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that it was laughable how shitty it was going at the moment. In

her head, somehow Quinn was always understanding.

Somehow she always listened. Somehow she had endless

patience and endless compassion. Dallas realized how stupid it

was to have thought it could ever go down like that. She’d just

applied all of Quinn’s qualities and lumped them into an

imagined circumstance. Yes, there was anger. There were even

tears sometimes when she thought about them ever being able

to speak freely. There was always understanding in the end.

Dallas had no idea how to get to that point. The

understanding. A smile. A nod. Some close approximation of

Quinn not giving Dallas her best you’re the world’s biggest

arsehole look.

The truth. Dallas should just tell Quinn the truth. Could

she tell her? She wanted to. She knew she needed to. It was the

only way Quinn could possibly understand, but they were in

the middle of a sidewalk with people waking by occasionally.

Anyone could overhear them.

Dallas’ eyes danced around the sidewalk. There were far

too many people. A huge swarm was coming their way.

Obviously they’d just crossed the street. The light held them

up, but they were advancing like high tide. There was a slim

opening five feet or so up ahead where an alley broke up the

sidewalk.

Dallas didn’t think. She just reacted. She grabbed Quinn’s

hand and Quinn was so shocked that she didn’t even start

fighting when Dallas dragged her towards the alley. Am I

always going to be sneaking into alleys to have conversations?

That last conversation she’d had in an alley on the phone with

Jim Johnson was very vivid in her mind.