The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Cassandra

Cassandra plopped into her chair and spun into her desk, only nominally ready to return to work. She was thankful that her job was typically either simply following a script without much thought or interesting enough that she would be distracted - because she was pretty sure if it had fallen in the middle, her scattered thoughts would get her in trouble.

Lunch had gone well, she thought. The conversation flowed easily, especially once they had gotten started on the whole childhood tech angle. They had reminisced together about how their childhoods had been similar or different and what they had liked growing up.

In fact, Cassandra felt like she had gotten to know Zoe quite a bit better over that lunch. And while that had felt good, the realization that they had been friends - or, perhaps, 'friends' - for around two years and knew little about one another in many ways left a bad taste in her mouth.

Cass sighed as she prepped her station to return to work. Adult friendships were hard. She had bonded with Zoe really quickly once they found out they both shared an interest in gaming, and liked similar games, no less. But while they had ended up spending a lot of time together chatting about what they were playing and playing together, most of their talking had been pretty centered around whatever they were doing at the time.

Sometimes that meant theorycrafting builds in one game, or hidden events in another. A few times it was geeking out over favorite characters or designs. But it rarely led to learning much about one another.

And it had also led Cassandra to a crush, but she was still unsure if that was a good or bad thing. What she did know is that it often left her head spinning with all kinds of different thoughts about it.

To begin with, she still had no real proof that Zoe liked women. It was only really a vibe at best, and she had been wrong before. And of course Cass had ended up interested in the first girl that she befriended in the big city. What a cliche.

Then there were her experiences growing up in the Midwest. High school had been particularly rough, and she had spent the entirety of it hiding just about everything about herself, much of it even from her parents. Girls didn't play video games, they didn't spend time on geeky things, and they sure as hell didn't like other girls.

Considering mentioning that part of herself to a friend made her break out in a cold sweat. At least if something could break the ice for her - like them coming across each other's dating profiles on an app - she'd probably be able to do something about it. But that was well and truly a pipe dream.

As the afternoon progressed and she took more and more calls for work, Cassandra found herself zoning out for the vast majority of it. While the entire office loved to complain about all of the irate and screaming customers that called looking for magic fixes to their problems, the mundane and boring calls were far more common. "Did you turn it off and on again?" was a common joke for a reason. And everyone in the office was just as tired of explaining that unplugging something for a single second was not the same as unplugging it for thirty seconds as they were of the screaming.

As was the common defense mechanism for the average support line worker, Cassandra made it through her day by way of auto-pilot. One call with a complex problem that she could actually help with over the phone was a solid break from the monotony, but it wasn't enough to really keep her engaged all day.

And when 4:30 rolled around and Cassandra was cleaning up her work station of scribbled notes and post-its, her mind wandered back in with all of the baggage she had successfully convinced it to take with it when it left for the afternoon.

Yet another dinner with Zoe was the plan, and she wasn't sure how things would go. Cass wasn't sure it was exactly how she wanted it to play out, but she had a sneaking suspicion that Zoe was pretty dense and that she'd be perfectly able to hide her crush just fine.

She almost wished that Zoe would be more perceptive and ask. But only if it would be a positive reception. She couldn't imagine Zoe being very judgemental, though. And she had grown up in New York City, which surely must be one of the most welcoming cities in the country, right?

When she hung up her work phone at 4:50, she decided that would be the last call for her today. She went through the motions of shutting down the work programs and her PC while simultaneously gathering her few scattered items from her desk; wallet, phone, keys, headphones, a little tin of mints, and a pen. She stuffed her things in her deep jacket pockets while it was still draped on the back of her chair and made sure her work computer was off before she stood to leave.

She strode away from her desk at 4:57, wondering if she would beat Zoe to the ground floor to wait this time, and spent the walk to and ride in the elevator trying to decide what might be a good dinner spot for their not-date.

When she arrived in the lobby of their building, there was no sign of Zoe, so Cassandra decided to mimic her friend from the previous night and sat in the same chair that Zoe had. She was scrolling through potential dinner options across a variety of sites trying to decide what would be a good option.

They didn't want to spend as much as they had the previous night, so a lot of the fancier options were out. That was fine, though - they were in a city with tons of places to eat. Opting for a restaurant that had apple seating, wasn't a sports or dive bar, wasn't fast-food, and had a quieter vibe eliminated more options than she would have expected. It still left plenty, though.

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There were a number of classic diners in the area, and they would likely be solid choices. As long as they avoided any of the ones that had their staff singing, they should have a fairly low-key atmosphere. They were always solid places to fall back on, but during dinner time they might get loud with the number of families coming to eat.

What Cass was really looking for was a slightly more upscale place in the vein of Applebees or the like. Maybe one that wasn't a huge national chain.

