Chapter Thirty-Six Understanding Quill
Tenn woke up early the next morning feeling very warm. Quill hadn't been joking; Quinn gave off a lot of heat. But the fact that she was lying on her side facing away from him and he was on his side with one arm around her waist holding her close to him, and his other arm stretched out with her head resting on it, told him he hadn't been bothered by it too much. He gently shifted his arm from under her and tucked a pillow in its place. He got out of bed, dressed, kissed her cheek, which got a smile and an adorable sleepy murmur from her, and went down to clean up the remaining dishes from the night before.
“Oh, it's you. I was expecting Quinn.” Quill came up the stairs, yawning and stretching. Tenn closed the dishwasher and started putting the leftovers in the fridge.
“She was a little drunk last night; she didn't even notice me getting out of bed.” Tenn grinned. “Including me pulling my arm out from under her. She didn't move.”
Quill chuckled, then checked his watch. “Bishop and Rilla won't be down until after ten, and if Quinn was that deeply asleep, we probably have at least an hour and a half before she gets up. Want to go for a drive and check out a house I have available? I think it'll be exactly what you want.”
“Sure, why not?” Tenn dried his hands on the dish towel and grabbed his keys from the top of the microwave. “We need to stop and get a coffee though.”
“Yep, that's a given.” Quill led the way out of the house and over to his car. “Have you heard from Viki at all?”
Tenn shook his head. “No, but I spent most of yesterday afternoon patching holes in the walls and cleaning the spare room, so anything of hers that was left out around I tossed in garbage bags. I took a couple of pictures and sent them to her with the message that if she didn't get them out of the garage when she got home, I would put them out with the trash. Then I put her on “do not disturb.”
“Holes in the walls?” Quill pulled his seatbelt on and glanced at him. “What did she do?”
“The night Quinn posted the picture of her and Joel having a movie night, Viki saw it and had a massive tantrum. She tried to get me to have sex with her, and when I refused, she broke two mirrors and a bunch of picture frames and put holes in the walls in an attempt to get me to pay attention to her.” Tenn explained. “Instead, I put on my noise-cancelling headphones and played games on my phone until I went to sleep.”
“So, she's lost her mind.” Quill shook his head, disbelief clear on his face, put the car in gear, and headed to the nearest coffee shop.
“Basically, yeah.” Tenn nodded in agreement. “But she’s been on a very slippery slope for a while now.”
“And you're poking the crazy bear by tossing her things?” Quill chuckled. “Is that a good idea?”
“I told her to pick up her crap so I could patch the holes, and she didn't. I also told her if she damages my house again, she'll pay for the repairs. I'm kinda hoping she got the text in front of Joel and had a massive tantrum, then has to explain why I’m tossing her things.” Tenn ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “I’m just so done with her and her complete disrespect for me.”
“No, I get it; I just don’t want you to lose the house in the inevitable fire she’s gonna set.” Quill gave him a warning look. “Because I can really see her doing that if her temper tantrums have evolved to include property damage.”
That gave Tenn pause and sent a little shiver of fear down his spine. Quill's ability to accurately predict behaviour wasn’t helping. “Don’t put that out to the universe.” He cautioned as he pulled out his phone and checked Viki's messages.
If you toss my stuff, I'll report you for theft.
Tenn smirked. She thought she had him. “She says she's going to report me for theft.” Quill chuckled as he pulled up to the drive-thru and ordered their usuals while he responded.
Go ahead; they're in the garage, not in the bins to go out yet. I'll press charges for destruction of property and vandalism, then have you removed from the house.
I knew those cameras would come in handy.
Massachusetts is a two-party consent state, remember?
It's my house; I put them up for security purposes, and I didn't need your permission to do it; I just had to tell you they were there.
By staying in the house, you've consented to be filmed and recorded.
Security purposes. Bullshit. Why do we need security cameras?
I need security cameras because my wife had a temper tantrum like an overgrown toddler and destroyed a room.
If you think you have any chance of coming out on top here, you need to seriously look at your behaviour over the last week and re-evaluate your life
I have to go to class. I'll see you Sunday night, and we can talk.
There's nothing to talk about. I'm still waiting for proof that you made an appointment with a therapist.
Tenn put her back on “do not disturb” and took the coffee from Quill. “I wish you had introduced me to Quinn. She would have been the incentive I needed to leave.”
