"Don't, Seriously, Sarah, don't worry about it. You don't need to pay it back. Not now, not later. It's fine."
"Okay," Sarah said gently, nodding. "If you say so."
Quinn, watching from the sidelines, felt something click into place in his mind, the wrong thing, naturally, but it clicked with great confidence.
'Owe money. She owes him money.'
'That's what this is about.'
His brain, desperate for an explanation that didn't involve Stan Harrison being genuinely desirable to beautiful women, latched onto the theory with both hands.
'Sarah owes Stan money, and that's the only reason she's being nice to him. He's holding her debt over her head. He's using her. That's why he keeps refusing her invitations, he's playing hard to get, keeping her on the hook, dangling the debt like a leash.'
'Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting behavior.'
The theory was entirely wrong in every particular, but Quinn believed it with the fervent certainty of a man who needed it to be true.
