Chapter Six The Rose Garden
Tenn glanced at his watch for what seemed like the thousandth time since Quinn had texted him that morning. She was having a girl's day with her friend Rilla, suggested meeting at the Rose Garden behind the museum after supper and said she would bring dessert. He was looking forward to seeing her and tried to pass the time by playing his favourite video game, but he couldn't get into it. He worked out for a bit but kept losing count of his reps as his mind drifted to the project and working with her.
He shook his head, realized he had been sitting with the dumbbell in his hand, not moving for ten minutes, and gave up. He was wiping things down when Viki appeared in the doorway. “You didn't come to bed last night.”
“I decided I didn't want to catch whatever you had.” He shrugged. He was going to need to come up with a permanent excuse to sleep in the spare room. “I slept in the spare room.”
“Oh. Okay.” She looked at him suspiciously, and he couldn’t blame her. Even at the lowest point in their relationship, he would refuse to sleep anywhere but his own bed, insisting she could sleep in the spare room or on the couch if she didn’t want to sleep with him. “I'm gonna go out with Annie for a bit.”
Tenn repressed his snort of derision. Sure. Annie. “Yep.” He said as he brushed by her and headed across the rec room and up the stairs to the kitchen. “Have fun.” She followed him closely, clearly wondering what was going on with him; normally, he would say something about her constantly being out of the house.
“Are you going anywhere?”
“I'm meeting Quinn at six.” Tenn glanced at the clock. Two hours. By the time he ate, showered, and got ready, he could leave and wouldn't get to the garden too early.
“What are you guys doing?” Viki pouted. “When will you be home?”
Tenn pulled out the stuff to make himself a sandwich, fighting to maintain a pleasant expression so he wouldn’t snap at her to mind her own business. “We're going to nail down some logistics and start on an outline for our project. I'll be home when we're finished.”
“You can't give me a time?” God, he hated how whiny she got. He couldn’t believe he’d once thought it was a cute little quirk.
“Nope. It probably won't be that late. We both have work in the morning.” He looked up to see her staring at him, anger tightening the corners of her mouth.” What? You're going out with Annie, what am I supposed to do? Sit at home and wait for you?”
“I like knowing you'll be here when I get home,” she frowned. “I was hoping we could spend some time together before bed.”
Tenn raised his eyebrow. “I have plans with Quinn. A little more heads up would have been nice.” He watched as a flush rose up her neck with a sense of deep satisfaction as he ate his sandwich.
“I shouldn't have to give a heads-up to want to spend time with my husband,” she protested hotly.
“Since when do you want to spend time with me?” Tenn gave her a brief look of disbelief. Even before her affair with Joel, she had rejected his attempts to rebuild their relationship.
Viki's mouth opened and closed like a fish for the second time as she struggled to find an answer for him. “What's going on with you?” She finally got out.
Tenn finished his sandwich and put his dishes in the dishwasher. “I decided that since you were living your life without regard for my thoughts and feelings, I shouldn't be worried about yours.” He smiled at her. “This is what you wanted, Honey, a husband who has his own life and doesn't interfere with yours.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Enjoy your time with Annie.” Turning, he headed to their bedroom and the ensuite to shower and get ready.
When he came out twenty minutes later, the house was quiet, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He would have to ask Quinn what the plan was for all this and how she was handling the affection part of everything. He looked around their shared bedroom in disgust. He had only been coming in here to shower and change, and without his usual daily tidying, Viki had turned the place into a pigsty. He decided to move into the spare room and make the guest bathroom his. Checking the time again, he left the house for the twenty-five-minute drive to the Rose Garden.
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He pulled up just as Quinn was getting out of her SUV and felt the front of his jeans get tight. She wore a short black tank top, oversized forest green cardigan, and tight light blue jeans. She bent over to get something from the back seat, and he let out a low groan. Her ass was incredible, and he had a sudden flash of her riding him reverse cowgirl while he rubbed and spanked her ample cheeks. He watched as she straightened back up; she had done something different with her hair, and it now looked like liquid flames were cascading down her back. He willed his raging hard-on to go down and grabbed the photocopied evidence from his passenger seat to give her.
When he got out of the car, she gave him the most radiant smile he'd ever seen. It almost took his breath away. Tenn smiled back at her as they met halfway between their cars. “Hey.” They spoke at the same time and then laughed.
“Here, I brought you a not-so-nice present and a much nicer one to compensate for it.” She passed him a folder and held up a bag.
“And I have a not-so-nice one for you and nothing to make up for it.” Tenn smiled as he took the folder and passed her his.
Quinn smirked and twitched her eyebrow. “I dunno, your help on this is very much an appreciated present.” She brought the folder to her car and laid it on the passenger seat.
“These are the screenshots you mentioned this morning?” He asked as he flipped it open.
“Yeah, we do not come off very well in them,” she warned, putting her hand on top and gently pushing it down. “I recommend reading before going to the gym or doing something physical to let off steam.”
“Right.” Tenn closed the folder and put it in his car. They walked into the garden, and Quinn pulled out her phone to take pictures.
“Do you mind?” She asked politely. “I'm doing a series on flowers.”
“Go ahead.” Tenn smiled at her as she grinned and began taking pictures. “You use a camera phone for your photography?”
“Yeah, it's just as good as an actual camera. You just have to spend time learning the functions. This is a Google Pixel 8 Pro; it's the best one on the market right now for camera phones.” He listened as she described the features enthusiastically for a few minutes, enjoying how passionate she was about it. “Sorry. I got carried away there.” She chuckled. “You can always tell me to stop.”
“I was enjoying it.” He said reassuringly. “I also do photography as a hobby, so I understood everything.” They reached the fountain in the middle of the garden, and Quinn sat on the grass. He sat beside her as she reached into the bag and handed him a container and a spoon.
