Page 66 of Temptation

“Take your time. I have to grab stuff to patch holes; if I'm back before you're done, I'll come to find you.”

Chapter Thirty-Three: Theory Number Two

Tenn drove to the nearby hardware store slowly, willing his erection to go down. He didn’t understand Joel’s thought process at all. He couldn't begin to imagine closing his eyes while Quinn was riding him, except maybe to enjoy the feeling of her sliding down over him, or turning her down when she wanted to spice things up. Even the thought of getting a chance to have her that way was enough to make the blood leave one head and go to the other.

He parked and let out a low groan. Those thoughts were not helpful in his current predicament. He was wildly attracted to her and her body to the point that he found himself googling soulmates and twin flames, things he had never believed in and had actually scoffed at Viki about when she mentioned it while she was doing her spiritual journey, just looking for something, anything to explain why he felt the way he did. Taking a deep breath, he forced his thoughts over to what she said about Viki, which had the immediate desired effect, and he was able to get out of his car and walk into the store like a man in control and not a horny teenager holding his backpack in front of him.

As he wandered the aisles, trying to find what he needed, Tenn wondered about what would have happened if Quill had introduced them after Quinn’s last hospitalization. It would have been about six months after Viki’s last miscarriage, right around the time they had started arguing about her neglecting him and their relationship. As a matter of fact, the night before he met Quill outside the hospital, he had begged Viki to see a grief counsellor or attend a meeting of the support group he had found for her when he was searching for one for husbands who had experienced the loss of a child in utero. She had refused and insisted he let her grieve in her own way.

Would he have left Viki for Quinn at that point? He had to admit he would have, probably not right away, but he could see them leaning on one another as they navigated their failing marriages. He would have left Viki the minute he felt it was dipping into emotional affair territory because he firmly believed it takes especially forgiving people to come back from something like that, and he knew he wouldn’t have been willing to put the effort in to make it better.

Shrugging off his thoughts, he found an employee in the building section and showed him pictures he had taken of the holes in the wall. He texted Viki the night before telling her he saw what she did to the room and to clean it up so he could fix the holes over the weekend. She hadn't apologized or offered an explanation, just sent back a “whatever,” so he told her he would be throwing anything in his way out, and the repair cost the next time would come out of the funds he gave her. She left him on read, which only fueled his anger, and he was seriously considering pressing charges. He knew it probably wouldn’t go anywhere, but he wanted her to feel some fear of potential consequences and make her understand he wasn’t playing around anymore.

The employee was very helpful and advised him on what he would need based on each hole, and he was even able to match the paint for him. Two hundred dollars later, Tenn was walking out to his car, irritated with Viki again. He meant what he said: anything left on the floor was going in the trash; garbage day was Monday. If she got it out of the bins before then, good for her; if she didn't, oh well. Quinn was right; she had regressed into a petulant teenager, so he would treat her like one. He put everything in the trunk and returned to the grocery store to find Quinn. She wasn’t waiting for him outside, and she hadn’t sent him a text saying she was ready, so he headed inside and began walking the aisles.

He found her in the dairy section, throwing all kinds of cheese into the cart. “Single-handedly supporting the dairy industry this week?” He teased as he checked out what she had picked up. Quinn looked up with a guilty grin.

“Cheese was one of the things I would fantasize about.” She admitted. “And it's one of the things I felt guilty about eating. I've always loved it, and my mom's go-to insult was to call me a cow and moo at me. It took a while to break free of it, and now that I can enjoy it again, I tend to go a little overboard. Do you think it's too much?”

“Not at all; it sounds like we need more.” Tenn smiled, but inside, he was seething. Her parents needed to be smacked. “Didn't you say your parents like Joel?”

“They love him.” Quinn threw the last package of cheese in the cart and moved on to the sour cream. “He pushed me to reconnect with them before we got married because he didn’t want me to spend the rest of my life regretting not giving them a chance. I have to say, they were on their best behaviour leading up to the wedding, especially when Joel was around. I think they were hoping he’d get them a deal on a Porsche, plus if I reconnected with them, so would Quill.”

“So, they were at my wedding. Quill and I kept our walls up, but we were polite and at least somewhat open to the idea of a permanent reconciliation, and then my mother couldn’t keep her mask up anymore and called me a whale during the reception. I was eight months out from my last hospital stay and weighed a whopping one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Even Queenie got upset and asked her what the fuck was wrong with her, assured me I looked beautiful and then told Quill and Killian what she said. They kicked her out, literally frog-marched her out of the reception hall. Dad tried to argue, so they kicked him out as well. Joel enjoyed my dad’s company so much that he protested until Quill told him he was welcome to go with them.

