Chapter 35
Quinn
Now
When Quinn went to meet up with Mel in the lobby of the hotel, she felt like she was operating with the worst hangover of her life.
She wanted to go to Liv’s room, to beg her to give them a chance, to be friends or fuck buddies or get married, whatever Liv wanted, to keep her in Quinn’s life.
She wanted to close the door on this week, maybe to pretend it never happened, maybe to keep it as a memory, something to grow from but not move into.
She found Mel with Audrey, Liv’s cousin much more casual than she’d presented herself the rest of the week in leggings and an oversized T-shirt, face bare of makeup. She grinned, though, when she saw Quinn, and it was Audrey who walked over first, Mel lagging behind.
“It was nice to meet you,” Audrey said, sounding genuine as she shook Quinn’s hand.
“Nice meeting you, too, Audrey,” Quinn replied. Her eyes darted to the side, not really wanting to say this next part in front of Mel, but she didn’t have a choice. “Will you keep an eye on her? Please?”
Audrey nodded. “I promise.”
Shortly after, Quinn and Mel hopped into the shuttle that they’d scheduled to take them to the airport, and as soon as they were settled in the van, Mel turned her full attention to Quinn.
“So, what happens now?” Mel asked .
Quinn snorted. She had no fucking idea. But she scrunched up her face, playing at being confused. “What do you mean?”
Mel’s eyebrows—flawlessly shaped, to be sure—looked like they were going to jump off her forehead. “Quinn. You spent this whole week in some weird, strangely hot mix of circling each other and being naked. You’re saying you don’t want to stay in touch?”
“It has literally never mattered for a single moment what I wanted when it came to Olivia Palmer,” Quinn said, bitterness seeping into her tone.
“You sound like an angsty teenager, not a grown ass adult. Did you talk to her?” Mel said. “Do you even know what you want?”
Of course, that wasn’t the problem. She’d always known exactly what she wanted when it came to Liv.
Because things with Liv had always been messy.
She didn’t always listen, she had a habit of not being honest with herself, sometimes it seemed like she was actively trying to stay unhappy…
but also, she had been one of Quinn’s best friends.
They had fun together, they supported each other.
The connection they’d had in college—call it a friendship, a relationship, whatever—was the closest Quinn had ever allowed herself to get to another person, and…
she had loved Liv. It was just the truth.
What could she possibly want more than to see what could happen between them if, as adults, they allowed themselves to explore, to see if they could have something genuine?
Because it felt like they could be good, it really did.
Despite the logistical issues—living in different states the biggest of those concerns, though it was also clear they each had careers that were demanding and would need to be navigated carefully, especially if their businesses intertwined—it felt like they had the potential to be great .
It also felt like they could break each other permanently .
“I don’t think I need tough love this morning,” Quinn groaned. “Can I please have a few days to process before you rip into me over all of this?”
Mel pulled out her cell phone, and Quinn, leaning as she was into her friend, watched as she navigated to her schedule. “I can allow that. I’m scheduling ‘tear Quinn a new asshole’ for 9:00 AM on Monday, does that work for you?”
Quinn rolled her eyes, but played along. “You have my calendar. Just make sure I’m not booked with something else.”
“Your reckoning is scheduled,” Mel said a few seconds later, and Quinn heard her own phone ping with the notification.
“You’re so stupid,” Quinn replied, but there was affection in her tone.
That weekend, Quinn wanted nothing more than to sit and wallow, to live in her pajamas and eat only junk food and be the angsty teenager that Mel said she was acting like.
And that would have been her plan, she was sure of it…
except that, when she texted her mom that their plane landed in Detroit—because she was over thirty but Jennifer Miles still expected that from her children—her mom subtly suggested she come out for the weekend.
It was a fairly regular request since her dad had died.
No, not a request, because her mom didn’t want to come across as needy.
But every few months, her mom would randomly start talking about needing help in the garden, or cleaning out the garage, or, like this weekend, help baking large orders for her little business, and Quinn would acknowledge that it had been a while since she’d been home and offer to help.
So, instead of going home to mope, she said goodbye to Mel and found herself driving to her hometown, to spend a few days with her mom.
As soon as she walked through the door, Jennifer put her to work on an order of 800 cupcakes, with Quinn in charge of stirring the mix and filling the trays.
