Form
Name
Cailee Alto
Nickname
Kay
FC
Hannah Kleit
Age & Date of Birth
27, born on 23 May
Place of Birth
York, United Kingdom
What brings you to Berlin?
Partying! No, Cailee wishes. She’s here as part of Victoria & Albert Museum’s team sent to Berlin to discuss arrangements for another partnership with Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
Bio
Traits: straightforward // sincere // fun-loving // optimist // street-wise // unrestrained // flirtatious // reckless // bad puns + pickup lines // rebellious //insecure // too eager to please
General information: Cailee’s been variously described as the life of the party, the reckless hellion, or sometimes, the girl you should never drink with. She’s quite confused about the last one, because her alcohol tolerance is not that high.
Born to a working class family, she was brought up by her beloved Aunt Thea and her grandparents, sequestered away in Bath while receiving the best education their money could buy. This meant a primary and secondary education in Badminton, an undergraduate degree in history in Durham, then finishing up with a masters in - yup, history. All the while, she worked multiple internships at museums. Upon graduation, she landed herself a job as a museum assistant (at first) in the Victorian & Albert Museum.
She keeps in touch with her father and her step-father. She smiles brightly whenever someone asks her about her biological mother, but she will never say a word about her. On bad days, you might catch the flicker of anger cross her face if the woman’s name is so much mentioned - but it is gone in a flash.
As a result, Cailee’s an oddball: on one hand, she has a deep knowledge of history, with the vocabulary and boarding school manners to match; on the other, she mixes perfectly in the countryside and the club scene, boisterous, optimistic, and ready to take on life with a grin and a wink. Sometimes, if life came in the form of someone attractive with two legs, she might even take them to bed.
She now lives in Kensington, London, close to where her workplace is. On the weekends, she returns to Bath to visit her aunt and grandparents, picks up masses of dishes to take home - and that’s her next three meals sorted. Otherwise, she enjoys rock climbing, a regular battery of cross-country runs, and going out with friends, colleagues - sometimes both at the same time.
Relationships
Clyde Alto - Dad: Her biological and actual dad. After her parents’ divorce, her mum up-and-left Clyde, took Cailee with her, and proceeded to vanish off the face of the earth. Cailee only reconnected with her father when her aunt began to raise her.
Tess Newman - Biological mum: Her biological mum. Cailee only really half-jokingly refers to Tess as being dead, because it is true: Cailee considers this woman dead to her. She doesn’t like talking about why.
Thea Newman - Aunt. Actual mum: Her aunt, but Cailee considers Thea her actual mum. Having raised her for most of Cailee’s life, she’s almost everything Cailee isn’t: strict, straight-laced, uptight, obedient, careful. They butt heads on almost everything, but the two have a deep love between them, and would go to the ends of the earth to keep each other safe.
James and Angelica Newman - Grandparents on mum’s side: The other half of Cailee’s upbringing. As grandparents go, they dote on Cailee a lot, and often like to enable Cailee’s more mischievous tricks. Not to say they spoil her - the ghost of Tess and what she’s done linger at times, but they’re quite convinced Cailee has inherited some of the Newman family’s better traits.
Thomas Newman - Uncle: Cailee knows him quite well, and has picked up a tiny bit of handyman work and crafting from him. The two get along, but Cailee doesn’t get to see him very often due to how busy at work he is.
Dominic and Mila Alto - Grandparents on dad’s side: Cailee didn’t know they existed until Thea began to raise her, but she is very fond of both of them. They are fond of her too - and whenever she visits them at Portsmouth, they are the ones who indulge her a little too much.
Sebastian Ortiz - Dad’s partner: Her father’s current husband. Cailee sees him once every few months, but they’re more drinking buddies than step-father-step-daughter. Much to Clyde’s despair when he finds them both singing at the top of their lungs at 2 in the morning.
Trivia
▶ She volunteers at an animal shelter, mostly to walk dogs and cats. She’d love to walk a horse, but she hasn’t had a chance.
▶ She has been known to do push-ups while drunk while balancing filled shot glasses on her back - without spilling a single drop.
▶ She enjoys cooking for her friends and family, and anonymously runs a food Instagram with a decent following. It’s called RadishinglyGood.
