Might As Well

Chapter 6

"Sorry I'm late!" Clarke hurried into the bar on Friday afternoon. Raven and Octavia were sitting in a booth working on a happy hour pitcher to make the work week dissolve. "I had a call run long."

"No worries! Sit! Drink! Join us!" Raven slid over so Clarke could sit down.

"Are you already working again?" Octavia asked as she poured Clarke a beer.

"Again?" Clarke huffed. "More like still. I was able to lighten my load before I left New York to give myself some semblance of a break, but there are those special few clients," Clarke sighed and dropped her phone on the table. It dinged several times in a row.

"That's no fun. Are they still blowing you up now?" Raven asked.

"Ah, no," Clarke replied. She had an impulsive grin on as she glanced over the messages.

It was the kind of grin reserved for pleasant surprises and feeling cute about herself. A grin that came with compliments and flirts and well-timed punchlines that turned her on.

"Excuse me," Octavia said flatly. "Clarke?"

"What?" Clarke glanced up, unaware of how much time she lost to her own quick pleasure spiral.

"Who are you talking to?" Octavia held her expectant glare.

"What? No one," Clarke's grin softened into a slightly guilty smile. "Just Lexa."

"What's up with that?" Raven cautiously raised a brow. The air in their booth grew thick with routine accusation.

"What's up with what?" Clarke shrugged, dropped her phone back on the table and covered her shifting expressions with a sip of beer.

"Why are you flirty smiling at texts from her?" Raven pressed. Their faces didn't budge.

"I'm not flirty smiling! She told me a joke for fuck's sake," Clarke reached for the phone to turn it over. "We're friends. We text sometimes."

The phone pinged again.

"Sometimes?" Octavia tried.

"What's with you two?" Clarke glanced back and forth at them. Her phone chimed on the table in the silence.

"If that's her, you have to chug that whole beer," Raven pointed at the phone. It sounded its pleasant alarm once more. Clarke closed her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh.

"If they're both her, you're getting the whole tab," Octavia doubled down.

"You guys, come on," Clarke muttered.

Ding.

"Well?" Octavia folded her arms and rested them on the table. "Flip it over."

Clarke held her stare for a few more beats before heaving a deep breath. She silently turned the phone over.

"Oh shit!" Raven whooped. "Pay up, Griff!" They laughed and high fived and Clarke just rolled her eyes.

"What are you even saying to each other that she'd need to send you five messages right now? Isn't she at work?" Octavia snatched the phone off of the table before Clarke could grab it and started scrolling. "Clarke Griffin! Selfies?! Are you fucking shitting me?"

"Oh my god, there are a TON of them!" Raven gaped with glee. Clarke hid her face in her hands.

"We're getting to know each other! I have to pretend to be her serious, longtime girlfriend in like a week!" She'd been caught red handed and had the cheeks to match.

"Is that why you thought it would be super cute to send this one of yourself in a towel in your tiny bathroom mirror? Jesus Captain-Obvious-Loving Christ! Clarke! These are absolute thirst traps!" Octavia couldn't stop laughing. Clarke dropped her forehead onto the table. Raven was laughing so hard that no sound would come out.