Post by Boardwalk Angels on May 8, 2017 15:14:53 GMT -5
* Thursday, over a week prior to LAW #62 *
* Kat's Malibu Cafe *
* Malibu, CA *
More than once, Farrah questioned herself over topics simple and otherwise as she made the long trek from Fort Wayne to Malibu. She asked herself why she didn’t take a plane instead of riding the 2,000 miles, wondered why the sojourn was even necessary… and constantly queried as to how it got to this point in the first place. A piece of art, as the creator put it, done admittedly as a bit of a joke, had wound her into such a fiery twist of rage and hurt that Farrah lashed out like she had not in recent memory. Up until that point, she’d kept a grip on her temper save for a few flare-ups in the ring, even managing to shrug off a lot of the shade tossed her way by various adversaries. But something about that picture… the way that it, in her mind, trivialized and made light of the war between the Cornetts and Kenzi Grey…
...no, best that she not think about it right now. She was reasonably calm at this point and if there were any chance of salvaging something of the friendship she’d rode for almost a full day to save, she’d have to keep her cool.
“Take a breath. Can’t go fucking this up.”
Once upon a time she’d have written Katalina Star off completely for something like this. It wasn’t that she was a better person now, was Farrah… no, she was trying to be. That was the point. Friends don’t do that to friends.
“They don’t lash out, either, but here I am having done just that.”
Muttering to herself at a low enough level of volume so that various pedestrians and shoppers passing by on the walk and across the street didn’t hear her, Farrah took a breath and stood up her Suzuki Bandit in the parking space. Thankfully directions had been unnecessary; she remembered this cafe well from her last trip down. Tugging off her helmet and gloves revealed the braided hair beneath and flesh glistening with a bit of sweat. Her padded riding gear gave her a slightly larger appearance, colored chiefly a charcoal gray with red, orange and yellow designs upon it. The color of fire. Appropriate for the Jersey Hellcat. She looked a bit of a mess but there was no helping that. Walking toward the cafe, she put on an air of calm, pushing open the door and letting the scent of fresh baked goods and coffee waft over her wonderfully. It didn’t appear that Katalina had arrived yet.
There was a sound of bells coming down from the beach as Katalina was just making her own appearance sitting in a small, single person carriage that was being pulled by a woman clad up in latex. Certainly a different means of arriving from Farrah, but Kat was enjoying it nonetheless as she tugs back on the reins bringing her filly to a complete stop. Kat, in a dark gothic looking gown made of lace, steps out from the carriage and removes her gloves as she guides the reins over to a “Reserved” bar by the cafe’s concrete steps that would take her from the beach to the street itself. It was odd to have a reserved spot at a cafe, perhaps even perplexing that it was down at beach level. But the truth was...Kat owned the cafe. It was a small part, but an equally important one, of the Kat Empire as the domina makes her way up the steps noting the presence of Farrah close by. First instinct was a smile that quickly waned when it came to her why the meeting was even necessary. Kat’s eyes waiver away as she plays off her nervousness with looking for a table finding an empty one at a corner.
“Join me, love.” Kat suggests as she makes her way to the table keeping her eyes on another one set in a different corner.
“At least she seems calm… that’s a start,” Farrah thinks to herself as she nods and joins Kat at the pointed-out table. The California heat, even in the early afternoon, had Farrah unzipping her riding gear just enough to reveal a hint of thin black material worn under it. A tank? A cami? Perhaps something else entirely? Hard to tell with not much to go on. Settling herself in, she takes another breath.
“Thanks for coming out this morning.”
It takes Kat a moment to look away from the table and smile not even realizing at first that Farrah had said something.
“Oh. Yes.”
That seems like a good response as far as Kat’s concerned. She wishes she wasn’t so absent minded during the introduction, but aside from begging Farrah’s pardon there wasn’t much else she could do.
“I take it this is about the picture?” Just how scatterbrained is she today?
“And my reaction to it which, I admit, was poor. The logical part of my brain knew it was a joke the moment I saw it… but when it comes to that…” Farrah stopped herself and took a breath. Now wasn’t the time to get angry again. “...woman… any association outside of my fist to her face is less than stellar.”
Okay, that wasn’t very nice toward Kenzi, but that was one detail that Farrah didn’t give a damn about.
“That doesn’t excuse how I reacted, though.”
