Page 91 of Roommate's Guide to Love

I’m slack-jawed as Stella tells me about how she put on her rhinestoned FBI hat to start investigating if there was something more between Porter and I. All it took was one visit to The Joint when Jenny was bartending to get all the dirt.

And not just from Jenny. Harry and George, too. The biker guys who come in on the weekends after rides. Even the customers who only come in once a month said they suspected something.

“So you’re telling me,” I say slowly, still processing. “That not only do you three know, but every customer at The Joint knows? Which means…”

“Every person in Rolling Hills knows.”

Ainsley wraps her arm around me. “Congratulations, sister. You and Porter are officially the worst-kept secret in Rolling Hills.”

I dramatically throw my head into my hands on the table. “We were so careful. So cool about it. For so long we did so good!”

“Apparently not cool enough,” Stella says. “The only thing that no one can put their finger on is how long it’s been going on.”

“Because if my suspicion was right,” Maeve continues. “Combined with stories that Stella heard at the bar…then this has been happening well before you came back to town.”

I nod. Guess I’m airing out all the secrets tonight. “I need y’all to promise that you’re not going to freak out when I tell you.”

Stella and Ainsley both draw Xs over their hearts. Maeve just lifts an eyebrow.

“Eight years.”

There’s silence for a second before Ainsley whoops in a cheer. “I win!”

Of course my siblings would take bets on this. Hell, if this wasn’t about me, I would’ve organized the pool. “What was your guess?”

“Right on the money,” she says. “When we were chatting, for some reason I remembered the night of Porter’s dad’s funeral. I never thought about it until we started putting the pieces into place, but you two were both gone for a long time that night. And because I was the only sober one there, I think I’m the only one who realized it. I always thought it was coincidence until…”

“Until you realized the only relationship I’ve had in that amount of time was a friends-with-benefits who I used to have a crush on in high school?”

Ainsley nods. “Exactly.”

“You liked Porter?” Stella asks. “How did I never know that?”

“One, most girls did. He was that guy. And two, because she never told anyone,” Maeve says. “Because our sister here turned him down every time he asked her out.”

“What! Why?”

I look to Maeve, who probably knows the answer, even though I’ve never said the words out loud. Back then I told her I didn’t like him like that. We both knew I was lying, but she never called me out on it. But since tonight seems to be about truths, might as well be honest with them.

And to myself.

“Because back then, I was convinced that guys like Porter McCoy didn’t date the Big Girl Bankses of the world. And I thought that if I said no, I’d save myself the eventual heartbreak when he woke up from the weird dream state he was living in where he asked me out on a date.”

“You know that makes zero sense,” Stella says.

“To sixteen-year-old Quinn it did,” I defend. “I convinced myself it was going to happen.”

“But why?” Ainsley asked. “You were Quinn Banks!”

“Exactly,” I say, but not with the enthusiasm that Ainsley just had. “I was Quinn Banks.”

“What does that mean?” Ainsley asks. “I’m not being funny. Talk to us Quinn, because I have a feeling whatever that girl was going through, you’re still battling that demon.”

God, she’s right. Did she transfer to the psych floor at some point?

“I learned early on that being funny got me attention,” I begin.

“A case study should be done about how stereotypical middle child you are,” Maeve jokes.

---