[a shady pub]

[sweet_caroline]

Caroline stalks into the dingy pub with plenty of time to spare before she's supposed to be there to meet Eddie. In fact, she's managed to get here before him. How nice. She grumpily takes a seat in a back corner and waits. Since she found the wad of cash in her bag last night, the jumble of emotions has mostly coalesced into anger. And she's only getting madder the more time that passes. She's honestly not even sure why she's bothering to show up for this meeting, except to give the damn money back. She's fairly certain it was Eddie and not Jonathan, but if she's wrong he can at least pass it along for her. Or do whatever the hell he wants with it, frankly. Caroline doesn't care.

Comments

[jcrane]

Caroline murmurs something vaguely agreeing as Eddie excuses himself. Fortunately, she looks much less like she's about to have some sort of breakdown in public, though she is clearly still unhappy. Crane knows Edward well enough to know that he's just gone off to lick his wounds in private. Caroline shifts in her seat to look up at Jonathan. "Um..." She trails off and fidgets.

Jonathan is suddenly very unsure what to do with himself. It occurs to him that this is the first time Edward has actually left the two of them to their own devices, and Crane... doesn't actually know much about Caroline. "Maybe I should go too," she says finally.

"That's--" Jonathan stops himself before he actually says 'that's not necessary.' He flounders awkwardly for a moment. "I was thinking of going to a bookstore nearby. You're, ah, welcome to join me." He winces internally at that. Smooth, Jonathan.

Caroline brightens a little at that, somewhat inexplicably. "That sounds great."

Crane has to cough slightly to makes sure he doesn't blurt out a 'really?'. Instead he says, "Shall we go then?" and motions vaguely towards the door. Pubs of any sort aren't exactly places Jonathan frequents voluntarily.

"Yeah, let's go." Caroline pauses long enough to put her new phone in her purse, and then they're on their way out and to the bookstore.