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By the time he arrived back in the city it was late, at least later than what was traditionally appropriate for contacting people. This was both a good thing and a bad thing for him since the moment he was finally able to power up his phone it practically wept at the amount of notifications he got. A quick glance proved that the majority of them were from the start of the whole fiasco; questions about where he was, if he was ok, asking if he needed help, and so on. Those obviously petered off once Sung was able to square things away at work. Other than that it was the standard work stuff, just piled up after a whole week of him being ‘away’.

With that sorted he sent a few quick texts out, letting family and friends know he was safely back in the city, texts due to the late hour, before crawling into his bed and sleeping. He might have been using the surprisingly comfortable bed at his wonder but there was nothing quite like one’s own bed. The next several days were an absolute madhouse for Quinn. Not only had he gotten an earful from his mother, he also didn’t like that patented mother’s look of ‘you're lying to me but I’ll let it go… for now’ he got from her, but his assistants also nearly ripped him a new one. Seung had put out most of the fires, the ‘holiday’ weekend also didn’t hurt, but there were still plenty that needed to be dealt with. Add in actually doing what the Code needed over the weekend once he had gotten the most pressing things done, and he was so very done with work. Mentally that is. His workload was still quite obnoxious but at least it was shrinking.

Slowly.

Finally, a full two weeks after he went on his little trip, he was able to carve out some free time for an in person visit to Anna’s. He had of course called her, and texted her, over the last several days but, like for his mom, he felt a little flowers and groveling would go a long way to appeasing any lingering bad feelings his ill timed, and undesired, absence might have caused.

When Quinn had stopped answering her texts for the first couple of days Anna thought he was just busy. But as the days went on with no reply, worry started to replace the calm that she felt earlier. Was he okay?! Is his family okay?! Those were the first thoughts she had before her worry morphed into self doubt. Maybe he just wasn't interested anymore? If so, then that was fine but she wished he would at least tell her instead of ghosting…Wasn't that for people far below their age? The self doubt then evolved into frustration towards the end of the two weeks. Sure, when she called his secretary for the first time, she said that he was away on an emergency trip, which had she learned that towards the beginning of Quinn’s sudden disappearance, that would have served to calm her a bit.

However, it was towards the tail end of the two weeks, meaning she more or less thought that the man was playing games.

Currently, she was in her office, filling out her accounting books with a sigh. Thinking back on it, maybe she should've given him the benefit of the doubt. That sigh bore a smile while she looked down at her phone. Quinn did text her over the past couple of days which eased her feelings by a longshot. She was still feeling a bit…Bratty, which meant the frustration was under the surface [sadly it did show a little bit in her reply texts], but at least it was manageable now. Anna resumed her work, quietly waiting for Quinn to text or call her. It was a Saturday so the store was closed, but that didn't mean she wouldn't let him in.

With flowers in hand, and what was left of the day, Quinn approached the store. He knew it was closed but he also knew that Anna was just as much of a workaholic as he was. With this in mind he skirted around the front of the building and approached the employee entrance. He looked up at the camera and waved before knocking on the door.

If his luck held Anna wouldn’t be overly pissed about his sporadic contact the past week. He would completely understand, especially since their romantic getaway had to be rescheduled last minute. Honestly all of their dates, outside of the occasional coffee dates, were shifted back or outright canceled for one reason or another. This was quite annoying but understandable. They were both working adults running their businesses. Add in his other duties and things really did become rather chaotic.

After knocking again, just in case she didn’t hear him the first time, he took a step back from the door and held up his flowers and picnic basket. He really had come prepared to literally wine and dine her…. Well sort of. The ‘dine’ part he figured they could either eat out or order in, depending on just how far in the dog house he was.

The knock on the employee entrance broke her from her work trance, brown eyes looking over to the security camera, a goofy smile finding itself on her face. Anna tried not to get up from her desk like a giddy teenager, slightly embarrassed that she was barely able to contain her excitement. The walk to the employee entrance felt like forever, but she did manage to make it to the door, opening it with a bright smile. The flowers were pretty, but she did raise an eyebrow at the picnic basket.