One option that stood out to her was a very nice looking Indian food restaurant that was priced affordably. And given their eclectic taste for lunch spots, Cassandra was pretty sure Zoe had a fair shot at liking Indian food.

When her friend finally appeared, Cass noticed her leaving the lobby's bathroom. Apparently, she had missed her getting off the elevator, but that was fine. The shorter woman was bundled up and ready to brave the cold December city air. She even had a cute gray and blue scarf wrapped up around her mouth and nose. Cass couldn't help but smile at her. "How do you feel about Indian?"

"Food? Great." Cass may not have been able to see Zoe's smile behind the scarf, but she could see the smile clear as day through her eyes. "I'm hungry too. The ramen this afternoon was great, but apparently not as filling as I expected."

"I know, right?" Cass stood and patted down her pockets to make sure she had everything. "I think between the thinner broth and the slightly smaller bowl sizes they offer, it was a really well portioned lunch. Usually ramen leaves me super bloated the rest of the day."

"Me too. Ready?"

"Yep."

"So, what Indian place do you have for us, exactly?"

"This one." Cassandra showed Zoe her phone screen, with the restaurant's information pulled up.

"Never heard of it."

"Me either, but the reviews are good, the vibe seems to be exactly what we want, and the prices are solid. Here, take a look at the menu." As they stepped into the cold, she offered Zoe her phone. Zoe had to pull off the top end of her combination mittens to let her use her fingers to comfortably hold the phone and Cassandra chuckled.

"Oh, not you too." Zoe whined as she scrolled around the menu.

"Not me too, what?"

"Some other girl in the bathroom saw me putting my mittens on and laughed, too. Said they were childish. But I love them, and only break them out when it gets near freezing outside."

"I'm sorry for laughing, they're just very cute. I don't think I've ever noticed you wearing them before."

"I mostly wore leather gloves to and from work because I wanted to look professional. Didn't think I needed them to walk out tonight." She shrugged, but pulled one glove from a coat pocket to show Cass. "Maybe I should just wear them all the time instead. And the menu looks great, by the way. I'm down for this place."

Cassandra took her phone back when Zoe offered it. "Great. And I don't think you need to worry about the gloves. They're cute. I'm just trying to picture how they fit into what I know your fashion sense to be."

Zoe crossed her arms in a dramatic pout. "Just because I like black and goth fashion doesn't mean I don't also like cute things. They can literally be the same thing."

Cassandra put her hands up in defense. "Fair point. I'm curious to know what your normal wardrobe looks like in practice, now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you've shown me some older pictures here and there, but it was all a very 'classic' goth look. Nothing in, say, the gothic lolita area and the like."

Zoe narrowed her eyes at Cass as they stopped to wait at a crossing signal. She unfolded her arms and fixed her mittens very pointedly while staring down Cassandra. The moment of annoyance seemed to pass, but Zoe was still searching her face for something.

Finally, Zoe said, "I don't usually take pictures in the frillier stuff because it's always more likely to get obnoxious reactions. Doesn't mean I don't have it."

"That's fair, yeah." Cass said. "The whole lolita look definitely leaves an impression."

"For the record, I don't usually go for full gothic lolita. It's too much. But I do have a number of very…cute dresses."

Cassandra tilted her head at the wording, but left the topic alone. She really, really wanted pictures or something, but felt like she was more likely to drive Zoe away by pestering her about it than anything else.

Cassandra decided on, "I'd love to see them some time," and continued before Zoe could react to it. "Almost all of my clothing is very neutral and safe. And a fair bit of it is very business or business casual now, too. I kinda wish I had diversified my wardrobe a bit more when I moved out here, but work…"

Zoe sighed. "Yeah. Work. Making sure I have enough work clothes was a pain."

"Yeah." Cassandra agreed. "And even now, I feel like I don't have enough even with something like three weeks worth of different outfits."

"Do you get that silently being judged feeling when you wear the same shirt two weeks after the first time?" Zoe laughed.

Cass snickered in response. "Sure do. Despite never having ever judged anyone for wearing a shirt twice in two weeks. Two days in a row, maybe."

"I will never understand how that feeling gets ingrained in us. Like, first off, expecting people to have a month's worth - or more - of clothing specifically for work is insane. Professional looking clothing is expensive and not usually what anyone wants to wear when they aren't working."

"Right? I should be perfectly fine with, say, 7 different outfits with pieces that can mix and match. That's more than enough."

"And if you do laundry once a week like a normal person, you never need to wear anything dirty and it should. Be. Fine." Zoe made sure to over-punctuate the last few words. "Feeling like we can't be seen in the same shirt more than once a month is insanity!"

Cass folded her arms and nodded over dramatically, which led to both of them laughing.

She hoped the conversation flowed this well all the way through dinner.