Andie swiped at another tear as it slipped down her cheek. She sniffed quietly to herself, putting forth a grand effort not to cry. She was too tired to cry and her forehead ached from being furrowed all the time.

After Morgan left, Andie put her laptop away, her eyes too dry and her head too sore to focus on the job listings that rolled up the screen. She sat for awhile, staring out the window, and then when she felt that Morgan should have been back, she rose from the couch and made her way towards the kitchen. As she waited, her mind drifted to Eric.

How she managed to leave him, she will never know. Andie had been in love with him for what felt like a lifetime, and in the past few months, that love had only amplified and burned more passionately than it had before. When she was sixteen, she loved him as a sixteen-year-old would. But now—she loved him like a woman loves a man, and somehow, it was even more painful to be parted from him now than it had been all those years ago.

The pain in her chest was excruciating. Eric might as well have died for how awful the ache was in her chest. She could hardly breathe around the hole that throbbed all the way through her heart, and she wondered how long it would take to feel the ease of his loss. The first time around had taken years. Could she do that again?

Did she have a choice?

Forcing herself to take a deep breath in an attempt to keep the threat of tears away, Andie leaned over the counter, folding her hands between the cold surface and her forehead. She stayed there for so long that when a knock sounded at the door she was half-convinced that she had fallen asleep at the counter.

Straightening with her eyes half-closed, she shuffled to the front door, imagining Morgan standing with her hands full of coffee and tea and unable to turn the lock herself.

The knock sounded again and Andie rushed the rest of the way.

However, upon opening the door, it wasn’t Morgan who Andie saw standing on the other side.

“Hello, sweetheart.”

Eric.

Andie swayed. Eric stepped forward immediately and suddenly—as if she had never left them at all—she was in his arms and everything felt perfect.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he told her gently as her eyes burned red and a sob worked its way up her throat. “I’m not mad at you, I’m not here to get onto you. You don’t need to be afraid.”

Blinking through the wash of tears in her eyes, Andie shook her head in bewilderment. “You’re not mad?”

“No, of course not.”

“H-how are you not mad at me?” She hiccuped. “Even I’m mad at me.”

Eric’s eyes twinkled as he chuckled at her. “You have always been a lot harder on yourself than I ever was.”

Something about the way he said that made her cry, and while she buried her face in her hands, he lifted her in his arms and carried her towards the couches in the living room. He didn’t put her down. Instead, he sat in the armchair and held her in his lap.

“What’s all this about?” Eric asked as he smoothed a comforting hand up and down her back. “Are you so unhappy to see me?” he teased.

Andie shook her head immediately. “N-no,” she stammered. “I just feel stupid, a-and I thought I was going to die without you.”

She didn’t see the dark frown that replaced Eric’s teasing smile.

“That’s why I’m here,” he told her. “I didn’t think for a second that you wanted to leave me. I knew that the demons in that pretty little head of yours started talking and I wasn’t there to remind you why you shouldn’t be listening to them.”

Andie was shaking her head and groaned miserably to herself. “L-like I said… Stupid.”

His arms tightened around her. “Not stupid. Scared, and in need of me—always—but not stupid.”

“You must be so tired of talking me down from the ledge all the time,” Andie sighed.

“Never,” he countered immediately. “I want you to need me because then I won’t feel so helpless for needing you.”

Andie looked up and Eric leaned back just enough to be able to look down and meet her watery eyes. “You need me?” she asked, her voice cracking.

He nodded. “Yes, I do. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have chased you across the country in an attempt to bring you back home.”

“Is that what you’re going to do? Bring me back home?”

“If that’s what you want.”

Andie averted her gaze, the cranks in her head turning as she recalled the last 48 hours—the dispute with Morgan, the running away from Eric, the coming to terms with never being with him ever again…

“Andie,” Eric called, ducking his head as he tried to get her attention. It worked, and although her eyes returned to his, she felt very far away from him. “Don’t do that. Don’t get stuck in your head. Listen to me, I am right here with you, and whatever is going on in your head is not as important as the conversation we’re having right now.”

She nodded, blinking rapidly as she returned to him. “I was just thinking about everything I did to get away from you, and now it seems so weird to just… go back.”

Eric frowned. “You don’t want to come back?”

