Page 27 of Waste Some Time
Sydney again thought about how long she’d be there, and how much longer might be in the future plans.
“So it’s my turn to repay this favor.” Rachel took a small sip of her hot drink, then added, “Some relationship advice in exchange for financial advice.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” Sydney said, eying the woman curiously. “And I’m not in a relationship.”
“That look on your face tells me otherwise.” She placed her mug on the table and steepled her fingers. “Now, Katie’s my cousin, and I adore her, so I’m biased.”
“Fair enough,” Sydney said. “But I’m not in a relationship with Katie or with anyone else.”
Rachel ignored Sydney’s statement and continued on with her speech. “My cousin is straight-up wonderful. And you seem great, too. I know I haven’t seen how you two are together, but I’ve seen how you talk about each other. Don’t pretend there isn’tsomethingbetween you.”
“Okay, maybe,” Sydney said. “But there can’t be anything between us.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you have rules, too.”
“Rules?”
“Katie hasn’t told you her big list of things a relationship needs to tick off so she can consider it worthy of her time?”
“She did say she was looking for something serious. I honestly don’t know why she agreed to hang out with me Monday.”
“That’s exactly my point. She’s so stubborn about those rules, but she threw them out for you. It was just a day, but it’s the point that she spent time with you. Time that she might consider wasted and with no potential. That’s not nothing.”
“Oh.” When Rachel put it that way, it sounded like a bigger deal than Sydney had thought.
“Right.” Rachel chuckled. “And from the looks of it, you’re probably throwing a few of your own rules out the window to hang out with her, too.”
“Not rules, exactly.” Sydney took another sip of coffee, stalling before she continued. “I don’t want to fall for the first woman I kiss after divorcing my husband.”
Rachel’s smile widened. “Then don’t fall for her. Just kill some time together until you have to leave.”
With every passing moment, Sydney wanted to move back here more and more.
But it couldn’t be because of Katie.
“As nice as that sounds,” Sydney said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Who said everything has to be a good idea?”
Sydney didn’t really have an answer for that. She was so used to numbers fitting neatly into columns and calculated by formulas with easy-to-see answers.
But life decisions weren’t numbers.
Her heart surely wasn’t made of numbers.
But Katie had her list. And there were apparently more boxes Sydney didn’t check off than being an accountant and being unavailable in the short term. Sydney would love to see that list of Katie’s.
Or maybe not.
Actually, no. She didn’t want to know how far off she was from all of those items.
Rachel stood. “I should get going. This place is nice, but the chairs kill my already wrecked back.”
“I should probably go, too,” Sydney said. “Dinner with the family tonight, and I’m hoping to get some quiet time alone with a book before everyone shows up.”
“Thank you so much for the advice. Really. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Glad to help,” said Sydney with a smile. And she truly was glad to help. Meeting Rachel was great, and she always loved helping people, but their conversation brought up new paths Sydney hadn’t considered before. “I’ll let you know what I dig up and send you a list of names and my thoughts on each.”
