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And I hadn’t answered.
I closed my eyes and said, “I’m sorry. I was showering. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
She sniffed. “Well, I’m sure Elliette can tell you that I was calling, seeing as she answered twice, and hung up on me once.”
I stiffened.
“She didn’t…”
“She fucking did,” she disagreed before I could finish.
I was going to say ‘she didn’t tell me you called.’
I wasn’t about to defend her.
Not with something this serious.
However, before I could say anything more, she started to walk away.
“Shayne, please wait,” I pleaded.
The tone in my voice, the desperate need that was practically pouring out of every syllable, had her coming to a halt. She didn’t turn, though.
“This time, Quinn,” she insisted with a seriousness I’d never heard before, “I need you to stay the hell away from me.”
I opened my mouth to argue, to tell her that everything would be okay, but she held up her hand. “It’s time I focus on myself for once.”
Without another word, she turned around and disappeared into the crowd of people.
Part Two
Shayne + Quinn
Netflix should have a category called ‘easy to follow while looking at my phone the whole time.’
—Quinn’s secret thoughts
QUINN
1 year later
I saw her in the parking lot of Trader Joe’s eating a rotisserie chicken.
She sat there, her eyes far away, as she munched on a chicken leg.
When she was done with it, she tossed it in the lid that had one other chicken bone in it and moved to the breast meat.
Like she used to, she’d peel all of the skin off and toss it to the side. Then, she’d leave it for me.
Now, I was fairly sure she would’ve stabbed me with a sharpened chicken bone before letting me have anything of hers.
“What are we doing here again?”
I looked over at Boseman and said, “You know why we’re here.”
“A team bonding exercise would usually take place at a restaurant. Or a fuckin’ bar. Not a grocery store,” Boseman groused.
I snorted. “We’re taking a fuckin’ picnic. And you know they have healthy meals here we can take over to the park before we start our team bonding.”
