Red Roses Ch. 05 - Blue Roses

I got to the cafe a little early. After the brisk walk, a nice stout coffee seemed to be the ticket, so I ordered that, powered on my tablet, and paged through the news of the day. I shook my head; the world was still run by fools, and the headlines were nothing but a spectacle. My twenty-ish waitress brought my coffee and I deferred lunch until Trish arrived.

I sensed a presence at my side. I looked up, expecting to see Trish but instead confronted with Meredith's smirking face. "Morning, Justin."

Keeping the distaste out of my voice would have been impossible and I didn't even try. "It's your first day back from your trip and you can't wait to start trouble? What do you want, Meredith?"

"Oh, just to chat a moment. I followed you from the office. Mind if I join you?"

"Actually, yes, since my wife is on my way to join me."

She laughed and sat anyway.

I narrowed my eyes but before I could say anything, she said, "When did you and your wife decide to enter the lifestyle?"

The blood in my veins froze. "What are you talking about?"

"She's your sub, right?" She said it in such a casual manner, like she was discussing the weather. "I heard part of your conversation at Silk Sheets that day when you were buying the choker."

I recalled the feeling of being watched. "What were you doing there?"

Meredith smirked. "None of your business."

"And what my wife and I do isn't any of yours."

"Oh, but it is." She placed her elbows on the table and steepled her fingers. The waitress approached but Meredith asked for a moment. She looked back at me. "I'm sure you'd like to keep this between us. I can agree to that, with conditions. This can go one of two ways."

What is this, blackmail? Internally, I was not sure whether to laugh or punch the bitch's lights out. I made myself be patient and waited.

Meredith smirked. "One, I can explain your 'deviant' lifestyle to Briggs and talk about how your insistence discussing it has made the office a hostile working environment for members of your staff."

That would be Fulson and Sakamura, for sure. I resisted the urge to smile. "Or?"

I expected to hear the demand for money or support at work. Her answer could not have stunned me more if she had suddenly grown a third arm.

"Or we could come to an arrangement. I think I would like to have another sub."

I blinked. "Come again?"

"You become my sub. Maybe your pretty wife could become Frank's, like he is mine."

"Frank is your sub?" I didn't have to fake surprise.

"He is. He knows his place. But he's a switch." I knew what she meant. Trish and I had discussed the possibility but we'd decided to cement our roles where we were both comfortable. Meredith went on. "It's good that you called Trish. I called Frank too. He works a few blocks away and should be here any minute and we can all hash this out. I refuse to be his sub but Trish could be. Don't worry, he'd take care of her as well as I take care of you."

Meredith's oily smirk made me question that level of care. "I see."

Her gaze hardened to something more intimidating; at least, I am sure that was what she intended. I found it comical. "These are your choices, Justin. I go to Briggs and have you humiliated and maybe fired. Or we work something out."

I tossed back my head and laughed at her.

Meredith's glare became icy. "You're only making this harder on yourself."

"Meredith, Meredith..." I shook my head, still laughing. "You cannot be serious. How the hell did you think this conversation would go? That you'd make your little blackmail demand and I would just fold--or that my wife would agree to go along with it? I know you're not stupid so I have to chalk this up to temporary insanity."

Her grin was fierce. "I guess I go to Briggs then."

"And tell him what? That either or both Bobby Fulson or Amy Sakamura feel uncomfortable in the office and that you expect HR to kick me to the curb?"

It was a slight gamble. It was possible she had another of my team members under her wing, who would spin events for her and say I'd been talking about dominance and submission in the office. I trusted that I had forty other people that would say otherwise and while it might be embarrassing to have the details of our relationship in the open, I'd be fucked to hell if I was going to let this bitch blackmail us.

Apparently, it wasn't that big of a gamble. Meredith's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. I laughed. "What, haven't you been keeping up on events? Fulson got fired last week. He's gone... and Sakamura is up to her eyeballs in a potential criminal investigation. Now what?"

She stared at me.

"This is where you failed, Meredith. The other department heads have a good relationship with me and not you, because you're a flaming bitch to work with. IT was most helpful in tracking down your communication with Fulson, where you promised him a promotion if he helped take me out. I know you were smart enough not to use your work computer but he wasn't. Then IT uncovered Amy's weak attempts at siphoning design information to our competitors. These brainiacs were your ace in the hole?"

Meredith gawked but I was on a roll.

"And what kind of blackmail is this? Two corrupted witnesses, both with prior motive to come after me? I have a good relationship with HR. You do not. Does that mean HR wouldn't act against me at all? No, but it does mean they would bend over backward to help me, which would be enough to prove Fulson and Sakamura's stories were bullshit. Did you really think this through? Do you know how hard it is to blackmail someone face-to-face? You didn't even demand my phone and tablet to make sure I wasn't recording you. Maybe you've been reading too many bad books."

