At Your Most Beautiful Harper Bliss (classic reads .TXT) 📖

“I consider them clichés more than anything,” Maya said. She pushed herself backward in order to get the most out of Quinn’s hug.

“You are nothing like them.” Quinn kissed Maya’s neck. “In case you need reassurance, I’m not a gold digger, although I am very fond of your apartment and your doorman and your marble countertops and the heated floors.” Quinn slid a hand upward from Maya’s belly to her chest. “I’m really only after your body.” She kissed Maya’s neck again.

“You say that now.” Maya closed her eyes. “My body’s exhausted after last night.” She turned around in Quinn’s embrace so she could look her in the eye. “In the future, you’re going to have to choose: either dancing all night long or making love. I’m too old for both in one night.”

“I won’t make any demands on your body for a few hours. I promise.” Quinn’s phone, which had been buzzing with notifications throughout their conversation, lit up again.

“Sounds like you’re too busy for any of that, anyway.”

“My show opens in ten days. It’s going to be like that until then.”

“I take it Bill and Brooke will be there?”

“They’d better be,” Quinn said.

“You know what that means?” Maya looked into Quinn’s eyes. “Assuming that you want me there?”

“I’d call the whole thing off if I knew you couldn’t make it.” Quinn shot her a seductive smile. “But, seriously, Maya, no pressure. You don’t have to be there as… my girlfriend. If that would make you uncomfortable, with my parents being there.”

“In what capacity would I be there then?”

“As my friend. My old neighbor.” Quinn’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve also been meaning to ask if I could include your portrait in my show.”

“Which one?”

“Good question,” Quinn said.

“The Acton one, surely.” The other work Quinn had made would have to remain strictly between them forever. “Don’t you have to check with Indira about that?”

“I own the images I create, it’s in my agreement with Acton, so I can display them wherever I want. But I would need your approval.”

“I can’t possibly imagine a picture of me in a trendy Brooklyn art gallery.”

“That’s what happens when you date people so much younger than yourself.”

“Are you saying it keeps me youthful?”

“It’s hardly going to have the opposite effect,” Quinn said. “Come to think of it, if there’s a portrait of you in my show it would be the perfect excuse for you to be there without making my mom suspicious.”

Maya felt sorry for Brooke now because she was deliberately being kept in the dark about her daughter’s personal life. “Isn’t she going to be even more furious later if she finds out that Bill knew all along?”

“There’s a good chance of that, but it’s too soon to tell her, don’t you think?”

“She’s your mom, Quinn.”

“I can always be vague with the timing.”

“You’d be surprised what mothers can intuit about their children.”

“Not mine.”

“Trust me on this,” Maya said. “Half the things you think she has no clue about, she knows. She might just choose not to bring them up to avoid conflict.” Maya had used this particular parenting skill since Tommy had become a teenager. Sometimes, it was simply better not to have the conversation and let whatever it was pass.

“My mom and I.” Quinn loosened her grip on Maya. “It’s complicated.”

“Of course.”

“She’s not like my dad. She can’t just let things go and simply be proud of me. Dad and I used to joke about it and call it Stepford syndrome.”

“That’s not very nice.” They broke from their hug. “I’m sure all Brooke has ever tried to do is her very best. But mothers, like all humans, are deeply flawed.”

“I bet Tommy doesn’t feel that way about you.”

Maya rolled her eyes. “Try divorcing your son’s father when he’s thirteen years old.”

“Surely Tommy knew that wasn’t only down to you.”

“It’s water under the bridge now.” The last thing Maya wanted to do right now with Quinn was analyze her divorce, which happened fifteen years ago. “I just wish you weren’t so harsh on your mom. I’m not claiming to know Brooke the way you do, but there was a time when we were fairly close. Just as your dad said to you, she has only ever wanted you to be happy. And let’s be honest, you haven’t always made it easy on yourself, at least in the relationship department. Brooke is much more of a realist than Bill. That’s all.”

“I’m very happy now,” Quinn said, sounding like she’d regressed into being a moody teenager. “But if I were to tell Mom that, she wouldn’t be able to accept it without some sort of drama. She doesn’t trust me to make the right decisions for myself. She never has. And of course I’ve made wrong decisions. Who hasn’t? But Mom’s always there with an I-told-you-so and I can’t stand it.”

“You have gone from a relationship with a married woman to one with her former neighbor.” Maya hoped Quinn would be able to see the humor in what she was saying. “Cut the woman some slack.”

“Can we stop talking about my mom, please? I’ll deal with it when I have to.”

“Have you ever had something serious with someone your own age?” Maya was suddenly curious.

“Sure,” Quinn said. “In high school.”

Maya nodded. Maybe Quinn really did have some mommy issues to deal with, but Maya wasn’t going to get into that now either. She had other plans for the day.

“How about I draw us a bath?” she asked.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Quinn took Maya’s hand and dragged her into the hallway. “Have I told you how much I adore your bathroom?”

Chapter 36

The following Wednesday, after she’d spent the morning in Manhattan taking pictures of a glitzy new Mexican-Chinese fusion restaurant, Quinn headed to Maya’s. She could get used to having a pad on the other side of the East River. She wasn’t sure she could live outside of Brooklyn—she never had since she’d moved to the city—but she