Mistakes Were Made(77)

“Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” Erin asked, pulling onto the street.

“What, you don’t have any cool places to take me to? You’re the one from around here.”

“You really think I’m the type to know cool places?”

Cassie considered mentioning that Parker had said she was the cool mom, but bringing up Parker was probably not a good way to get laid.

“To be honest, I’m a little surprised you don’t know any place to take a pretty girl,” she said instead.

Erin slid a grin toward her. “Well, there is this bar you might like.”

Cassie beamed.

She definitely liked the bar. It had good music and nice lighting—not so dark you had to squint, but dark enough to provide some privacy. The corner booth Erin took her to was comfortable, and the beer Cassie ordered was delicious. They put in a food order right away, too, since Cassie’s stomach kept grumbling.

“To your job,” Erin said, raising her glass.

Cassie clinked glasses with her.

“Tell me all about it,” Erin said.

“I get to be a huge nerd slash genius in UAL’s labs,” Cassie said. “And if I’m good enough, I won’t even be able to tell you what I’m working on, because they’ll put me on classified stuff. I mean, I have to be really good to get there, but—I’m me, so I’ll probably get there.”

Erin grinned at her. Cassie wanted to kiss her again. Why hadn’t they just stayed at the hotel and ordered room service?

“They might not be thrilled if I go to Caltech in the fall, but I’m hoping we can work something out.”

“If?” Erin repeated. “Where’s that Cassie Klein confidence I’m so used to?”

“It’s not about confidence. I mean—UAL has offices in LA and Atlanta, too, so they’ve said they want to keep me on no matter where I go to school,” Cassie said. “I just hope they mean it.”

It wasn’t about confidence about getting into Caltech, anyway. More like—Cassie was no longer confident that was where she wanted to go. The past month, since she was fighting with Parker, it’d felt like Acacia was slipping away. Not completely—she’d never completely lose Kaysh, she knew, but there was all this distance between them. She didn’t want to put any more actual distance between them than necessary. Caltech was literally across the country. The entire fucking country. Georgia Tech was less than eight hours from Keckley. MIT was about ten. Both doable in a day. If Cassie were at Caltech and desperate for Acacia, she’d have no way to get to her.

Cassie hated that it mattered so much. She wanted to take care of herself. She wanted to be an adult. Independent. Capable. Sometimes she thought of how much she depended on Acacia and she felt like she was nine years old again, after the failed attempt at flying off her mom’s trailer, the bones of her leg doing something they were absolutely not supposed to do, the way Acacia had said, “I’m gonna go get help. Don’t move.” Like Cassie had had some other option.

But they were celebrating tonight, so Cassie wasn’t going to think about any of that.

“You look great, by the way,” she said. “As usual.”

Erin laughed. “You do, too,” she said. “It’s such a nice surprise to get to see you.”

“I’m glad you weren’t working,” Cassie said. “I’m sorry that I totally forgot about your shift last night and woke you, though.”

“If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here. I think I’ll survive.”

“I had to tell somebody. I mean, I should probably let Upton know, too. He’s the only one who knew I applied.”

“Wait,” Erin said. “I’m the only one who knows you got it?”

Cassie grinned. “Yeah.”

“I feel special.” She had this little smile on her face as she glanced toward the bar, where their waiter was on his way with their food.

Cassie wanted to investigate that smile more, but she was hungry.

Once Cassie had some food in her and could focus, she watched Erin. She was in jeans and a purple blouse, eating and talking and not doing anything spectacular, but Cassie wanted to touch her. Cassie wanted to kiss her and fuck her and just get her goddamn hands on her. She settled for footsie under the table, which made Erin smile some more.

They finished their food and ordered another round of drinks and Erin asked for a dessert menu. Cassie’s foot was up in Erin’s lap by this point. She knew exactly what she wanted for dessert.

Erin ordered crème br?lée.

“You can’t have a celebration dinner without dessert,” she told Cassie, then excused herself to the restroom.

When she returned, she joined Cassie on her side of the table. Cassie’s hand dropped to Erin’s thigh pretty much as soon as it was within reach.

“You know,” Cassie said quietly, “I was already planning on dessert.”

“Did you want something other than crème br?lée?” Erin asked, all innocent except for the way she almost imperceptibly opened her legs.

Cassie squeezed her thigh, didn’t move her hand when the waiter brought the dessert. She let Erin take the first bite. Erin moaned—at how good it was, or maybe just to fuck Cassie up—and Cassie’s fingers tightened around her thigh. Erin blinked at her, wide doe eyes and Cassie knew she was doing this on purpose, but it worked. Cassie shifted in her seat.