"Mushy BS?"

Please explain.

Here he'd been, thinking this was simply a not-a-date with a friend. Just two friends (not on a date!), opening up to each other, sipping coffee, and talking about how they both respected each others opinions.

Why was everybody suddenly suggesting crazy things like 'dates' and 'mushy BS?'

... Not that he minded mushy BS, of course. It was just that Riley'd been so insistent that wasn't what this was...

Passive aggressive? Haha. What was that?

Riley had to roll her eyes at the way Aurum responded to her admission. This was impossible. This was absolutely impossible. ”I didn’t mean like that.” she said, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head. ”I told you last time…I don’t date.”

She sighed and sipped her coffee again, how could she explain this without making an ass out of anyone?

” I don’t care what people think Aurum…and don’t look at me like that.” She wasn’t looking at him, but her mind’s eye could drum up the look on his face well enough.

” It doesn’t matter what people think. People are temporary. What good is it to try and impress them by telling them what I know they want to hear? They’re still going to think whatever they want to think about me.”

Hopefully...that set the record straight.

Aurum arched a confused eyebrow at the eyerolling to his question about 'mushy bs'. She didn't mean it 'like that'. How, then, did she mean it? Because there were only so many ways one could mean something. And if she didn't date...

And didn't care.

... And it didn't matter.

Then why did it matter to get the records straight?

"Sometimes, people have to hear the things they don't want to hear... I guess." He guessed. Aurum stared at her uncertainly. "So, what then? We can't be friends?" Because people are temporary, and their opinions don't matter? Except, apparently, they do? But only for him? 'Kay.

Riley sighed and ran a hand through her hair, grumbling when her fingers caught on a tangle. None of this was coming out how it was supposed to. Why was it that she could be perfectly poised and make perfect sense (at least to herself) 99% of the time, but fall into complete idiocy when Aurum started throwing his stupid logic in her face?

Of course. People had to hear things they didn’t want to hear. That was part of life. Dammit, why did he look so confused? And…

”I never said we couldn’t be friends.” Riley replied hastily to his comment, realizing, even as she said it that she was contradicting everything she’d just pointed out.

A pained look was cast across the table, “Friends…is fine.” she said, nodding her head slowly. “I just…don’t really have friends, so I’m probably as bad at that as I am explaining my philosophy on people. I’m not used to people being nice to me.”

Friends... worked. But apparently not... the other thing... that he hadn't even been aiming for.

Okay.

But the hard part was, she had no friends.

What was it they said about flies? You catch more with honey than vinegar.

Aurum took a deep, calming breath, closing his eyes to focus his thoughts. He massaged his temples.

Riley was... interesting. And... challenging. And... difficult. And, despite the ellipses preceding all those statements, they weren't bad things. Thus, stopped logical thought.

Aurum went with his dumb gut.

"Get used to it," He said. Aurum looked her sternly in the eye.

Riley wondered curiously, through her irritation, why her first instinct with Aurum was irritation. She’d just ran him in circles of logic involving things he hadn’t really even been talking about, and she was irritated with his exasperation. It really was a curious thing. So as Aurum took his deep breath and let it out. Riley did the same.

They were going to be friends. Why did the idea sound so stupid, but yet so great at the same time? Riley had been telling the truth when she pointed out that she didn’t have friends…she just hadn’t added the unspoken, especially not male friends.

Up to this point in her life, guys had been good for two things as far as Riley was concerned. One was jobs, since photographers in New York were normally men. The second was one night stands…God it even sounded slutty in her head. Riley decided to keep that little gem private and see what Aurum had to say before speaking again.

He told her to get used to people, or at least a person, being nice to her.

”I think I can do that.” she said simply, looking him right in the eyes.

Right, then. It looked like they'd exhausted the argument. "Anyways, thanks for the congratulations." Aurum changed the subject.

His focus dropped down to his coffee, and he sighed. "Cold." He should have been working more on it. There really wasn't much worse than cold coffee.

"I really need to find a law firm to work at, so I can afford more of this..."

Riley frowned. Aurum kept bringing up the fact that he didn’t have a job. Hadn’t he just said that he passed the bar exam? Wasn’t that kind of like…the admittance ticket into Lawyer-land or something?

”They’ll all be scrambling over themselves to hire you now.” she said, waving a dismissive hand, ”You’ve got your little slip of paper that says you’re an awesome lawyer now.”

