“Fine,” she said. “I’ll drive you.”
They moved to the front seats with as much dignity as they could maintain. Erin put the car in drive and Cassie turned up the radio. If she had to pick between silence, awkward small talk, and music, she was definitely picking music.
Besides, Erin’s phone was playing Beyoncé over the Bluetooth, and you never say no to Queen Bey.
“You ain’t married to no average bitch, boy,” Cassie sang along without thinking.
She cut herself off and cleared her throat. Singing in front of people she’d just met wasn’t exactly her thing. But out of the corner of her eye, she could see a grin spread across Erin’s face. Cassie swallowed, took a breath, and kept singing.
Neither said anything, even as they arrived on campus. Erin didn’t ask where Cassie lived and Cassie didn’t tell her. Maybe it was a coincidence, but the parking lot Erin pulled into was the farthest from the freshman dorms. Cassie wondered if her daughter was a freshman, before reminding herself that curiosity killed the cat, and enough pussy had been wrecked already that night.
The brightest light Cassie had seen Erin in was in the fucking bathroom, but even here, under the weak lights of the parking lot filtered through the windshield, the older woman shone. If Cassie were a romantic, she’d say Erin’s eyes were like the night sky—she’d never get bored tracing their constellations. But she was absolutely not a romantic, so mostly she was just proud of herself for picking up a woman this hot. And she was never gonna see her again, so Cassie figured she might as well take advantage of the goodbye. She kissed Erin as dirty as she knew how, waited for her to lean closer, over the center console, then pulled away, Erin chasing her lips.
“It’s been fun,” she said, and climbed out of the car without looking back.
* * *
Cassie wasn’t awake when her phone buzzed the next morning. She ignored it without opening her eyes. No one she wanted to talk to would call her this early. But it rang again, and again after that, and fuck whoever this was, she was gonna kill them.
“The fuck do you want?” she growled as she answered.
“I know it’s early, but I need you to come to breakfast with me.”
Parker.
Cassie rubbed at her eyes. “The audacity of you calling before eight on a Saturday. This might be the worst thing you’ve ever done to me, and yes, I’m including you sleeping with my boyfriend.”
Parker was quiet. She never seemed to know how to act when Cassie joked about how they’d met. Eventually, she said, “I’m serious, Cassie.”
“Acacia has got to be up by now.”
Acacia connected them a lot more than Seth, the now ex-boyfriend. She was Parker’s roommate and Cassie’s best friend since they were kids. She was also a morning person for some inexplicable reason.
“She and her brother are on a hike together,” Parker said and Cassie did a full-body shudder. “It’ll be a free breakfast—my mom will pay. I just need, like, a buffer. She’s too much sometimes, and I thought I could handle it on my own but now I’m spiraling. Please?”
Cassie resolved to never make friends with a freshman again. They were so needy.
Then again, Parker had broken Seth’s nose and ended things when she found out the douchebag had a girlfriend, so maybe she’d earned herself a favor or two.
“When are you picking me up?”
Breakfast was at one of Cassie’s favorite restaurants, so by the time they arrived, she didn’t even mind being out of bed so early on a weekend. A crowd of people waited to be seated.
“My mom’s got a table already,” Parker said, scanning the restaurant. “There.”
They headed toward a woman sitting alone, facing the window, a cup of coffee steaming in front of her.
“Call her Dr. Bennett if you want to make a good impression,” Parker muttered to Cassie.
“I’m great with parents, thanks.”
Parker reached the table first, and as her mom stood to hug her, Cassie almost fell over.
“Hey Mom, this is Cassie. Cassie, this is my mom.”
Cassie had to give Erin credit; her only tell was the slight widening of her eyes as she extended her hand. Cassie shook it, trying to keep the shit-eating grin off her face.
“Nice to meet you, Dr. Bennett,” she said.
Erin squeezed her hand a little too hard. “Please, call me Erin.”
Two
ERIN
Erin thanked the waitress for her coffee and the three waters for the table. She wrapped both hands around her mug and left her menu closed. No need to look before Parker and her friend arrived. Erin had found the place on Yelp earlier in the week, so she already knew it had plenty of good offerings. She’d wanted to go to Parker’s favorite breakfast spot, but her daughter hadn’t had any suggestions—she hadn’t made it off campus for breakfast yet.