Page 98 of What We Got Wrong

“Thank you,” Emma said, flourishing her hand with a little bow. “Paisley is already a wise woman.”

At the sound of her name, Emma’s little girl came bounding into the frame, at first too close to the phone to see, before Emma adjusted her camera.

“Paisley Mae,” Quinn called out, always excited to see her.

“You look tired, Aunt Q,” Paisley said, her little voice squeaky through the speaker.

“She’s not wrong,” Emma agreed.

“Well, you look beautiful,” Quinn replied, talking to Paisley and Paisley alone, ignoring both what Emma said and Mel, chuckling in the room opposite her.

“And smart,” Emma interjected.

“I don’t know,” Quinn responded, and honestly, she was grateful for something else to think about for a few moments. “Is that the message you want to send her, that smart looks a certain way?”

Emma groaned, and Mel said, “Honestly, parenting just sounds really hard.”

Paisley just giggled and scampered off, ready to be done with them.

“Anyways,” Emma said, dragging it out. “How’s it going?”

“I’m fine,” Quinn answered, waiting for Emma to give her a hard time. “Do you have any specific questions? We do have real work to do.”

“We do,” Mel agreed, and for a moment, Quinn worried that she meant that the two of them had worked together to come up with a list of questions for her, overwhelmed at the thought.

“Q, we’re not going to stay on this call long,” Emma assured her. “We just love you, and we wanted to check in.”

“I specifically would like to interrogate you about how good the sex was,” Mel corrected, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Y’all might need to hire yourselves for sexual harassment training,” Emma suggested, and Mel laughed.

“I asked her for some time to figure out where I’m at,” Quinn said after a few moments. “And the weekend wasn’t long enough, so I don’t know what to say right now. I’m figuring it out.”

“It was good, though?” Emma asked. “To see her?”

Quinn shrugged. Her mom had asked her basically the same question, but it was different talking to Emma, someone who had known them together. “Em, you know. Me and Liv, it’s always been good. Until it’s not.”

“She’s in a different place now, though,” Emma said. “So are you.”

“And she lives in another state, and we have just…” Quinn paused, trying her best to find the right words. “We’ve hurt each other already.”

“You’re doing a great job turning your obstacles into walls, Q,” Emma replied.

“Oh, that was a good line,” Mel said, always eager to hype Emma up.

“Was it from one of your books?” Quinn joked.

“Rude, that one was mine!” she exclaimed, pretending to be offended.

“I need to think,” Quinn said. She took a moment to look each of them in the eye, or, at least, as much as she could, with Emma a couple of hours away. “I love you both. I don’t appreciate you ganging up on me, but you guys are the best. I will let you know what I need?”

“Please do,” Mel agreed.

“We love you, too,” Emma said, and Mel nodded her agreement.

Quinn felt the tiniest bit of pressure release from her chest. Because there wasn’t a lot she was sure of in that moment, but at least she knew she had these two on her side.

Chapter 36