didn't get the feeling Law had seen where Connor had stepped in it, too. And the fact he and Iris had apparently had a similar situation recently, and Law still didn't see where Julie was coming from…

She squeezed her friends back, incredibly grateful for their support.

"So how much have you heard?" she asked as the hug broke apart, and Olivia gestured for them to go into her office. Pulling her phone out of her purse, she sent off a quick text to Connor, asking if he'd be free to talk a little later. Olivia took her own seat in the chair on the other side of the desk, and Camille settled into the one next to Julie.

"Just that the meet-the-family didn't go so well," Olivia said. "Something about Connor making too good of an impression on your family?" The dubious way she said it made Julie feel a little better since Olivia obviously didn't put any credence in the idea.

Julie had to laugh.

"It's sort of true." She sighed. "Not that I didn't want him to, but… well, we showed up, went inside to get drinks, and when we were about to head out to the backyard, I saw that John was there."

"Girl, no…" Camille gasped, putting her hand on her chest, her jaw dropping. Olivia made an aggravated noise, picking up a pen and starting to twirl it around in her hands.

"Pretty much. So you know, I said we needed to go. Because that's my boundary with my parents. I'm not going to try to keep them from maintaining their relationship with John if that's what they insist on doing, but I'm also not going to be there for it." She couldn't control what they did; she could only control what she did. "Instead, Connor decided that we should stay… something about not letting John win since it's my parents and my family, and then he took my hand and led me outside."

"And you let him?" Olivia raised her eyebrows in surprise, and Julie grimaced. Yeah, she should have dug her heels in then, but…

"Honestly, I had kind of frozen. I don't know why, but I really didn't expect my parents to invite John. I saw him and realized what had happened and… froze. I also didn't expect Connor to just decide for me what we were doing, and I wasn't really thinking. I just went with him." She sighed again, rubbing her forehead where it was creasing. For the past twenty-four hours, she'd been psychoanalyzing herself in the back of her head, trying to figure out why she'd acted the way she had, yet she felt no closer to answers.

"I'm sure him saying something about winning didn't help," Camille observed. "First, because that was definitely going to remind you of John. Second, because he was also right about that. If you keep letting John chase you off from your own family, he's definitely winning."

"But if I stay, my parents are getting what they want." Julie made a face. "And then I have to put up with John. I divorced him specifically so I wouldn't have to do that anymore."

"Fair point." Olivia was still playing with her pen, one end of it tapping lightly against her desk while she was thinking. "So, then Connor spent the afternoon showing off to your parents and focusing on them and what they wanted instead of you and what you wanted, which meant they won, and on top of that, you had to spend time around John again." Her tone had definitely turned disapproving.

"I'm sure he wasn't thinking about it like that." Which was exactly what she'd been telling herself, but it hadn't really sunk in until she was defending him to Olivia. Olivia smiled, and Julie rolled her eyes.

Yeah, she'd been set up for that one. She got it.

"Did he know about the boundaries you have with your parents?" Camille asked.

"Yeah, we've talked about how I deal with them. Granted, I didn't say, ‘Hey, if my ex shows up to this, we're out of here' because I didn't think I would need to, but he knows I don't stay on the phone with them if they bring him up. He knows about me leaving as soon as John showed up the other week. That's why I told my parents about him in the first place." She sighed.

Her phone beeped, and she automatically checked it, blinking in surprise as she read the message back from Connor.

"He's downstairs." The text said he'd be happy to talk right now, but he was at the Marquis restaurant with Q and Asad.

"Who?" Olivia frowned, her pen coming to a halt.

"Connor."

"Oh." The pen started up again. "For a wild second, I thought you meant John."

That startled a laugh out of Julie, which helped undo a few of the knots that had formed in her stomach the moment she'd read Connor's message. She did want to talk to him. Should she go downstairs? Was it better to do it in a public space or wait until they were in private? She didn't want to interrupt his time with his friends.

Pressing her lips together, she texted him back, letting him know that she was upstairs and that she could come down to talk or she could call him later if he let her know when he was home.

"I do think it's a little different than with John," Camille said thoughtfully, making Julie sigh again.

"I know it's different. He was doing it for me. But like I just told Law, good intentions matter, but they aren't everything. I am grateful for the effort he put forward in impressing my family, but I'm still mad he didn't listen to me when I said we needed to leave. Especially since he knew how I've handled my parents in the past."

"Valid." Camille gave her a sympathetic look. "I just really want you guys to work out. He's made you happy."

"He has. We just… we need to talk. He needs to know it's not okay to do that again."

"And he needs to know to prioritize you and what you want over what he wants when it comes to your family," Olivia added. "Connor's first instinct is for people to like him, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'd be willing to bet he realized if he left with you, your parents might not like him. Add that into the idea that they might like your ex more than him… That would be hard for him to deal with. But that doesn't mean it's more important than how you choose to deal with your family or what you want to do in regard to them."

"Exactly." Julie sighed. It was such a relief to hear her own thoughts coming out of Olivia's mouth, soothing away some of the self-doubt Law had stirred up in her.

Her phone beeped with another text message.

Connor: If you want to come down and talk, I'd love to see you. Or I can let you know when I get home. Whichever you're more comfortable with.

That answer helped relax even more of her tension. He was giving her the reins of control, letting her know his needs, then leaving the decision up to her. Exactly what he hadn't done at her parents'.

Maybe things would work out after all.