Chapter Thirty-Nine Head Wars
Tenn
They had only been gaming for a few hours when Quinn called to let them know lunch was ready. Tenn had to admit no one, not even his mother, had been so diligent about feeding him. As if he had read his mind, Bishop clapped him on the shoulder as he stood up. “I'm telling ya, being with Quinn means you never go hungry.”
“She told me she was obsessed with food.” Tenn chuckled. “And that she loves to feed people.”
“Of course she’s obsessed with food.” Quill stood up and stretched, his fingertips brushing the ceiling. At six foot five, he was a whole foot taller than his twin sister and the tallest of the three of them, with long arms and legs. Despite not playing sports anymore, he kept his athletic build, and as his t-shirt lifted, Tenn got a glimpse of a very toned stomach. Quill fully admitted to having a bit of an obsession with the gym and that he probably had his own version of body dysmorphia, thanks to his dad and the rigorous training he had put him through as a teenager. “She's spent over half her life actively avoiding it.” He began packing up his things, turning off his wireless mouse and tucking it in it’s pocket carefully. “I have to leave after lunch. I have a date to get ready for.”
“A date? Like an actual date?” Bishop nudged Tenn and winked. “You're not just going to go over and get your rocks off?”
Quill glared at him as he bundled the cord to his laptop. “As part of the agreement to give her a second chance, I said I wanted to actually date her this time. No more hiding it from her ex and the grandmother. Kaia is seven, and she's spent far too long trying to keep Kaia's grandmother happy. If she makes a fuss, I'll make sure Chrissy has the most qualified lawyer possible to get a custody agreement that benefits her and Kaia, not the deadbeat and his overbearing mother.” He zipped up his bag. “Anyway, we're doing a sunset cruise on the harbour, and then I'm taking her to Chart House for a late dinner.”
“Starting out strong, I like it.” Bishop grinned. “Tenn, have you decided where you're taking Quinn on your next date?
Tenn nodded. It had been in the back of his mind all morning, and he had made his decision while playing the game. “I'm taking her on an Ultimate Boston Food Tour in the morning, then a Whale Watching Cruise in the afternoon, and Mr. Swindle's Travelling Peculiarium and Drink-Ory Garden in the evening.” Bishop and Quill stopped on their way to the stairs and turned to look at him, their eyebrows raised and mouths slightly open in shock. “Too much?”
“Wondering if I look enough like Quinn to pass, honestly.” Quill chuckled and started up the stairs.
“You don't,” Bishop informed him. “Rilla and I have been discussing bringing another couple in though...”
“Yeah, I'm not sharing her,” Tenn said firmly. “But I'm willing to do one of those things as a double or triple date. Only one; I'm not doing the food tour as one double date and the Drink-Ory Garden as another. One of them. You guys can rock, paper, scissors, or arm wrestle if you both want to do something different.” He climbed the stairs to find Quinn had made quesadillas from the leftover ingredients from the night before and a spinach, strawberry, goat cheese, and pecan salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. “Flac?r?, you're just spoiling us now.” He put his finger under her chin and tilted her head up to kiss her, thoroughly enjoying the way his entire body reacted to her.
“What did you call her?” Rilla looked up in surprise from where she was putting the finishing touches on the slideshow.
“Fla-ca-rah.” Tenn enunciated it for her. “It's Romanian for flame.”
“You speak Romanian?” Bishop asked as he sat next to his wife and gave him an impressed look.
“Fluent, bunicii mei paterni erau imigranti ?i doar acas? vorbeau romane?te.” He grinned at the surprised faces around the table. “I said, “Fluently, my paternal grandparents were immigrants and only spoke Romanian at home. Their last name was Astanoaei, but when they came here, my grandfather shortened it to Astan. His lowercase a looked like an o on the paperwork, and it became Aston. When my siblings and I were born, we were all sent to them to be looked after when mom returned to work. We're all bilingual. Even my mom learned it, so she wasn't left out of the conversation. Anyway, her hair looked like liquid flames the second time we met, and Flac?r? slipped out when I was comforting her after we caught Joel and Viki in her bed. It stuck.”
“Well, who would have guessed?” Rilla smiled. “I get why she’s so obsessed now. Whispering sexy things in another language is so hot.”
“Hey!” Bishop protested, pouting a little. “You told me to stop doing that.”
“Because hearing “Back that gorgeous ass up” in Pig Latin isn’t a turn-on. At all.” She responded, making everyone else burst into laughter.
“Says you.” But Bishop was chuckling too.
“Would you guys like to watch the slide show we put together while we eat as some meal-time entertainment?” Quinn asked when the laughter died down.
“Fuck yes, I want to see the video of Joel falling out the window!” Bishop leaned forward excitedly as Rilla set up the computer so they could all watch.
“Let us know if we need to adjust the timings on the slides with the text screenshots.” Quinn requested.
They watched as the slideshow alternated between pictures of Joel and Viki out around Boston and New York and the screenshots of the text messages with the songs playing in the background, starting with “I Know I'm Not The Only One,” then “Irreplaceable,” “ Cry Me A River” and ending with “Take A Bow.” There were clips of their conversation that were recorded the night they fell out of the window that played over the instrumental parts of the songs. Next, the video of them kissing before entering the house, and finally, the clip of Viki and Joel falling out of the window. The ending showed Joel lying on his back, Viki next to him, with his junk blurred out, so it wasn't considered revenge porn, coinciding perfectly with the last line of “ Take A Bow .” “ Go on and take a bow; the show is over now. ” The final run time was sixteen minutes, forty-eight seconds.