Quill and I cut them off that night and haven't spoken to them since. Queenie went very low contact and only visits on their birthdays and Christmas for an hour or so. Quill was doing some renovations on their house, and he walked away in the middle of it. They tried to sue him to finish, but since he was doing it as a favour and wasn’t being paid, it went nowhere. Dad later reached out through Joel and apologized. I told Joel if he wanted to stay in touch with Mom and Dad, I couldn’t stop him, but he was not to mention anything to me about it, and they weren’t allowed in my house. He agreed.” She shrugged. “I know he and Dad go to hockey and baseball games together, and according to Queenie, Dad has a lot of remorse for what happened and didn’t realize my condition was serious and still ongoing until Killian sat him down and explained like he was five. Mom still denies any wrongdoing.”

“And you don’t want a relationship with just your dad?” Tenn asked curiously. “If he’s genuinely remorseful, I mean, wouldn’t you want that connection again?”

“He’s still with mom. He agrees she’s in the wrong and says he deeply resents her for driving away all his children, but then, in the same breath, says he loves her and doesn’t want a divorce. We’ve made it clear that if he wants a relationship with us, it can’t involve Mom, and he makes it just as clear that any relationship with him must include her.” Quinn explained as they walked slowly through the baking aisle. “Quill and I have given up, and Queenie understands and respects our decision.”

“Then it sounds to me like you’ve done all you can, and it’s on him.” Tenn nodded. “Thank you for being so open about it with me. You could have just told me to mind my own business.”

Quinn chuckled. “Ah, well, that’s the thing about spending so long in therapy: Pretty soon, you just answer questions without thinking. Thank you for listening and understanding.” She put a bag of flour in the cart and smiled at him, making his heart melt. “Did you get everything you needed?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “The salesperson was very helpful; he went through each hole and explained to me the best thing to use for each one.” They moved into the beverage aisle, and she picked up stuff for mixed drinks. “What's the menu for tonight anyway?”

“Cheesy garlic bread with sweet sauce, Chinese barbeque pork buns -” She paused and then turned to him quickly. “Do you have a slow cooker?”

“No.” Tenn chuckled, shaking his head.

“Really?” She looked very surprised, then shrugged. “Okay, we need to go back to my place to get mine. I’m also making red pepper dip with crackers and fried wings with various sauces. Do you have an air fryer?” Tenn shook his head again, feeling amused that she thought he had anything beyond the basics for cooking. “And I'll be making a pizza. Do you have a favourite snack you want me to make? The garlic bread with sweet sauce is Rilla's favourite; the pork buns are Bishop's; the red pepper dip is mine; and the wings are Quills.

He thought for a minute and then decided on his usual appetizer, which he got when he ordered takeout: “Can you make jalapeno poppers?”

“Absolutely, those are pretty easy.” She moved to one side of the aisle and looked something up on her phone. “As a matter of fact, mine will be the best you've ever had. And for a sweet side, we have caramel apple pie bombs, oat fudge bars, creme brulee cheesecake bars, vanilla custard cookie cups, and?” She raised an eyebrow at him with a grin.

“Brownies.” Tenn chuckled. “You're gonna be swamped cooking.”

“It's all about the timing.” She glanced at her phone again and then started moving quickly down the aisle. “Which means we have to hurry up.” Tenn followed her through the store, running to grab things she directed him to, then got checked out, and after a quick stop at her place to pick up things, headed back to his place.

On the drive home, his curiosity got the best of him, and he had to ask, “So you gave me your theory on Viki; what's your theory for how Joel is behaving?”

“Oh, that's simple.” She waved her hand dismissively. “He has a Madonna/Whore Complex. Women are either put on a pedestal and viewed as mother-like, loving and nurturing - The Madonna - or looked down on as whores. He can't view women as being both. If they’re Madonnas, they can’t be sexual beings, and if they’re whores, they aren’t worthy of love or respect.”

“He said he can't do the things he does with Viki with me because I'm his wife, and his wife can't be a whore or a slut. Because Viki was flirting and not wearing her wedding ring to work and was so willing to step outside your marriage, she’s a whore. Therefore, he was able to use her to do all the things he wanted to do but couldn't with me. The fact that she was into it was a coincidence, and the fact that she's consenting to it and begging for more has solidified that idea in his head. A woman worthy of respect wouldn't let him do that stuff.”

“He knew I wasn’t a virgin when he first started dating, but I had only been with Roy, Bishop, and Rilla before I met him, and Rilla didn't count; she doesn't have a penis. He tested me by attempting to spit on my face during sex with no communication beforehand. I slapped him and broke up with him immediately, proving to him that I was worthy of respect. He spent a month apologizing and begging for a second chance, which I eventually gave, and he never did that or anything like it again.”

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