Sitting at the booth in The Claw, Lily spaces out and enters her head, a million thoughts running a mile a minute. One of the two servers comes over to take her order. Of course, George wouldn't want to deal with her any more than she had to. Being shaken out of her thoughts by the young woman, Lily clears her throat.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry, what?"

"Oh I-I just asked what I could get you today, Miss?"

Lily looks over the woman for a moment. She looks vaguely familiar, but she quickly brushes it off.

"Oh, just a burger and a water, please. That will be all."

The woman nods a bit, a loose strand of her dark hair falling into her face as she peers at Nancy for a moment. "I'm sorry, I know this may seem odd, but do I know you? You look so familiar."

Lily smiles as politely as possible. "I thought so too, but you seem to be visiting from England, and I've certainly never been there so..."

"Right, I'm sorry. Excuse me." The woman leaves to put in her order and Lily sighs, propping up her head on her palm. She observes the bustle of the place and turns to the door when she hears the familiar ding. A handsome man walks in. He's wearing a grey coat and looking around.

The young woman that had taken her order looks up and sees him and goes over, giving him a peck on the lips. The man lights up with her tidbit of affection, but when they go in for a hug, Lily can see that the woman is less than pleased to see him.

She watches the interaction until Carson Drew walks in. Lily smiles to herself. It must be his lunch break. Looking around, he spots her and smiles, and she waves him over.

"Lily! How are you?"

"I'm...doing", she chuckles. "How about you? Lunch break?"

"You know it."

"Want to join little old me? I was a bit overwhelmed at work today and I thought I'd just come here and, y'know...feel normal for an hour or so."

"Sure", he smiles and slides into the opposite side of the booth.

"Congratulations by the way. I saw Kate at the shelter today and she told me the news, though it was quite obvious. I'm glad you guys finally have the chance to have a baby. I know you both wanted that."

He beams shyly. "Yeah, we tried forever and then we decided that we would try one last round of IVF, and here we are. A miracle boy."

Lily's smile falters as she nods, looking towards the kitchen. Ace catches her gaze from across the room before dropping it.

Carson smirks a bit. "I'd never divulge your personal life to your family, but Ace is a pretty good man, isn't he? Could really balance out a woman with your type of life well."

She looks at him a bit horrified then sighs. "Yeah, he is, and he...does."

"He does?"

"Yeah. Except he doesn't like being the forbidden fruit, and I can't think of any way my grandfather would let me continue to be a part of the family if I chose someone like Ace. He would take my job, my credit, turn my family away from me. No matter how much I care for Ace, letting people know about how we feel about each other would only put him in harm's way and destroy both of our lives. I can't do that to him.

"You can't do that to him...or you can't do that to you?"

She gives him a sideways glance. "Hey, that's not fair and you know it. My family is not the forgiving type and if they were to even catch wind of this...I could only imagine what would happen. Hudsons are supposed to marry people their family approve of. The only reason my dad was allowed to marry my mom was because she got pregnant with me and they couldn't have any sloppy loose ends, it had to look planned."

Carson sighs, knowing that she isn't lying. "I know, but sometimes the hardest things are worth doing if it leads to your ultimate happiness. How happy are you really going to be, Lily, if you continue to bend to your family's will? You're a free spirit and always have been, you're a lot more like how your mother used to be before the Hudson's got their claws in her too."

"Hey."

"It's hard to hear, but I've known the Hudsons since before you were born. I do know what they are capable of as well. But I also know what you are capable of. I can see it in your eyes, in your intelligence, and in the way you carry yourself. I know you don't want to be completely tied to them for the rest of your life. You want more than secret coverups and fake charity."

Lily lowers her head, looking at her hands. She knows that Carson is right, she just can't quite admit that yet. She wishes that she could stay in touch with the family she loves, while also being free to choose her own path, but she knows that isn't how her family operates. There is truth to what he said about her mother Lucy too, she was a bit different than when she was little. No less kind, just different, more submissive to their wishes.

