Chapter 39
"So," Quinn hands Carrie a Starbucks latte and sits down on the edge of her desk, as she clicks away on her laptop, "are you ever talking to me again?"
It's early, and Carrie sits alone in a large empty space surrounded by desks and oversized monitors.
Carrie looks up at him and narrows her eyes. She takes the latte. "I'm surprised to see you down here with the commoners." She looks back at her laptop and resumes her typing.
Quinn grins at her. "I don't mind slumming occasionally." He takes a sip of his own coffee. He pauses. "Lily wants to know if it's okay to invite you to the wedding."
Carrie stops typing and looks back up at him. "Lily wants to know," she repeats in a deadpan.
"Yeah, well, she'd be inclined to include you, but you know, you're not speaking to me, and she doesn't want to put you in an awkward spot."
"More of an awkward spot than fucking you right before you got back together with her?" Carrie mutters under her breath.
"Well, there's that, too," Quinn laughs.
When Carrie doesn't crack a smile, he sighs and tries again. "Come on, Carrie. How long is this going to last? I've said I'm sorry—a million times. What do you want from me?"
"I want to go back to how things were in Berlin. When we weren't speaking to each other."
"You wouldn't leave me alone in Berlin."
"Yeah, well that didn't stop you from ignoring me."
Quinn rolls his eyes. "Fine. Look. I wish I could take back what happened. I really do. I did a lot of dumb things," he exhales. "But for the record, I did try to stop it."
"Not hard enough," Carrie mutters.
"Well, by that time the blood had left my brain."
Carrie raises an eyebrow at him. "Got it. The caveman defense."
Quinn smirks and shakes his head. "Jesus, you're hard to apologize to." He takes a deep breath and takes a different approach. "You were there for me when I was at my worst. I won't forget that—and I don't want to lose your friendship over a really stupid, horrible thing I did."
Carrie looks up at him, her eyes narrowing. "And how does Lily feel about our friendship?"
Quinn shakes his head, chuckling. "She's good with it."
"Really."
"Really."
"Does she know?"
"That we slept together? Yeah, she knows."
"I wouldn't call it sleeping. You didn't actually sleep. You left. You're good at that."
Quinn takes a breath and tries to keep his calm. "I did. It was shitty. I shouldn't have been there in the first place. Like I said, I'm very sorry."
Carrie pauses, looking up at him thoughtfully. "Is Saul invited to the wedding?"
"Of course."
"And Dar?"
"He's practically paying for it," Quinn jokes.
Carrie raises an eyebrow. "What about Max?"
"On the list."
She sighs. "Fine. Give me a plus one."
"You've got it," Quinn says quickly. "Or even a plus two, if you want to bring Frannie," he offers.
"I'm not bringing Frannie. I'm going to bring a very attractive boyfriend."
"Can't wait to meet him," Quinn smiles.
"Me neither."
Quinn laughs and shakes his head.
"But to be clear," Carrie assures him, "He will be more attractive than you."
"No doubt," Quinn agrees.
"Okay, then," Carrie takes a sip of her latte, her tone softening. "I should get back to work."
Quinn nods and exhales. "Okay, then. I'll leave you to it." He rises, turning to leave.
"Quinn," Carrie calls after him.
"Yeah?" he turns around.
"Thanks for the latte."