Page 93 of Wild Stars

He hands me the flowers, and I watch as his expression shifts to one of guilt.

“I’m sorry for...a lot of things.I haven’t been the best...”

I watch him sigh, his shoulders sinking.

I don’t want to tear my eyes away from him, but the flowers are fucking pretty.

A closer look shows the edges of the petals are crimson red.

“Boyfriend?”I test the word in the air.

Matty purses his lips.

“I mean, you really should, like, clarify that on the form.”

I watch as he pulls a folded up piece of paper out of his back pocket.He grips it tightly, and I can see his jaw tense.

“He cheated on me,” he says slowly.“Even though he checked monogamous.”

His words are full of pain, and I can’t help but set the flowers down and take a step toward him.

Matty stares at the paper in his hand, and I feel like he’s about to have a mental breakdown or something.

I only took one semester of Psychology, damn it!

I am not equipped for this!

“He stopped returning my texts.So, I followed the rules of the contract and?—”

“Shit,” I say, feeling like the worse boyfriend on the planet.

“Matty, I’m sorry.I—” I watch as he stills, gazing down at me with determination.

“Before I met you, I thought I knew what I needed.Order, structure.The chance tocarefor someone, in the only way I know how.”He licks his lips, and I am powerless to move.

“I thought being in control of my emotions meant I couldn’t be hurt.That compartmentalizing things was what was best.I didn’t evenmissbeing touched.”

He opens the paper, and hands it to me.

“What is this?”I ask as I take it from him.

“Me,” he says softly, his voice barely a whisper.

I look down at the paper.The form is familiar, a spot for a name, a section to tick off relationship preference.Everything looks the same until I get to the part about the roles.

When I signed my contract, I’d noted the box for “switch/vers” only because I was unsure of what I wanted at the time, and I figured exploring both sides might be fun.

But Matty hasn’t checked that box, or the one I expected he would.

My heart pounds in my chest like a drum as the air around me thins.

Matty’s checked submissive.

I glance up at him, to see him standing, perfectly still, his hands behind his back, and it’s at that moment, I notice his shoulders arerelaxed.

“My test results are in there, too.Clean slate, of course.”

“Matty...”My voice is but a whisper.

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