"I do want more than that. You know I do. But it's easier said than done."

He nods as they are served their lunch. Lily glances back to the kitchen, again catching Ace's eye. She can see the sadness and the anger radiating off of him even from her seat. Sighing, she turns her attention to her burger and digs in.

Carson leaves shortly after once his lunch break was ending and that left Lily alone at the table again, able to quietly observe the patrons and staff.

She can't help but turn her attention to her waitress and the man that had come in to see her, quietly speaking in another one of the booths. She hears the guy call her "Bess". From what she picks up, they're talking about how he wants to start a family. Going by the look on Bess's face, she was most definitely not down for that anytime soon, which leads to a bit of arguing.

Before she can stop herself, Lily gets up and heads over to their booth. "Bess! Oh my gosh, I feel like it's been forever since I've seen you. Ages, really!"

Bess looks confused for a moment, then plays along. "Yes! Wow, it's been so long. Honey, I'll talk to you later, after my shift, okay? Okay", she flitters and walks away with Lily taking a huge sigh of relief as Lily pulls her into the ladies' room.

"Not that you owe me an explanation, but you're glad I pulled you from that."

"I don't know why you care...I don't know you."

"No, but you look familiar, and I had this feeling that I should help you and so I did. Care to elaborate why you look totally miserable with uh, your husband?", Lily asks, grabbing her hand and motioning to her wedding rings.

Bess pulls her hand back and crosses her arms, pissed for a moment, then resigning and dropping her gaze. He saved me from a life of crime. I used to be homeless back in England and I stole...a lot. Then I met him, and he was kind and helped me out of that lifestyle and he really liked me. I liked him too, especially after everything he had done for me, but..."

"But?"

"Well, if I didn't marry him, or I broke up with him I would have been alone again and I would have fallen back into my old ways. I was terrified of that. We relocated here so that I could get away from my past, and he's a wonderful man. He's sweet, he's a good husband..."

"But?"

She grimaces and fiddles with her fingers. "But I- I'm not attracted to him, not really. I mean don't get me wrong, he has a good personality and a good body and he's handsome. Y'know? Everything a woman could want but I just have to be the odd duck out. I could have had this great life with him. I could have been happy if only..."

Lily looks at her, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know why I'm telling you this, but I feel like I can trust you. I can rust you, right?"

"Yeah, I won't blab."

"...if only I weren't attracted to woman", she cringes at herself, expecting backlash for what she's done to this man.

"Oh...crap. Okay, well, I wasn't expecting that. But you should just be honest with him. You're stringing him along, and now that you're here, you can meet new people, make some friends. You won't be alone. Hell, I could use a friend. Not many people in this town like me because of my family so there's that."

"Your family?"

"I'm a Hudson."

Bess gasps a bit. "Oh God, I've heard the whispers about them. Sorry..."

"No, it's fine I get it. But I'm not really like them so like I said. I could use a friend if you do too."

Bess smiles weakly and nods. "Yeah, I think I'd like that. And I do plan on breaking up with him. I wanted to save money so I could find a place, or at least rent a van. He just...now he's talking about babies, and I don't want that. I want to be single if I'm honest. I still have work to do on myself and I don't want to give birth! Especially not right now."

Lily laughs softly and grins. "I can get that. Well, you better get back to it."

"Oh God, right, I'm on the clock."

"Tell Ace that I'll call him tonight?"

She looks at her then gapes. "Oooh, you and kitchen boy? What does your family think about that?"

"That's the problem...they don't know. He wants us to be public, but I can't risk him like that. That's sort of why we're arguing right now."

"Ah...don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks, Bess."

"Sure...oh...umm..."

"Lily."

"Lily", she smiles. "See you around."

"See ya", Lily responds as Bess leaves the washroom. She does her business and then grabs her purse from her booth, leaving a big tip and walking out the door, feeling Ace's eyes on her back as she leaves.