Black
As I stared at Quill lying in that hospital bed, flirting like it was just another day, I wondered if he thought he was fooling others. He wasn’t fooling me. While that was typical Quill, it was also an avoidance technique. I had no doubt he was attracted to me, I’d be an idiot not to see it, but I was sure a lot of his snarkiness and flirty behavior was a front.
“Okay, Quill, the doctor signed your discharge papers… Oh, hello, I’m Nurse Kathy, are you a friend of my buddy Quill here?” The petite, blonde nurse asked, and the whole thing didn’t feel right.
“I’m his boss,” I stated in a clipped tone. The nurse was too friendly to have just met Quill.
“Oh, it’s nice to see someone other than Mel come to visit him.” She patted Quill’s blanket-covered leg, and I suddenly wanted to grill him. How many times had he been in here to be on such good terms with the medical staff?
“Quill is being discharged now?”
She nodded. “That’s right. Is Mel coming to get you, sweetie?”
Quill’s gaze shifted from me to Kathy, then to the door. “Um, no, I will call an Uber.”
Like fuck he was taking an Uber. “No. I’ll be driving him home.”
For a minute, I thought Quill was going to interrupt but after one look at me, he shut his mouth. I wasn’t arguing about this.
“That’s terrific. Let me just go over his discharge instructions with you, so—” Kathy began to explain to me, and I was eager to hear what she had to say when Quill interrupted, his aggravation obvious.
“No! He’s just my boss. It’s not his business. And I know what to do, Kathy.”
I had never heard Quill angry, and the quiver of fear that laced his words was worrisome.
“I’m sorry, honey, I wasn’t going to tell him your history. Just how to make your recovery better, but it’s your choice. I’ll just ask you to leave so I can go over this with Quill.” I’d seen that sympathy before. She wanted to help Quill, but he didn’t want any. I went to leave, but left Quill with a parting word.
“You’ve been trying to get my attention for months, Quill. Well, now you have it. You’ll see exactly what that entails now.”
Right before the door closed, I heard his gasp and almost chuckled.
* * *
While there was a certain amount of dampened demeanor to Quill, it didn’t stop him from touching every button and gadget in my car.
“Wow, you can have heat on the left and AC on the right?” His eyes were wide with wonder and it was funny how something so minor lit him up.
“Yes, but it’s winter, so can you knock it off?” I hit the AC button to turn it off and was pleased when Quill stopped touching everything.
“You didn’t have to take me home,” he whispered as he stared out the window.
“I’m aware. You didn’t have to lie to me, but here we are.” My phone vibrated with a text from Lee.
“It’s not a lie if I just don’t tell you anything.”
He sounded like a child, but he pretty much was, wasn’t he? Twenty-two; damn, I remembered that age too well.
“An omission is still a lie in my book, Quill.” He blew a raspberry at my comment.
“You sound like an angry dad.” When he was silent for too long, I glanced at him. His green eyes were on me, and fuck if he wasn’t in flirt mode. “Wanna be my angry daddy?”
“No.”
With a quirk of his brow, he kept going. “We can play detention. Oh no, Mr. Black, I didn’t mean to smoke in the bathroom. Maybe if you had something better to put in my mouth, I would—"
“Please stop.” We couldn’t reach his place fast enough.
“Or maybe doctor. You can assess my whole body, maybe—”
That gave me the opening I needed. “And what, Quill? I’d be able to actually see what that piece of shit did to you? Would you open up to me then and stop the lies and games?”
He didn’t flinch when I leaned into him, but the flirtiness was gone; in its place, defiance.
“Would you?” he bit back. “Would you open up, Terrence?”
“We’re here,” my driver spoke through the speaker. It didn’t break our staring contest. I had underestimated Quill. He was a lot stronger than I thought.
“No, Quill, and that’s the last time you say my name. Understand me?”
“I understand a lot, Black. More than I think even you do, but I am curious what having your attention will mean for me? Do we have Sunday dinners now? I make a yummy taco dip. Or was that all for Kathy’s approval? Work the staff and they’ll all love you?” His smile was full of sarcasm. “I know that maneuver. Look good for everyone else, but when the door shuts, you turn into—”
“You know nothing, Quill. Nothing about me. Never think for a second I’d ever be like Ronald Sterling. Never ever think that. Of all the horrors I’ve rained down on people, none were undeserving.”
Our conversation was cut short when my driver opened the door for Quill.
“Thank you for the ride, Boss.” Quill slipped out and I opened my side door, ready to follow him up.
“No, Black. I don’t want you in my place. I have a say, right? You said as much a few seconds ago.” He wouldn’t turn and face me. He held his small, clear bag of belongings from the hospital tight to his chest. I saw Lee standing by the entrance to his complex.
“Lee is inside. He will show you how the security works.”
I watched as he entered the building. Lee waved me off. Had Lee not been there, no amount of pushing would have stopped me from entering Quill’s place.
I hated how familiar this whole situation was. I hated more that Quill would compare me to someone like Ronald Sterling. The anger was so intense, I felt it like fire in my veins.
Dialing Jones, I decided the Sterlings needed to understand Quill was off limits.
“Yeah?” Jones’ voice was his typical deep, gravelly, and disconnected.
“I want you following Ronald Sterling for me. Tomorrow, you, Lee, and I will be paying him a visit.”
“You got it.” He hung up, and I tried to calm myself down.
Hours later, I found myself still unable to get Quill out of my head.