Page 122 of Scars Like Wings

“I love that you will never stop flirting with me,” I said as I leaned to smell the flowers Quinn had sent. Instead of smelling the scent of flowers and plants, I smelled… sugar and cake?

“Those are cake pops, Byrdie-Bee,” Cody said, noticing my furrowed brows. “Quinny made them herself! She packaged them and everything.”

“She didwhat?!” I cried out. “I thought these were real flowers! They look so realistic, it’s amazing!”

“That’s how good Quinn is. She’s the best baker ever. We have been trying to get Quinn to open a shop foryears.”

Quinn’s face reddened, and her hand fluffed her curls back away from her face. I loved seeing her nerves get the best of her and knowing that’s why she did that. “Well, y’all know thatI can’t with the family business and all. Besides, my piping and fondant really need work?—”

“Shut your face right now,” I interrupted. “We aren’t doing that. This—” I motioned toward the bouquet. “Is perfect. Absolutely perfect. I wouldn’t change a single thing, and I would fight anyone who tried to. You are anartist, ma’am. Don’t let anyone—even yourself—tell you any different.”

Quinn’s blush deepened. “Thank you so much, babe.”

“So! Are they all the same flavor?”

Quinn shook her head. “No, actually, I couldn’t settle on just one or two, so I went with four. The red ones are maple bacon and apple, the orange ones are spiced Mexican chocolate, the pink ones are butter cake with orange and cranberry filling, and the white ones are vanilla chai. I know how much you love chai tea, so I knew I had to make that one for sure. The spiced Mexican chocolate is my own spin on things. Everything else is a guess for what you might like, honestly. The lavender and leaves are very real at least, but I thought they were pretty and went well with everything.”

I plucked a white hydrangea cake pop from the bouquet. It came up with a clear stem for me to hold onto while I ate it. I almost hated to eat any of it since it all looked so real and beautiful. Still, I leaned in to take a bite. Immediately, my mouth was overcome with the flavors of fresh vanilla chai tea and cake. I moaned, deep and low, as my eyes rolled back. It wasso fucking good.

“Damn, girl, would you like some alone time with the cake?” Nat teased.

“I would definitely love some alone time with the baker of this cake,” I said, taking another bite while making eye contact with Quinn, who was making me feel hot for more reasons than her almost-magically warm hoodie.

“Okay, okay, we can take a hint. Let’s go, shit-stain,” Nat said, standing up from the couch to leave.

“Welcome to the family, Bee! I definitely like you way more than the last one. You are definitely prettier than her and way more fun.” Cody winked before following Nat.

My eyes stung with the threat of tears again at Cody’s words, but instead, I smiled at Quinn now that we were alone again. “This has been the best Halloween ever.”

“I’m so happy, sweets. I wanted it to be perfect, just for you.” Quinn beamed. “I wasn’t expecting Cody to say that just now.”

“I love that your family likes me so much, but the last one must’ve been a doozy to do such a number on everyone. The last one is the ex they threw that party over, right?” I asked before taking the final bite of the cake pop.

Quinn nodded. “Yeah, that’s Zaria.

“So, what’s the story with her? We haven’t talked about exes really. But if you don’t want to talk about this, we definitely don’t have to. You just asked me to be your girlfriend and I can only imagine how cringe it is that we are talking about exes now?—”

“It’s not cringe at all. I don’t mind, either. I mean, it’s all a part of getting to know each other so that we can be better, right? You can always ask me anything, sweets.” Quinn smiled before she started:

“I met Zaria almost immediately after I had broken up with my second girlfriend. I was just looking for a hookup, nothing serious. In typical lesbian fashion, we moved extremely fast like light speed. If we had slowed down, I wonder if we could have worked, but I doubt it. I think we were always meant to stay a situationship. Neither of us were ready for a real relationship. We were both young and immature. I was full of resentment toward my family for not giving me a choice in joining the family business. She was unserious in so many ways, and she didn’t know how to support a partner. She was bougieand materialistic, but she was lazy, never wanting to earn the luxurious lifestyle she felt she needed to survive. Instead, she put her energy into controlling me to help her get what she wanted.

“You know, we had good times together during those four years. When times were good, our relationship was great. But when things were bad, they were hell on freaking earth. Zaria always wanted things her way, and she would do everything in her power to ensure that. Even though I hated my job, she would tell me to get over it because I was good as fuck at it. It paidherbills and gotherwhatshewanted, so she said I should be grateful and just do it. My happiness didn’t matter. She would also just manipulate me and amplify my insecurities by saying that I was too stupid to do anything else. She hated so many things about me from how I dressed more masculine to how I was more of a night owl to my ADHD quirks. She would even say and do things that would piss me off on purpose. I have a temper, but it does take a lot to make me mad. She knew how to get me heated, even if I was in a good mood. We would have screaming matches, where we would come to blows sometimes. We didn’t talk things through. We just yelled it out, fought it out, or fucked it out. It was everything a relationship shouldn’t be.”

My heart broke hearing her, but it cracked further and deeper as I saw her eyes glisten. She shook her head and continued. “Honestly, just thinking about our time together, I get so mad I could cry because of how much and how long I endured everything. I walked on eggshells with her twenty-four-seven, scared to say the wrong thing that would get be used against me. I was wound so tight from always being ready for a fight. Still, I felt suffocated and like I didn’t have a way out. Zaria put me in a dark place for a long time because she made me believe that I deserved her for the shit I did. I don’t know how I went through all of it.”

I could feel the sting of tears surfacing again. I wished I could reach through the phone and just hold her right now. “Quinn, I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that. Your happiness matters, especially to me. I would never treat you that way, and I want nothing but the best for you and for you to be even happier than you make me.”

“I know, baby girl.” Quinn chuckled, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. “I’m actually kind of happy that I did go through it, so I can see how much of an amazing person you are and how people should be treated. That way, I don’t mess this up, too.”

“Oh, Quinn. You didn’t mess up your last relationship with Zaria. She was a mythic bitch, and you were pushed into survival mode, by the sounds of things. What was your final straw that made it end?”

Quinn sighed. “To make a very long story short, we were both sent on a job, and she not only botched it but broke a crucial rule that we have. She didn’t give two shits about it. When we got back to our rental, she asked me to clean it up while she went out shopping, and I lost it. We got into ahugefight that night. It was weird though because I wasn’t screaming, just her. I think I had mentally checked out of our relationship so long before that. In that moment, I realized I was fully done and ready for this to be over. She wasn’t, though. She called me names and tried to push every button she knew to push. She tried to get physical and fight me. She tried everything, but I didn’t react to any of it. I just packed my bags and got Clarkson ready to go.

“The last thing Zaria tried was to say she would blackmail me to my family. That was the last straw for me, and I knew I had to leave before I stayed and ripped her a new one like she wanted me to do. I was done giving in to her. She had beenhorribleto my family ever since she met them, having been rude to them and trying to isolate me from them. She had even triedto manipulate Natassa to be her little minion of sorts and had been a horrible influence on her. Everyone hated her, especially Nat because she saw how she turned me into a shell of myself. Still, my dad, mom, and aunts wanted me to work through it all because Zaria knew the business. Her family has been in the game for almost as long as mine. It would have been a good match if we had made it work.”

I raised my eyebrows as I plucked an orange rose from the cake pop bouquet. “Matches? Do y’all do arranged marriages or something in your family? Sounds like your family is royalty. Or the mafia.”

Quinn threw her head back and laughed again. Honestly, after the heaviness of the previous conversation, it was a relief to hear and a great way to break the tension. “You’re not too far off.”

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