a) she meant business; and
b) she meant business.
"Is this about the love coach thing again? It took me three emails to explain myself of that one," Greta's cackle displaced the air of seriousness Babs had sought to instill. She sat back with a sigh as Lucy returned with their drinks.
"No love coaches - look I have to stop screwing Richard, you need to move on from Eliot and you," Babs said looking at Lucy who was in the process of slurping the whipped cream off her Irish coffee. "What's up with you anyway?"
Lucy's eyes rolled up to meet theirs. "Me? Nothing. Finished another chapter of the thesis last week, my supervisor is supposed to get it back to me by Tuesday, Jason tried to email me and I think my fridge may be broken again-"
"Jason? Wasn't he that-" Greta began.
"Loser? Yes. It's nothing, anyway let's talk about something else." Lucy put her coffee down. "Babs what's up with you and Richard? Plus - have you called that number that was written on your back yet?"
"No," Babs looked a little dejected. "I really don't want to strike up a conversation with some douche bag stranger who wrote on my back when I was drunk."
"But what about those long johns?" Greta asked, tracing her finger in a sugar pile on the table. "did you ever figure out how you go those?"
"The ones you bought me?" Babs raised an eyebrow "no. And what about that page you received two weeks ago? Did you find out who that was?"
"No I never called them back," Greta admitted, snapping open her purse to fish out her pager. She scrolled through the numbers until she came up with the odd one she'd never returned. "Must be a wrong number." The only thing was, the person had now paged Greta 5 times. It was getting annoying and she'd said as much earlier in the week to Babs in an email.
"Well how about we make a deal, if you-" Babs began but was interrupted by Lucy. "Oh my god!" Babs jumped a few inches off her chair and Greta whipped her head around. While they did this, Lucy quickly slid under the table.
"What's wrong?" Babs asked Lucy's empty chair before realising her friend had disappeared.
"Don't look at me!" hissed Lucy. As she did so, a tall man with long dark hair in a faded leather jacket walked past their table. Greta didn't catch a look at his face, neither did Babs. Lucy did.
"What's going on?" Greta asked Lucy, looking at Babs.
"That's the guy whose Metallica shirt I stole!" Lucy muttered.
"It is?" Babs asked excitedly, turning to check the guy out. She couldn't see him though, he was ordering at the counter and his back was turned to them. Babs thought he had a really nice ass though.
"Who?" Greta asked almost simultaneously, straining to get a look.
"Don't look at him! Wait until he leaves!" Lucy shifted at their feet, her voice a little desperate.
"This is ridiculous," Greta said, toeing Lucy under the table. "Why are you hiding from him?"
"I don't know," Lucy admitted. "But please just let him leave."
The three of them sat (albeit one of them under the table) and waited until the man received his coffee to go, turned and walked past their table and out the door. As he passed Greta smiled at him and he smiled back. Lucy's breath caught from her vantage point under the table, he was even more beautiful than she'd remembered.
Babs quickly rose after he went out the door and left herself.
"Where's she going - ouch!" Lucy got up too quickly and hit her head on the the table.
Greta grabbed for the coffees that were slopping over "I don't know. So who was that guy?"
"Just a one night stand, you know from that night we all went out after my faculty party. I stole his shirt and never called him, never even told him my name."
"And that's why you were hiding from him? Because you stole his shirt?"
Lucy let her head fall back, and closing her eyes she said "no, because for once I never told my name and I didn't ask his. I didn't give away anything, and I didn't ask for anything in return. I left no opportunity for disappointment."
Greta was silent for a moment and sipped her coffee "sounds like the end of a Margaret Atwood novel."
Lucy laughed "that's true, plus I did steal his shirt."
A minute later Babs returned, red faced from the cold and smiling. "I followed him a couple of blocks. As far as I can tell he lives around the corner and I can show you where."
"Babs!" Lucy cried sitting up "what if he saw you?"
"He didn't," Babs assured her, sliding back into her chair and picking up her coffee. "But this changes everything. Suddenly this deal has gotten a lot more interesting for all three of us. I have a strategic plan and it involves all of us taking a big fat risk."
