Chapter Three The Dinner Party
When Tenn pulled up to the house and parked in Quinn's driveway, Viki got out of the car slowly, looking apprehensive. “What are we doing here?”
“This is Quinn's house. Why?”
“Oh...” She looked more than a little flustered now. “I must be confused. I thought my co-worker lived here, but it must be another house.”
“Huh.” Tenn smiled to himself; they were in an area of Brookline where the houses were a little older, and Quinn's house had a more updated look to it; there was no way she was confused. “This is the address she gave me.” He walked up to the door and rang the bell. A minute later, Quinn opened the door, wearing an adorable, knee-length green sundress with a pink floral pattern, empire waist, and bell sleeves that perfectly showed off her gorgeous figure. She smiled at him warmly, looking absolutely delighted to see him.
“Tenn. Hi!” She stepped back so they could come in.
“Hey, Quinn. This is my wife, Viki.” Tenn introduced them, watching closely to see if Viki showed any sign of recognition. She might have slightly widened her eyes, but he couldn't be sure. She was definitely very nervous though.
“Lovely to meet you.” Quinn smiled politely and gestured for them to come in. “My husband is in the living room. Right through here.” She strategically stepped back, so Viki went through the arch first, following with Tenn behind her.
“Joel?” She spoke, and they both watched as he looked over from the baseball game on TV, saw Viki, and the colour drained from his face. “This is Tenn and his wife, Viki.” Joel and Viki just stared at each other, dumbfounded and Quinn made a show of looking surprised and a little concerned. “Do you two know each other?”
“Yeah. We work together.” Joel recovered fairly quickly and stood up. “Viki is the new receptionist at the dealership.”
“Yes,” Viki said faintly, nodding.
“Oh, excellent! This makes things so much better.” Quinn said brightly as she walked over and took Joel's arm. He looked down at her and smiled nervously. “This is Tenn, Tenn, my husband, Joel.” They shook hands and said hello. “I just have a few things to take care of in the kitchen, so come through, and we'll have a glass of wine before we eat.” She gestured for them to follow her and led the way to the kitchen. The atmosphere was tense and awkward, but Tenn had to hand it to her and her acting abilities because she sounded like she was in the middle of a great dinner party. “I made homemade spaghetti and meatballs with a garlic cheese loaf and Caesar salad. I hope that's okay with everyone.”
“Sounds and smells wonderful, Quinn,” Tenn said brightly, emulating her attitude, but being very honest, it did sound wonderful, and the smells of garlic and tomato sauce were making his stomach growl in anticipation. “You didn't have to go through so much trouble.” The kitchen was warm, bright, and cheerful, with creamsicle orange walls and terracotta floor tiles. The cupboards were dark teal, and the counters were dark wood grain with resin. It was clearly set up for large, informal gatherings, with a sizable round table in an oversized glass breakfast nook.
“No trouble at all. I love to cook. I make a monthly dinner for the staff at the library; most of them are students working part-time and living away from home, so getting a home-cooked meal every now and then makes them feel less homesick.” She smiled as she took the lid off the spaghetti sauce and quickly stirred it. “Just have to put the loaf in the oven to melt the cheese and cook the pasta, and we can eat. Joel, would you mind handling the drinks, please?”
“Yeah, no problem.” Tenn noticed his smile was very forced and had to admit that removing his desire to call them both out was making this a lot of fun. “We have a couple of bottles of wine, but I can make a drink at the bar, too. I know Quinn will have wine, Tenn?”
“Wine sounds great.” Tenn nodded. He watched Quinn move around the kitchen, calm and confident in her space and tried to syphon some of it to him. He still kind of wanted to punch Joel in the throat but was also enjoying his discomfort. Realising Viki hadn't said a word. He looked to see her standing frozen in the doorway, looking like someone had kicked her puppy. “Come in and sit down, Vik.” He gestured at the stool next to him. She shook her head and forced a smile as she came in.
“Sorry, I'm just surprised, that's all. Joel had painted you as more of a free-spirited hippie/bohemian woman, not quite so domesticated.” She met Joel's eyes reproachfully as he poured the wine, and Tenn noted that he hadn't asked her what she would want, just poured her a glass of red wine.