“As long as I wasn't boring you.” She laughed. “Dessert, as promised. The zabaglione with strawberries that you missed out on last night.” She paused and then grinned impishly. “How is Viki? Joel also went to bed early and said there must be a bug going around the dealership.”
“Panicking,” Tenn smirked. “Thank you.” He took the container and spoon from her, eager to try the dessert after eating her food the previous night.
“No problem. Should we start with our wayward spouses or the project?” She opened her container and began to eat.
“Spouses, at least that way, we'll end our evening on a pleasant note.”
Quinn nodded. “How are you handling it?”
“Well, some weird, twisted part of me that I didn't know existed is getting a deep satisfaction out of throwing her words back in her face. But I'm running out of reasons to sleep in the spare room. When she touches me, which isn't often, I want to throw up, and her - astounding - hypocrisy when it comes to me spending time with you is almost rage-inducing.” He ate some pudding and closed his eyes as the smooth, velvety, wine-flavoured custard coated his tongue. “Damn, this is delicious.” Quinn giggled. He felt his heart stutter and cleared his throat. “How are you handling it?”
“About the same.” She shrugged. “At least I feel like I'm controlling the narrative and what will happen. As for excuses to sleep in the spare room, tell her that you've enjoyed sleeping alone and would like to continue. Lots of couples do it, and it makes the relationship stronger.”
“Is that what you're going to tell Joel?” Tenn watched out of the corner of his eye. He realised he didn't want her sleeping with him and wondered where this possessiveness was coming from. He had never been like this in his previous relationships and had only known her for two days.
She snorted. “I'm just going to say it's what I want to do. He won't argue too much.”
A wave of relief washed over him. “How long do you want to drag this out?”
“I'm divorce lawyer shopping tomorrow. I need time to ensure all my ducks are in a row before I pull the plug. Quill bought and remodelled my house for me but kept it in his name because he didn't want Joel to have a claim on it. I pay him monthly rent, which he puts aside for me, so I have a nest egg outside our marital assets.”
“That's a little shady, isn't it?” Tenn frowned, disliking the lying and hiding, even if it was from Joel.
“Maybe,” She acknowledged with a slight nod. “But Quill insisted. Joel and I almost divorced a few years ago, and it got really nasty before it was dropped. Joel realised he'd be screwed without me and begged for a second chance. He did a complete one-eighty regarding how he treated me; up until four months ago, things were great. Quill doesn't trust him and wanted to make sure I'd be okay if I decided to leave down the road.”
“If it's your brother - big brother? Is he older than you? - Looking out for you because he's worried, that's different.”
“Quill is a whole five minutes older, and if you think he hasn't lorded it over me my whole life, you'd be very wrong.” Quinn laughed. “How did you two meet?”
Tenn swallowed his mouthful of custard. “He needed insight on a historical building he was restoring and reached out. I'm an Art Historian, but my specialty is historical architecture. He reached out again while recreating another historic house for the Municipal government. I got really involved in that one, and we became friends. We're not the type of friends who hang out at pubs watching sports or anything like that, but we'll grab lunch or meet up to discuss work-related things and end up talking about other stuff for hours.”
“If he talks about anything personal, you guys are much closer friends than you think. Quill doesn't do traditional friendships. He only has a few people he considers friends, and everyone else falls under either acquaintances, co-workers, or family.” She smiled at him. “He's very private and prefers to do his own thing. Growing up, Dad made him his best friend and lived vicariously through him. He made Quill do all the same sports he did growing up but expected him to go pro, something Dad never accomplished. They were constantly together, always away at some tournament or sports meet, and Quill hated it. He just wanted to draw and design buildings, not play sports despite how athletically gifted he is.”
Tenn paused as he considered what she told him. That warmed him to his very core. Over the years, he and Quill had spent lots of time discussing personal things; he hadn't gone into detail about Quinn since her hospitalisation, just mentioned her in passing, but he knew all about their family and what it was like for them growing up and knew Quill had been diagnosed late in life with a mild form of OCD and high-functioning autism. Quill also would listen to him vent about his wife or other issues and offer his two cents, including encouraging him to hire Ron. He looked up at her and saw her watching him with a grin.
“So, you're besties with my brother and didn't know it?” She teased. “He spoke very highly of you when he gave me your contact information.”
“I didn't, but now that I think about it, I've told him things I've never told anyone else, and I would consider him one of my closest friends.” He paused and tilted his head at her. “He doesn't mention you very much. I knew he had a twin sister, and he even showed me a picture of you years ago, but that's it. When my PI showed me your picture, I knew you looked familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on why until you said Quill was your twin.”
Quinn chuckled. “Oh, that's kinda sweet, actually. He wasn't ready to share you.”
“What do you mean?” Tenn didn’t know what to make of that. Share him?
“Quill and I complement each other, two sides of the same coin type thing. I'm emotional, he's logical, he's very precise and goal-oriented; I'm a “let's see what happens if we do this” type of person. But we're very close and share many of the same hobbies, passions, and friends. Our best friends from Uni, Rilla and Bishop, married each other. It's not very often we get something or someone that's just ours. We both have issues with sharing.”
“Huh. I wonder what changed.” Tenn mused as Quinn shrugged. “He's the one who convinced me to hire a PI to look into Viki.”
“Yeah, he told me to give Joel the ultimatum. It's his logical point of view; emotions don't play into his thought process very much.” Quinn collected their containers and spoons, put them in the bag, and stood up, offering him her hand. “Come on; the flies are coming out. Why don't we go back to my place and start working on the outline?”
Tenn smiled and let her pull him up. “Sounds like a plan. Are you sure Joel won't mind?”
“I don't really care if he does.”