“But it wasn’t a joke.” Kat replies quite bluntly and appearing fully into the conversation finally. “But I understand your reasoning behind your reaction and, in fact, it’s why I invited you here to speak at this location precisely. To prove that I can understand the feelings of another, that I’m not some heartless beast who throws up images with the hopes of dismantling a person’s reputation. Oh. Thank you, love.”
Kat is interrupted by the arrival of a waitress who, having seen Kat’s arrival, prepared the usual for her in the form of a small cup of tea. The waitress then turns her attention toward Farrah while Kat gently blows into her drink.
“Coffee, please. Extra cream and sugar.”
The waitress nods and hurries off, leaving Farrah to turn to Kat.
“I never thought of you as any such thing. Even now as you sit and tell me to my face that the picture wasn’t a joke. No monster could earn Zoey’s love.”
Now she wasn’t sure how to feel. Not a joke, huh? That lit a fire in Farrah’s gut that she could only hope the coffee would put out.
“I understand you already feel that way about me, it’s more for the benefit of...well, just in case.”
Kat says smiling over her cup feeling the heat a bit too much for her to handle at the moment so she rests it back down on her saucer.
“You should also know that I take this field incredibly seriously. For the safety aspects, for the fact that it could ruin lives and tear apart relationships. The piece I did...I look at as more of an artform. The fact that this very field could, potentially,” Kat makes it point to deliver that as a key word. For some reason. “Bring even the most heated of enemies together. Not in a friendship sort of way, but as a means of describing your feelings toward Kenzi.”
Kat brings her hands down on either side of the saucer biting her lip a little knowing she would have to tread carefully from this point further.
“This is where honesty is helpful because for this to make sense you’d have to, at the very least, understand my point of view. In most feuds, you would agree that there’s one person chasing the other. For instance, Katie is clearly chasing Jessika and, to me, you’re chasing Kenzi. Do we...agree on that?”
Slowly but surely, the bricks were going back on the wall. And after so much time and care in removing them. At least she hadn’t tossed them aside all willy-nilly. Farrah is silent, barely noticing that her coffee has been brought to the table. It isn’t until she adds the offered condiments to it that she responds.
“In a way… yeah, I guess.”
Taking a sip of the hot liquid and relaxing to a small degree, Farrah begins to eye Kat over the rim of the mug.
“You say chasing… I say running her down.”
“Fair enough. Though, at the moment, I’m not interested in the personal particulars. The fact is, you’re the attacker looking to take her down. In a way, someone could look at that as being the dominant position but for myself it’s more the submissive one.”
Is she making sense? Hard to tell for Kat, she can’t mind read anyone. What she can do is make another attempt at sipping her tea. It’s a tiny one just for taste but not enough to burn any part of her mouth as she places the cup back down shortly after. As per usual, she’s quite pleased with what she’s been given here.
“You’re coming at her from the bottom, you have the dilemma with her, which puts her at something of an advantage. Therefore, she’s the one holding you at bay for the moment. Holding your leash, as it were. You can’t leave, because you know she would just follow. You can’t falter or lose because you know she can just pull you back around to her level. Victory is a necessity for you.”
Farrah did her best to consider the meaning behind Kat’s words, to try and see the sense in what she was spewing. There had been some nagging doubts in the back of her mind of late, even before the artwork fiasco… not just centered around herself but around Zoey as well. Something was amiss with both of them. Realization was starting to chip through the other side of her wall, like an itch in the back of her brain that she couldn’t scratch.
“...shit.”
That was really the only thing she could say. It might have been due to how hot the coffee was, but she took another sip without so much as a twitch. Her free hand clenched into a fist, trembling as though it sought to punch through the table, but she forced herself to open it, to place her palm flat on the sun-warmed surface.
“Just… shit.”
“I’m sorry. Those are the reasons behind making that image. Not an insult, not a joke, but an insight to how I see you. As someone in a...I’ll just leave it at situation.” Kat says pinching her fingers on the cups handle while the other rests gently along the rim of the saucer. “That still probably doesn’t make it right. Without context, others just see some honry broad’s desire to humiliate her friends. Someone who only cares for herself and her own amusement.”
Kats eyes go from her tea to the table again where they linger for a moment as she sighs.
