Cub \\ cth [ongoing]

3: diners, ex-wives, and offered rides

"Just a black coffee, please. One sugar on the side."

"Coming right up, love.", the auburn haired waitress quipped as she scribbled down Alice's order, taking the green lollipop from between her fingers and popping it into her mouth as she poured the bitter, brown liquid from a large pitcher. Placing the ceramic cup on a matching dish, the teenager delicately balanced the dishware in one hand and set it infront of the blond woman carefully, offering a lopsided grin. Pulling a packet of sweetner out of her apron pocket, with a wink she tossed it onto the table and strolled to the back kitchen. "Here's some sweetness for you, sweetness. I'll be back with your check faster then you can say The Only Difference Between Matyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage.'"

A ghost of a smile on lips at the mention of the familar song, she sipped quietly on the hot beverage. Alice kept her head down childishly, fearing her husband as if he was the bogeyman beneath her childhood bed.  She was scared he was lurking in the shadows, waiting for when she was alone to appear. For nearly twenty years, her love was unrequited, but fear as well. Even if she dared to speak of things that happened behind closed doors, to her, the embarassment was enough to consider it a lost cause. He was settling for her after all, or at least she and her bank account thought. He could easily find someone richer, prettier, smarter, and thinner, she was lucky. But just as clovers die in the fall, her luck was running out. She found herself gripping onto the soil in the form of the past, along with all that she was taught about 'pleasing' a man.

Always putting him first, holding her tongue, cooking, cleaning, wearing what he wants, saying what he wants, making him proud that he chose her, and sacrificing everything for love she wouldn't receive. The ring on her finger instead served as repayment.

Fiddling with the diamond crowned band, she felt a mixture of nakedness and relief when she slid it off. The way the metal sounded with a quiet clank when in hit wood surface was even calming to her psyche. Spindling her fingers, tracing every detail she'd memorized over the course of the past 17 years, with a huff it laid on the table as curious eyes landed on her.

"Well, look at you Bambi.", a feminine chuckle teased from behind, bitter in feel as it rechocheted through Alice's eardrum. It sent a slight shiver up her cocktail dress covered spine as she could almost feel the woman's smirk spreading at her visible discomfort.

Glancing over capped sleeve, grey eyes revealed and the pair's owner. She was a slim woman, tall and middle aged, fifty-five at most. Dressed in sharp business attire, her feathered hair was at shoulder length, platinum blonde with whisps of grey reflecting in the light. (a/n claire underwood from house of cards anybody??) The sight came with intimidation and a frog in the throat that the younger woman swallowed with the stranger from a few boothes over's expectant look. "Sorry?"

"It's silly how Richard hunts. He goes after fawns, but youth is the virtue that fleets the quickest. Quite selfish of him, no?", lips still tucked in a slight smile and eyes feeling condecending as they lingered over a tad too long, the housewife shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She could only compare the likeness to being a child sat in the principal's office as they are phoned home for bad behavior. "I'm saying he's a craddle robber, honey."

The silkiness of the mysterious woman's voice pulling her out of the trance that she briefly fell into, aggrivation shown in the younger woman's pursed lips and peaved body language, but nerves as well. "You don't know what you're talking about, and h-how do you even know Ri-"

"The same way he knows you, Bambi.", the clicking of heals flowing with her as she uninvitedly took a seat across, automatically crossing her legs as if it was imprinted in her DNA. "The same way he knows you."