Interests
Eris, Chris, Egon, Theo
Questionnaire
1. You're playing a sport. Which position are you?
B. Defense, but I'm free to make a surprise attack at a point too. Just for kicks of it.
2. Surprise party! What's your role?
A. I plan the party & organize it - so much fun.
3. What does your ideal vacation look like?
D. Exploring a big city, enjoying the authentic food and trying to get into the mood of the place I'm visiting.
4. How would your friends describe you?
B. Entertaining
5. You have a couple of hours free for yourself you have not planned. What do you do?
C. Go for a run.
6. Morning person or night owl?
C. Both.
7. How do you deal with assignments/research papers/tasks? What happens after you're assigned, how long before the deadline are they finished?
Tasks - we’re talking tasks, right? Usually, that means we start with a meeting where we throw ideas around, and then we start putting a proposal together. That means what era we want to exhibit, what exhibits need to go in, what its interest will be, target demographic, the effort, possible budget… all that stuff.
After I get my tasks, I like to grab my notebook and start scrawling all over it. I’m a more visual person, so I use a crapton of markers, colours, silly fonts - sometimes stickers and post-its. I’ve had someone chat me up at work over my mind map. It was a cute couple of weeks till they went back to their country or something.
I like to have my work done two or three days before my actual deadline. Not because I like to be efficient, but because I have an awful awful habit of being careless. That way, I can catch out any problems or silly things before I send it in. Even then I still make silly mistakes but one, it’s less, and two, shhh.
8. What do you have in common with your family?
Which bit of my family? I reckon I got my aunt’s planning and detail, my grandparents’ hardworking ethic, my dad’s outgoingness and wanderlusts, and my uncle’s straightforward, no-nonsense nature. Otherwise, the other thing we have in common is we tend to roll our eyes whenever my bio mum shows up.
9. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A mountaineer. On some days, I still sort of wish I trained a bit more to scale at least Kathmandu. I mean, I can do pull-ups! Push-ups. Monkey bars too. But not… scaling up a mountain. Maybe I should start hiking first.
10. Who knows you best?
The supermarket cashier. No, kidding - it’s my aunt. She raised me, clothed me, fed me, seen the best and worst parts of me - who else?
11. What happened to your last relationship?
Mutual breakup. I couldn’t deal with someone clingy, they couldn’t deal with me doing late nights for my job - or that I keep going out with colleagues for drinks. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have sprung for the first cute, angsty-looking artist type I saw at a stand-up gig…
12. Pick at least 8 and up to 10 traits that you believe are a match for your character.
competitive / energetic / extroverted / fearless / flirtatious / fun-loving / passionate / quick thinking / straightforward / skilled planner
A dinner to hold me
It was afternoon by the time Cailee stepped off her Paddington train. She had a spring in her step as she retrieved her small rolling suitcase from the luggage rack - it’d been a good week. There had been no miscommunication with their partner firm, no mishaps with any of their existing exhibitions, and she’d been able to get a half day off. Thus her early arrival at Bath.
She couldn’t wait to see her childhood home in Widcombe. Last she heard, Grandpa had converted the extra bedroom into a guest room, but her little attic loft was still there - spruced up, but still there, still hers. It would be a welcome respite, away from all the madness of the city for a bit of peace and quiet. Besides - a few of her other relatives would be here too. Oh, did Aunt Thea mention any children coming? That brought a smile to her face as she popped into the closing markets for her ingredients.
The neighbourhood was quiet as she made her way up towards the fenced garden, green ivy spilling over iron fence and stone wall. The only sounds heard were the crunch of gravel, her rustling shopping bag, and the distant hubbub coming from inside the house. She caught the last bit of her grandmother laughing before she rang the doorbell.
Why her grandparents insisted on that awful sounding, electronic piano tune she would never understand. When it ran out of battery, it would play some distorted, haunted version of it that seemed more at home in a horror flick; and in the morning, it was painful to wake up to. If she could, she’d happily change it to something buzzy. Or just a normal doorbell.
She shifted her weight from one side to another, as the footsteps grew closer and closer. If she hadn’t been holding a full bag of ingredients, her weekend carry on, and her crossbody bag, she would’ve been bouncing back and forth. Almost as if she were fourteen again, and waiting for her grandparents to welcome her home.
(Cailee was twenty seven now, with a job, a social life; her aunt and grandparents grew older, older, greying hair and fading strength. Where had the time gone?)
The light from the hallway was soft, warm, but warmer still was her grandpa’s ear-to-ear grin when he saw his granddaughter.
“Kay!”
She had no time to brace herself for his bear hug. Despite his age, James Newman had lost none of his strength, nor the easy warmth that endeared him to clients and neighbours alike. She closed her eyes, savoured the comfort, then nudged her grandpa.
