other. She’s seeing things in me that I couldn’t see in myself. I talk more on her determination, her willingness to tackle the things that still stand between us. She talks of the problems we are still having in the bedroom, how they are slowly resolving. I hope she’s right about that.
We are to think about what we want the other to do for us most this week and tell each other on date night. I think I know what Quinn wants, but I’m not sure about myself. She’s giving me everything I could want or need and I’m at a loss what else I could take from her.
When we’re alone Grant asks me about my personal struggles and I tell him of my progress. He’s pleased and I’m glad I can make him proud of me. I tell him of the dinner with Wade this coming week and he looks at me thoughtfully.
“I want you to do something for him,” he says.
“Wade?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter. Something personal, something special. Something for him that says he’s your friend.”
Wade? The man that destroyed my life? The man that took Quinn away from me? The man that gets to have a wonderful life while I struggle through mine?
“He’s not my friend,” I tell Grant quietly, perhaps dangerously.
“I think you’ll find that the opposite is true.”
“Well, he’s rich and he’s not going to appreciate it, so it’s a waste of time.”
“Nothing done for someone else is a waste of time.”
“It is where he is concerned.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter if he deserves it, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t need it, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t appreciate it. I want you to do it all the same.”
“I am going to his stupid dinner. Surely that’s enough.”
“This is different. This is just for him. If you like you can think of it as a wedding present. You mentioned he got married.”
“I wouldn’t get used to the idea. It won’t last.”
“Well, maybe that’s your present. I want you to speak life into his marriage like you’re speaking life into yours. That can be your gift.”
I breathe out deeply. “I’ll think about it,” is all I promise.
“You do that,” Grant says, pushing no longer.
And I do, all the way home. Mary has given something for Quinn to think about on the way home and I don’t know what it is and I don’t ask. I’ve come to learn that the tasks we get are for us and us alone. We think apart for the next hour as we drive back into the city, and I’m still at a loss to think of a reason why I should help Wade in any way. But then, at some point I start to think of no reason why I can’t.
In the next episode of Twenty Four Weeks…
The Altmans come to dinner… A marriage seminar gets Quinn thinking…
We stand at the open floor to ceiling window and stare out at the city and the lights and the river. It is a beautiful sight.
“The other half,” Quinn says into my ear.
“Yeah,” I say.
I wonder if it was Wade’s money that attracted her. I wonder if, while she was sleeping with him behind my back and then in my face, that she didn’t love all this lifestyle. This was something I could never give her. This was another kick in the crotch.
“You haven’t mentioned my dress,” she points out. She’s not saying that really. She’s saying that I haven’t said how lovely she is tonight. She is. She’s beautiful and wonderful as always…
…
We sit at the table, the four of us. Wade pours the wine and gives Quinn a glass of mineral water. He winks at her as he pours it out and I raise my brows at her half smile in response.
Chloe has prepared a rack of lamb. Wade’s favourite. Quinn takes in the smell of it and starts in. Her hunger has increased of late. She was always watching what she ate before, but now she is pregnant. Eating for two, she says now.
“So,” Chloe says to me casually, “I hear we have you to thank for Wade’s meteoric improvement in the ratings.”
“Well, I think he’s got a lot to do about it. I just keep the show running.”
…
“This workshop on the weekend… do you want to go?”
She’s said the last few days that she was glad for the weekend off but there was a little regret in her voice. I knew what he answer would be, but this was not what I was asking.
“Yes. You want to go?”
“Of course I do.”
“You want to invite Wade and Chloe, right?”
…
We head up to our rooms. They are large and quite expensive. Wade and Chloe are right next door and I freeze when I see them enter. Wade lets her in first and then turns at the door and winks. Sudden fear grips me, but I can’t say anything because Quinn has pulled me inside and pulled the door closed behind her.
“How much did this cost?” Quinn asks me when we survey the room.
“You don’t want to know,” I tell her.
We settle into bed that evening. I was tired from driving but there was something eating at my mind. Earlier I had put a hand on the wall that separated our room from the next. It seemed paper-thin to me, but that might just be my imagination…
…
“Do you still feel connected to him?” I ask her.
“Sometimes,” she says. “Sometimes I think about him and what he’s doing and I remember that I was with him. But it’s just a memory and every day I think I remember less. I mean, I’m not trying to think about him, he just pops in my mind from time to time.” She sighs. “We shared something and that connects us, but that’s fading too. I’m letting it go. For us, and for you.”
I tell her about Penny and our last meeting. I haven’t told her until now and I’m feeling a little bad about it but she gives me grace and doesn’t say anything.
“I’m glad you were able to close things with her.”
…
“I’m sorry,” she says to me after we have sat upon the park bench.
“I know,” I tell her.
“I can’t say it enough.”
“I know the feeling.”
“But I made promises to you and I broke them so easily.”
“I don’t think it was easy for you. I think you fought against it as long as you could.”
“Maybe. But I could have been stronger.”
“If I’d given a damn about you then you would have been.”
Download regularly the Episode Guide for updates on this series. Additionally there is an Adult version (contains adult themes, coarse language, sexual references, high-level sex scenes and some violence) and downloadable audio books of these episodes (adult version).
Twenty Four Weeks - Episode 9 - "Twenty" (PG) Page 3
