“Caught the end of it,” Quinn told him, picking his wine glass up to finish the rest. “The girls kept me busy.”
Eren smiled a little. “They being a handful?”
Quinn shrugged. “Whatever you do, don’t look in the playroom. I think I made it worse. I’m going to give Una my whole paycheck to see if she can get the paint out.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Eren frowned. “I pay her very well, and extra if there’s a twin-saster.”
Quinn shrugged again, awkwardly. “I just feel bad. My parents always used ‘the help’ like they were second-class citizens,” he told him, raising his hands to do the air quotes.
“You’re not them,” Eren told him firmly. “Neither of you were. Your parents wouldn’t even think twice about asking someone to do extra because it’s their job.”
They were both quiet for a long moment, and Quinn could feel the weight of his sister’s absence between them.
“Might be a good opportunity to redo the playroom if Una can’t get the paint out,” Quinn said, after an appropriate amount of time, getting to his feet and taking his dishes with him. “They’ve outgrown a lot of that stuff, and it could be donated. Whatever doesn’t look like the victim of a crime, anyway.”
“Good idea,” Eren said, getting to his feet as well. “Feel free to use that credit card I gave you to buy whatever you think they want.” He hesitated and then said, “Whatever you want, too, you know. I’m not short on money.”
Quinn heaved a dramatic sigh. “Well, if only tall, dark and emotionally stable were available in bulk at Costco.”
Eren snorted a laugh, then he looked at Quinn curiously. “How is your head? Snow didn’t bother you again, did he?”
“My head is fine. I just hit a good bleeder, so it looked worse than it was. It stopped by the time they looked at me.”
“And Snow?”
Quinn put his dishes in the dishwasher and waited a minute to answer. “Did Esme ever talk about him?”
He knew saying his sister’s name aloud was taking a chance, but the crippling pain outweighed the need to end the conversation, so he wouldn’t have to talk about it anymore.
“Only that he went to high school with you guys, but she didn’t seem to know him well. He was one of those hot-shot guys who was awaymost of the time to play hockey elsewhere, but your parents all ran in the same circles.”
A thousand flickering memories came to his mind, like a kaleidoscope of feelings that, when melded together, painted a giant picture of his broken heart.
August Snow hadn’t broken the first piece, the second or even the hundredth, those were reserved for his parents and theirdeath by a thousand cutsstyle of parenting. But August Snow had done him the worst disservice by earning Quinn’s trust and then ripping it away.
It was the weekend, and the Bigfoots had the night off, and that meant that Quinn had the night off from childcare and hockey games. He sighed and nuzzled his face into his pillow, thoughts drifting to all the tasks he could accomplish today, when there was a loud knock on his bedroom door.
Quinn didn’t have a chance to tell Eren to come in before he entered and quickly shut the door behind him.
“Quinn. I have a problem.”
And there went any hope of having the day to himself.
Quinn groaned and pushed onto his forearms, shooting a glare at Eren. “I’m going to be dramatic and cry if you’re here to get me out of bed.”
Eren raised his hands and shook his head, and relief filled Quinn to his core.
“No, I just need you for like, two hours tonight. There’s this charity ball I have to go to, and I thought I would be okay by myself, but—”
“I’ll go,” said Quinn. He knew what charity ball Eren was talking about because it had been mentioned several times by the sports announcers during the game. They always spewed random, stupid facts, so they wouldn’t shut up about the fact that Callahan was going to a cancer charity event when his wife died from cancer.
“I like dressing up, and I like champagne,” Quinn continued when Eren’s expression turned strained. “And yeah, I might cry, but I’ll just wear waterproof mascara.”
“Me too,” said Eren. His lips twitched like he wanted to smile, but it never manifested. “Quinn, I’m sorry for dragging you with me, but I seriously fucking appreciate it. I feel like I’m using you as a crutch sometimes.”
Quinn had lost countof how often they’d had this conversation. Eren was constantly worried that he was treating Quinn like a substitute for Esme because they were twins, but Quinn never felt that way.
Eren was straighter than a ruler, and Quinn wasn’t delusional. He loved Eren, but it was so platonic that he forgot how strange it would look to others when he placed himself in Esme’s role in public spaces.
