Page 19 of Temptation

Chapter Nine: Favours

Tenn had just finished his morning of meetings and was sitting down to type up his notes before Quinn got there when there was a knock on his door. He gave the okay to come in and was surprised to see Quill poke his head in.

“I brought lunch. Interested?”

“Hey! Yeah, come on in.” Happy to see his friend, Tenn cleared a pile of papers out of the way and waited as Quill came in, sat down and pulled sandwiches from Michael's Deli from a bag, grinning when he handed him his favourite “Dishevelled” Brisket on sourdough bread. “Thanks. What's the occasion?”

“This is more me asking you to do me a favour than an occasion.” Quill smiled faintly as he took a bite of his Surfside Club.

“What's that?” Tenn had a feeling he knew what it was, and he was already doing it.

Quill swallowed his bite and wiped his mouth, looking like he was trying to figure out how to word what he wanted to say. “I'm guessing you figured out I set this all up. Not the cheating part, but you guys finding out.”

“It crossed my mind. Why didn't you just tell me?” Tenn studied his friend curiously. Quill was an architect in more ways than one, and he wasn't sure what his motives for all of this were yet.

“I thought about it. But you would have needed proof with the prenup, and I didn't want to be the one to bring down your and Quinn's marriages.” Quill put down his sandwich. “Quinn told me about how Joel was treating her. You mentioned how Viki had been acting since she got the job at the dealership, and I put two and two together.” He shrugged. “I didn't have any proof, just a theory. Viki is Joel's type, and Joel is a piece of shit.”

Tenn chuckled. “I can respect that. So, what's the favour?”

“You and Quinn are doing your revenge thing, which I'm behind, and you're helping out with her speaker series, which I figured you'd be interested in, so you guys will spend a lot of time around one another. I need you to keep an eye on her eating and let me know if she starts doing things like sectioning her plate, hiding food in her napkin, eating only the protein, skipping meals, or getting up from a meal and walking away to get something or to go to the bathroom frequently. If she's doing that, she's dumping food.”

“Sectioning her plate?” Tenn leaned forward and put his elbows on the desk, folding his hands before him as he listened intently. Quinn's health had become extremely important to him in a very short period.

“Yeah, if she's eating something like lasagne, she separates everything and puts it in sections. Pasta, sauce, cheese, meat. She's trying to control her macros when she does that. The first things she'll cut out are sugars and carbs, then fruits, dairy, protein, and finally, root vegetables until all she's eating are leafy greens. Her biggest trigger for it is a lack of control or feelings of shame.” Quill explained, also putting down his sandwich and leaning back in his chair. “She has a set series she follows. It’s what worked for her in the past, and she knows it will work again.”

“I'm already watching her, Quill, don't worry.” Tenn smiled reassuringly at him.

Quill snorted out a little laugh. “I figured as much. Told you you'd like her.”

“Why didn't you introduce us?” Tenn asked curiously.

“You're joking, right?” He laughed at Tenn's expression. “I wasn't about to have Quinn be the catalyst for you ending your marriage. Besides, I wanted to be sure she was in a good place with her eating. This is the longest she's gone without a relapse.”

“Two years?” Tenn raised an eyebrow.

“Quinn and I count relapses differently.” Quill shifted and looked a little uncomfortable talking about his twin’s health issues. “It took her about two and a half years to be hospitalized for the first time, resulting in inpatient care. The next time she was hospitalized was a few months after we graduated from university at twenty-two. All the time she spent in the library studying made her realize she wanted to be a librarian, so she was looking into that. The stress from final exams and realizing she had to go back to school again, this time to get a master's, and I was heading to Chicago for two years; she needed to feel like she was in control of something.”

“She was hospitalized again at twenty-six. Once again, the stress of exams and university, and she was Rilla’s maid of honour and took that role very seriously. She stopped eating, said she was forgetting to eat, but eventually admitted she got overwhelmed with everything. The next time, she was thirty-three, that whole mess with Joel. Anyway, Q counts her relapses as the time she spent out of the hospital. I count her relapses as when she starts restricting, dieting, and exercising. It doesn't always end with her in the hospital; I'm usually able to catch it and pass it along to her medical team, who work with her, myself, Rilla, and Bishop to get her back on track. She's never gone two years without slipping before.”

Quill ran his hand through his hair. “She's come a very long way. She developed a heart rhythm disorder, ventricular arrhythmia, during her last relapse that scared her straight, and she was lucky that when she became healthy, it sorted itself out. But her doctors warned her that there was a good chance her heart may not recover if it happens again.” He met Tenn's eyes. “It can be a lot to handle.”

“Are you trying to warn me off her?” Tenn raised his eyebrow. “Because you’ll need to do better than that.”

“I want you to be sure you can handle her baggage cause while it's a lot lighter than it has been, it's still there, and I don't want her to get hurt.” Quill leaned forward slightly. “Not when she’s doing so well.”

Tenn was about to respond when there was another knock, and he told them to come in. “Hey!” Quinn came in looking extremely cute in a short, cream-coloured cotton dress that crossed over her breasts and tied up on her left hip and her long red hair in a fishtail braid down her back. She noticed her brother and paused, unsure of what she had walked into. “I'm sorry, am I interrupting?”

Quill stood up with a smile and hugged his sister. “No, if I knew you were coming, I would have grabbed a sandwich for you.”

Quinn grinned and snagged what was left of his. “We can share.” She teased.

“Pest.” He muttered but didn't try to stop her; his slight smile as he rolled his eyes said he was happy she wanted it.

“Porcupine.” She returned, taking a bite of the sandwich.

“What are you two up to?” Quill asked, ignoring the porcupine jab.

“Divorce lawyer shopping,” Tenn responded. “Porcupine?”

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