𝚂𝚄𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚄𝙽𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝙽 ✩ ɢʀᴜɴɢᴇ

𝚡𝚒𝚟. 𝚘𝚏𝚏 𝚝𝚘 𝚊 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝

1991 began on a Tuesday. Everyone was expected to go back to work on Wednesday, which they all found a bit ridiculous though they wouldn't complain because they had already taken an entire week off. Accepting that fate, they spent much of Tuesday sleeping off the effects of non-stop drinking and smoking, and in the evening, everyone cleared out of Stone's house.

Alex, Charlie, and Jo enjoyed a mostly silent walk home. No one knew what to say or how to even begin a conversation. Alex was dying to ask Charlie and Jo where the hell they'd disappeared to at midnight. Charlie really wanted to ask Jo about Matt and she wanted to ask Alex a lot in general. Jo just wanted to get her friends' opinions on...something. But alas, no one wanted to be the first to talk, so they all stayed quiet. They got to the apartment and started tidying up what Charlie and Jo hadn't before all the parties.

Cleaning had always been kind of weird at Alex and Charlie's. They'd almost been hesitant to explain the Somebody To Love tradition (wherein Alex sang Freddie's part and Charlie handled the backing vocal) to Jo, but had found they had no cause for worry: she enjoyed that so much she had jumped right in and started singing with Charlie. It was now something they did almost every night, and it worked for them. They almost didn't feel the boredom that usually came with cleaning.

✩✩✩

Early the next day, once Charlie had gone to work and Jo had gone to continue the hunt for a job, Alex went to the payphone with the remaining change of the money Rhea had given her and Rhea's card in hand. She took a deep breath and tried to relax before dialing.

"Hello, Rhea King speaking."

Suddenly, Alex found herself forgetting how to speak, which can be a very awkward experience when a conversation is to be had. "Hey, it's Alex. Kinney. Alex Kinney. That's me."

"Oh, hey Alex! How are you?"

"Great, and yourself?"

"Fairly well, thanks. So, how about that coffee, huh?"

It didn't go awkwardly at all after that, and within an hour Alex was sitting in a nearby coffeehouse waiting for Rhea. She wished Rhea would hurry; telling the waiter that she wasn't ordering just yet, if ever, was starting to get old.

She was making a little hill out of sugar when Rhea sat down in the chair across from her. "Hey, have you been waiting long? Sorry I took forever."

"Nah, it hasn't been more than a little while. Although that waiter doesn't seem to have much patience." Alex wanted to make a joke about the irony in a waiter being unable to wait but held back for fear of coming off as a dork.

"Hm. That's funny. A waiter who's bad at waiting--not the job, just...waiting," Rhea said with a chuckle. Alex looked at her in disbelief before laughing. The waiter came around again and Rhea ordered a latte before the attention was shifted to Alex. 

"Oh, I don't want anything," Alex said with what she hoped was a genuine-looking grin.

"What? You sure?"

"Yeah, I don't...you know...have any money."

"Make that one medium latte, a medium hot chocolate, and two chocolate muffins," Rhea said, and the waiter nodded and left. Alex gave her a questioning look (thinking Rhea had ordered it all for herself) to which Rhea said, "a muffin and the hot chocolate are for you."