“Oh?” Quinn laughed lightly. “I am the head librarian in the Visual Arts Resource Library at Boston University, and I paint and like to dress a little hippish, I guess. I'm probably not as domestic as he would like. That whole stay-at-home wife thing was never something I wanted to do.”
“I was raised to believe the men look after their wives; what can I say?” Joel shrugged as he passed out the wine. “Men work and make money, and their wives look after the home.”
“Tenn believes women should contribute,” Viki said a little snarkily as she took the glass of wine from Joel. Tenn noticed that when their fingers touched, Joel pulled away like he had been shocked.
“Yes. If someone wants to be a stay-at-home wife, they should contribute by keeping the house clean, cooking meals, and making it easier for their husband to work more to fund them both.” Tenn said mildly, not looking to have this fight with her again, especially in front of Quinn. “Especially if there are no children to look after.”
“Exactly.” Joel nodded and sounded surprised that Tenn had that view, making Tenn wonder what Viki had told him.
“And if she wants to work and help contribute financially, then the husband helps contribute to the household chores.” Tenn continued. “Nothing should fall one hundred percent on either spouse. It's supposed to be a partnership.”
“I agree.” Quinn smiled at Tenn as she began pulling out plates.
“Do you need a hand?” Tenn asked. It was clear Joel wasn't going to help; he was sitting at the end of the island snacking on the grapes in the fruit bowl.
“Um. Sure, could you pull the garlic loaf out of the oven, please?” Quinn nodded and gave him a smile of thanks as she put a strainer in the sink and grabbed the pot of pasta to drain.
“No problem.” He got up and came around the island. Her kitchen was very intuitive, and he found the oven mitts immediately. They moved easily around each other like they had been doing this for years. “Did you make this from scratch as well?”
“Yep. And the pasta too.” She smiled and began plating and carrying things over to the glassed-in nook off the kitchen. “I only use the dining room for holidays, so we'll eat here.”
“This isn't the dining room?” Tenn chuckled. The table was set up for four, but the space was large enough that she could expand the table to fit eight comfortably or ten if they didn't mind reduced elbow room.
“It's an enlarged breakfast nook.” Joel came in carrying the wine. “I went away to a conference for a week and came back to this.” He shook his head.
“You got this done in a week?” Tenn looked around in amazement as they sat down. “Who was your contractor?”
Quinn looked a little confused. “You don’t know? My twin brother is Quill Turner.”
“As in Q Architecture?” Tenn paused. Now he knew why she looked so familiar; he and Quill had known each other for years. Quill often used him as a consultant for historical projects, and a picture of him with Quinn at their graduation from Boston University was hung up on his office wall. “Quill and I know each other quite well.” He found out about Quinn at a meeting a few years ago when Quill had called and asked him to change their meeting location to in front of the hospital. He had walked up to find him slumped on a bench under a tree.
“Quill! Is everything okay?” Tenn was concerned; he'd never seen Quill look so upset and exhausted, and they had worked together on some long and difficult projects.
“My twin sister collapsed at work yesterday. I forgot all about our meeting until my phone reminded me. Sorry.” Quill put his face in his hands and took a deep breath.
“Hey, don't apologize. We could have met anytime. Is she okay?” Quill had only mentioned his twin in passing, but he had gathered that they were very close and spent a lot of time together.
“She's currently sedated to reduce stress on her heart and being force-fed by a tube through her nose.” Quill rubbed his face and looked up at the hospital. “All thanks to her prick of a husband and our bitch of a mother.”
“Do you need anything?” Tenn didn't know what else to say. Quill hadn't told him much about his family, just that he was only in contact with his twin.
“An alibi if her husband goes missing?” Quill let out a dry chuckle, and Tenn noticed his knuckles were cut and bruised.
“Absolutely. What did he do?”
“Told her she was letting herself go and getting fat, knowing exactly what would happen,” Quill growled, anger flashing across his face. “She's anorexic. Our older sister, Queenie, is a model, absolutely gorgeous. Tall, willowy, graceful and can eat an entire large pizza herself, go for a run and not gain a pound. Just one of the ones who won the genetic lottery in every way possible. Our mother had her in beauty pageants and spent all her time doting on her. Dad wanted a boy, so she got pregnant, and Q and I were born. When it became clear Q wouldn't get any taller and wouldn't be a slender pageant princess like Queenie; Mom stopped interacting with her except to tell her to lose weight; she was too fat and an embarrassment. Which is hilarious because Q was about fifty pounds lighter at her largest than Mom was at her smallest. Queenie and I take after Dad, tall, with fast metabolisms. Quinn is the only one who took after Mom, and she has to work harder to stay in a healthy weight range. She’s never been overweight; she’s just not built to be tiny if that makes sense.”
