Quinn sits beside me on the opposite couch, my hand still clutched in hers. “It’s so good to see you, Ames. I missed you so much!” She pulls me in again, resting her head against mine while her arm winds around my waist.
“I missed you too. So much.” I sigh deeply and close my eyes. For the first time since I got back to Chicago yesterday, I feel somewhat at home.
“How was the journey back?” Quinn asks.
“It was good, but coming home was tough... being in that house and him not being there... surrounded by his things...”
“It’ll get easier. There’ll always be something that will remind you of him, a song, or a saying, but soon it won’t hurt as much. I promise. It will get easier with time.”
“He um… he left me the car.”
“What car?”
“Shit, I never told you. My dad was big into restoring muscle cars, he’d done it since I was a kid. Whenever I was home and he was in the garage, I’d sit and watch him, hand him his tools… Anyway, his latest project was a '65 GTO, which as it turns out, he was restoring for me for my twenty-first birthday. But he never finished it.”
“Oh my God...” Quinn breathes out. “What are you gonna do? You can’t just let it sit there, right?”
“I wanna get it finished, for him. That car meant to such to him which makes it important to me. I just have no idea where to start.”
“You could always ask Logan. I’m sure he’d help you, or know someone who could,” Dwight suggests.
My stomach flips at the mention of his name. “I’d never even thought to ask him.”
“Have you spoken to him recently?” Quinn asks.
I shake my head. “He texted me a few weeks ago to ask if I was okay, that was it. Why?”
“No reason,” Quinn replies a little too hastily, then giving me a sweet smile.
“There clearly is, so what is it? Spill.”
Quinn sighs. “Okay, fine. I was just wondering if maybe the two of you...”
“What? No! No. There’s nothing going on between us.”
“Didn’t look like that the way he was with you at the club that night,” she says. The same night my dad died. She must realise it because her face falls. “Ames, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, Quinn. That night... what happened between us was just the drink talking. Nothing else.”
I only wish it was the opposite.
“If you say so,” she shrugs, shooting a look at Dwight. “So anyway, while you’re here, you might as well stay. Do you wanna hang out? Maybe watch a movie or something?”
“Only if it’s not a sad one.”
“Okay, um...Twilight? I know how much you love it.”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Awesome! I’ll go and get the snacks!” Quinn jumps up from the couch and crosses the room into the open plan kitchen.
“I’ll take that as my cue to leave. Enjoy the movie, girls,” Dwight says as he stands and heads over to Quinn, kissing her before heading out the back door.
Quinn returns a few moments later, armed with bags of potato chips, chocolate and popcorn. Two bottles of coke stuffed into the pockets of her hoodie.
We settle down to watch the movie and I spend my time quoting every single line. Yeah, it’s pretty sad that I know every word of dialogue, I’m a nerd like that, but who cares? It helps take my mind off other things. It's a welcome distraction.
Once the movie is over, I say my goodbyes to Quinn and Dwight and head home, but I feel myself compelled to drive somewhere else first. It seems I’ve been driving on autopilot when I find myself pulling up outsideCooper’s Auto Repair.
