Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

one side, her eyes hooded, mysterious, as she appraised the buoyant bunny girl.

“And how about you? Are you from the city?”

Rebecca nibbled on a steamed carrot stick from her plate and shook her head.

“No, I’m a country bumpkin!” She giggled nervously; “I came here originally to… find work.”

Her tone became subdued when she remembered the sting of her failure to acquire her dream job.

“What’s wrong?” Carol’s brow furrowed as she picked up the shift in the bunny’s mood.

“N-nothing.”

“Hey... you can talk to me, we’re friends now right?”

Despite the warmth in the older woman’s tone, Rebecca was too ashamed to admit that she had been in the city for three years now, and all she had to show for it were three rejection letters from the Aegis.

In fact, she had been seriously thinking about relocating to Garland, before a certain woman showed up in town...

“It really is nothing.” She shook aside her despondency and adopted a winning smile; “But wow! If you grew up in the slums, it must have been a lot of work to get out and into the world and be so successful! Why did you come back to the city?”

Carol’s frown relaxed as her focus shifted due to the bunny’s rapid subject changes and she waved her hands dismissively.

“It was time to come home. And the success was luck mostly. Right place, right time. Struck a few lucrative contracts out in Oakridge. That sort of thing.”

Becks was fascinated, she pulled her elbows up onto the table and propped her head up with one hand.

“So, I’ve never really been clear…” She began thoughtfully; “What is it that you do?”

Her date chuckled for a moment before explaining.

“I was in shipping for a long time, but the shop makes tools, mostly for excavations and the like. It was actually the shop my father worked at when I was a kid, so it was sort of for him that I bought it.” She shrugged, and for a moment the bunny’s eyes were again drawn to the cleavage spilling out of her shirt; “At least, his memory anyways.”

Carol’s paused as she took another drink of her wine, then she looked down at Rebecca’s elbow and bit back a grin.

Following her eyes, Becks discovered that when she had propped her arms on the table she had plopped one of her elbows in the otherwise untouched sweetened dipping sauce for her carrots.

And she had been doing so well.

“Oh no! I am so sorry!” She hissed to avoid drawing attention as she fumbled with her napkin.

She once more felt the fool as she blushed to the base of her now-flattened ears.

Carol couldn’t hold back her grin anymore as she laughed.

“Hey, it wasn’t my plate.”

“I-I know, but like, this place is so classy! I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

Her date’s chuckle turned dark.

“Sweetheart, I don’t embarrass easy. And the staff here is too well-paid to have opinions of their clientele.”

Rebecca frowned, there was something in Carol’s words that didn’t sound right, but she was too distracted with saving the sleeve of her borrowed dress to think about it.

She really hoped Cordelia wasn’t too upset with her.

“Are you alright?” Carol broke into her fretting with a raised eyebrow.

“What? I mean, yes! I just, this isn’t actually mine, and I don’t want it to stain.”

The corner of Carol’s mouth twitched, though whether it was with amusement or annoyance, Becks couldn’t tell.

“Well, I’m finished eating if you want to get it home and wash it.”

Torn with equal parts gratitude and regret, Rebecca nodded.

“Would that be alright? I’m sorry, we were having such a good time!”

She wasn’t.

Torture her with thumbscrews and she wouldn’t admit it.

Though eager to learn about the mature woman, she found that the expensive wine upset her stomach and the steamed carrots that Carol ordered for her were too mushy to help matters. She didn’t understand what was wrong with munching on them raw.

“Of course.” Carol nodded.

“Thank you! Here, do we just leave the money on the table you think? I have coins, we can split it.”

“Ah, no.” The dark-haired woman leaned in a bit, as if to tell her a sensitive secret; “You don’t pay like that at a place like this. Don’t worry, it’s already taken care of.”

Still fumbling to get the sticky sauce off of her clothes, Rebecca gnawed on her lip worriedly.

“Oh jeeze, I’m sorry. I’m really not used to-”

“It’s alright, come on, let’s get you home and out of that dress.”

The invitation was plain in Carol’s voice but her attempt at getting the evening back on track fell on deaf ears, the agitated rabbit too worried about the numerous social sins she had unknowingly committed in the last two minutes.

“Yeah, I don’t know if this stuff will stain or not.”

A half hour later the Lapine was standing with her back to her door, shell-shocked at what had just happened.

Only now, out of Carol’s company, did she recognize the cues that the woman was practically spoon-feeding her.

Right up until Rebecca had shut the door in her face the cherry-haired woman was flirting and hinting at the possibility of coming inside and maybe even staying the night.

“Becks? Is that you?”

She didn’t answer right away, her mind whirling at the missed opportunity.

“I don’t know.” She finally answered as her roommate poked her head out of her room in the loft they shared; “I’ve never been such an idiot before, so no. Can’t be me.”

Sandra was actually her fourth roommate since moving to Algrade. A student at the university, the somewhat chubby girl largely kept to herself.

Tonight was no exception: seeing the potential for some sort of emotional scene from the Lapine, she gave a jerky nod of her head.

“Right, that’s good.