You Had Me At -- ON HOLD --

Chapter 10

I rang in the New Year with the people from work. With Catherine's help I'd managed to make a few more friends and garner an invitation to a party being held by another professor. I would have rather been with Quinn and a room full of basketball players and groupies, but he was in Orlando on another road trip. He wasn't due back for another four days.

I left the party just after midnight and popped over to Quinn's house to water his lonely plant. We'd managed to keep it alive. I watered his plant, then sat down on his sofa and sighed. I would have probably left Charlotte in the spring if I hadn't met him, but he changed everything for me. He was a true friend, someone who saw past the bullshit and the garbage. He wasn't my friend because he thought I could do something for him, and in many ways I was sure he felt the same for me. We weren't friends because we could help each other politically, socially, or financially, we were friends because we could help each other emotionally.

My phone chimed with a text.

Are you at my place?

Did Quinn have a camera set up somewhere?

Yup.

Okay, you're up. I'll call you.

"Hey Quinn."

"I thought you might be there. I tried texting earlier, and you didn't reply. Then I figured you were watering the plant."

"It's still alive."

"Happy New Year, Claire," he said, his voice lowering slightly.

Oh, right. That. "Happy New Year, Quinn."

"I'll plant a big wet one on you when I get back," he joked.

"I'm looking forward to that. You do sound happy. Does it have anything to do with that two-game winning streak you guys have, and on the road to boot!"

He laughed at that. "I think it does," he said without the usual heaviness in voice when he spoke about the Matrix. "If we win in Orlando on Tuesday, it would be the longest winning streak in the last two years."

Poor guys. A three-game streak was hardly a run. "Good luck to you, then."

"I'm going to let you go. We are wrapping up our impromptu party. We'll talk more when I get home, and I'll text if anything interesting happens."

"Don't drink too much," I warned.

"I'll try not to."

I was starting to sound like his mother. I really had to stop that.

***

The night he came home he pulled me into his arms and kissed me. I didn't see it coming and the action startled me. When he finally released me, he laughed as I stumbled to get my footing.

"I told you I'd give you a big wet won," he said.

"Yes, you did," I said, feeling slightly embarrassed. I knew my cheeks had flushed.

"I had a great week. I don't think I told you about my friend Ty," he said as he collapsed onto my sofa. "He's coming for the weekend to spend some time with me. I'd like you to meet him."

"I'd like to meet him."

The thought of meeting his friend would potentially put to rest some questions I had about Quinn. As the weeks had passed since our first discussion about our past, I'd formulated bits and pieces of Quinn's life, and they had inspired me to write. Without his knowledge I'd begun to piece together his youth and the relationship with his parents. And that's when he threw me for a loop.