“Instead, I’m just struggling in my own situation. I can cave and be what they see me as being, but I lose everyone. Or keep being the type I wish to be,” Kat turns back to Farrah trying her best to present a warm smile. But it’s nowhere near that. “And lose those closest at a slower rate. My apologies for any hurt feelings I may have caused you, love. If nothing else from this conversation, at the very least take with you my humblest apologies.”
“I apologize, too, for flippin’ out like I did. Tell you what, though,” Farrah gulps down another searing sip of the coffee and meets Kat’s eyes. Dead on. Target lock. “No more of this losing those you love shit, you hear me? I won’t sit here and say I know how you feel or understand what you’re trying to do with yourself, because I don’t. Even if I did, it ain’t my business to try and call you out on it, friend or not. You’ve got Zoey for life now. No matter how bad you think you get, she’s not going anywhere. And where she goes, I go, meaning that’s at least two people who you ain’t gotta worry about turning their backs. It might sound stupid, but you’re family to me now.”
She takes another sip of coffee, sitting back a little, knowing that this tirade was probably gonna sail right past Kat in whatever mood she happened to be in. That wasn’t the point. Farrah, like Zoey, was honest to a fault. Nothing spilled from the woman’s lips that she didn’t mean.
“Granted, there’s times I want to lock you in the basement and take rawhide to your ass… but hell, who doesn’t have someone in their life that they’d like to do that to once in a while, if only to keep them from blowing themselves up? That’s not the worst part of this for me, Katalina. The worst part…”
Sitting back fully, Farrah idly tapped the spoon against the table, almost having the urge to stab it through the would.
“...is that I think you’re right. At least where it comes to Kenzi and I.”
Kat nods along, she figured this would come out. The part of having Zoey as a definite in her life. Farrah...was a bit of a surprise, but she won’t say “no” there. It all made growing sense and Kat was beginning to calm down thanks to it.
“So...you’ll have to beat her then.”
She says sounding both in support of Farrah but worried over the well being of her friend. It was no secret over Kat’s feelings toward Kenzi, so much so Kat couldn’t fake full support for Farrah. She knew that the Angel would definitely know better than to get that from Kat in this.
“Even if I beat her I won’t shut her mouth. Nothing will aside from a big needle and some wire… and that won’t last forever, either. No,” Farrah had to pause again; the coffee was rather good. “I can’t let it be about all that anymore. It has to be about the championships. Nothing else. Bad enough that I’m seeing a shift in myself and Zoey toward sides we weren’t meant to be on. Losing the belts might make that worse. This… I need to think about it.”
Draining the last few drops from the mug, Farrah sets it down with a soft clink. Tracing a bare, red-tipped finger along the rim, she contemplates silently.
“I know how you feel. The strain of wanting to do one thing while being pulled toward another. You have obligations you can’t avoid and it makes you feel like you’re being torn in two.” Kat takes a bit more of her tea this time letting the cup stay up in her grasp. “It’s worse that the two are even combining. You don’t know how to feel about your coming defence. Do you go as the champion, the Boardwalk Angel who is partnered with her best friend defending the belts? Or as the avenger? Carrying the hatred of so many others looking for the opportunity to unleash it? With such weights on your shoulders,”
Kat could go on but she doesn’t. Instead, she just says what comes natural to her mind.
“If I may say so, it seems you need a form of guidance, love.”
“Or a swift kick in the ass. Whatever works.”
Gently refusing another cup of coffee as she was strung out enough already, Farrah keeps sitting back within her chair, staring at the empty cup.
“Whatever happens, it better be made to happen before Validation.”
“Something will come, love,” Kat replies finishing up her tea resting the empty cup down on the saucer. “I’m certain of it.”
Nodding, Farrah sat forward, then rose up. Definitely not much going on beneath that suit of hers. Probably for the sake of comfort. A trip here all the way from Indiana? Oh, the chafing…
“I’m going to get some rest before my body completely revolts on me. Do you need a ride home?”
“Thank you for the offer, love, but I had my ride here and she’s still waiting. Though I was going to stay here a little longer. But,” Kat begins as she glances back at the table finally bringing some warmth to her smile “It’s good to know I’ll have a pleasant memory of this place for once.”
“Going to have to work on getting you more of those. Getting both of us more of those. Zoey’s putting together a big dinner for us all this weekend, so I’ll see you then. Thanks for agreeing to meet me today.”
She sets a hand on Kat’s briefly, surprisingly gently, before zipping up her suit and turning to go, leaving a couple bills on the table as gratuity for the coffee.
