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‘Don’t you have a panic attack and all,’ said her mother with a sniff, pushing out her bottom lip defiantly.
There were footsteps on the stairs. They both turned to see Quinn come back through to the living room. He looked tired, deflated. He brushed a hand through his hair and leant a shoulder against the door frame.
‘Thank you for being here today,’ he said to Minnie’s mother. ‘She doesn’t have many people she’ll speak to, she doesn’t let anyone in. I hope today won’t – ’ he paused, looking for the right word – ‘put you off being in touch.’
Minnie’s mother blushed and then jutted out her chin. Minnie had never seen her blush in her life.
‘Takes a lot more than that to put me off.’
They all stood in silence for a moment until her mother said, ‘Right, best be off. Can’t stand around all day gassing. I’ll call to see how she is in the morning.’ She looked back and forth between Quinn and Minnie, gave Quinn a curt nod and then marched back towards the front door. ‘You make your own way home, Minnie, you’ll only slow me down with that ridiculous get-up you’re wearing.’ She gave Minnie a firm stare, as though trying to convey something with her eyes, though Minnie had no idea what it might be.
Once she had left, Minnie turned around to see Quinn standing next to her in the hall. He looked exhausted and forlorn.
‘Well, I’d better be off too,’ Minnie said, looking around for her purse and phone.
Quinn let out a deep, audible sigh. He put a hand across his chest and grasped his other shoulder.
‘Can I do anything?’ Minnie asked, nodding in the direction of the stairs.
‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ll just stay here until she wakes up. When she takes her medication, she comes around all groggy, forgets things. She’ll need me here.’
His gaze turned to the floor. Looking at him now, Minnie couldn’t be cross. Whatever awkwardness had passed between them, he was still a decent person dealing with a difficult situation.
‘Do you want some company?’ she asked quietly, her heart in her chest. Such an innocuous question, but she didn’t know if she could take the humiliation of being rejected again.
His head shot up. ‘Yes.’ Then a smile played on his lips. ‘But can we talk about the mermaid outfit now? And is that wig in the living room part of it because, if so, I think I need to see the whole get-up.’
Minnie gave him a playful shove as she hopped past him, but she pushed him a little too hard, lost her balance and fell into him. He caught her, clasping both hands around her shoulders. She breathed him in; he smelt like every good Christmas she’d ever had. The owls went into overdrive, pulling crackers and chirping owlish Christmas songs.
‘Maybe you have something I could change into,’ she said, righting herself and stumbling backwards.
Quinn found her some of his gym shorts and a T-shirt to wear. She went to change in the downstairs bathroom. She didn’t have another bra with her, so she just put the T-shirt on over the coconut bra. Once she was back in the living room, she realised how ridiculously big and solid this made herboobs look. While Quinn was in the kitchen, rather than go back to the bathroom again, she decided to subtly perform the magic trick that all girls know – the one that involves taking your bra off beneath your T-shirt and pulling it out of an armhole. Unfortunately, this was not a smooth operation when the bra in question was made of two giant coconut shells.
Quinn came back in with a bottle of wine and averted his gaze when he saw what she was doing.
‘Is my T-shirt attacking you?’ he asked. ‘Do you need some privacy?’
‘All good,’ said Minnie, finally pulling the coconuts out through the bottom of the T-shirt. Oh, why hadn’t she thought to pick up her change of clothes?
Quinn poured them a glass of wine and she told him about Leila’s engagement. She covered her face as she told him about Leila’s reaction, how she hadn’t remembered the conversation at all. The lines around Quinn’s eyes creased into deep grooves and he let out a deep, hearty laugh.
‘So she had no idea what this whole scene was in reference to?’
‘Not an inkling,’ Minnie gave a wincing smile.
‘Oh Minnie,’ Quinn leant back against the arm of the sofa, laughing. ‘That’s very sweet of you to plan all that for your friend.’
As he looked over at her with his warm blue eyes, she couldn’t help but feel again that she’d known this man for far longer than the time they’d spent together. They sat in contented silence for a minute and then Quinn leant over totop up her glass. She shouldn’t have anything else to drink; if she did she’d say something stupid. She’d mention the elephant in the room and she’d ruin things again.
‘So, how are things with you?’ she said, looking up at him over the rim of her wine glass. ‘How’s Amanda, or Amanda two, whatever her name is? Any madly romantic proposal on the cards there?’
Oh great, she’d done it – she’d mentioned it. Why had she brought up Amanda? Quinn didn’t want to talk to her about his love life! Quinn shuffled forward on the sofa, then took a long sip of his wine.
‘I guess we should talk about what happened at the zoo,’ he said.
‘It was a month ago, Quinn, you don’t need to explain. It’s fine, whatever, I was just making conversation. You know; how’s work? How’s the weather? How’s your girlfriend? We don’t need to talk about it at all, if you’d rather talk about the weather, this sunshine we’re having is lovely, isn’t it?’
She was babbling.
