Page 48 of What We Got Wrong

Quinn wasn’t sure if it was a question. “Sure, that was a part of it. It’s also been a long time.”

“A long time, sure,” Liv agreed. She bit that lip again, pausing before she continued. “So, you’re not attracted to me anymore?”

Quinn slammed her eyes closed, trying to breathe through the moment. This could not happen again. She would not let it. She was strong enough not to give in to her baser desires. Still… “Liv. I don’t know how you could even ask me that. Especially when you look like this.”

“I’m hot, right?” Liv replied, gesturing up and down her body.

“Of course,” Quinn answered. “I have always thought you were beautiful.”

Beautiful was the wrong word choice, Quinn regretted it as soon as it escaped her lips. ‘Beautiful’ was too sweet, it was too kind, too real, and she knew it by the slow breath that Liv released, by the way her face softened.

Quinn attempted to fix her mistake. “You’re extremely hot. But we don’t even know each other anymore.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Liv responded. “I don’t think you’ve changed much since college.”

“What makes you say that?” Quinn replied.

The corners of Liv’s lips tipped up. “Well, you switched to drinking water. Always so careful, so steadfast, having my back.”

“I think one of us should maintain some sense of control here,” Quinn told her. Liv’s hand was still on her arm, the warmth radiating out, and she wanted to ask her to remove it almost as much as she wanted her to move it to much more interesting parts of her body.

“Are you afraid of what you’d do if you lost some control?” Liv asked quietly.

Quinn couldn’t help but utter the truth. “Yes.”

Liv looked shocked at Quinn’s honesty, and her fingers started moving, meandering slowly up Quinn’s arm. But before she could say anything else, they both realized that the other members of their party had all stood.

“We’re going to dance,” Mel said, wiggling her eyebrows again suggestively.

“All three of you,” Quinn squeaked. That may have been the only thing that could have distracted her from the conversation between her and Liv.

Rhea barked out a laugh. “Not like that. I’m happily and monogamously married. To a man, even! It can happen.”

“Oof, sounds terrible,” Mel joked, and Rhea laughed again, because of course she did; everyone found Mel charming.

“Come with us,” Audrey demanded.

“We’ll meet you out there,” Liv replied, and they watched the three of them walk away. It wasn’t a large dance floor, but it was crowded enough that they quickly faded from view. Liv turned back to Quinn. “Do you want to dance?”

“It’s getting late,” Quinn replied, although she knew that wasn’t an answer. Liv simply waited, attempting to project patience, and Quinn eventually stood. She didn’t have the energy to fight her any longer, didn’t want to fight it, so she led Liv away. Liv followed closely behind her, and it was Quinn who reached back to interlace their fingers.

The music was loud. Too loud, Quinn thought, because really, they were in their thirties. What were they doing there… Though, they’d never had the chance to do this before. Dancing openly would have been too much, too out, or too close to dating, whatever they would have told themselves except the truth: that it was too good. It felt too good when Liv pressed into Quinn on the dance floor, when they moved their bodies together. It was too much fun and far too sexy, the way that Liv moved against her.

They danced for several songs, and they were close, and the lights were low, and Liv just looked so good. They were dancing flush against each other, Liv’s back to Quinn’s front. Quinn could feel herself fall, fall, falling.

Still, Quinn tried to control her hands, as if that was somehow going to negate the closeness of their bodies.

And Liv understood her, knew exactly what she was thinking. She spun around, leaning close to Quinn’s ear and asked, “Are you afraid to touch me?”

“No,” Quinn answered stubbornly.

“You are,” Liv maintained, again biting her teeth into her plump lower lip in a way that did not at all pull Quinn’s attention, it didn’t.

“I’m not afraid,” Quinn said, trying to focus on the people dancing around them.

“You just don’t want to remember how good it feels?” Her eyes were glinting, even in the low light, and in that moment, Quinn knew that Liv understood the effect she still had on her. She felt as Liv ran her fingertips up her bicep, feeling the definition in her toned muscles. “How are you even stronger than you were in college?”

“I don’t know about that, but I still swim almost every day.”