* Kat's Malibu Cafe *
* Malibu, CA *
More than once, Farrah questioned herself over topics simple and otherwise as she made the long trek from Fort Wayne to Malibu. She asked herself why she didn’t take a plane instead of riding the 2,000 miles, wondered why the sojourn was even necessary… and constantly queried as to how it got to this point in the first place. A piece of art, as the creator put it, done admittedly as a bit of a joke, had wound her into such a fiery twist of rage and hurt that Farrah lashed out like she had not in recent memory. Up until that point, she’d kept a grip on her temper save for a few flare-ups in the ring, even managing to shrug off a lot of the shade tossed her way by various adversaries. But something about that picture… the way that it, in her mind, trivialized and made light of the war between the Cornetts and Kenzi Grey…
...no, best that she not think about it right now. She was reasonably calm at this point and if there were any chance of salvaging something of the friendship she’d rode for almost a full day to save, she’d have to keep her cool.
“Take a breath. Can’t go fucking this up.”
Once upon a time she’d have written Katalina Star off completely for something like this. It wasn’t that she was a better person now, was Farrah… no, she was trying to be. That was the point. Friends don’t do that to friends.
“They don’t lash out, either, but here I am having done just that.”
Muttering to herself at a low enough level of volume so that various pedestrians and shoppers passing by on the walk and across the street didn’t hear her, Farrah took a breath and stood up her Suzuki Bandit in the parking space. Thankfully directions had been unnecessary; she remembered this cafe well from her last trip down. Tugging off her helmet and gloves revealed the braided hair beneath and flesh glistening with a bit of sweat. Her padded riding gear gave her a slightly larger appearance, colored chiefly a charcoal gray with red, orange and yellow designs upon it. The color of fire. Appropriate for the Jersey Hellcat. She looked a bit of a mess but there was no helping that. Walking toward the cafe, she put on an air of calm, pushing open the door and letting the scent of fresh baked goods and coffee waft over her wonderfully. It didn’t appear that Katalina had arrived yet.
There was a sound of bells coming down from the beach as Katalina was just making her own appearance sitting in a small, single person carriage that was being pulled by a woman clad up in latex. Certainly a different means of arriving from Farrah, but Kat was enjoying it nonetheless as she tugs back on the reins bringing her filly to a complete stop. Kat, in a dark gothic looking gown made of lace, steps out from the carriage and removes her gloves as she guides the reins over to a “Reserved” bar by the cafe’s concrete steps that would take her from the beach to the street itself. It was odd to have a reserved spot at a cafe, perhaps even perplexing that it was down at beach level. But the truth was...Kat owned the cafe. It was a small part, but an equally important one, of the Kat Empire as the domina makes her way up the steps noting the presence of Farrah close by. First instinct was a smile that quickly waned when it came to her why the meeting was even necessary. Kat’s eyes waiver away as she plays off her nervousness with looking for a table finding an empty one at a corner.
“Join me, love.” Kat suggests as she makes her way to the table keeping her eyes on another one set in a different corner.
“At least she seems calm… that’s a start,” Farrah thinks to herself as she nods and joins Kat at the pointed-out table. The California heat, even in the early afternoon, had Farrah unzipping her riding gear just enough to reveal a hint of thin black material worn under it. A tank? A cami? Perhaps something else entirely? Hard to tell with not much to go on. Settling herself in, she takes another breath.
“Thanks for coming out this morning.”
It takes Kat a moment to look away from the table and smile not even realizing at first that Farrah had said something.
“Oh. Yes.”
That seems like a good response as far as Kat’s concerned. She wishes she wasn’t so absent minded during the introduction, but aside from begging Farrah’s pardon there wasn’t much else she could do.
“I take it this is about the picture?” Just how scatterbrained is she today?
“And my reaction to it which, I admit, was poor. The logical part of my brain knew it was a joke the moment I saw it… but when it comes to that…” Farrah stopped herself and took a breath. Now wasn’t the time to get angry again. “...woman… any association outside of my fist to her face is less than stellar.”
Okay, that wasn’t very nice toward Kenzi, but that was one detail that Farrah didn’t give a damn about.
“That doesn’t excuse how I reacted, though.”
