Page 6 of What We Got Wrong

“Well…I wanted to apologize,” Liv explained. Quinn raised her eyebrows at her, though she seemed touched by the gesture. There was a genuine quality to this new person in her life, and Liv wanted to dig in, to hold on to her as best she could. “Can we talk for a minute?”

“Of course,” Quinn said quietly, holding the hat like it was a treasure. She gestured for them to sit facing each other on their opposing beds.

“My parents are…conservative,” Liv started, after several seconds of silence, words carefully measured. “Not in the extreme religious way, but—"

“In the wildly rich kind of way,” Quinn offered up. “It’s not exactly a surprise. I may not know many major brands, but even I recognized the logo on your suitcase.”

“You didn’t say anything,” Liv replied, surprised.

Quinn scrunched up her face. “Who would say something? It was none of my business.”

“Well. My parents, yes, they’re wealthy, and they’ve always seemed pretty traditional. I’ve mostly been surrounded by people like them, and I’ve never had a friend come out to me like you did. I mean, you didn’t even really come out to me, but…I handled it badly, and I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need you to be sorry,” Quinn said, but she was clearly still upset. She took a deep breath before continuing, “But I do need you to be honest with me here. If you want, I can put in a request to switch rooms. Like…I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“I absolutely do not want that,” Liv said, and if there was only one thing in her life she was sure of, this was it. “If I’m being honest, I’ve been pretty sheltered, and there’s a lot I’m going to have to get used to. But that’s why I’m here. I came here for a change. I’m really sorry if I hurt you, Quinn, but…I like you. I hope you’ll give me another shot.”

It took a moment, maybe just the slightest hint of a moment, for Quinn’s face to light up again. “I’m all about second chances. Can we make a deal, though?”

“Of course, anything,” Liv said without thinking, though she knew it was true once the words were out of her mouth. She didn’t yet know her well, but she never wanted to be the person to dim Quinn’s sparkle ever again.

“I appreciate the gifts, but I don’t have a lot of money—or much time to work—with swim. I’d prefer you not buy me stuff in the future. Can we just try to talk things out if issues pop up?”

Liv had never had a person in her life like Quinn. Most of her friends back home came from families almost as well off as hers, so she’d never needed to consider that type of imbalance. And honestly, she couldn’t imagine any of those people preferring honest communication with Liv over material gifts, though Liv couldn’t think of anyone she’d let close enough to have real conflict.

“I love to buy presents for people, but if those are your terms, I suppose I can be amenable,” Liv said finally.

Quinn grinned as she reached out to shake on the deal. “I feel like we’re going to be good for each other.”

Liv had no doubt about that. She was going to make sure it was true.

Chapter 3

Liv

Now

“Do you want to grab a drink with me?” Audrey asked as Liv approached. “I just have to double check that the team knows what we want set up for tomorrow, and I’ll be all set.”

“Mmhmm, a drink sounds excellent,” Liv answered, trying to take steady breaths to keep herself from tearing up.

Over the last ten years, Liv had imagined seeing Quinn again in many different ways. There were times that she thought that they’d greet each other with a hug, to reminisce about the good old days. Other times, they were naked less than ten minutes from first seeing each other again, in what could only be described as her thirstiest fantasies.

One time, she had an extremely vivid dream that she bumped into her at the grocery store, and Quinn introduced Liv to her pregnant wife. She woke up in the middle of the night, sick to her stomach, unable to fall back asleep.

But never once, in all the scenarios she let roll through her mind, had it occurred to her that Quinn might pretend they didn’t know each other. She wished Quinn had yelled, wished she’d made a scene. To act like they’d never been anything to each other… That truly hurt.

Objectively, she knew Quinn didn’t owe her anything. What happened between them was a long time ago, and it had ended badly.

And, sure. She was on the committee that chose the workshops for this conference. And maybe she had a hand in selecting the Prism Group and their pitch for a training, although she had to admit that their proposal was truly excellent, and they probably would have been picked anyway, if their application had been presented to the committee, but still. This was information that Quinn never had to know.

Just like Quinn didn’t have to know that Liv had watched their video on YouTube dozens of times, at least, and that every time the clip cut to Quinn with that excellent haircut, she wanted to run her fingers through her hair, even more so now that she’d seen her in person, all fresh coiffure and perfect body and-

Nope, not going there. She didn’t need to think about that, not when her body was already responding to seeing Quinn in ways Liv needed to get under control.

While waiting for Audrey to wrap up her conversation with the event coordinator assigned to support them throughout the week of the conference, Liv’s dad finished chatting with the benefits rep who ran their Employee Assistance Program and made his way over to Liv.

“That was a pretty good kickoff,” he said, and she nodded her agreement. “This is my favorite week of the year.”