Page 70 of What We Got Wrong

“You’re right,” Quinn said, before she paused, thinking about how Liv was taking care of her in this moment. Not just the coffee, the food, the wake up, the insistence she followed her routine. The fact that she anticipated and understood exactly what Quinn needed. She tried not to sound overwhelmed when she said, “Thank you.”

Maybe it was the weight in her voice, but Liv seemed to understand, without them exchanging words, that Quinn was thinking about a lot more than breakfast. “Of course.”

Quinn jumped into her clothes from the previous day and slid into her shoes. Liv, still in that unbelievable robe, threaded their fingers together, pulling Quinn toward the door.

“I’ll see you in a little while,” Liv said, sounding very much like her words were a question. When Quinn simply nodded, an expression of genuine excitement took over Liv’s face, like she may have been worried that Quinn would ask her not to come. “You guys are going to be great.”

Quinn gazed warmly at her before remembering herself, saying the first thing that she could think of in the moment to put them back in the correct box. “Will you wear the robe tonight?”

Liv’s face changed, softness fading to need, and Quinn watched her tongue with rapt attention as she licked her lips. “If that’s what you want.”

Quinn nodded again, deciding that she had time for one kiss. It started chaste, their mouths meeting gently, but it wasn’t long before lips parted, tongues tangled, hands twisting in hair, their bodies melding together.

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Liv said, and Quinn hated the way it felt when she peeled their bodies apart. “Go away.”

Quinn laughed at the ineffectual shove Liv pressed into her shoulder, but she finally took her leave with just a wink and a wave.

Quinn, clad in her navy suit and looking, she would proudly admit, quite handsome, knocked on the door to Mel’s hotel room an hour before their workshop was scheduled to start, exactly as planned. Mel welcomed her in, indicating that she’d be ready in just a minute, and Quinn stood at the window, patiently waiting for her.

“Did you make it to the pool this morning?” Mel asked as she laced up her black boots. She was perfectly professional while maintaining her effortlessly cool aura in a sleek, dark grey plaid suit. When Quinn nodded, Mel said, as if Quinn should have asked, “You’ll be glad to hear that I also had the opportunity to get some energy out. Last night.”

“I’ll be glad to hear, huh,” Quinn responded. Mel was always going to be Mel. “Jessica?”

The pretty assistant from Phoenix had been flirting with Mel all week, and they’d agreed to grab drinks at the hotel bar after their dinner the previous night.

“Oh, no, turns out she’s only twenty-three,” Mel replied. Age was pretty much the only boundary she had, and she shuddered when she spoke, before her expression turned to delight. “It was Audrey. I’ll spare the details, because y’all are basically family.”

“I appreciate that,” Quinn replied, rolling her eyes. “You ready?”

Mel grabbed her laptop, which housed their presentation, and they walked together toward the elevator that would take them to the conference center floor.

They’d completed a technology check the previous afternoon, so there wasn’t much to do except plug in their computer and wait patiently for their session’s start time. Quinn was all energy while they waited, bouncing on her feet, while Mel preferred a much calmer warm up, sitting and visualizing the presentation from beginning through the end.

Maybe they shouldn’t put so much pressure on this one workshop, but the whole week had been leading to this point. Quinn had literally risked their friendship, maybe even their business, not telling Mel about her connection with Liv, all purportedly because of the opportunities that could arise from this next ninety minutes.

But the reality was that this was where they were most in their element. They were great at the schmoozing, and they both enjoyed the consulting piece of their business, but the trainings, particularly for big groups, were where they really shone. Mel had dabbled in theater, and she just had a performance side of her that excelled. Quinn had never met a group of people that she couldn’t win over.

They had an energy in the way they presented. Maybe it wasn’t the sexiest thing, Quinn knew, to stand in front of a room and talk to a bunch of professionals about performance management, but there was something incredible about feeling like she was good at something, that she could perfectly accomplish the job in front of her. In a way, it reminded her of competitive swimming. She was finding ways to be successful at something that came naturally to her, though she was still willing to put in the work.

They kicked off the presentation with brief introductions, each of them giving an overview of their background. Quinn, for her part, shared photos of her childhood, highlighting in particular her larger than average family.

They rounded out the intro portion with a short clip of the video that went viral.

“Just so you know, we don’t include that video in all our presentations,” Quinn said.

Mel laughed. “So many of you have quoted ‘do it badly’ to us this week that we added it in, for y’all.”

“We got our first major piece of brand recognition because of that simple message,” Quinn added, working into the transition that they’d planned. “Our goal is that your takeaways from this session today feel just as simple. And, in the spirit of innovating through excellence, there are examples of these tools in the conference app.”

They dove into what they liked to refer to as the “HR nerd” portion of their presentation, walking the participants through the basic forms and tools that they’d brought with them, and then they led the attendees through several activities, asking them to work through examples with their own teams, with time to practice, roleplaying with each other.

They finished with some quick tips on giving difficult feedback, before thanking the attendees and letting everyone know that they’d be around for a while after if anyone had questions.

They were pleasantly surprised by the number of people who stayed after to talk, even more so when it became clear that, of those, only a few seemed to be fangirling over Mel.

It wasn’t until several minutes after their presentation had ended that Quinn realized that multiple members of the Palmer family were still in the room, sitting in a small group with Rhea. She expected Audrey or Liv to come over, but it was Liv’s dad who approached them first.

“Mr. Palmer,” Quinn greeted him, extending her hand to shake. “Thank you for coming to our session.”