Strays

Chapter 13

Lindley wiped down the bar, and when she bent over her side bumped against the counter. A bruise on her side from Mike's anger at seeing her roam the street with a tattooed stranger twinged, but Lindley didn't flinch. Control over the pain, she reminded herself. She heard the door open and called over her shoulder, "Grab a seat wherever, I'll be right with you!"

Lindley dropped the rag into the sanitizing bucket and turned to walk over to the blonde girl sitting in the corner booth.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" When her eyes met the face of the girl, she was shocked for a moment, but tried to recover. "Cassie. Right?"

"Good memory," she commended. "Do you have time to join me?"

Lindley shook her head apologetically. "Sorry—I'm on the clock."

Cassie half stood in the booth and looked around at the completely empty restaurant. "Oh yeah, real busy." Lindley sighed and took a seat opposite her. She didn't want to sit here and deal with... whatever this was. "You've caused quite a stir in our group."

"Look," Lindley started, sitting up and looking Cassie in the eyes. "I don't know what y'all think is happening, but I've only hung out with Wren a handful of times. I'm not trying to step on your toes if you and Wren are a thing."

"Wren and I are not a thing," Cassie told her with a smug smile. "Is that why you shot him down? You didn't want to step on my toes? Well, that's sweet of you."

Lindley looked down at her hands. "He told you about that."

"Sweetie, I think he's going to be having nightmares until the day he dies about the words 'oh, no thank you,'" Cassie smirked. Lindley's face burned, and she surprised herself by actually feeling a little guilty about it. "Very nice—polite, even." Cassie watched Lindley's expression try to suppress a shameful smile, so she laughed to try to break the tension.

"So now that you know he's single and interested—does that change your 'no thank you' to a 'yes please'?" Cassie asked, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be that simple.

"Honestly, I just don't date," Lindley answered straightforwardly. "I go back to school in a couple weeks, then I really don't have time to date anyone. I'll have classes, LSAT prep, law school applications, and work. And after graduation, I'm planning on moving out of this town—I don't need to start a relationship just to end a relationship."

Cassie cocked her head to the side, curiously. "You really are a goody-two-shoes. That's never been Wren's type."

Ignoring the dig about being a goody-two-shoes, Lindley looked up at Cassie, and added, to further drive home the point, "Plus, I've really never had a desire to date. It's not for me. I like being selfish with my time and energy. Is it so bad that 'the one' for me is me? I have a hard time imagining a life in which a man doesn't hold me back."

Cassie stared at Lindley like she was completely alien to her. After a long pause during which Lindley didn't blink, Cassie finally said, "That's, like, really hot. Like I can't tell if I hate you or I want to fuck you now."

Lindley snorted before genuinely laughing with this black leather clad quasi-stranger. "I guess that's the problem, isn't it?" She smiled distantly, getting up to pour herself a Diet Coke. "You sure you don't want anything to drink? Sweet tea? Coke?"

The two of them sat at the corner booth laughing over Mama Lacey's home brewed sweet tea, with Lindley getting up whenever a customer came in for a coffee or a lunch sandwich. Cassie learned that Lindley didn't come from a family that was expected her to do well in school—she came up with that drive all on her own. Maybe Lindley didn't need—or even want—someone the way Cassie did. She seemed to be so in love with being free that she didn't have room to be in love with a person.

- - -

"You hung out with her?" Wren asked into the phone, and Cassie could almost feel his hands tugging at the edge of his sleeves. "What did she say? Did I come up?"

Cassie held her breath—she didn't want to break her best friend's heart, but her emotion over her time spent with Lindley controlled her words. "Wren, I think she's out of your league. I just don't think you're going to get this one."