“But it wasn’t a joke.” Kat replies quite bluntly and appearing fully into the conversation finally. “But I understand your reasoning behind your reaction and, in fact, it’s why I invited you here to speak at this location precisely. To prove that I can understand the feelings of another, that I’m not some heartless beast who throws up images with the hopes of dismantling a person’s reputation. Oh. Thank you, love.”
Kat is interrupted by the arrival of a waitress who, having seen Kat’s arrival, prepared the usual for her in the form of a small cup of tea. The waitress then turns her attention toward Farrah while Kat gently blows into her drink.
“Coffee, please. Extra cream and sugar.”
The waitress nods and hurries off, leaving Farrah to turn to Kat.
“I never thought of you as any such thing. Even now as you sit and tell me to my face that the picture wasn’t a joke. No monster could earn Zoey’s love.”
Now she wasn’t sure how to feel. Not a joke, huh? That lit a fire in Farrah’s gut that she could only hope the coffee would put out.
“I understand you already feel that way about me, it’s more for the benefit of...well, just in case.”
Kat says smiling over her cup feeling the heat a bit too much for her to handle at the moment so she rests it back down on her saucer.
“You should also know that I take this field incredibly seriously. For the safety aspects, for the fact that it could ruin lives and tear apart relationships. The piece I did...I look at as more of an artform. The fact that this very field could, potentially,” Kat makes it point to deliver that as a key word. For some reason. “Bring even the most heated of enemies together. Not in a friendship sort of way, but as a means of describing your feelings toward Kenzi.”
Kat brings her hands down on either side of the saucer biting her lip a little knowing she would have to tread carefully from this point further.
“This is where honesty is helpful because for this to make sense you’d have to, at the very least, understand my point of view. In most feuds, you would agree that there’s one person chasing the other. For instance, Katie is clearly chasing Jessika and, to me, you’re chasing Kenzi. Do we...agree on that?”
Slowly but surely, the bricks were going back on the wall. And after so much time and care in removing them. At least she hadn’t tossed them aside all willy-nilly. Farrah is silent, barely noticing that her coffee has been brought to the table. It isn’t until she adds the offered condiments to it that she responds.
“In a way… yeah, I guess.”
Taking a sip of the hot liquid and relaxing to a small degree, Farrah begins to eye Kat over the rim of the mug.
“You say chasing… I say running her down.”
“Fair enough. Though, at the moment, I’m not interested in the personal particulars. The fact is, you’re the attacker looking to take her down. In a way, someone could look at that as being the dominant position but for myself it’s more the submissive one.”
Is she making sense? Hard to tell for Kat, she can’t mind read anyone. What she can do is make another attempt at sipping her tea. It’s a tiny one just for taste but not enough to burn any part of her mouth as she places the cup back down shortly after. As per usual, she’s quite pleased with what she’s been given here.
“You’re coming at her from the bottom, you have the dilemma with her, which puts her at something of an advantage. Therefore, she’s the one holding you at bay for the moment. Holding your leash, as it were. You can’t leave, because you know she would just follow. You can’t falter or lose because you know she can just pull you back around to her level. Victory is a necessity for you.”
Farrah did her best to consider the meaning behind Kat’s words, to try and see the sense in what she was spewing. There had been some nagging doubts in the back of her mind of late, even before the artwork fiasco… not just centered around herself but around Zoey as well. Something was amiss with both of them. Realization was starting to chip through the other side of her wall, like an itch in the back of her brain that she couldn’t scratch.
“...shit.”
That was really the only thing she could say. It might have been due to how hot the coffee was, but she took another sip without so much as a twitch. Her free hand clenched into a fist, trembling as though it sought to punch through the table, but she forced herself to open it, to place her palm flat on the sun-warmed surface.
“Just… shit.”
“I’m sorry. Those are the reasons behind making that image. Not an insult, not a joke, but an insight to how I see you. As someone in a...I’ll just leave it at situation.” Kat says pinching her fingers on the cups handle while the other rests gently along the rim of the saucer. “That still probably doesn’t make it right. Without context, others just see some honry broad’s desire to humiliate her friends. Someone who only cares for herself and her own amusement.”
Kats eyes go from her tea to the table again where they linger for a moment as she sighs.
“Instead, I’m just struggling in my own situation. I can cave and be what they see me as being, but I lose everyone. Or keep being the type I wish to be,” Kat turns back to Farrah trying her best to present a warm smile. But it’s nowhere near that. “And lose those closest at a slower rate. My apologies for any hurt feelings I may have caused you, love. If nothing else from this conversation, at the very least take with you my humblest apologies.”
