"So you know that brooding muso I've got a thing for?" Ash asked Denny.
"Yeah..."
"Well he apologised to me."
"Did he just..."
"Yeah. You wouldn't know anything about that?"
"Na," she grinned, proving once again how cool she was.
"Well if you did, I'd say thanks."
"And if I did, I'd say you're welcome."
"And I guess I should follow suit. I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier."
"Forget it," she dismissed, "love has a tendency to-"
"Whoa! Slow down there Miller. No one said anything about love. It's just a thing..."
"Sorry, you're right. I fell so hard and fast for Case I can't think of attraction any other way." Ash wasn't sure what to say, he knew Denny wasn't fishing for sympathy, she was just stating a fact. So he should treat it as one.
"You were lucky to have that Den."
"I know," she smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "So..." she continued, guiding them to a lighter subject. He let it go, not wanting to upset her any more. "What's the plan from here?"
"Plan? There is no plan..."
"Well then clearly we need one."
"We?"
"Yeah we. So, we need to decide how to play this. Do we tell him you're gay and see how he reacts to that? Or do we work on building a friendship and go from there?"
"Are we really doing this?"
"Yes." Ash suspected Denny was using this as a distraction, but he couldn't hold it against her. He couldn't imagine how hard her loss was to deal with.
"Then I vote we go with the friendship one. Who knows? I might not even like him once I get to know him properly."
"That's a terrible attitude Ashford. Besides, it's just nerves speaking."
"Am I that obvious?" he wondered. He'd never felt quite like this before. Nerves were something he'd never really had to deal with.
"To me? Yes. I doubt you've ever had trouble pulling before..."
"You're not wrong," he admitted. And there was something else. Some fact that was eluding him but would change things when he figured it out. For now though he'd just focus on this friendship thing.
xxx
Kyle had to admit Denny was right. There was more to Ash than he'd had given him credit for, underneath his roguish exterior there seemed to be a thoughtful and clever person. He'd been perceptive enough to figure out this was about Casey, not him, and Kyle felt bad for judging him so quickly. From now on he'd give Ash the benefit of the doubt until he saw something that told him otherwise.
On that note he decided to try again with getting to know the bloke.
"You guys wanna hang around after closing for a drink?" Denny shot Ash a look leaving the decision to him. Ash hesitated.
"On the house," Kyle encouraged, waving a bottle of vodka at them. Ash still didn't look sure, but Denny took it upon herself to step up for both of them.
"Well when you put it like that..."