Betray The Ill

Roma couldn't find her voice. She looked at the young woman with a nervous smile and tried desperately to explain herself. Silent panic was wrecking her thoughts. What did she really have to be so afraid of? She was making a mountain of a molehill.

"My name is Colleen," the hoodie'd girl said. "You're so pretty. I'm sorry for staring at you. What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Roma," she answered as calmly as possible. "I didn't mean to stare either. I was just caught in your eyes."

A suggestive choice of words Roma realized too late.

Colleen let out a small nervous giggle and became incredibly red with embarrassment. She fidgeted with her hands on the divider and bounced her eyes around in panic. The hoodie'd girl was having a hard time looking at Roma.

"Are you here with your partner?" she managed to ask.

"No, I'm just having some fun with a friend from work," Roma answered. "I'm single."

'I didn't need to add that last part,' Roma thought.

Roma used a quick glance to find Kassy and caught her at the front of a line ordering for their table. The situation had gotten out of hand. She didn't want some innocent girl getting her hopes up for no reason. Roma tried to come up with something to say but everything that came to mind sounded too cold. She didn't want to be rude.

"Are you interested in girls?" Colleen suddenly asked.

Roma snapped her eyes back to Colleen, who was smiling but looked a little defeated. The young woman was expecting a disappointing answer.

"I'm not…" Roma tried to answer. "I'm not really sure."

Colleen gave her a curious look.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, I tried dating women before," Roma explained. "But, it's really hard to turn you down, for some reason."

Colleen's expression seemed to brighten up and her lively glow shined its brightest so far. Roma smiled back.

"Can I give you my number?" Colleen asked. "Maybe we can get something to eat and get to know each other? I don't want to b.u.t.t in on your time with your friend."

After waiting for their food for a good fifteen minutes or so, Kassy finally made her way back to the table to find Roma with a confusing look on her face. She was staring at her phone and seemed very uncertain. Roma hadn't noticed Kassy had come back to her.

"Hey, are you all right?" Kassy asked.

Roma flinched and juggled her phone for a second before looking at her friend with rosy cheeks.

"What the Hell?" Kassy said. "What's up? Did something happen? Speak, girl."

"I just got a cute girl's phone number," Roma flatly replied.

Kassy was so stunned that she nearly let go of the full tray in her hands and had to quickly recover, only spilling a sip or two of soda.