The Expectation to Never Expect

"So you didn't sleep together?" Lilly carelessly flicked through a magazine upon the glass table top, her eyes never lifting from the glossy pages.

"For the last time, no we didn't sleep together. Well we slept together but we didn't sleep together sleep together." I sipped a mouthful of peach iced tea through the plastic straw as cars drove by the small alfresco cafe we always went to on Mondays. "if that even makes sense."

"Yeah, yeah so you just passed out in his bed. Most important question; did you eat the McChicken?"

I laughed at the serious tone of her voice. "No I kept firm to my vegetarian ways."

"Lame." She rolled her eyes before her phone beeped and a blush rose upon her cheeks.

"Let me guess Sam?"

"No!"

"You're lying." another drink of the iced tea.

"What? I am not."

"You always deny things really rushed, like I've offended you when you're lying." I chipped at the latest shade of paint upon my finger nails casually. "Did you two sleep together?"

"I- we- he-"

Her stuttering suddenly got my attention. "So you did?"

"It wasn't anything. We just. Well-"

"You had sex." I finished for her laughing slightly at how shy she was. Normally Lilly was up front and out going, it took a lot to make her trip over her words, to stumble and blush over something.

"Well yeah. It just kind of happened, one moment we were drinking Jagger and the next, we were all over his sheets." She laughed aloud then. "God I'm such a hussy."

"No judgment doll." I grabbed my car keys from the table top, pulled my purse over my shoulder. "We've all been there, done that. It took a casual boy to make me realise I didn't need love to be happy."

"Yeah a babe looking boy at that."

"You're a freak. But I've gotta get to work, I'll call you after my shift so you can fill me in on everything else that happened on the one weekend you didn't call me on a Sunday morning."

"Say hello to Rory for me."

***

For fifteen minutes I sat still and alone in the front seat of my small car. The radio hummed a slow tune as my brain whipped and fussed and burned.

On my right hand side a silver car was parked silently, it's engine didn't tick like mine did as it cooled down slowly, it windows weren't rolled down to beat the extreme heat, and the driver wasn't sitting behind the wheel.

No, the driver of that particular silver Ford was busy flirting with female customers and pouring coffees for anyone who stepped inside the door.

Suddenly I was nervous, afraid of any awkward situation I may have to face upon stepping inside. I started in exactly two minutes and didn't have the luxury of time to stress, to play scenarios over in my head.

Instead I grabbed the small black apron from the passenger seat, my purse and ripped the keys from the ignition. My feet moved quickly across the carpark, my palms pushing against the glass doorway and eyes over the polished floors.

"Hello sunshine." Rory's eyes were dancing in the dull natural light peering through the dark windows, his white smile gleaming. "Did you manage to survive after I dropped you home Sunday?"

"It seems so." I smiled awkwardly as I wrapped the apron around my waist, pulling a metal jug from the fridge and filling it with milk. "Though I have no idea how I got over the hang over."

"Clearly you had a fantastic night then." He let a bell light sound from his lungs as he dumped a few coins in a young girls open palm before coming to stand by my side. "Must have been a pretty great somebody to take you out then."

"Oh you know..." I trailed off, stealing a glance at him through the fringe falling into my eyes. "He's not too bad."

Rory let another laugh from his lungs and smiled down at me. It was at that moment that I knew he wasn't the type of boy to hold onto awkward situations and I wasn't the type of girl to force them around.