“We have that “Twin Connection” and have always been very close, but Dad and I were constantly going to my track meets, games and tournaments. Queenie had Mom, I had Dad, Q had me, and I was always gone.” He shoved his hand through his light brown hair, messing it up further. “She cut back on eating until she practically lived on lettuce and began working out fanatically. Dad and I were at a national track meet in Texas, Mom and Queenie were doing some modelling show in New York City, and Q was with my grandparents in Worcester. The school called and told us she had collapsed and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.” Quill sniffed, and Tenn just sat quietly, letting him get it out.
“She almost fucking died, and my parents and sister's response was to get angry at her for ruining things and making them come back to deal with her “dramatics.” The fact that their fifteen-year-old daughter was in a hospital bed, sixty pounds underweight, with every bone on prominent display and a feeding tube in her nose meant nothing to them. No one knew how skinny she was because she wore layers of baggy clothes.”
“My Grandparents didn't want her to go back to our house because they knew she wouldn't be looked after the way she needed to be, so they called my aunt, my dad's sister, and she came and took Q home with her to New York, where she did inpatient care for a year then transitioned back to my aunt's house. We kept in touch through email and online chats but didn't see each other again until we went to University.” Quill sighed. “Sorry for dumping on you. I think I have some unresolved trauma that seeing her like this all over again has triggered.”
Quinn nodded, her voice cutting through his thoughts. “Yeah, he suggested you when I asked him to speak and gave me your contact information. He also loaned me a team for a week when I told him what I wanted to do here.”
“Loaned you a team, huh? Tenn chuckled. “Must be nice.” He wasn't surprised Quill had given her his contact information. He had not-so-subtly suggested they would hit it off beautifully that day in front of the hospital.
“It's too bad you're married, Tenn; I have a feeling you two would really like each other.”
He was surprised he hadn’t put things together when her friend corrected him and said, “Quinn Turner.” He put it down to being trapped in his head about his wife cheating on him and the fact that Quill usually called her Q.
“Oh yeah, her and Quill are like this.” Joel held up his hand with his pointer and middle fingers crossed. “Of course, that doesn't extend to anyone else. Not even their older sister, parents, or his in-laws.” He sounded a little bitter, and Tenn had to suppress his smirk.
“Queenie, our parents, and the in-laws brought it on themselves,” Quinn said lightly, making Joel frown. “Everyone, please dig in.” She reached out and pulled a piece of the loaf off and passed it to Tenn on her left, and it was quiet as everyone took their first bites.
“This is incredible, Quinn,” Tenn said after a minute. He almost wanted to shut up and just eat the food. He was a basic cook; Viki could follow a recipe and make food taste great, but she hated cooking. This was probably the best meal he'd had in a year. “I'd like to be included in the meals with the students if you don't mind.”
“Thank you. We'd love to have you.” Quinn grinned. “There's a lot of art talk though.”
“I think I can manage that.” Tenn chuckled. Art talk was his favourite kind of talk.
“So, how long have you worked at the dealership, Viki?” Quinn asked politely.
“About six months,” Viki answered, and Tenn noticed she was avoiding Quinn's eyes and pushing the food around on her plate.
“How are you enjoying it?” Quinn was clearly trying to engage her in the conversation, but Viki was prickly with other women at the best of times.
“It's been great since I've gotten used to the work.” Viki seemed to be having trouble speaking and cleared her throat. “How did you and Joel meet?”
“At a car show. Joel was there with the dealership, and I was taking pictures of Art Deco cars for one of my series.”
“I thought she was interested in the cars.” Joel shrugged, clearly trying to end the conversation pre-emptively.
“He chased me around the car show for two hours, trying to convince me to date him. He wasn't my usual type, but he was persistent.” Quinn smiled and reached out, putting her hand on Joel's, and looked at him affectionately. Tenn didn't know how she was doing it, but the looks on both Joel's and Viki's faces were more than worth her effort. Joel looked very uncomfortable and was trying to smile back at Quinn but only managed a pained grimace. Viki looked like she was about to be sick. “What about you two?”
