Coffee with Fred

[killingsoftly]

He wasn't accustomed to having coffee later with people he'd so thoroughly seduced, but then, she'd been nice to him before that and after that and didn't seem to be running away, ans she'd offered to let him talk and he'd already apparently told her about Warren, so that made her slightly safer to talk to than the redhead who he barely knew.

He called her and invited her for coffee. He arrived at Starbucks a little early, parking the bike, then fidgeting outside on the step while he waited for her. He lit up one of his clove cigarettes, moving away from the door to the ashtray a bit further down. People might have given him disapproving looks on his own account, but at least no one coughed pointedly at him.

He was still fidgety, but at least the nicotine helped a bit. And there would be coffee. Which might make him fidget more. But it would be good and she was a calming sort and he might not end up talking about Warren at all, really, even as VERY confusing as things were now.

He leaned against the wall and tried to make himself stop fidgeting, which got him looks from the Barbie clones who walked by, flashing him an inviting smile. Bike. Leather jacket. Sunglasses. Cigarette. Too pretty for words. It was what he used to get such creatures in his bed to give him what he needed, but he was too fixated on Warren to do more than just smile back at them with a nod.

Some things were instinctual.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"S'okay," she covered quickly, not wanting to make a big deal of things. The whys and hows of why he didn't remember could get addressed later.

"Why don't you tell me more about him now, then?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He smiled a little. "What do you want to know."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"You're asking me, question girl, what I want to know?" Fred laughed a little bit more. "Everything, of course."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"Where do you want me to start?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

Just like any story started, of course.

"How you met," she answered easily.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"At a club, well a bar. We got into a pool game, started talking. I invited him back to the hotel, and for some reason I don't understand, he came with me."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"Just a guess?" Fred offered the idea lightly. "If it wasn't the attraction then, and you two had a good time that night? I would think he was wanting to maybe find a friend."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

Devin nodded a little, smiling. "We talked about music."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

She just nodded, waiting, absolutely not caring how long they'd been at the table.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"And we drank a lot. He got very drunk. And brooding. And so I put him to bed."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"Oh," Fred listened, putting a bit more of the picture together with each bit of information. "...he's a brooder?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"He was that night. He's not always. He's..well. He likes to hide behind that demeanor. But underneath he's warm. Sweet. Generous."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

She noddedm filing everything away, including Devin's expression while he talked.

"What happened then?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"He woke up a few hours later and I got him some food. We plaed Xbox for a while and he was a lot more cheerful." Devin smiled, remembering. "I offered him a job."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"And there's that Xbox again." Fred just shook her head, not really understanding.

"You're really good at taking care of people, aren't you?" She didn't linger on the statement long, though. "So he took the job?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He flushed a bit and skipped it, too.

"He did."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"Okay, so now you're friends, and you're working together..."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "And we just...we hung out a lot. And it was..good. We talked and ..." He smiled. "It was good. And I behaved."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"Like friends. He was a friend."

Fred tilted her head to one side, considering, and wanting to understand.

"...you don't usually behave? Or you wanted to misbehave with him, and didn't?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"He's...beautiful. And so so passionate. Of course I wanted to misbehave with him."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

That earned another flash of a smile.

"But you didn't."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"No," he said quietly.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

Fred decided this was a time to be quiet, and just let Devin talk.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

But he wasn't quite sure what to say, biting his lip.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

Fred fiddled with her straw, wondering just what version of Devin she'd first met in his hotel room, as twisted up as it seemed Warren had made him.

Maybe it was time for another questions.

"When did things start to change?"