“I apologize, too, for flippin’ out like I did. Tell you what, though,” Farrah gulps down another searing sip of the coffee and meets Kat’s eyes. Dead on. Target lock. “No more of this losing those you love shit, you hear me? I won’t sit here and say I know how you feel or understand what you’re trying to do with yourself, because I don’t. Even if I did, it ain’t my business to try and call you out on it, friend or not. You’ve got Zoey for life now. No matter how bad you think you get, she’s not going anywhere. And where she goes, I go, meaning that’s at least two people who you ain’t gotta worry about turning their backs. It might sound stupid, but you’re family to me now.”
She takes another sip of coffee, sitting back a little, knowing that this tirade was probably gonna sail right past Kat in whatever mood she happened to be in. That wasn’t the point. Farrah, like Zoey, was honest to a fault. Nothing spilled from the woman’s lips that she didn’t mean.
“Granted, there’s times I want to lock you in the basement and take rawhide to your ass… but hell, who doesn’t have someone in their life that they’d like to do that to once in a while, if only to keep them from blowing themselves up? That’s not the worst part of this for me, Katalina. The worst part…”
Sitting back fully, Farrah idly tapped the spoon against the table, almost having the urge to stab it through the would.
“...is that I think you’re right. At least where it comes to Kenzi and I.”
Kat nods along, she figured this would come out. The part of having Zoey as a definite in her life. Farrah...was a bit of a surprise, but she won’t say “no” there. It all made growing sense and Kat was beginning to calm down thanks to it.
“So...you’ll have to beat her then.”
She says sounding both in support of Farrah but worried over the well being of her friend. It was no secret over Kat’s feelings toward Kenzi, so much so Kat couldn’t fake full support for Farrah. She knew that the Angel would definitely know better than to get that from Kat in this.
“Even if I beat her I won’t shut her mouth. Nothing will aside from a big needle and some wire… and that won’t last forever, either. No,” Farrah had to pause again; the coffee was rather good. “I can’t let it be about all that anymore. It has to be about the championships. Nothing else. Bad enough that I’m seeing a shift in myself and Zoey toward sides we weren’t meant to be on. Losing the belts might make that worse. This… I need to think about it.”
Draining the last few drops from the mug, Farrah sets it down with a soft clink. Tracing a bare, red-tipped finger along the rim, she contemplates silently.
“I know how you feel. The strain of wanting to do one thing while being pulled toward another. You have obligations you can’t avoid and it makes you feel like you’re being torn in two.” Kat takes a bit more of her tea this time letting the cup stay up in her grasp. “It’s worse that the two are even combining. You don’t know how to feel about your coming defence. Do you go as the champion, the Boardwalk Angel who is partnered with her best friend defending the belts? Or as the avenger? Carrying the hatred of so many others looking for the opportunity to unleash it? With such weights on your shoulders,”
Kat could go on but she doesn’t. Instead, she just says what comes natural to her mind.
“If I may say so, it seems you need a form of guidance, love.”
“Or a swift kick in the ass. Whatever works.”
Gently refusing another cup of coffee as she was strung out enough already, Farrah keeps sitting back within her chair, staring at the empty cup.
“Whatever happens, it better be made to happen before Validation.”
“Something will come, love,” Kat replies finishing up her tea resting the empty cup down on the saucer. “I’m certain of it.”
Nodding, Farrah sat forward, then rose up. Definitely not much going on beneath that suit of hers. Probably for the sake of comfort. A trip here all the way from Indiana? Oh, the chafing…
“I’m going to get some rest before my body completely revolts on me. Do you need a ride home?”
“Thank you for the offer, love, but I had my ride here and she’s still waiting. Though I was going to stay here a little longer. But,” Kat begins as she glances back at the table finally bringing some warmth to her smile “It’s good to know I’ll have a pleasant memory of this place for once.”
“Going to have to work on getting you more of those. Getting both of us more of those. Zoey’s putting together a big dinner for us all this weekend, so I’ll see you then. Thanks for agreeing to meet me today.”
She sets a hand on Kat’s briefly, surprisingly gently, before zipping up her suit and turning to go, leaving a couple bills on the table as gratuity for the coffee.