Despite what Olivia had said about the other women in the class struggling with similar issues, Luke just couldn’t bring himself to talk to any of them. Domi and Rae were friendly but kind of their own little unit, Samantha kept to herself in general, and Morgan... well, Morgan was not the type of woman he could see befriending or confiding in. She was too wrapped up in appearances and flirting.

He’d meant to go into the club and see if Charlie was there—Charlie was a submissive who usually scened with male dominants but occasionally with Olivia when she asked him to. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to talking to one of Olivia’s main scene partners, even if he happened to know she hadn’t scened with him in a while (thank you, club gossip), but he needed to talk to someone.

But when he walked into the lobby and saw Freddy behind the desk, he paused. Considered.

“Hey Luke!” Freddy said cheerfully, looking up from the computer. In his mid-twenties, Freddy was a staple of Stronghold. He basically ran the front desk now that Lexie was usually helping Patrick with other things and everyone knew he was submissive. With his love of fashion and flamboyant manners, those who didn’t know him often assumed he was gay, but Luke had only seen Freddy scene with Dommes since he’d started coming to the club.

“Hey Freddy,” Luke said, coming forward and taking off his coat.

He’d changed after class, as usual, so he was wearing his regular jeans and company t-shirt. Freddy gave him a look and Luke sheepishly tugged the shirt over his head as well before also taking off his shoes and handing them to Freddy. Since Luke was now training as a submissive he was also technically supposed to look the part when at Stronghold, even if he wasn’t going to be playing for the evening.

As Freddy took Luke’s things, Luke hesitated.

“Freddy…” His voice trailed off as he tried to think about what he wanted to say. Could say.

Pausing in his duties, Freddy looked up at Luke, blue eyes curious. Taking in Luke’s expression and the way he shifted uncomfortably back and forth on his feet, the other male submissive seemed to immediately understand.

“You look like you need someone to talk to,” Freddy said, his voice lifting slightly on the end of the sentence to make it sound more like a question.

“Yeah… but, you’re working,” Luke said, still feeling uncomfortable. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to Freddy specifically; he didn’t really want to talk to anyone about his insecurities. Just the thought of saying them out loud made them sound stupid in his head. He had a feeling Freddy would be pretty easy to talk to, but part of him wanted to put off talking period.