In response, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek, stepping aside. “I'm sorry sir, but the store is closed, and I usually don't allow clients through the employee entrance ... .Is this about making a custom order that couldn't wait till business hours?” She of course was teasing him, gently taking the flowers while leading by the hand to her office. The store was closed but that didn't mean she wanted passerbys in her business.

Quinn grinned at Anna when she opened the door, happily presenting her the flowers even as he shrugged and played along. “Well, see. I had this appointment several weeks ago but it had to be canceled for various reasons so I was hoping you could squeeze me in today.” He squeezed her hand that was pulling him along, aware of the staff door closing firmly behind them. And yet he didn’t add anything else until they reached her office. There he put down his picnic basket and pulled her into a hug.

“I’m sorry it's been so damn busy lately.” He said this pretty much into her hair as he just soaked in her warmth. “So ******** busy.” After a moment he leaned back and looked her in the eyes. “How mad are you? How much groveling do you want before we can enjoy a date?” Quinn was more than willing to grovel from now until New Years, he just hoped it wouldn’t take that long. He didn’t like her mad at him. He didn’t like any of the women in his life mad at him, and the past two weeks easily made pretty much everyone mad, let alone the ones he really cared about. Besides, there were a few chilled items in the picnic basket that either need to go into the fridge until the groveling is done, or should be set out to be enjoyed.

Anna happily leaned into Quinn’s embrace, giving a small hum of acknowledgement. How mad was she? Not mad at all really. “Mmmmn…..I'm…..Thiiiiiisssssss mad.” She showed him her thumb and index finger pressed together with a small sliver between her manicured nails. “It's a big deal being that mad you know~” She chuckled, “I'm not mad at all Quinn, things happen and we are both owners of very profitable businesses. But, if you're feeling generous, I wouldn't mind a little groveling.” She was kidding of course, giving him a small wink to further prove it.” Curiosity was eating at her in terms of what was in the basket, so Anna reluctantly pulled herself away to look down at what he brought.

“Well I guess I’ll have to figure out how to make up for even that bit of mad,” He grinned at her, glad he wasn’t overly in the dog house. “That's perfect since groveling is just what is on the menu,” Quinn leaned past her and snagged his basket while wiggling his eyebrows. “No sneaking a peek. I’ll go set this up upstairs while you wrap up any pressing matters. Give me about ten, fifteen minutes to get everything ready. Does that work for you?”

He was planning on moving everything upstairs anyway since her office really was quite cramped. It made laying out a picnic quite difficult, and while the store had the footprint the windows didn’t exactly make the place private.

A small pout formed, but she decided to let it slide. “Alright, fifteen should be fine.”

Later, when Anna made her way up the stairs to her home, opening the door. There was a genuine look of surprise, followed by some mild embarrassment, taking in all the sights around her. “Quinn you know I'm not actually mad at you right?” she quickly closed the gap between them, pressing her lips to his, pouring all the forgiveness and genuine fluffy feelings she was going through at the moment.

Quinn had spent his fifteen minutes wisely, setting up the picnic indoors as best he could, pilfering some plates and cups from Anna’s kitchen to even set the bit of food he had with him out in a simple platter. Really, wine and cheese was pretty cliché but he figured the more substantial food would be either take out or going out to a restaurant. Since he hadn’t been very sure of his welcome he didn’t want to plan that far just in case. A few candles helped with the romantic vibe, it wasn't perfect but it was sweet. “I know,” He didn’t get a chance to say anything else before Anna smothered his explanations with her kiss. One he happily reciprocated.

He pulled her close and deepened the kiss, only breaking away when breathing was needed. “I know, but you deserve at least this much.” Quinn leaned back in to murmur in her ear, “Besides coffee dates are nice and all but I like being able to do this.” He teased her even as he started to nuzzle her right under her ear. “So how much groveling would you like?”