Page 92 of Roommate's Guide to Love

“Exactly. Once in elementary school, a kid called me fat. A little bully being mean. But instead of telling the teacher, or calling him a name, I pulled a prank. Now, instead of kids laughing at me because a kid was being mean, they laughed with me because of the awesome funny thing I did. And thus began thirty-plus years of using humor, pranks, and sarcasm to deflect any words that could be thrown at me.”

“Honestly, that makes complete sense,” Stella says.

“In high school, I realized that my pranks came with popularity. All of a sudden, I was a little cool. Seniors knew who I was, and not because I was Simon or Maeve’s younger sibling. The day Porter started hanging around me, I didn’t know what to do. I mean, he was hot, you know?”

“Still is,” Stella says with a smile.

“You don’t have to tell me. He does this?—”

“Quinn!” Maeve yells. “Focus.”

“Oh. Sorry. Where was I?”

“Porter started talking to you and you freaked the fuck out.”

“Oh! Yes, anyway. When he asked me out, I couldn’t believe he was serious. I thought he was being nice. Or he was bored. Because I knew the name Big Girl Banks was being thrown around in his circles. And in my mind, no one with that nickname really could go out with a guy like Porter.”

“Oh, Quinn,” Ainsley gives me a side hug. “I hate that people made you feel like that.”

“If it had only stopped there, I probably would’ve been okay. In college, I tried to start dating. I felt confident. It was a new start. People didn’t know about my antics in Knoxville.”

“You tried to date when we were in college?” Maeve asks. “Did I never meet any of them?”

I shake my head. “No, because there weren’t any. You don’t get dates when stereotypical sorority girls exist. I wasn’t skinny or perky. I wasn’t in a sorority. I was a big girl with a weird sense of humor who cursed more than the baseball team.”

I pause for a second when I feel Maeve take a hold of my hand across the table. “Take your time.”

I nod and suck in a breath, knowing it’ll just be easier if I keep it going.

“College came and went, and then I needed to figure out what was next. I didn’t want to stay in Knoxville, and all I could think was that if I moved back here, I’d forever be Big Girl Banks, the girl who once hid all the spoons in the cafeteria. I needed a fresh start, and the dart hit Arizona.”

“It still pains me to know that’s how you picked where to go,” Maeve says.

“I know, but it worked. That’s when I thought I truly found where I was supposed to be. I was a teacher. I had my degree. It was a new city, where no one knew who I was. I even started dating.”

I trail off, remembering the douchebag that really I need to thank for starting this whole saga.

“The guy I caught cheating on you,” Stella says.

I see light turn on for Maeve. “The night of Porter’s dad’s funeral.”

“And then you disappeared for a while…”

I nod, not needing to confirm anything. “That was the first night. We thought it was going to be a one-and-done.”

“Until it wasn’t.”

I tap my nose to Stella’s observation. “One time became two. Two became three. Before I knew it, every time I was home, it happened.”

“Wow,” Ainsley says. “That often? For that long?”

“I don’t know whether to be mad or impressed.”

Same, Stella. Same.

“That’s our history. Things started hot when I came back to town, but I cut everything off when I moved in. I thought we could quit cold turkey. And we have, don’t get me wrong. It’s just… Tonight he kissed my forehead and said that he’d miss me if I moved. And he stood up to Emily the other day for me at the diner and that was hot as fuck, watching him go all alpha like that. And oh, did I tell you he always tries to slide me a water because he’s insistent that I’m dehydrated?”

I didn’t expect a rousing answer to that last question, but I didn’t expect silence either. “What? Why are y’all looking at me like that?”

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