She shrugged her shoulders and sipped at her coffee, hers was warm still..and he’d gotten it for her even though he said he was lower on funds than he'd like. ”If all else fails, just smile. Let me get you a refill, by the way, you’re always buying the coffee.”

Aurum brooded over his cold coffee. "Maybe." He said. "Although, that thing with Lonnie... it sort of gave me a bad name. With Lonnie's lawfirm, at least... and that was a really good one, too."

Meh. Now he was down on himself. Not only because of job problems, but... was it even possible for guys and girls to be friends? He didn't know. It wasn't the sort of thing one could bring up with the guys, either. Not unless you liked being laughed out of the room. His coffee was cold, and this whole situation was far less exciting than when he'd found out he'd passed the bar. It was like earning a BA in English. What would one do, once they'd earned it?

What to do, what to do?

Suddenly Riley felt bad again. Bad and really selfish. She’d brought him all that information on Lonnie, knowing that he’d do something about it…because that’s just the kind of guy Aurum was. She hadn’t stopped to think about what the repercussions would be. Aurum had messed up his reputation with one of the ‘good’ law firms in the city. Lawyers talked to other lawyers…a lot and now here he was, trying to find a job.

”Didn’t they all know that Lonnie was a creep?” she said, frowning at her own coffee and wondering why Aurum hadn’t either agreed or disagreed with her offer for more.

”Surely there’s no honor among thieves in the law business…he has to have had a rival defense attorney out there who will be falling all over himself to hire you now. ” she said. “You just have to find him.” The problem was, and Riley didn’t say this out loud, Aurum was kind of like a boyfriend you steal from another girl…except a lawyer. How did you know he wasn’t going to cheat on you next?

”So, about that coffee?”

>>”Didn’t they all know that Lonnie was a creep?”

"Aren't most lawyers?" He mourned.

Suddenly, she was trying to look on the bright side... for his sake. Strange. "Maybe..." Aurum trailed, thoughtfully. Again, Riley was being nice. The least he could do was play along and not be a Debbie downer. "I guess it's pretty dumb of me to make assumptions, before I've exhausted all possibilities..."

Aurum looked up from his coffee, at Riley. "Thanks." He said quietly.

>>”So, about that coffee?”

And now, the topic was coffee.

"Hm?" Aurum shot her a quizzical look.

There. That was better. It was strange when Aurum insisted on being the one who was naysaying everything. At least now he was admitting that there were still possibilities. He was right about most lawyers though, even if Riley didn’t feel the need to rub it in his face right now. Someone had to do it…at least there were decent people like Aurum out there too.

He seemed to have missed her question about the coffee, and she shook her head at him. ”While you were crying in your cups over your terrible misfortune, I offered to get you a refill. You’re always buying the coffee. I thought it might be my turn.”

"Oh. Okay." Aurum agreed. He didn't fight her on her offer.

It was strange behavior, her offering coffee. Not her being nice. She was doing that, more and more. He really needed to stop being shocked by that. It wasn't like it was a bad thing. The coffee order wasn't bad, either. It was positive behavior for two friends to be engaging in, when one wasn't pigheaded enough to turn down the others offer due to chauvinist tendencies. Which he wasn't. Pigheaded. Apparently. He didn't even know any more.

Again, he stuffed his logic in a locker and sealed it shut. His gut told him things were okay.

"Thanks."

”No problem.” Riley said, then rose to get the coffee. It didn’t take long, and she was back at the table, setting a fresh cup down for Aurum to drink.

He was better…but still seemed down. Riley was at a loss, how did someone go about putting someone else in a better mood? She’d never tried it before, option for silence in the face of grump or worry.

“You wouldn’t believe what I had to do on a job last week.” she said. Maybe he’d find the story interesting…if not, it’d put him in a much better mood about his choice of careers.

>>“You wouldn’t believe what I had to do on a job last week.” Riley said, as Aurum picked up the coffee. He drank.

"What did you have to do?" Aurum asked.

Riley worked as a pin-up model. They'd met over a skeezy photographer who'd turned her lawsuit back on her and gotten her to pay. His boss at the time had helped hand her lawyer's ass to him on a silver platter. He sure hoped she wasn't getting caught around more skeezes again.

"Nothing skeezy, I hope. Didn't you say things were fine?" A line a bit too protective slipped out unconsciously. It just slipped.