Her mom took point on monitoring the oven and cooling processes, before moving the treats to the giant refrigerators she’d had installed in the garage, to be frosted the next day.
Quinn had already known it was true, but it quickly became apparent her help wasn’t actually needed. Still, it was good to see her mom.
“How was your trip?” Quinn’s mom asked as soon as they had their system down.
“It went well, actually,” Quinn answered honestly. At least from a business perspective, that was the truth. She still didn’t know how she felt about the rest of it.
“Can you say more about that,” her mom replied, looking quizzically at her. “Is it top secret?”
“Of course not,” Quinn said, rolling her eyes.
She really was leaning into this teenager thing.
She scooped batter into the liners in the next tray.
“Our workshop went well yesterday. We had dinner on Wednesday night with a team out of Arizona that is probably going to hire us for some more trainings, maybe helping them develop a mentorship program. It went really well.”
“Arizona? But you were in Chicago, right?” she asked, even though she knew exactly where Quinn had spent the week.
“Yes, it was one big company, their annual event,” Quinn said.
She was trying to speak carefully without being obvious that she was trying to speak carefully, but her mom was already aware that she was talking around something.
“They flew people in from all over. It was a little bit different than what we usually do.”
Not that different, Quinn corrected herself, just on a much larger scale. But she couldn’t exactly say that without her mom asking—
“What company was this for?”
Well. Shit .
Quinn was not going to lie to her mother, she was absolutely not.
Equally, she did not want to tell her the truth.
And normally, she was a pretty smart person.
She believed that. But there was not a single answer popping into her brain for that question that could be both not a lie, and not the truth.
She was tired, that was all, from the week. She’d barely slept the night before.
“J&P Industries,” she finally said, after her brain glitched one too many times.
The gasp that escaped her mom’s body was the most overdramatic thing that Quinn had ever witnessed.
But her mom looked like she was hoping to earn an Oscar.
She dropped a (thankfully empty) tray, her hand thwacking her forehead with so much force Quinn was genuinely worried about her, even though she was wearing an oven mitt. “Woman, what is wrong with you?”
“You saw Liv, didn’t you?” It felt like an accusation, particularly as it was being shouted at her. “That’s why you’re being so cagey.”
“I…I did see Liv,” she admitted.
Her mom let out a whoop. “Finally! How was she? Did she look well?
“She’s gorgeous, of course,” Quinn said, trying to be flippant, but her mom’s smile grew. “I didn’t mean it like that. She seems…good.”
“I’m glad for her,” her mom replied, before adding, “I love her.”
“Of course you love her, Mom,” Quinn said, rolling her eyes. “She sent you to fucking Paris.”
Quinn’s mom threw a towel at her, huffing, “That’s not why! I mean, it helped, sure. But you seemed like your happiest self when she was around. And that’s saying something, because you were a bizarrely happy kid. We thought about having you studied.”
Quinn let that settle around her. It was too heavy, the idea that her mom thought Liv made her happy. The idea that the truth of it had been so obvious.
“And how are you?” her mom asked, after the silence stretched, with a hint of concern.
“I’m fine,” Quinn replied, not at all interested in having this conversation .
She watched as her mom’s smile morphed, becoming much more of a smirk. “I mean, seeing your ex like that, I’m sure it was tricky.”
And, yeah. Quinn probably should have seen that little zinger coming. “She’s not my ex. I only had one girlfriend in college, freshman year.”
“Oh, right. Charlotte.”
Quinn rolled her eyes again. “You know her name was Scarlet.”
“Ah, yes, what ever happened to Scarlet?” her mom asked.
“She dumped me,” Quinn answered with a laugh. “Never heard much from her after we broke up.”
“Why’d she break up with you?” Quinn regretted bringing up this topic. “It was because you started dating Liv or Emma. I know it in my bones.”
“I never dated Emma,” Quinn groaned.
“And Liv?”
Quinn huffed, but there was no need to continue keeping it a secret. “Maybe we were…dating adjacent.”
“I knew it! Oh, I’m so mad at you,” her mom replied, and when Quinn looked at her in surprise, she shook her head. “No, no, no. Not about that. But your dad and I had a bet going.”
“Dad didn’t think we were together?” Quinn was shocked. He was usually the one starting the jokes back in college.