Page 60 of Open To Negotiation

Noah

Cool it, Knight, we don’t want our pretty new friend to get a restraining order against you for being a creep.

Not only would it make the group more complicated but having to hold an intervention for you would bring me down.

Jaxson

God forbid Noah gets brought down.

Will

We all know he would just go out, tell a woman his sob story and get them to make him feel better. He wouldn’t be down for long.

Oli

But is a story about your stalker friend/business partner getting a restraining order against a woman in your friend group really all that attractive? I doubt it would be a good pick-up line.

Jaxson

Makes him look like he has poor judgement.

Noah

I think I could make it work.

Ash

Unlikely.

Me

Guys, lay off for a few hours.

Noah

Fine. We can table this conversation, which works, because I really want to get Quinn’s opinion on this.

Quinn, could I make the sob story of having a friend turn into a stalker a pick-up line?

Let us know when you wake up!

And let us know if we need to help you file a restraining order against Knight, I know a good lawyer.

After all they all emphasized Noah’s message about his pick-up line, the group quieted down and I went back to answering emails. It wasn’t an overly productive afternoon since every few minutes I would look up and get distracted by Quinn.

But I hadn’t lied to her, there was nowhere else I would rather be.

I opened Jaxson’s door with one hand and balanced the fruit tray in the other. It was Saturday and I was bummed that I wasn’t with Quinn.

After she’d woken up from her nap, I’d fed her and made her take more meds before heading home at her insistence. I had kissed her lightly on the lips, despite her objections and left her for the night even though I would have rather slept on her uncomfortable chair than leave her.

I’d showed up at her house Friday morning and decided to spend another day working beside her. She had forced me to go to the club last night and then had threatened me saying if I showed up at her place this morning rather than Jaxson’s that she would go cold on me for a minimum of three days.

It was an effective threat.

We’d all tried to get her to come but she hadn’t wanted to risk getting anyone sick. We had told her that it was fine, no one had a problem with it, but she couldn’t be convinced. It didn’t even help her that I hadn’t gotten sick. But I let it go because she needed to work on Monday, she didn’t want to run herself down so she was lying low this weekend.

Which I understood. But I didn’t like that we weren’t spending our free time together.