“Look what I bagged!”
“What did you bag, Kay?”
She hoisted the bag of ingredients hanging from her rolling carry on, wanting nothing more than to show off her acquisitions.
“Food! Ingredients. Are Grandma and Auntie in the kitchen? Can I help?”
“Breathe, Kay, breathe. The kitchen isn’t going anywhere - come on, I’ll help you with your bags. Thea isn’t home yet, but she will be after work.”
“Grandpa, I can -!”
But Grandpa wasn’t having any of it. He deftly plucked the bag of ingredients from her hand, lugging it towards the kitchen without breaking a sweat.
“Is that Cailee, James?”
Grandma’s voice came from the kitchen, and Cailee popped her head around to grin at the woman. Angelica Newman had bound her formerly dark red curls into a grey, loose bun, dressed in a floral blouse and a beige apron. There were crow wrinkles around her eyes, her thin lips thinned with age - but Cailee could still see the full, diamond shaped face her grandma had in her youth.
“Yes grandma! I’m home!”
“Come in and let me look at you!”
“Not now Angie, Cailee’s got both hands full with her things.”
“Oh, yes, yes - put your things down first! Then come down - James, what is that you’re holding onto?”
“Cailee brought food back for tonight’s little get-together.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you didn’t need to!”
“I promised I’d cook you that slow-cooked rabbit earlier this week, I am going to do it. And I brought wine for drinking!”
“I don’t think -”
But Cailee didn’t hear the rest of Grandma’s words as she hauled her wheeled suitcase up the staircase, into the attic loft. Her attic room here was comfortable, airy, cosy - though it might also have to do with Grandpa and Uncle Thomas’ expertise in carpentry and building work. When she opened the door, she smelled bedsheets, laundry, home.
Grandma was peeling carrots when Cailee returned to the kitchen, and beamed when she pressed a kiss to the elderly woman’s cheek.
“Look at you - are you feeding yourself? Why are you so skinny?”
“I eat plenty, Grandma, sometimes I eat too much. You know, my colleagues and I went to this murder mystery thing and this cultist in red jumped up from the middle of a trapdoor? Someone threw their custard tart at them and I just couldn’t friggin’ stop laughing -”
“It wasn’t an actual murder, was it?”
“What? No! No. There was a lot of fake blood, but it was so cheesy. You wouldn’t have been scared Grandma.”
“I don’t know about that, you need to watch out for yourself, what would we do if you got hurt?”
“I won’t.” She leant her cheek against her grandma’s head, smiling. “I’d miss you guys too much. And what’s the worst that could happen?”
“There are healthier hobbies, Kay. Why not go on more of your cross-country runs?”
“I did, Grandma. And also met a puppy! She was a year old, and you would’ve loved her. She splashed mud everywhere though.”
All she got for her trouble and indignity of being mud-splattered was her grandma’s laugh.
“You best get cooking - not to rush you, but we do have guests in three hours.”
Cailee recognised an instruction when she heard one, so she got to work jointing the carcass. Here, she was happiest - with her grandparents, pottering about in the kitchen while she stole teaspoons of sauce, food, meat, vegetable while the dishes cooked.
She had spent a good two days agonising over what to cook for this gathering. It wasn’t the fact she was using game - her family were all used to it, especially during the autumn. But she’d wanted to pick something out that was warming, soothing for this time of the year, easy enough she could leave it to blip, and help Grandma whenever she needed to.
Her colleagues had teased her when they found her browsing recipes during lunch break. They startled her then: she had been hunched over her takeaway soup jar, a piece of noodle dangling from the corner of her mouth when a cough interrupted her search. She was about to throw something at the intruder, when she hastily realised it was the cute intern that showed up for his summer scheme.
She slurped the wayward noodle up, dabbed at the corner of her mouth, and smiled at him. Just because he was younger (by - what, three years? Four?) didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate him aesthetically. Of course, her colleague had to ruin it by showing up behind him and smirking at her.
“So elegant Alto. What’re you looking at?”
“Food. Why, you want some?”
“You’re already eating lunch, Kay, what’s that for?”
“Oh, we’ve got a get together this Friday and -” She turned to the intern, frozen above her cubicle. “Don’t gape, did you need something?”
“Could I borrow - a minute?”
“For you, five. Go on, was it a document?”
“Oh - uhm.” The intern blinked (how adorable!), then fumbled for a clear A4 folder. Cailee speared an asparagus tip, and shoved it into her mouth. “Ms - I mean, Loretta said I should give this to you?”
