Page 17 of Waste Some Time
“I was a goner for him from day one. Couldn’t hand him over to anyone else after all he’s been through. Poor guy. Plus, I’ve got a thing for the hard cases. Here and at work.” Katie raised a brow. “Don’t tell my cousin Rachel I said that. She’ll have five more on my door before sundown.”
Katie’s expression was stern, but Sydney was blown away by the obvious love she had for that cat. Stephen had told her she worked with the otters at the aquarium, but she didn’t know what Katie meant by the “hard cases.” She couldn’t guess what that meant in otter terms.
“I’m glad he landed with you. Looks like he’s got everything he needs now.”
Sydney stopped petting Benjamin, and he walked back to Katie, where she picked him up and kissed his head. When she placed him back on the floor, she stood and walked to the table again, grabbing her coat and purse. “Are you ready? Or do you have more reveals before we go?”
“Nope,” Sydney said. “That’s it. But I want to take you to my favorite place first, and I know it’s still there because Stephen and I passed by it yesterday. My treat. As a thanks for today and for covering for me and… well, for everything.”
Katie’s cheeks reddened slightly at that, and she smiled. “It’s no big deal. And Stephen was right. I don’t have anything better to do today.”
“Still, I want to thank you.”
Sydney couldn’t help feeling like she was wasting Katie’s time, despite what she’d said about not having anything better to do. If nothing else, she was taking Katie away from that adorable cat.
After slipping on her coat and grabbing a set of keys from her purse, Katie said, “Ready?”
Sydney couldn’t think of a single thing she was ready for. Spending the day with this woman who still took her breath away. Telling her family she’d lied to them. Telling them she was bisexual. None of it.
And another possibility as well.
There were too many reveals and far too little time to space them out.
But today… today was the thing she was most ready for. Even if there was no future for her and Katie.
Sydney didn’t plan on starting a relationship with the first woman she’d made out with. No matter how that woman made her feel.
She gave Katie a tight smile and nodded. “Ready.”
7
KATIE
The air was filledwith sweet aromas mixed with the warm, rich scent of freshly brewed coffee. Katie stood in line beside Sydney, their arms occasionally touching, and Katie got a little jolt of electricity every time, even though they both had coats on.
“Why don’t you grab a table,” Sydney said. “I’ll get our order.”
Katie scanned the coffee shop and sat at a table next to the windows. The foot traffic outside was sparse, as the little cafe was tucked away in a small strip mall in the Upper Garden District. Few tourists knew this place existed, so it mostly did business with locals.
Sydney arrived with a cup holder containing two coffees and a brown paper bag. She handed one coffee to Katie and put the other beside her. Then she opened the bag to place a little cardboard tray in front of each of them.
“I haven’t been here in years.” Katie smelled the powdered sugar and freshly fried dough. “Good choice.”
Sydney poured creamer and sugar into her cup. “It’s kind of out of the way for most people.
“Worth it.” Katie raised her cup. “Best beignets, but somehow the coffee’s better.”
“Agreed,” Sydney said. “My dad used to sometimes pick up breakfast or snacks from here when I was a kid. When I got older and had the coffee, I was hooked even more.”
Despite only having one window, the tiny shop was bright and cheery. Small wooden tables dotted the seating area, each decorated with a tiny glass jar containing a single flower. This wasn’t a line-out-the-front-door kind of place. But it had a steady stream of locals passing through.
Katie took a bite and sagged with the pleasantness of the warm, crispy dough coated in powdered sugar. She finished chewing and said, “I’ve only been here a couple times. Mostly with friends who knew about it. My family didn’t do a whole lot of… togetherness.”
Sydney’s expression fell, and she held her beignet in the air, abandoning the bite she was about to take. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. We had plenty of love in our house. And we had maybe too much togetherness at our big extended family gatherings around the holidays.”
That’s how Katie and Rachel had become so close. They were closest in age of all the cousins and usually opted out of family football or volleyball games to listen to music, read, or draw off in a corner by themselves while everyone else shouted and threw each other in the mud all in the name of fun.
