Chapter 35 #2
“Of course not that , silly girl,” her mom replied, howling at the idea. “Everyone knew. If you had told us in college, I had to buy ice cream. If it was after, he had to buy.”
“You two have always been ridiculous,” Quinn responded, shaking her head, though she joined in her mom’s laughter. “I will buy you ice cream tonight if you want.”
Their amusement was coated in a layer of grief, sure, but Quinn loved that they still found ways to laugh with her dad. The missing was ever present, but he’d brought so much joy into their lives, the memories they shared acting as a balm for their pain.
“I think you definitely should,” Jennifer replied, wiping tears from her eyes, a delicate mix of emotions. “Seriously, though. How was it seeing her after all this time?”
“It was…” Quinn hesitated, trying to give the question the weight it deserved. “Strange?”
“That long pause and all you’re going to give me is ‘strange?’ You’re joking, right?”
Quinn huffed at her mom again. “It was strange, Jennifer.”
“Are you going to see her again?” she asked, her tone full of hope. When Quinn just shrugged, her mom practically growled. “Quinnie. What the hell?”
“It’s complicated,” Quinn said softly. “We have a difficult history. It’s a lot, Mom. I honestly don’t know what to do.”
Her mom was briefly distracted by the timer going off. She pulled out one of the trays of cupcakes, rotating the one that stayed in the oven, resetting the timer for ten minutes and throwing in the next batch, before turning back to Quinn.
“Our life here has always been a lot,” she said. “We had you young, and then having two sets of twins… You were always so good, and so steady. I mean, you were organizing your own rides to swim by the time you were, like, eleven.”
“There was always a ton going on here. I was just trying to help,” Quinn replied.
“And I appreciated it, and so did your dad,” her mom said. “But Quinnie. It’s okay to get a little messy sometimes. You know that, right?”
Oof. Her mom had no idea how messy they’d gotten.
“I’ll think about it, Mom,” she promised. She was over this conversation, though, and it occurred to her that she had something in her back pocket that might actually distract her. “Guess who else I got to hang out with this week! ”
When her mom just looked at her with raised eyebrows, she wiped off her hands and pulled out her phone, showing her the photo with Quinn, Mel, and Rhea Freaking Stewart. And she was right. With that, her mom allowed her to change the subject.
Quinn took her mom to get sundaes at her dad’s favorite spot on Friday night.
They spent Saturday decorating cupcakes, and Quinn stayed in town long enough on Sunday to help with the delivery as well before finally getting in her car to drive home.
She filled the rest of the weekend with laundry and exercise and trying not to have a full-on existential crisis.
Especially considering she knew what was waiting for her the next morning.
At least, she thought she did, but it was even worse than she expected when she sat down for the meeting that Mel had scheduled for 9:00 AM and watched as her friend pulled up their teleconference system.
“What are you doing?” Quinn asked. Mel waved a finger in her face, asking for one minute, and continued to log in. As the system entered the virtual meeting room, she was delighted and irritated in equal measure when Emma’s face came up on the screen. “You invited Emma to this meeting?”
“I just wanted to talk to my dear, sweet friend and see how she’s doing,” Emma said, flapping her eyelashes and grinning radiantly. “I would be there in person, except we have Kiddie Book Club at the library this afternoon and I don’t want to miss it.”
“I thought you got kicked out of that,” Quinn replied. She couldn’t exactly remember the story, but knew that Emma had done something to get them banned from the group.
“We were welcomed back, as long as I promised to no longer refer to any of the characters as ‘little bitches,’” Emma explained, and oh, right. That was it. “Although I do maintain my stance. That mouse did, in fact, exhibit little bitch behavior. ”
Quinn didn’t bother asking which mouse she was referencing, instead teasing, “I just love that you’re teaching your kid to read with an analytical mind.”
“Thank you,” Emma said, flourishing her hand with a little bow. “Paisley is already a wise woman.”
At the sound of her name, Emma’s little girl came bounding into the frame, at first too close to the phone to see, before Emma adjusted her camera.
“Paisley Mae,” Quinn called out, always excited to see her.
“You look tired, Aunt Q,” Paisley said, her little voice squeaky through the speaker.
“She’s not wrong,” Emma agreed.
“Well, you look beautiful,” Quinn replied, talking to Paisley and Paisley alone, ignoring both what Emma said and Mel, chuckling in the room opposite her.
“And smart,” Emma interjected.
“I don’t know,” Quinn responded, and honestly, she was grateful for something else to think about for a few moments. “Is that the message you want to send her, that smart looks a certain way?”
Emma groaned, and Mel said, “Honestly, parenting just sounds really hard.”
Paisley just giggled and scampered off, ready to be done with them.
“Anyways,” Emma said, dragging it out. “How’s it going?”
“I’m fine,” Quinn answered, waiting for Emma to give her a hard time. “Do you have any specific questions? We do have real work to do.”
“We do,” Mel agreed, and for a moment, Quinn worried that she meant that the two of them had worked together to come up with a list of questions for her, overwhelmed at the thought .
“Q, we’re not going to stay on this call long,” Emma assured her. “We just love you, and we wanted to check in.”
“I specifically would like to interrogate you about how good the sex was,” Mel corrected, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Y’all might need to hire yourselves for sexual harassment training,” Emma suggested, and Mel laughed.
“I asked her for some time to figure out where I’m at,” Quinn said after a few moments. “And the weekend wasn’t long enough, so I don’t know what to say right now. I’m figuring it out.”
“It was good, though?” Emma asked. “To see her?”
Quinn shrugged. Her mom had asked her basically the same question, but it was different talking to Emma, someone who had known them together. “Em, you know. Me and Liv, it’s always been good. Until it’s not.”
“She’s in a different place now, though,” Emma said. “So are you.”
“And she lives in another state, and we have just…” Quinn paused, trying her best to find the right words. “We’ve hurt each other already.”
“You’re doing a great job turning your obstacles into walls, Q,” Emma replied.
“Oh, that was a good line,” Mel said, always eager to hype Emma up.
“Was it from one of your books?” Quinn joked.
“Rude, that one was mine!” she exclaimed, pretending to be offended.
“I need to think,” Quinn said. She took a moment to look each of them in the eye, or, at least, as much as she could, with Emma a couple of hours away. “I love you both. I don’t appreciate you ganging up on me, but you guys are the best. I will let you know what I need?”
“Please do,” Mel agreed.
“We love you, too,” Emma said, and Mel nodded her agreement .
Quinn felt the tiniest bit of pressure release from her chest. Because there wasn’t a lot she was sure of in that moment, but at least she knew she had these two on her side.