When it finished, they all looked at each other. “Kinda puts everything into perspective, doesn't it?” Quinn said softly. “A four-month affair summarised in seventeen minutes.”
“They barely tried to hide it.” Quill burst out. “He took her to all the same places you guys used to visit. No one said anything to you?”
“He stopped taking me places.” Quinn shrugged as she explained; her voice was completely indifferent, and Tenn knew she was just as over this whole thing as he was. “The night of my show opening, he was with her. He skipped something significant for me to bring her home and fuck her, knowing I wouldn't be home until after midnight. I looked back through my security system's history. There was footage deleted for several nights that I was out doing things. They played house the weekend we all went to Vermont to ski in February. She arrived within minutes of me driving away and left at lunchtime on Sunday. I texted Joel to let him know I would pick up take-out for supper and would be home at four. He needed time to clean up and wash the bedclothes.”
“Yeah, there were a few weekends when I came home to a clean bedroom, and she tried to pass it off as doing something thoughtful for me. Plus, Ron called earlier; there's no training this weekend, and they aren't anywhere near One Porsche Plaza. Ron says they haven't left the hotel room and have been arguing and fucking since they got there.” Tenn added, his voice just as indifferent as hers was.
Quill finished eating, stood up, and hugged Quinn. “Do you need me to stay?” he asked as he cupped her face in his hand and studied her expression seriously. She shook her head and smiled at him.
“Go get ready for your date, Porcupine. You deserve a break.”
“If you need me for any reason, text me, and I'll come.” He kissed her forehead and left. Rilla and Bishop helped with the cleanup, then took off as well, leaving Tenn and Quinn alone. Quinn pulled her laptop over and showed him the email invitations she had done for the party.
“Okay, let's send these, make some phone calls and shut off our phones for the night.” Tenn nuzzled her neck, breathing her in and just wanting to hold her without interruption for the next twenty-four hours. “I want to make the most of our time alone. It'll be an entire week before we get it again.”
“Pjs, movies, and cuddles?” Quinn smiled as he trailed kisses up her neck.
“Pjs, movies, and cuddles.” Tenn nodded. Quinn forwarded the invite to him so he could send it to the people on his list, while Quinn sent it to hers. “Are you sure you want to have it at your place?”
“Yeah, my living room/dining room area is set up for hosting parties. The doors separating them slide back into the walls, making the space roomy enough to host forty people comfortably.” She explained as she closed the laptop. “We can push the table against the wall and put food on it and we have a wet bar, so I think it'll work out fine. Plus, a projector in the ceiling comes down and plays on the back wall.” They made their phone calls, following up on the emailed invitations to make sure everyone saw it.
Everyone said they'd do their best to make it, except Annie and Tim, who declined. Tim answered Annie's phone when he called and explained that Annie wanted nothing more to do with Viki.
“Did Viki do something?” Tenn asked, genuinely curious because Annie and Viki had been just as close as Quinn and Rilla.
There was a moment of silence, and then Tim sighed heavily. “Look, I respect you, but your wife is trouble, and it’s taken the threat of divorce, weekly individual counselling and bi-weekly couples counselling for the last six months for Annie to realize how toxic and manipulative Viki is. So, while we both wish you every success with your lecture series, I’m not letting Annie within a mile of Viki.”
Tenn said he understood completely, and he had recently been made aware of the same thing. They wished each other well and hung up. Tenn didn’t know why that news upset him so much and voiced his anger and confusion to Quinn after he told her what Tim had told him.
“You’re upset because you just realized that literally every time Viki told you she was with Annie over the last six months, she was lying. Before, you were assuming at least some of those times she was telling the truth.” Quinn smiled at him sympathetically and gave him a hug, holding him and rubbing his back until he released the agitation and relaxed in her arms then started making calls again. A few people said they would be in touch by Wednesday night with a firm answer, but no one said no outright. With that finished, Quinn headed up to shower and change.
Quinn
It was still early, but Quinn just wanted to relax in Tenn’s arms and not think about her cheating husband anymore. Pulling off the pyjama pants and oversized t-shirt she had slept in the night before and lazed around in all day, she got in the shower and stood there, letting the hot water wash away all the weird feelings that had been swirling inside her ever since she and Rilla put together the slideshow. On one hand, she was done, so there had been a fairly high level of indifference when she looked at the pictures and worked out the timeline. On the other hand, she was angry and wanted him to get everything that karma could dish out, and then she just wanted this to be over so she could start her life over and hopefully never see him again.
Taking several deep breaths, she pushed all thoughts of Joel out of her head and focused on the incredible man waiting for her in the basement. She really hoped things would work out between them and was ninety percent sure they would, but on the off chance that they didn’t, and this was just trauma bonding or a rebound or whatever, she was going to make sure she had no regrets if it came to an end. Tenn gave her butterflies, and at the very least, there was an intense sexual attraction between them that she really wanted to explore.
When she got out of the shower, she towel dried her hair, braided it back off her face, and put on a pair of deep emerald green Brazilian cut lace panties that were both cute and sexy and a sheer, lace matching bra. Over that, she wore a black silky cotton nightdress with lace on the edges and spaghetti straps that came to just above her knees and had a three-quarter sleeve sheer cardigan in the same material. When she was ready, she stood in front of the mirror, smoothing her hands down over herself nervously. Her insecurity suddenly washed over her, and she almost switched to the pyjamas she had worn to bed last night. “Every fucking inch is gorgeous.” His voice whispered in her head, and she was able to push it down. Tenn had not been shy about showing her how much he wanted her. However, there was still a war in her head that paralyzed her for a few moments. Pulling the cardigan close around her, she left the room and headed to the basement.