Page 106 of Love Marks
The door swings open. Her face is pink and splotchy as if she’s been…
She brushes past me before I can say anything. “Please tell Ben I’m sorry.”
“Wait. Quinn.” I grab her arm, pulling her back to face me, but she keeps her head down, avoiding my gaze. “What is happening right now?”
She yanks her arm out of my grip, still not looking at me. “I’m sick. I gotta go.”
I follow her dumbly, stumbling after her and repeating her name, louder each time, but she’s too fast. There’s nothing I can do to stop her, and all I can do is stare as she walks out the door.
***
Needless to say, the party doesn’t last very long. Ben stays the longest, helping me clean up and asking me questions about Quinn that I’m wondering myself and don’t have an answer to. Questions like why did she leave? Is she okay? Is she upset? There’s one question, though, at the front of my mind. One that Ben wouldn’t think to ask.
Did she open the folder?
I tell myself again that she wouldn’t do that. That I trust her. I really do. I refuse to believe that she would read through it. Even if she did, there’s no way that she would believe that I would do such a thing, and then lie about it and tell me she’s sick.
Yeah, because she’s never lied to you before about that to avoid a conversation.
Shit. I should have gone after her. Instead, I had to pretend to enjoy talking about sports and the stock market with my “friends” — most of whom I see once a year if I’m lucky.
“That’s the last of it.” Ben ties a trash bag and throws it with the other. “I’ll bring them down when I leave if you want.”
“Okay,” I say, looking around at the empty apartment. The dusty piano in the corner staring back at me. Taunting me.
“You good?” Ben clasps his hand on my shoulder. “Seriously, what is going on with Quinn?”
“She said she was sick,” I bark the words out like a robot, knowing they feel wrong.
Ben rolls his eyes. “She seemed fine to me. Sure you didn’t piss her off somehow?”
I’m silent for a moment, debating asking Ben for advice. Then again, he usually gives good advice. “There might be something. It’s a long story, but basically George from work looked into the leak and found out it was Quinn, or thought it was Quinn, so he… ”
I shake my head, bringing my hand to the back of my neck. “I don’t know the details, but it seems like he hired a PI, tried to get her evicted, a bunch of fucked up stuff.”
Ben shakes his head along with me. “Jesus.”
“It gets worse. Apparently, he thought I’d be fucking overjoyed about it, and showed all of it to me for my birthday. Gave me this folder with everything in it. Photos, letters…”
Ben grows still beside me. “Wes.”
“I told her it was confidential. Private business stuff. She wouldn’t look at it. Not after everything that happened.”
He just shakes his head again and looks at me with his lips flattened. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe she really is sick.”
We both know he’s lying. Eventually, he moves his hand away from my shoulder, grabs the trash, and leaves. He must sense that I need to be alone.
It’s almost 1 a.m. and I’m dead tired from the day I’ve had, but I send one more text to Quinn to match the five others that have gone unanswered.
Please call me in the morning.
I toss my phone on my bedside table with a little too much force as I fall onto my bed. It feels cold without her here. The bed is almost too big for just me, like I need her here beside me to feel…complete.
Fuck.
I fall against my pillow with a sigh, willing sleep to come.
Chapter 41