Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Nope, this was about something he’d worked himself up over that I wouldn’t understand anyway and he’d just pout and sigh until we hugged it out.
So it was time for Bates to take over that role because the internet said it should be his job.
And sips of water weren’t cutting it anymore, but I was patient and more patient, and eventually, Cash tried again. “I had a few frustrating moments today that all kind of caught up with me.”
Okay, now we were getting somewhere.
Hmm, it hadn’t taken as long as it had last time he’d lost his mind, so maybe having a Dom made finding his sanity easier when it wandered off?
“Would you like to tell us about it now, or is it a cuddle and get it out later kind of a conversation?” Bates asked the best questions and he even reached out and stroked Cash’s head.
Cash was so cute, he leaned into Bates’s touch and sighed. “No, we can do it now.”
That was good because I wasn’t sure his mental stability could wait if we dragged it out. Cash hadn’t even been able to pick out dinner and he loved Italian food.
“Alright, where should we start?” Bates’s even tone had even me relaxing and I hadn’t been stressed.
Just hungry.
I was going to have a snack next time Cash had a meltdown.
“Well, the day started with a conversation in my morning class, that stupid family relationships psychology one.” He hated that class but he’d needed a few more credit hours and it’d been the only one that fit into his schedule.
Oh, was this about our biological family?
“The class was on setting healthy relationship boundaries.” Leaning back in his chair, Cash frowned. “It wasn’t…I couldn’t relate to any of it.”
Why?
If it’d been just the two of us, I wouldn’t have asked, but Bates was there to fix things if I drove him nuts, so I decided to take a chance. “Why?”
When they both looked at me, I tried again with more words. “I mean, we’re awesome at explaining what we need from Bates and we’re doing better at telling Brady no. We’re even doing great at putting healthy distance between us and our biological family. I think we’ve done an awesome job of learning healthy boundaries.”
We probably needed to work on a few areas, but overall, I was impressed with us.
Cash frowned, but it was his confused one not his frustrated one. So we were doing better, but I was still a bit lost. “I… Yeah, I guess we have.”
So?
Bates always did a great job of fixing conversations that had wandered a bit off the path. “So you’ve made a lot of progress, because just wrangling Brady is an impressive feat, but something made you think you weren’t doing a good job on boundaries?”
Licking his lips and wiggling, Cash nodded. “It sounds even more insane now, but the discussion eventually started focusing on boundaries in dating relationships and it got…well…it got stuck on taking your time and making sure you’re not letting your partner push you into something you’re not ready for and I realized we might be pushing you into stuff you’re not ready for.”
If anyone was pushy it was me.
Bates probably knew that too because he just blinked for a moment before cocking his head. “Okay, I’m going to process that for a minute while you tell me what else upset you. I think I need the full picture of your day in order to respond. Piecemeal isn’t going to work with this.”
Good point.
“Alright.” Cash still looked confused, but I thought he liked having someone else take charge of fixing his drama.
Bates was doing a much better job than I would have because Cash immediately started spilling out the rest of his frustrations. “After class, a few other students were continuing the discussion on relationships and I got caught up in it as I went to get coffee.”
I could see that happening. He liked talking to people and he had a hard time telling them to mind their own business. He was just as curious as I was, even if he didn’t like to admit it. “They asked about my relationships.”
Frowning, Cash cocked his head. “Maybe because I wasn’t sharing enough in class? I don’t know, but somehow, they thought I was charging headfirst into a relationship going nowhere and they were really stumped on the whole three people thing.”
Clearly they’d led very sheltered lives.
We weren’t anywhere near the weirdest people I’d met on campus.
“I managed to escape—coffee just wasn’t worth it—but they were so confusing, and then when I got back, I saw the stairs guy again and he asked me if we’d moved in together already.” Cash sighed, looking sheepish. “And that just seemed to be the icing on the cake? I don’t know. It just felt like a long day.”