Chapter 13
When Lucy got Sydney's text about going out to dinner on Thursday night, she immediately said yes. After all, they went to dinner all the time on Thursdays, especially after Sydney lost her job last year because of her boss breaking the law.
Lucy realized that there were times when it would get a little overwhelming for Sydney and so she made it a point of checking in on Thursdays to see how things were going. If Sydney had a good week, it was just a check in. If things were going bad, it was more of a "Let's go to dinner tonight." As Sydney's personal attorney and her friend, Lucy would know when things were going bad.
At some point, Sydney picked up on what her friend was doing.
"Oh, is it Thursday again?" Sydney would mockingly say.
Lucy didn't mind. It was her way of letting Sydney know that she was watching out for her, that they were in this together, and that sometimes they both needed some good food and a decent drink. Nothing crazy since it was a work night, but a beer and a burger could solve quite a few problems. It was nice to see how things had changed with their dinners over the past year, starting out with Sydney working through her issues with her former job and her new relationship with Andy. Since then, things had become much better and they were both happy.
Tonight would be a bit of a celebration that the case was behind them now. They were both moving on to other things in their careers. Sydney was adding more clients as a forensic accounting consultant. Lucy got a new case at work.
But then there was Ryan. Sure, there was nothing wrong with Ryan. In fact, there were quite a few things right with Ryan. But there were things about her relationship with him that even she wasn't being honest with herself about, starting with was it even a relationship?
That's why Lucy was questioning if it was really such a good idea to agree to dinner with Sydney instead of blowing her off for a week. But she couldn't do that to a friend. So instead, it was dinner and drinks and hoping she could get through the night without having to define her currently indefinable relationship.
Green Dot Stables was never going to be mistaken for a fancy restaurant, but the food was damn good. The sliders were delicious and they had these amazing truffle and herb fries that Sydney and Lucy would inhale. It was a place that Ryan would love, which only made Lucy chide herself because she shouldn't be thinking that way about a guy who wasn't her boyfriend.
She needed to go inside and get a beer.
Lucy sat down and ordered a pint, too antsy to wait for Sydney, and was just about to take a sip when she heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Starting without me?"
She turned to see Sydney giving her a teasing smile as she pulled off her light coat and tossed it in the extra chair at their table.
"It's just a Stroh's," Lucy replied.
"Well, of course it is," Sydney said. "If we're drinking cheap beer, we're drinking local cheap beer."
Sydney flagged down their waiter to get a pint for herself and an order of those amazing truffle fries. The nice thing about coming to this place is that they had been there plenty of times before and knew that the fries were the most important thing to order first. They started looking over the menu, comparing what they wanted to try tonight. With sliders, they would usually mix it up depending on how they were feeling. Lucy always got at least a Coney Dog slider — chili, hot dog, and onions on a tiny bun.
But it was all small talk and chit-chatting about food. Usually, they would at least have asked each other what was going on or how their day had been. Not tonight. This happened sometimes, and it normally was because there was something too big to talk about casually right at the beginning. So when the waiter took their orders and left, Lucy knew what was coming next. Sydney reached for a fry from the tray the waiter had left behind and gave a knowing glance towards Lucy.
"So. Ryan. What's that about?"
"Wow, that took you a whole two minutes to get right to it. I'm kind of impressed."
"Me too."
Sydney's stern face quickly dissolved into a huge smile as she stuffed a few fries in her mouth, and Lucy couldn't help but return it. This is why they were friends after all. They could tease each other at times in a way that no one else could. The first time they did this in front of Andy, he looked like he was caught in the middle of a real fight that he just wanted to slink his way out of. So sitting here with Sydney already teasing her meant that there was at least one thing still normal in Lucy's life.
"Honestly, I don't know what the whole thing with Ryan is about," Lucy said.
"For someone who can be so easy going and an open book, Ryan can get really complicated really quick."
"But you never slept with Ryan."
"Oh hell no!" Sydney had a look of disgust on her face that quickly disappeared as she glanced towards her friend. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but I just never thought of doing, you know,thatwith Ryan."
Lucy laughed a little and took a sip of her beer. "It's OK. That's actually pretty close to my reaction anyway."
"So really, what is going on with you two?"
Lucy shrugged and grabbed a few fries. "Things just happened, I guess. One morning, I'm asking some guy wearing a pair of boxer briefs to move his truck and two days later, I'm having sex with him on a kitchen counter."
Sydney took a deep breath. "I have so many questions."
