[dated October 30]

[poison_lipstick]

It was Friday afternoon, which normally would have meant Saffron would be at the club, either catching up on the bookkeeping or practicing something for her routine. But the club was closed, had been closed for 24 hours now, and that meant Saffron had nothing to do

Comments

[saikamai]

Cuthbert had showed up for his usual shift the day before, taking for granted that it'd be business as usual at the CSC, as it had been for nearly a year now, since he'd started helping out on Lloyd's shifts. It was funny to Bert; bartending was the kind of work he never would've had a chance to do at home, too low, unseemly for a gunslinger, and so it had an immediate appeal. And as it turned out, he was good at it: good with engaging folks in conversation, sharp at memorizing cocktails and quick to invent new ones when people were indecisive, and over the last few months he'd really begun to settle into the job. Without training and classes, all he had left was the IPD and the ITF, and the Catscatch was a welcome change from all that. He'd learned a few card tricks, stashed a few of Lloyd's more modern jokes up his sleeve, and started to really feel comfortable behind the bar. The staff of the Catscratch was cozy in a way Bert theorized you really couldn't get unless your daily grind involving knicker-flinging, and he felt as much

[poison_lipstick]

Saffron shook her head. "You're fine, honey," she replied. He seemed liked he had something on his mind, and she wondered if he'd been looking for her. "How are you?"

[saikamai]

"I'm all right," he said, and after a moment, sank down into the sand on his rear. "Stopped by your hut and the club looking for you, and I found you here." But now that he was here, he felt reluctant to bother her-- she probably just wanted to be left alone for awhile, and the club was likely the last thing she wanted to talk about.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a second, debating whether to make something up and drop the whole thing, or actually bring it up.

[poison_lipstick]

So he had been looking for her. Saffron was rutting good at reading people as it was, and it was even easier with Cuthbert, who'd never been all that good at hiding his emotions or what he was thinking. "So you were looking for me, and you found me," she said, sitting up and bending her legs slightly at the knee, then draping her arms loosely around them. "Was there some particular reason you wanted to see me?"