31. Quinn
Quinn
“Darn rain,” Allegra shakes her head as she looks out the kitchen window. It’s been two days since I got back from Myrtle, and while we had a day of sun yesterday, today is back to the gloom, putting a major damper on our planned backyard pool party. “So much for our spa day.”
“I don’t know,” I say as I pick chocolate chips out of the cookie dough. “I feel like baking cookies is pretty therapeutic, too. And we can still enjoy drinks while we do it.”
“That’s true,” she smiles, letting the momentary negativity go as Allegra always does.
It’s one of the things I love about her.
Allegra’s life is stressful with work and kids and taking care of all the things, and yet she always sees the good in everything.
Moments of stress are just that. Moments.
Then she moves on, radiating positive energy again.
“Speaking of that, are you ever going to tell me the secret ingredient of your amazing chocolate chip cookies?”
“Nope,” I answer. “It was a strict rule of my mother’s…never disclose the family secret.”
“Dang,” she says, plucking a chocolate chip out of the dough and popping it into her mouth. “My family secret was that my cousin Sarah was gay. We thought she just liked dogs more than people.”
“I think most people like dogs more than people,” I say.
“Fair enough,” she shrugs with a warm grin. “So I wanna hear all about this trip. And don’t leave out the good stuff.”
“I mean, it was all good…” I say. “Other than flying. That was horrible. Both times I swore up and down I was going to die,” I say as I spoon lumps of dough onto a cookie sheet. Meanwhile, the baby is clamoring on the floor with wooden spoons and pots.
“Is that why you slept with him?” Allegra asks. “You figured you had nothing to lose?”
With that, I drop the spoon on the floor, and Kimbree grabs it, licking it before I can snatch it back from her. “Wait. When did I tell you I slept with him?” I ask, and a smile stretches across Allegra’s face as she fetches the spoon back from Kimbree and hands it to me.
“Just now,” she says, and I frown. “Come on. Tell me what happened. I won’t judge you.”
“Even though I said I wasn’t going to sleep with him, and the last time we talked I was pissed off that he has the audacity to get a room with only one bed?” I ask, continuing to shovel cookie dough onto the sheet before popping it in the oven.
“Even though all of that,” she says, and I sigh, chewing on my upper lip as I lean back against the counter for a moment.
“I really wasn’t going to, but…”
“But?” She presses gently with a smile.
“But he is just so…” I trail off, apparently needing her help again.
“So… sexy? Persuasive? Charming? Rich?” she asks.
“All of the above,” I moan as I cover my face with my hands.
Then I pull them away again. “And you know what the worst part is? I’m not even upset about it.
I don’t even regret sleeping with him despite the fact that I was dead set on not doing it.
If anything, I’m glad I did. It was the best sex I ever had, and it was also one hundred percent instigated by me, so even if I wanted to, I can’t actually be mad.
Which is kind of annoying, honestly,” I let out, searching the counter for my glass of wine.
“Sounds to me like things are getting a little messy,” she says, and I swallow a large gulp.
“Tell me about it,” I mutter.
“Do you think you’re falling?” She asks, and I just blink.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…do you think you’re falling for Reid? In love with Reid.”
“What? No!” I blurt out, and then I go back to chewing my lip again. Allegra notices and smiles. Best friends are annoying. “Even if I did, which I don’t, but if I did… I couldn’t. So. There.”
“I don’t really think that’s how it works,” Allegra says as she scoops Kimbree up off the floor, wooden spoons in tow. “You know as well as I do that love isn’t something a person can control. Especially when the universe gets involved.”
“If the universe is involved with my having sex with Reid August, the universe is seriously in some kind of retrograde and is messing with me,” I tell her in a baby voice as I kiss Kimbree’s chubby hand.
“Is that his name?” she asks. “Ried August?”
“I think so,” I shrug, going back to the cookie dough bowl. “That’s what people kept calling him at the wedding. August.”
“Weird,” she says, then her mouth quirks into a teasing smile. “Quinn August…”
“Oh my God, stop!” I say, throwing a chocolate chip at her.
“Come on, I bet you’ve thought about it. You were probably scribbling it on your tablet at work…”
“I was not…” I tell her. And I wasn’t. But I might have thought about the way it sounds.
“Okay, but serious question…” she says. “Do you think you could be? Falling for him, I mean…”
I open my mouth. Close it. Open it. Close it. Then I laugh. “I don’t know…”
“No?” Allegra asks.
“No. I mean…yes, he is all the things you said, but he’s also stubborn and egotistical and literally makes a living ruining people’s marriages…”
“Any idea why?” she asks.
“Not really,” I sigh. “Every time we come close to talking about love and relationships, he changes the subject.”
“Oh. Dude’s been burned,” she says, and I tilt my head.
“Maybe?”
“Not maybe. For sure. Unless his parents had a horrible marriage and he grew up surrounded by their misery–”
“His parents had a lovely relationship,” I mutter.
“Then yes. A hundred percent. That man has been in love before, and someone broke his heart.”
I think about that for a moment, and as I go through the possibilities in my head, I even find myself frowning a little.
What if that is the case? What if Reid isn’t just an asshole by nature, but someone did in fact break him so badly that he closed himself entirely from the concept of love?
It’s so tragic…
“So about the vow renewal party,” Allegra and I snap my attention back to her. “I decided to go with the first dress,”
“The one without the beads,” I nod because despite that day being a bit wild, I do remember.
“Yes. I think understated is better, right? Like love in its simplest form. Love stripped. Love unfiltered.”
“I like that,” I smile as the oven timer goes off, and I grab mitts to retrieve the cookies.
“And I’m glad you bought that sage floral dress because it looked stellar on you,” she says.
“It really is going to be a beautiful day. I can’t wait,” I smile as I move the cookies to a cooling rack and hand the sheet to Allegra to load with more dough.
“Speaking of that…you should…bring a date…” she says, and I look up to find her waggling her eyebrows at me.
“A date?” I ask.
“Reid?” she suggests, but it’s not like I didn’t know that was where she was going with this.
“I don’t know,” I say, focusing on the hot cookies.
“Why not?” she asks.
“Well, first of all, coming with me to your renewal isn’t part of our agreement,” I state.
“And neither was Destination Just One Bed,” she points out, and she’s got me there.
“I don’t know if he’ll go for it,” I say, licking melted chocolate off my fingers.
“Ask,” she says. “I bet he’ll surprise you.”
And it’s kind of funny. As much as my initial instinct is that he would shut the invite down immediately, I’m not entirely sure that’s the case anymore. After this last weekend, I’m not sure how much I even know Reid. But one thing is for sure…he’s beginning to surprise me.