I placed my tablet on the table and sipped my coffee. "And even if I had agreed to this, you want to be a dom through coercion? Through blackmail? No consent issues there. What a shitty dominant you must be if you can't do it without getting someone to submit involuntarily. How'd you force Frank into it?"

"I... uhm, he agreed to it."

"Sure he did."

Meredith grabbed onto that lifeline, talking about her husband. "He did, he really likes it. You might like it too."

"I doubt it."

"You never know until you try."

I snorted. "I don't have to fall off a roof to know I won't like it. It's not in my blood, Carter. You would understand that if you were really the dom you think you are."

She stared at me, her eyes still wide.

I threw caution to the wind. "I suggest you stop trying to stare me down. It won't work and you're just pissing me off more." My eyes bore into hers. "And if you think I'm mad now, you really won't like what comes next."

To both my amazement and my swelling sense of triumph, Meredith flicked her eyes to the side. Containing my laughter was impossible. "Well. So much for your so-called dominance."

Her cheeks reddened and her hands clenched to fists but Meredith wouldn't look at me.

The cafe door opened and Trish stepped inside. She doffed her long coat, revealing the blouse and skirt I'd told her to wear, and hung her coat on the coat rack by the door. She'd done her hair in a French braid and looked absolutely lovely. My heart thumped as she neared the table. My wife's eyes fell on Meredith and her eyebrows rose. "Hello... Meredith, right? Am I interrupting something?"

"No," I said. "Meredith and Frank are evidently in the lifestyle too, with her over Frank. She figured she could come down here and convince me to become her sub, using Bobby Fulson and Amy Sakamura as leverage. She wanted you to be Frank's sub too."

I'd told Trish all about my unruly subordinates, including an update on Sakamura when I had called for our lunch date. She'd told me that I had handled it exactly as she expected I would.

But at the moment, all she did was toss a pitying look at Meredith. "I bet that went well for her."

"Not really, no."

My wife laughed. "Some people are just too dumb to help themselves."

Meredith glared at Trish. She stood and took an aggressive step forward, right into Trish's face. "Now you listen to me--"

That was all she got out before Trish placed her hand on Meredith's shoulder and sunk her fingers into the hollow behind the other woman's clavicle. Meredith gasped and her knees buckled.

I glanced around but it was early and the cafe sparsely populated, so no one seemed to have caught the ongoing drama.

Trish gently set her back in her seat and released her grip. "Are you done?"

The other woman gawked at her in fear.

"I am his sub--" She jerked her head at me. "--out of trust and love. Do not think it makes me weak, Meredith. Justin is calm and collected when angry. I am like a hurricane and you don't want to see it. Do you understand me? I trust we won't have to have this conversation again."

"No."

Trish scowled and moved her hand back to Meredith's shoulder. "No, what?"

"No... ma'am?"

"Better," Trish said, releasing her.

I smiled at the ironic echo of the conversation she and I'd had weeks ago, when we first started.

"Meredith?" a new voice said.

Trish moved to the side, revealing a gawking Frank. He took in the scene--me sitting in calm confidence, his wife hanging her head, and my wife scowling at her. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Meredith needs to go back to the office, Frank." I gestured in the direction of our building. "She... miscalculated here today."

The waitress approached but I held up my hand and she came to a halt.

"But..." Frank flicked his eyes to Trish, who crossed her arms and glared at him. "I thought we were going to work out an understanding."

"We did." I stood. 'Meredith understands that you're both going to leave us alone now. Take her and go. Whatever you two expected today, it's not going to happen." I paused. "Frank, you have five seconds to collect Meredith and leave before I beat your ass for coming on to my wife."

Frank's face twisted. For a moment, I thought he was going to take a swing at me. I was okay with that. He was bigger but just like in a lot of these cases, it's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. I knew I was much more willing to go the distance than he was and by the look in his eyes, I think he knew it too. He took Meredith's elbow, pulled her to her feet, and led her out of there. The goggle-eyed waitress moved aside to let them go.

I took Trish's hand and her sour demeanor evaporated as I guided her to her seat. I held her chair so she could sit. She smiled, "Thank you, sir."

"Of course." I sat too.

"You think this is going to create problems for them?"

I shrugged. "Don't care. I'm less worried about the Carters than I am about the Halstroms."

My wife shot me her dazzling smile. "I'm not worried about the Halstroms as all."

Our waitress stepped to the table, looking a little tentative. "So... can I get you something, ma'am?"

Trish nodded to the girl. "My husband will order for us. I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever he chooses."

I smiled. I knew she would, because when I chose her dish, I'd pick something I knew she liked. After all, that was the whole point of this.

END

Thank you all, gentle readers, for getting to the end, and for any feedback and voting. There will be one more short chapter in the Red Roses saga. Be well!