“We met at a party in Uni,” Tenn explained. “She thought I was on the hockey team, but that was my older brother. We look a lot alike.”
“Wait. Your older brother is Del Aston?” Joel stared at Tenn. “Former Boston Bruin Del Aston?”
“Yeah, that's him.” Tenn nodded. “Delaware Aston.”
“You’re kidding!” Joel looked at him excitedly, and Tenn waited for the inevitable, “Can you introduce us?” as he shook his head with a smile, but Joel just leaned back and looked impressed. “Wow.”
“Your parents named you after states?” Quinn grinned as she redirected the conversation. “Cute.”
“Yeah, I have sisters named Virginia and Dakota, too.” Tenn smiled back at her. “My parents are very loud patriots. At least my sister’s names are sort of normal, and I can claim to be named after a country Western singer. Poor Del, he got it the worst growing up. We all go by diminutives of our names: Del, Kota, Tenn and Ginny, much to our parent's dismay.” Quinn chuckled.
“Hey, I've heard much worse names come through the University in recent years. Then you have people like my parents. My Dad is Quinton, and Mom is Quilla, then Queenie, Quill, and Quinn.”
It was Tenn's turn to laugh. “I'm impressed there are so many Q names that aren't in foreign languages.”
“That would have been the next way to go, something barely pronounceable.” She leaned over conspiratorially. “My mom's real name is Esme. She changed it after Quill and I were born because she felt left out. Dad named us all and named me after him, so she went with Quilla. Mostly because Queenie threw a fit when she suggested Queen.”
“That's amazing.” Tenn chuckled. He noticed Joel and Viki staring at them suspiciously and decided to change the subject. “I emailed several friends and colleagues this morning, and I have three people interested in doing the speaker series so far.” He paused, wondering if she’d be open to his suggestion. “Are you sure you only want this to go on for six weeks? Because I can probably get enough speakers for sixteen weeks or longer.”
“Really?” Quinn's green eyes sparkled, and she shifted so she was facing him more directly, subtly cutting Joel and Viki out of the conversation. “Why don't we make this one eight weeks for the Fall semester and then do another eight weeks in the Spring semester?”
“We could probably find enough to do the Winter and Summer semesters too.” Tenn picked up his wine with a grin and took a sip.
“You think they could be that popular?” Quinn's eyes widened in surprise, and she gripped his forearm in her sudden excitement.
“I do. We could even do part of the series at the Museum. A joint venture between us.” Tenn smiled at her, his stomach flipping when she touched him.
“I love it!” Quinn enthused, then looked down at Tenn's empty plate. “Does anyone want seconds? Or should we move on to dessert and coffee?”
“What's for dessert?” Tenn was thrilled she wanted to work on this for a year; it meant he would get to spend time with her regardless of what happened with their soon-to-be exes.
“Keeping with the Italian theme, we have zabaglione with strawberries.” Quinn stood up to collect the plates and noticed Joel's and Viki's were still pretty full. “Oh, I'm sorry, not finished?”
“I'm not really feeling very good,” Viki said quietly.
“Can I get you anything?” Quinn somehow managed to pull an empathetic look from what Tenn could only believe was somewhere deep inside.
“Uh, no. Actually, I think I should go home.” She looked at Tenn. “Sorry.”
Tenn shrugged. “There's no need to apologize. If you're not feeling good, I'll take you home.” Viki nodded and stood up. Tenn looked at Quinn. Why don't we get together tomorrow to discuss the broader details?”
“Sure!” Quinn nodded enthusiastically. “I'll text you tomorrow.” She followed them to the door. “Sorry you aren't feeling good, Viki, but it was nice to meet you.”
“You too.” Viki nodded and went out to the car without so much as a backward glance.
“Nice to meet you, Joel.” Tenn held out his hand.
“You too.” Joel shook his hand limply.
“See you tomorrow.” Tenn smiled at Quinn and was surprised when she hugged him. But he hugged her back, fighting the urge to tuck his face in her neck and breathe in her orange blossom scent.
“I'm looking forward to it.”