This Time Next Year(55)

In the glass-walled meeting room beyond, Minnie could see an open laptop and a sprawl of papers fanning out across the table. Minnie sat on her hands to stop herself from biting her nails. She couldn’t get comfortable so decided to stand instead. This felt awkward, so she settled on splitting the difference and perching on the arm of the chair instead. Quinn watched this self-conscious dance of hers with amusement.

‘Look, I’m just going to say what I wanted to say, then I’ll leave you in peace to get on with your work. I was rude the other day. I don’t know why I was so angry with you when you’ve been nothing but nice to me and, well, I’m sorry. Maybe you are right, I do have a bit of a chip on my shoulder.’

‘You don’t need to apologise,’ he said, tidying the papers on the coffee table between them.

‘I really do.’

‘OK, maybe you do.’

‘I probably am doing a crap job with the business – I guess you hit a nerve.’

‘Well, I’ve had calls from clients asking how they can order from “the pie lady”. You’re clearly doing something right.’

She acknowledged the compliment with a nod. He sat watching her for a moment. His blue eyes looked soft, unfocused. ‘Anyway, it’s nice to see you … not shouting at me,’ he grinned.

Minnie’s lips twitched, she didn’t want to laugh.

‘I’m not usually a big shouter. You bring out the worst in me.’

‘It’s not all bad,’ he said, picking up a pen from the coffee table and twiddling it between his fingers. ‘You have a very sexy indignant face.’

‘A what face?’ Minnie felt herself scowl.

‘That face there, sexy indignant – it’s your signature look.’ Quinn looked up at her, pointing the pen in her direction. She noticed his hair was ruffled and disordered.

‘Wh … wha … ’ Minnie floundered. This was not the same Quinn she’d met the other day.

‘Anyway, apology accepted, I’d-forgotten-about-all-it.’ Quinn slurred the last few words, merging them into one. ‘I guess I’m sorry you think I’m obnoxious and patronising,’ he said in an odd, deep voice.

‘Why are you being strange?’ Minnie frowned. Then it dawned on her – his glassy eyes, his languid body movement. ‘Are you drunk?’

‘Am I drunk? Am I drunk?’ Quinn screwed up his face, leant forwards and then flung his body back in the chair. His eyes darted over to the sideboard. Minnie followed his gaze and saw an open bottle of whisky sitting there.

‘Look, it’s none of my business,’ said Minnie. ‘You’re free to drink alone in your office on a Saturday afternoon if you want to. It just explains a lot.’

‘Do you want a drink, Minnie Cooper?’ Quinn asked, leaping to his feet and doing a little dance around the reception chairs before landing next to the sideboard where the whisky stood. ‘Non whisky-based beverages are also available.’

Minnie shrugged. ‘Sure, why not?’

She had nowhere else to be and she was intrigued to hear more from drunk Quinn. He poured her a whisky over ice. He had a drinks cabinet hidden behind a black lacquered bureau, complete with vintage silver ice bucket and tongs. He poured himself another at the same time. Minnie sat back down in the armchair properly. She felt more relaxed now she knew Quinn had been drinking – the drunk version of Quinn was less intimidating, less virtuous. She felt her mental guard slacken.

‘So why the office? Secret drinker not a social drinker?’ Minnie asked.

‘You drove me to drink, Minnie Cooper – your elusive enigmatic quality.’ He said it with a wry smile, toasting her with his glass in mid-air.

‘Ha-ha.’

He locked his gaze on hers, unblinking. For a moment he looked entirely serious and sober. Minnie felt as though she was in an elevator plummeting several floors. She put a hand to her stomach, recalibrating her balance by studying the cracks in her ice cube.

‘Are you drowning your sorrows about Lucy Donohue’s article?’ she ventured.

‘Not especially,’ said Quinn, ‘but I’m still dealing with damage limitation.’

‘It was pretty harsh,’ said Minnie.

Quinn shrugged. ‘Better to be hated for what you are, than loved for what you’re not.’

‘Profound,’ said Minnie. ‘Where did you read that – the back of a cereal packet?’

‘I thought it was incredibly lucid and poetic for four whiskies in,’ Quinn grinned, inhaling the rest of his drink in one mouthful. ‘So, tell me about you, Minnie Cooper – what’s happening in your life? Funny Greg still making you chuckle in all the right places? Still too principled to cook for obnoxious arseholes like me?’ Quinn sniffed and the dimple on his cheek creased into life.

‘Greg and I broke up.’

She watched Quinn’s face for a reaction. He slowly raised one eyebrow. ‘Stopped being funny, did he?’

‘No. Maybe I just need more than jokes right now.’

‘Ouch. Poor Greg,’ Quinn said, wincing theatrically.

‘So what did Lucy do to get binned? All the posh meals got a bit rich for you? Found yourself getting paunchy?’

Quinn rubbed his washboard stomach and frowned. ‘There’s no paunch here, and recently I’ve been eating more of your pies than anything else.’