She glanced up at her colleague, who only shrugged. Cailee picked up the file, gave it a cursory once over, and nodded.
“All good! I’ll deal with it - you should go out and enjoy yourself. Shoo! Don’t be in this stuffy office anymore.”
As they watched the cute intern leave, her colleague turned back to her.
“And yet you’re here looking up recipes in said stuffy office.”
“Hush you, it’s for my family get together. You think they’ll want a lasagna, or should I do something… French-y?”
That was how Cailee got herself into a minor debate between at first herself and her colleague - then her co-workers as to the merits of potluck dishes. It meant they were about thirty minutes past their lunch break standing around Cailee’s desk debating, but -
But it seemed to be worth it, standing in Grandma’s kitchen now. Yes, jointing the thing was - hard. She cursed the air blue around her as she deboned the saddle. Aunt Thea, with her impeccable timing, walked in through the door from work just as Cailee was swearing very creatively.
“Sorry Auntie!” she called, turning to beam at the disapproving woman in the doorway. “It’s just this dish is so… bloody..!”
“What dish are you…?”
“Rabbit! Slow-cooked, I promise it won’t food poison anybunny.”
Behind her, she heard Grandma sigh. Aunt Thea shook her head, and gave Cailee a wry smile.
“Be careful with that knife, alright? We don’t need your fingers in your stew.”
And Aunt Thea was gone, leaving Cailee with her grandma. Between the cooking, the chatter, and welcoming the relatives stampeding through, they did eventually get the dinner out onto the table. Grandpa poured non-alcoholic punch for everyone involved.
Uncle Thomas joined them, as well as her other cousins Mark and Lydia - and Mark’s adorable children Will and Nomi. In fact, Nomi had made her presence known by barrelling into Cailee’s leg as she was headed into the kitchen, begging to “go plah.” Will had followed shortly after, telling Nomi something about “waiting for Aunt Kay to be done first”. Cailee had just bent down and pinched their cheeks. What? They were cute!
The wine eventually went into a lovely poached pear Grandma knocked up last minute, and Cailee relented to her two baby cousins’ pleas. When Aunt Thea found them again, Cailee had ushered Will onto a higher branch, placed Nomi on a lower one. Both children were giggling delightedly at their newfound vantage point. Cailee stood underneath Will’s branch, arms outstretched, in case the boy took a tumble.
Theoretically, Will shouldn’t. It was tall enough for him to get up taller, but not so far up that he would be in serious harm if the branch snapped. Actually - maybe he’d suffer a sprain? She was here to catch him. She was strong enough for that.
“Mark will be displeased if he sees them like that,” Aunt Thea said, coming up to stand next to Cailee. Cailee grinned, crinkling her nose at the woman. With night setting in, the older woman’s eyes took on a lighter shade, unlike the dark brown Cailee’s eyes were. But their eye shape, their noses were the same - Thea from Angelica, and Cailee from her mother.
“They’ll be alright. Nomi’s not that high up, and Will I can catch.”
“If they tumble, Cailee…”
“They’ll be fine. I tumbled a few times, didn’t I?”
Aunt Thea’s smile turned more rueful, shaking her head. “You did, Cailee. You did.”
“And I turned out alright. Mostly.”
“Why’s that?”
“I got you keeping an eye on me. Of course I’d be okay.”
“You meant I would patch up your scrapes after. And your bandaging is atrocious. ”
“You did that too.” Cailee laughed, and looked up at her two cousins in the tree. Aunt Thea kept quiet beside her, and Cailee heard the quiet, the cricketing, the laughter of the gathering behind them, the excited children above. This was what she would take to London with her, when it got too cold and a warm body beside her couldn’t chase the chill away.
Eventually, the night wind regained a little too much bite, and Cailee called up to Nomi and Will.
“Time to come down! Before your dad decides to go looking!”
“Five more minutes?”
Cailee was about to open her mouth to say “Yes, alright”, but Aunt Thea beat her to it by calling, “No, it’s getting cold now, both of you come back down.”
There was a collective “aww”, followed by a trite “Okay, grand-auntie”. Nomi came down first, landing lightly on her feet - and then Will came after, hopping off a branch. It was Cailee’s fast reflexes that saved him from potentially colliding into her knees.
“You need to work on your landing a little bit,” Cailee told a giggling Will, as Nomi stayed close to her feet. “Let’s see if we can steal some of your aunt’s cookies, hm?”
“Cailee, they’re meant to be given to everyone.”
