There were a few moments of silence, but she didn’t run.
“What happened?” I prompted, curiously.
I’d been curious ever since Erik touched her and spoke to her at the bar. The curiosity grew ever since I’d found the ring. I could find out with ease, but I wanted her to tell me.
Maybe Erik was right and I enjoyed people’s misery, or perhaps it was because she decided to open up about things to me, it felt like a win.
“He left,” she said abruptly. Quentin was all about facts.
“And?”
“What, Gray?” she snapped. “What do you want to know?”
“Why does it make you so angry?”
“Can’t you just find out?”
“You wouldn’t appreciate that.”
She looked at me and then closed her eyes. “I fell in love with a guy called Ethan when I was an undergraduate student.”
“How old were you?”
“Nineteen.”
“You weren’t in love.”
“Fuck off.”
She twitched under my arm as if to leave, so I pulled her closer to my body. Quentin wasn’t going anywhere. This was the most content I felt in weeks. This was where she belonged.
“Sorry,” I said. “I reserve my judgements until the end.”
Sighing heavily, she continued, “He looked after me. My parents died the year before and Cass was in New York. Ethan made sure I was alright. Kept my head screwed on.”
She looked at my chest, fingers tracing patterns carefully as she recalled the memories. Not angry or protective or business-like. This was Quen when she was vulnerable.
“When we graduated, he went into industry, and I started my PhD. It was fine. Things were good. They were better than good. He proposed.”
“The ring —”
“Yes. That was the ring he gave me.” She looked up slowly with a wry smile. “You were right. It’s not really to my taste.”
“What happened?”
Quen shrugged. “He got bothered by things. We set the date for after I graduated and then his colleagues would joke it’d be Mr and Dr. I worked hard for my title, so I mean, I’d use it when I had to.”
“As you should.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. But I was a prideful being, so I understood.
“He got more and more hostile about everything. Suggested I quit and take up a job with him instead. He was already working his way up the ranks, but I’m not interested in big Pharma.”
“He wanted you to leave without finishing?”
“Mhm. And then —”
Quentin buried her face in the pillow, and I wondered if she was crying. Then she lifted it again, and I saw she was completely calm.