“Yeah, I probably should have.” Quill acknowledged. “She wouldn't have gone back to Joel, and you guys would have both been much happier. But I had to be sure of a lot of things first. Besides what I've already told you regarding her eating and stuff, I didn't know if you and Viki were just going through a rough patch and would work it out. Joel was putting a lot of effort into fixing things with her; she was in a weird place of wanting him to take a long walk off a short pier and forgiving him, and I didn't want another Bishop situation on my hands.”
“Bishop situation?” Tenn almost choked on his coffee. It was a situation? “She didn't make it sound like it was a situation.”
“It was more a situation on my part. Bishop isn't monogamous; he never has been and never will be. He does love people and love them deeply; it's just not limited to one person. He loves Rilla and would happily die for her, and he also loves Quinn and would happily die for her. He was devastated when she backed out of their thruple. He understands why and doesn't push, but there's a lot of hope behind him joking about rejoining them.”
Tenn wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On one hand, Quinn made it very clear that she wasn’t able to be with them because of her own thoughts and feelings around monogamy and polyamory, but at the same time, he had a bit of an issue with potentially dating someone who was so close to someone she once had a romantic relationship with and who was still hopeful she would come back to him. His thoughts must have shown on his face because Quill quickly elaborated on what he meant.
“Don't worry, he's polyamorous, but cheating is a huge no for him. He knows it will never happen, accepts their current relationship, and will respect Quinn's relationship with you, but his perfect life would be him, Rilla, and Quinn. That being said, if Bishop was monogamous, he would have left Quinn for Rilla. It would have hurt him to do it, but from the moment he first saw Rilla, he was infatuated. He was even willing to give up polyamory to be with her if that's what she wanted, something he wouldn’t do for Quinn.”
“Anyway, back to the problem I had with their relationship.” Tenn had to smile at that. Quill often went off on small tangents when telling stories and had to circle himself back. “Bishop has so much love to give it’s kind of amazing. He loves Rilla more than anything, but it doesn’t diminish his love for Quinn at all. Like I said, if he was forced to choose, Rilla would win, but it would - and did - break his heart to lose Quinn. And he can love Rilla and Quinn and whoever else they bring in, or he sees on the side all the same.”
“So, with Bishop, you have to be willing to share him, and Quinn can't share. It would have ended badly, and I would have lost my best friend because I'd have to take Quinn's side, not to mention Bishop's parents, who also would have taken Quinn's side because they didn't - and still don't, even if they accept it now - understand Bishop and Rilla's lifestyle. It would have caused a rift in a lot of different relationships.”
“Despite what's happening, I'm monogamous, so it wouldn't have been the same.” Tenn pointed out, still not understanding what Quill was trying to say.
“Like I said, I didn't know if you'd want to fix things with your wife, and she was flip-flopping on Joel. You guys would have definitely hit it off, but if one of you decided to fix your marriage and walked away, it would have been heartbreak for the other one, and then I'm in the same situation, losing a very close friend because I will always take Quinn's side, even if she's wrong. I'd tell her she's wrong and get mad at her for it, but at the end of the day, that's my twin sister, and I can't lose her. The three years before we reconnected in university were the hardest of my life. I felt like a piece of me had been ripped away, and the wound was infected and painful. I wanted to join her in New York, but I was a minor, and while my parents didn't care if Quinn was there, Dad refused to let me so much as visit her.”
“Quinn always thinks with her heart; she follows it blindly unless I step in and point out potential problems. I always think with my head and don't consider emotions unless Quinn steps in and points out what I'm missing.”
Quill frowned. His frustration with himself showing very obviously on his face. “I didn't think about Chrissy feeling like she was taking advantage of me because of our different financial situations; I couldn't understand why she wouldn't let me help her. To me, it was logical; she needed new tires and couldn’t afford them, so I would buy new tires for her. I didn't think to tell her I owned Quinn's house and rented it to her for next to nothing; I just offered her a better house with rent that would help her save some money. If Quinn hadn't stepped in, I would have lost someone I want a future with because I felt rejected.” He turned onto Quinn's street and slowed down. “Quinn and I need each other. We balance each other out. I don’t have a lot of friends, and I don’t want to lose the few I have because of Quinn because I know I would start to resent her.”
“You had to be sure.” Tenn nodded as he understood. Quill made excellent points.
“I had to be sure.” Quill pulled into the house's driveway across the street from Quinn's. “Come on, this place is almost perfect for you, and it's right across the street.”