Cailee crinkled her nose at her aunt, and then strode past her. “That means we steal less. Okay - first one to the kitchen wins!”
As the two children took off, Cailee gave her aunt one last smile, and followed them in - from the cold, barely-lit dark into a warm, beige light, humming a tune to herself all the way.
Never the way I’d planned
Cailee had been comfortably sipping her cooler when she heard someone ask for a table under her reservation. This was followed by a hurried “thank you”, and equally hurried footsteps.
“I’m so sorry!”
A harried-looking woman turned the corner, what obviously was a carefully put together hairstyle beginning to come loose from the rush. It was the first time Cailee had seen the woman in person, ever since they matched on Tinder - but there was nothing surprising about her appearance. In the modern age of dating and cat-fishing, it was a bonus for Cailee.
“Don’t worry - I was early,” Cailee said, reaching up to give the woman a hug. “Sit down first - you don’t mind if I started with a cooler? It looked decent so…”
“No. No! Not at all, I’m going to just -”
Cailee waved off her apology, settling back down in her seat as the woman settled down. Her date was elegantly dressed for the occasion: a blush pink sweater dress, belted, and ecru knee highs to match. A pair of mother-of-pearl earrings dangled from her ears, a few loose blonde hairs falling from the loose chignon the hair was tied up in. In comparison, Cailee felt under-dressed - she’d picked a crisp, striped shirt, yes, but she also had a pair of light blue ragged skinnies and faux-snakeskin heels. But this was a first date, not meeting the parents, and Cailee wasn’t about to rush into this. Especially given -
“So, hi! I’m - I’m Leslie - but you knew that already.”
“Cailee.” She crinkled her nose at the blonde. “Don’t look so nervous! I don’t bite. Well, unless you want me to.”
That elicited a near hysterical giggle from Leslie, and Cailee did her best not to wince at the noise. She’d suspected there might be a problem when they were texting through the app - Leslie had mentioned she was the first woman she’d ever matched with, and even then wasn’t sure about whether she wanted to go through with the date. That had gotten a startled response out of her classmate, when she told him about her impending date.
“So you mean -” Peter, her old university classmates from Durham, frowned at her. “ - Your current date for next week has never dated a girl, is nervous about it, doesn’t know if she’s into girls, and you’re still going through?”
“I’m not expecting for her to fall at my feet, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“You’ve never had anyone fall at your feet with those awful pick-up lines you use -”
“What? The Gouda one was great!”
“I told my girlfriend that and she laughed for two minutes straight!”
“See? Your girlfriend has a better sense of humour than you do.”
“Only if you like cheese and cheesy lines, why do some things never change…”
“Who set you up with your aforesaid girlfriend again?”
“Which is why I believe you make a better wingwoman than an actual date.”
“You wound me,” was all Cailee could say to that, putting on her best pout. “But no - honestly. Whatever comes, as long as no coke is thrown over me I’m happy.”
Peter frowned, stabbing a scotch quail egg with his fork. “I swear, you have such a laissez-faire attitude about this whole thing. Doesn’t it worry you you?”
“I’m here to have fun and live, make a few friends - a first date isn’t a marriage proposal. If I was even looking for one.”
“Why not? You’re awfully nervy about that marriage thing, even in uni.”
“I’d rather not talk about it. Come on - stuff another egg into your gob, and let’s leave depressing stuff off.”
There had been other conversation after that, but none of it mattered. Not when she had someone as jittery and nervy as Leslie sitting across her anyway. Had the woman showed up with expectations? Wondering if she was doing something right? It didn’t really bear thinking about. So instead, she brightly suggested Leslie order a cocktail, and asked her what she’d been up to earlier in the day.
Cailee knew what Leslie did - or at least, what the bio claimed she did. Marketing and event planning, with an indie music showcase coming around the corner. Leslie’s hands moved around as she spoke, physically outlining the space the event would be held; her green eyes grew bright, sparkling. She damn near knocked a glass over, and Cailee caught it out of pure reflex. Leslie turned scarlet; Cailee patted her arm, and reassured her no harm done.
She learnt more about her date that day : Leslie loved berries but would never touch gooseberries; chocolate she never touched (which was half a scandal in itself); she had two pet hamsters, which Cailee saw and cooed over when Leslie produced them from her Samsung. They went through shoestring fries and arancini; Leslie ordered a salmon, Cailee went for a quinoa and watermelon salad. Cailee told her about the newest museum exhibits, a little litter of rabbits delivered to the animal shelter the weekend was there. They bonded over a mutual love for small, adorable things, psytrance, and a dislike for anything that had too many legs and crawled. All the while, Cailee kept the conversation light, cheerful - easy.
