Whittaker 03.5 If Nothing Changes Read Online Free

at me to indicate the exact nature of Quinn’s sexual difficulty. “At first, he told me he didn’t want to, but I was, like, ‘Come on. One last time?’ It wasn’t a good idea, though. His heart just wasn’t in it, and I guess that ruined it for Mr. Winky, too.”
    I coughed. Mr. Winky? “Why Jillian’s bed? Wasn’t that just a setup for getting caught?”
    “ Yeah, well, my place was getting fumigated, and obviously we couldn’t go to Quinn’s. I didn’t want to waste the money on a hotel, which, considering Mr. Winky’s performance, was a good thing.”
    “ What about Nan in all this? She has to know he’s cheating on her, especially if he’s dating women from the club.”
    “ I’m sure she does, deep down,” Shayla said. “But they’ve got the four kids, and she had Quinn coming home every night. I guess she was willing to look the other way.”
    I’d seen it too many times in counseling to be surprised. For whatever reason, some spouses made that trade-off. Maybe for the kids, maybe for the money or status, if those were part of the equation, but mostly, I thought, because they just didn’t trust that they would survive the pain that facing reality would bring. As past president of the Avoid Reality At All Costs club, I couldn’t judge.
    “ Do you know if she came to the Halloween dance?”
    “ I know she didn’t. Quinn wouldn’t have danced with Jillian if Nan was there. He’s got some discretion, after all.”
    Debatable . “If Jillian danced with him, could that mean she was taking him back?”
    “ I’m sure she would’ve wanted to teach him a lesson, but there isn’t a woman alive who could resist Quinn if he really put his mind to it.” She sighed.
    “ Do you think…”
    Shayla waited.
    “ What would Nan do if he asked for a divorce?”
    * * *

    “ I’d kill him, too.”
    I wasn’t sure if Sue was kidding. We sat in the HP & Me club’s lobby, waiting for the Tuesday night Al-Anon meeting to end. I’d tried to get there before it started to see if Nan showed up, but I got stuck at work. A lot of folks milled around, most of them waiting to file into the main hall for the open speaker meeting that started soon. I could barely hear Sue, who sat across the table.
    Jay, still mourning, sat entrenched in his spot in the corner. He’d been there so long and so often, a Jay-hole eroded the seat in the already used-and-abused couch, making Jay sink deeper and deeper into the threadbare cushions.
    He didn’t look good. Dark circles rimmed his eyes, and his hair flopped dull and stringy in his face. His body odor had developed layers and nuances that made my eyes sting. I was surprised no one had intervened with him before now, and I felt guilty.
    “ Doesn’t he have a sponsor?” I whispered to Sue.
    “ He fired his sponsor two days ago. People are starting to get worried, but no one knows what to do. It’s awkward, but we can’t kick him out and wouldn’t want to, anyway. Seems to me, this situation is more in your line of work, isn’t it?” She gave me a severe, do-something look.
    “ I’ll give it a shot, but I want to talk to Nan first.” I doubted the chat with Jay would be a short one, and I didn’t want to risk missing Quinn’s wife.
    “ You haven’t talked to her yet?”
    “ No. I would have, but I didn’t see what Nan’s motive would be if Jillian had already broken up with Quinn. What would be the point?”
    “ Maybe she didn’t know about them until the Shayla-Quinn episode? Everyone in the club was talking about that when it happened. No matter how self-deluded Nan would want to be even she couldn’t have avoided hearing about them.
    “ But then why not kill Shayla? She was the one found with Quinn, not Jillian. And Jillian broke up with him. Besides, the Halloween party was months after Shayla and Quinn were discovered. Why wait?”
    “ Opportunity?” Sue conjectured.
    In the corner, Jay put his head down and started crying. We were far enough