She wasn’t the same girl he’d known back in high school. She didn’t have the same positive outlook on the world, she didn’t have the same courage, the same confidence. He’d spent so much time her freshman year, helping her build up all of that, and after he’d left, she’d held onto it for a while... until she’d fucked everything up. Now she was broken. She didn’t trust. She didn’t do vulnerability and openness. And she hadn’t wanted him to see the new her. The fact that she was very much attracted to him didn’t help her state of mind either. Ellie didn’t do very attracted. Ellie did do scenes, but with strict boundaries, witnesses, and plenty of emotional space.

But when she’d tried to start pulling away from Angel, Lexie, and Andrew, somehow she’d found herself being pulled back. At one point, Angel, who was very close friends with Michael, had even told her, “I don’t care what weirdness there is between you and Mike, I like you, so I’m keeping you.”

It had warmed Ellie from the inside out. She still tried to keep herself a little separate from the group of friends, but... she liked having friends. So she’d tried to keep herself separate from Michael. And that had worked.

Until she’d gotten all pent-up and unable to hold herself together. Work had been crazy, being around Michael at the club had been driving her crazy, and she asked Andrew for a scene - which also stressed her out because he’d finally gotten back together with his ex-girlfriend. Not that she was asking for a sexual scene, they hadn’t had one of those in months anyway, but she’d needed the pain... needed the release.

Andrew had agreed, as long as Kate could be there to watch, but he’d also included a fourth party to the scene. Even though Ellie had been blindfolded and the guest Dom never spoke and left before her eyes were uncovered, she’d known exactly who it was. But the blindfold had let her pretend, and it had been one of the most intense and satisfying scenes she’d ever done.

She’d tried to lie to herself that the high of the scene was because having two Doms working her over was an incredible experience, but deep down she knew that wasn’t all of it.

Then, she’d been invited to come to Kate’s choral concert. She couldn’t say no. Not after Kate had been generous enough to let Andrew scene with Ellie. Besides, she liked Kate. She liked Andrew’s group of friends. She liked being included. They were the first friends she’d made that she spent time with outside of the club as well as in it.