If experience and mishaps had taught Cailee anything, it was that she really shouldn’t go out with girls who didn’t know if they liked other girls. It was a recipe for misunderstandings, arguments - sometimes worse, she’d heard. She hadn’t had the sometimes-worse part yet, and sometimes would count her lucky stars that she’d avoided that. Yet here she was, sat across Leslie, brightly chatting with her, as if she were a friend.
Maybe she hadn’t learnt her lesson at all. After all, there were so many ways a conversation could be interpreted.
At the end of the meal, Cailee got the bill - she was the host, after all - and waited for Leslie to put on her coat. The London air was cold, biting this time of year, but Cailee’s scarf was wrapped up to just under her chin. It helped to clear her head from the alcohol and the warm, easy comfort she’d settled into for the night. Beside her, the blonde woman shivered a little, and pulled on her gloves.
“Where you headed to?”
“The Tube - I’m taking Central line. You?”
“Bus.” In the lamplight, Cailee thought she saw Leslie’s face fall, and she shook her head. “Aw, don’t look like that! Otherwise I’m going to have to find a way to put a smile on your face.”
“Really?”
“Well, I know a pretty cute bar that might be doing stand-up later on, so if you want a laugh…”
“So you’re not going to -”
Cailee swivelled to look at Leslie, who was trying to find her words. She raised one eyebrow, the suspicions she’d had for a good part of the date coalescing in her head. That wouldn’t do. So she took Leslie’s hands, and held her gaze.
“Did you want me to?”
“No? Yes? I mean -” The blonde sighed, looking away. “ - you’re literally the first girl I’ve ever dated, you know? I wanted a break from just - guys in general, so I - well, you know.”
“But you’re not sure if you’re -”
“Yes. As in, I wasn’t sure.”
And there was the elephant in the room Cailee had been doing her best to ignore. It wasn’t if she didn’t have fun during their conversation - if she hadn’t had fun, she’d have found the first excuse to walk out, end the meal. But she did enjoy Leslie’s company, romantic or not, and she’d found the woman interesting.
She laughed. “Look. It’s our first date - if you want to call it that. I think you’re cute, and a lot of fun to chat with, so date or not I enjoyed myself?”
“I - I did too, but I feel kinda… bad. ‘Cause it’s a date, and I’m not even -”
“Look. No pressure, alright? If you think oh, maybe I’m not into girls, that’s fine too. Just tell me if you wanna keep chatting, or if you think it’d be too weird to keep up.”
“And - what about -”
“Eh. I’ll be sad to miss out on a chance to make a friend, maybe something more, but I’ll live. But you don’t need me to tell you that.” Cailee smiled. “And I reckon with you being as strong and peppy as you are, you probably didn’t have a problem turning guys down either.”
“Yeah, but you’re - really nice but you are my first - girl date?”
“I must be someone pretty special then.” She let go of Leslie’s hand, and patted her shoulder. “Look. Don’t worry about it. It’s like a guy date except I’ve got different bits and we probably have more in common. I’d like to meet again, friend or otherwise, so prod me anytime, ‘kay?”
“You really wouldn’t mind?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t be here. Also, let’s get walking - bar, transport, coffee - let’s get out of the cold, I think I feel my nose turning blue.”
Truthfully, Cailee hadn’t signed up to give pep-talks or to help navigate a minor crisis, but she saw no point in dragging things and making it more awkward for both parties involved. Leslie seemed to have loosened up, the very least, relaxing and talking to Cailee about an experience she’d had at a music festival, and Cailee was happy to chatter some more. She did end up dropping the woman off at the Tube stop, but Cailee got a warm, sweet-smelling hug from the blonde, and a promise that she’d text when she got home safe. Cailee watched her go, then made her way to the bus. She wasn’t sure if it turned out well, but all things considered… there could have been worse ways to go.
(They didn’t end up dating, but Cailee got herself a new music-gig buddy once in a while. Leslie found herself a proper girlfriend a year later. That had to count for something.)
Et fini!
Last edited by Jadis (09/04/2020 at 18:49)
Still owns (and sometimes sleeps with/in) the baby blanket and vintage AC/DC adult tee-shirt she was found swaddled in as an infant. The blanket is faded, shredded and she saves the strings that fall off the blanket over time in a zip-lock bag 
