Page 49 of Temptation

“Wow. She's not afraid to show everyone how bad she was, is she?” Viki spoke to Rilla loudly, but she was looking at Tenn, and he knew she wanted to draw his attention to the conversation so she could out Quinn’s “drug addiction,” but Rilla had been waiting for this moment and answered immediately.

“She's proud of her recovery. We all are. Anorexia is so hard to overcome, and she’s two years without a relapse, which is a huge accomplishment.”

“What?” Viki's head snapped around so fast that her shocked face was almost a blur.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Rille smiled apologetically. “I forgot you wouldn’t know the story. Quinn's mom was verbally abusive to her when she was growing up and extremely neglectful. She used to tell her she was fat all the time and that she needed to lose weight. Quinn became obsessed with being skinny at twelve and was hospitalized for the first time when she was fifteen. She's struggled with it most of her life. That picture is from the last time she was hospitalized.”

“Joel never told me that.” Viki's voice was high-pitched, and she glanced nervously at her purse. Tenn, who was watching her closely, noticed and wondered what she was up to. He knew she was a little too happy to come.

“I'm not surprised.” Rilla nodded sympathetically, glancing over at Joel and Quinn before lowering her voice like she was about to impart a huge secret. “He was so upset when she was in the hospital that he barely left her side. He doesn't like to talk about it at all.”

“If she's so comfortable with it, why isn't he?” Viki was looking over at Joel like she wanted to kill him. If Tenn didn’t already know about the affair, he would be asking her a lot of very pointed questions just based on the way she was acting right now.

“He blames himself. He said he should have noticed her losing weight like she was. I don't think he's ever forgiven himself.” Rilla was really laying it on thick, and Tenn noticed she even had tears in her eyes. “She ended up with a heart disorder because her body’s systems were so out of whack from malnourishment, and they put her in a medically induced coma to reduce the amount of stress on her heart. We were all terrified we were gonna lose her, but he was almost catatonic until they woke her up.”

He looked at Bishop, furrowing his brow in confusion. “Why isn't she telling her the truth?” He asked as Quill finished adding names and stood up to bowl first to get the game started.

“She is. She’s just leaving out the part about it being Joel’s fault in case Viki has a shred of decency and dumps him for putting his wife in the hospital because she wasn’t skinny enough for him.” Bishop explained quietly. “We want them to stay together, remember?”

“Ah.” Tenn nodded as he understood. Quinn's friends were just as determined to make this as uncomfortable for Viki and Joel as they were, and he kinda loved them for it. “You guys are all amazing.”

“Remember that if you decide to fuck around on her.” Bishop clapped his shoulder with a grin. “Come on, you’re up, might as well start the next round of having our asses kicked.” Tenn groaned and got up to bowl as Quinn and Joel came back. Quinn announced she had pizzas coming and passed everyone their drinks, handing Tenn his with a wink and mischievous grin that made his stomach flip. They got into the game, and Joel and Quill soon had a friendly rivalry going for first place. Viki was actually much better than Tenn remembered, and then he realized Joel was probably teaching her, which meant they were actually going on dates and not just meeting up for sex.

Quinn and Tenn were tied for last place and were sitting waiting for their next turn when Viki set her purse down, then accidentally knocked it over when Joel let her know it was her turn and she rushed over to him. Tenn shook his head and began to pick up the stuff that had fallen out of it. He thought he had everything and was putting it back when he noticed a decent-sized baggie of white powder sticking out of the inside pocket. He glanced over to make sure Viki was getting instructions from Joel and not paying attention to him, then moved so he was blocking her view of what he was doing and pulled it out.

Rilla came over, having chased some items that had rolled away, and noticed what Tenn was holding. “Is that what I think it is?”

“I have no idea.” Tenn shrugged and passed it to her. “I fucking hope not.”

“So, she thought Quinn was a coke addict and brought coke to the recovery anniversary party.” She glanced up at Tenn. “Your wife is a real fucking peach, isn't she?”

“What would be the point?” He glanced up at Quinn, who was getting ready to bowl. “Joel told her he wouldn't leave her because he's afraid she'll relapse.”

“Maybe she thought if Quinn relapses, Joel will leave because she's using again.” Rilla closed her fingers around it. “Mind if I take this?”

“No,” Tenn shook his head. He didn’t want it anywhere near his house, so Rilla taking it was fine with him. “What are you gonna do?”

“Bishop tattoo's a lot of cops. I'm gonna see if we can get a small amount of it tested. If it's what we think, it'll make its way into the pocket of her luggage. Every time she flies, there'll be a chance she gets caught with almost an entire eightball of coke on her.” She smiled at Tenn. “As long as you're up for it.”

“Hey, Tenn, you're up!” Quill called out. Tenn held up a finger and looked at Rilla.

“Yeah, I'm up for it.” The fact that she brought cocaine to what she thought was a recovering coke addict’s celebration of two years clean and sober pissed him off. He couldn’t believe she would put Quinn’s health, career and future at risk like that. He was tempted to tuck it in her luggage and send her to her mother's in Chicago and let her deal with whatever consequences came her way. He took several deep breaths and counted to ten before going over to bowl; his mood, already bordering on bad, was completely destroyed, and he put on the show of his life as he joked with Quill and Bishop as he bowled his turn.

Somehow he kept it together and managed to finish the game, then sit around eating and drinking with everyone for a bit. Joel challenged Quill to a speed game, and lost, but to Tenn, he only did it to have an excuse to ignore and avoid Viki, who seemed to have forgotten she was driving and was drinking heavily. Everyone else had two or three; they all had to work the next day or were driving, but she kept going. Tenn wondered who she expected to pay for her drinks. He wasn't, especially since she hadn't even said hello to him or even acknowledged him beyond a “Can you pass me a slice of pizza?”

She tried to get Joel alone several times, and each time he had given her a warning look, and she let it go... until she had the next drink. She stopped playing at some point and just spent her time glaring at Joel, who was behaving like a perfect husband, asking Quinn if he could get her anything, chatting with her friends, and ordering two plates of nachos for everyone to share. Things were slowly cluing up when Viki suddenly remembered she had a husband, and he was in the room. She stumbled over, sat beside him, leaning her head on his arm, and giving him what he could only assume was supposed to be a seductive look.

“Tenn. Let's go home,” she announced loudly. “I'll do that thing you like.”

Tenn looked down at her in surprise and disgust. After her attempt with the coke, she was lucky she was allowed to go home. “And what thing would that be?”

“You know,” She kissed his cheek sloppily. “That thing you like that I do.” Tenn glanced up and saw she had gotten Joel's attention alright; he was pissed but doing his best to look like he was ignoring them.

Quinn stood up quickly and yawned. “Actually, I think we should all probably call it a night. Joel, why don't you drive Viki's car to her place? I'll follow you, and then I can bring you back here for your car.”

Joel looked startled and nodded reluctantly, “Yeah, we can do that.” He didn’t look happy about it, but Viki looked at him smugly and made a kissy face. Everyone quickly began cleaning up, pretending they didn’t see it, but Joel’s cheeks were flushed as he collected garbage. Quinn said she was going to pay the bar tab and walked away quickly.

Tenn stood up, and Viki fell over, so she was half lying on the couch. She didn’t try to sit back up and stayed there, drifting in and out of consciousness. He shook his head, grabbed her debit card from her purse, and followed Quinn to the bar. Quinn asked for her tab, but Tenn cut in and asked that they remove all the toffee martinis from Quinn's and put them on their own bill.

---