Our Love

Wade

Grant and Quinn had been gone on their work trip for two days now. Two days had given me the opportunity to see how miserable I was without Quinn around. Even though we hadn't been spending a lot of time together, it was enough that I felt incredibly lonely without her here. I wanted to text her to see how the trip was going, and how she was doing with work and Grant. I chickened out every time, though, feeling like some kind of fool. I was a complete ass to her the day before they left, insulting her position with the company. She didn't speak to me the rest of the day, and rightfully so. She said a quick goodbye the following morning when Grant had picked her up for their flight, and that was the last I'd spoken to her.

Grant hadn't been returning my texts either. He called me out on my shitty mood and being a dick that day. He highly recommended I get my shit together, figure out what I wanted and quit being a passive-aggressive douchebag, his words. He wasn't wrong, though. I just had to figure it out, get it together and make a move.

"You're late," Carrie growled as I walked in with the takeout she requested for our lunch.

"Like ten minutes, tops. They were packed." I rolled my eyes as I unpacked our meals.

"You're lucky you have food. Otherwise, I would have locked you out." She joked.

"You're lucky you're my friend. Otherwise, I wouldn't have brought you food." I countered, giving her equal sass.

We sat at her desk, eating our Chinese takeout. Carrie dug in right away. Not only could she drink me under the table, but she could also eat twice as much as me in one sitting. One of the many reasons we were friends.

"Have you talked to Quinn?" She mumbled with a mouthful of fried rice.

"No. Have you?" I raised a brow.

"Of course." She shrugged as if it was the dumbest question.

"I need help, Carrie. I'm interested in her. I like her. I just... I don't know how to go about this. Everything is so complicated and different." I sat back, running a hand through my hair. Carried continued to eat while watching me as I spoke. "That moment I met her on the side of the road, it seemed so ridiculous, but I was kind of smitten from the start. I just chalked it up to lust and just the physical attraction, but the more conversations we have, the more I hear about her amazing work ethic and how strong she is to have overcome all of these obstacles; I just genuinely like her." When I looked up, Carrie was no longer eating but staring at me, eyes wide and mouth open. I fucked up, I said something wrong, or she thought I was insane.

"You're more than smitten. Wow." I realized how serious she was when she laid her fork down, wiping her face as she sat back. "It's not that complicated, Wade. You just laid it all out there right now; all you have to do is the same to her. She's a big girl, ya know." She crossed her arms across her chest.

"I know. I mean, of course. I just, what if I do that and she thinks I'm crazy? She's staying with me, and what if she feels obligated or something? Christ." I growled.

"She's actually not going to be staying with you once she gets back." Carried added, catching me off guard.

"What? Why?"

"She doesn't want to put you out, as she said. She's not quite saved up for an apartment of her own, so I offered her my spare room. She's forcing me to accept rent, of course, which I plan to stash away or something. But I said sure. I'm not even home all that much anyway." She explained, indicating this was something they had discussed in depth.

"Oh. I mean, I guess I can understand that. I suppose it would make more sense to stay with a female friend." I couldn't help but feel sadness at the thought of not seeing her daily.

"It does. It also removes another obstacle for you. She won't feel obligated to do anything because she won't be staying with you. Not that she would have anyway, though." Carrie explained further as she cleaned up the leftovers from our lunch. "Maybe by the time she returns from Boston, you'll have the balls to lay it out there and ask her out. You better get on it; she's beautiful and deserves to have some fun."

"I'll work on it." I rolled my eyes. "Will you be at dinner tonight?" I asked. I had begrudgingly agreed to have dinner with my Father. Something that I had not done in quite some time but felt like needed to happen. We needed to get closure on the fact that I would not be participating in any deals with his company now or at any time in the future. Perhaps once we put that to bed, we could work on a relationship.

"No way. I'm taking my girl out to dinner and avoiding that trainwreck at all costs." She laughed.

"Wow, thanks." I stood, preparing to leave and get back to the shop. "I'm trying to do all the right things here, ya know, with my Dad and with Quinn."

"Oh, Wade, I know. You're a great guy. The fact that you even want to work on things with your Dad and that you want to approach everything with Quinn in the way that you do, says everything about you. Now go, fix some cars, have dinner with your Dad and call me later to tell me all about it." She grinned, giving me a quick hug.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. I was steady with work at the shop and checking in on the farm as well. By the time I got back to the house to shower and change, I had only a few spare minutes before needing to meet with my Dad.

I arrived at the restaurant just in time for the reservation, though my Father was running late. He had left a message with the host that he would be about ten minutes behind. I sat at our table, sipping a whiskey while scrolling through my phone. I was reading a recent business article referring to my Father's company when I realized someone had slid into the seat across from me. I laid my phone down to look up into the eyes of the last person I wanted to be anywhere near.

Denise.