Andie’s eyes settled on Eric for a long moment. She took in his beautiful eyes and chestnut hair and wondered what they could be like if they were… normal.

Desperate to share her concerns, but unable to do so in such close proximity, Andie shifted in Eric’s arms and rose to her feet. Pacing several yards away and positioning herself at the window, she looked down at the bustling street and wrapped her arms around herself as she might fall apart now that Eric was no longer holding her together.

“I’m worried that we’re not normal…” she said, her eyes remaining on the people below. She heard the creak of the armchair and knew that Eric had moved to stand behind her.

“Why aren’t we normal?” he asked.

“Because our relationship is… different. I think we do things that normal people don’t do.”

“Do you think that’s going to pose a problem for our relationship?”

“I…” Andie chewed on her lip. “I mean, no… It works for us, but…”

“But nothing, then. If it works for us, then who cares what other people are doing in their relationships. And honestly,” he continued. “A little power-play isn’t all that strange. You would be surprised by the number of people who partake in the same things that you and I do.”

“How do you know?” Andie asked, desperate for facts.

“I lead a workshop once a year at the Green Parlour. You wouldn’t believe how many people show up.”

Andie turned, her attention caught, and looked at Eric. “Really?”

He smiled. “Really. I know that Morgan doesn’t think so highly of what you and I do, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I also know that her opinion means a lot to you. But I was thinking that perhaps I could speak with her, and once she understood that I’m not some awful abuser who gets off on hurting you—"

“—You do get off on hurting me,” Andie interrupted; a hint of a smile ghosting around her lips. Eric’s smile broadened to a grin.

“To an extent,” he corrected patiently. “The point is,” he continued, closing the distance between them and taking Andie’s hands in his. “I think Morgan’s response was very reactionary, and I genuinely believe that we can make her understand some of what we do.”

“I think she’s already on her way to understanding, actually.”

“How so?”

“Well, before she left this morning, she apologized for her reaction back in Florida and recognized that maybe she had overreacted a bit to what she had seen.”

“Really? I’m happy to hear it. I want Morgan to understand. I have no ill feelings towards her over this matter, and I’m eager to explain so that you and her can continue to have an honest friendship.”

“I think we can. From what I gathered from her this morning, I believe she would sit and hear us out if we wanted to unveil some of our secrets.”

“Nothing too personal, perhaps,” Eric replied with a wink. “Unless, of course, she feels like exploring in it.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

Chuckling, Eric pulled her forward and she went willingly, wrapping her arms around him just as he wrapped his around her. Her head against his chest, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply; the ache in her chest gone for the first time since she left Florida.

“So…” he murmured in her hair. “Will you come back with me?”

Sighing, Andie’s head filled with memories of their life before this one; the one where they were young and clueless yet curious just the same. It was difficult for Andie to imagine that the man in front of her was also the same boy who looked after her when she was young. He was her first and only love. If she remained firm in her decision to leave, she would never know love like this again.

Everything that he offered her—everything that she craved—set him apart from every other man in this world. She needed all of the things that he could offer her; his love, his control, his discipline… Whether it was ordinary or not, she needed it, and she would never be able to live happily without it.

It was scary, and it was hard, but it was necessary. Eric was necessary. She needed him more than life.

“Yes,” she answered softly after a painfully long pause. “I’ll come home with you.”

A sigh of relief escaped Eric and his arms tightened around her. She felt his lips press into the top of her head, and a great weight lifted from her shoulders.

As she hugged him she vowed that she would never let go again.

“I love you,” she told him. “I’m sorry I left.”

“I know, sweetheart,” he replied warmly. “I love you so much.”

“Are you sure you’re not angry?”

“I’m not angry. I’m not even disappointed. Now, that doesn’t mean you won’t get that paddling I promised you if you ever left, but you can take comfort knowing that I’m not upset with you for your actions.”

“Yeah, I’m real comforted,” Andie replied dryly before yelping at the pinch that Eric gave her bottom. She released one hand from behind Eric's back so she could rub at the throbbing area left by Eric’s pinching fingers.

“Should we go find Morgan?”

Andie leaned back and looked questionably up at Eric.

“Yeah…” he continued sheepishly. “Teddy is distracting her so that you and I could talk.”

“Oh, great,” Andie replied. “I’m sure that’s just going over perfectly.”