A/N: Mostly fluff and jealousy. #sorrynotsorry
"Hey!" Clarke said cheerfully, finding Bellamy waiting just outside the coffee shop.
"Hey, yourself," he replied, holding the door open for her and then following her inside. "The hospital must be kicking your ass, I feel like I haven't talked to you all week."
"Yeah…" she said, deliberately keeping her eyes focused on the menu board behind the counter.
Yes, this had been a hectic week, but it was Thursday and she hadn't seen Bellamy since Sunday, which wasn't all that unusual, but she'd barely talked to him all week either. Most of that had been deliberate on her part, given that she wasn't quite sure how to act around him anymore.
But enough was enough, and she was tired of depriving herself of his company, so when he'd asked to meet during his lunch break, which also happened to be right before her shift at the hospital, she'd agreed.
The line moved quickly, and Clarke was soon placing her order for a ham and cheese panini along with a peppermint latte. She paid, then moved down to let Bellamy order.
The same college-aged girl that had barely managed to smile at her during their interaction was now lit up like a Christmas tree and staring entirely too interestedly at Bellamy.
"Well, hi," she said breathily, a more than inviting smile on her face. "How are you?"
Bellamy barely glanced at her, his gaze still on the menu board above her head. "I'm fine, how are you?" he asked, in the polite but detached way Clarke always heard him speak to strangers.
"I'm doing really great right now," she said, unconsciously cocking a hip.
Clarke frowned, tilting her head as she watched the interaction. Well, maybe it wasn't so unconscious after all.
"What can I get you?" the girl asked, batting her eyes at the man in front of her, and if Clarke had ever heard a more blatant invitation in her life, it had probably been while watching something rated X.
"I'll take a black coffee and one of those chicken, spinach, and mozzarella paninis."
"Sure thing," she said, finally glancing down at the cash register in front of her and pressing a few buttons. "That'll be $11.41."
Bellamy pulled out his wallet, handing her a $10 and two $1's.
She pressed the appropriate buttons, then made the change. When giving him the coins, she made a big show of putting one of her hands underneath the one he was holding out, then dumping the coins in with the other. "Just want to make sure none of these go rolling," she said, smiling coquettishly as she leaned over, offering what was probably a decent view of her cleavage.
"Thanks," Bellamy said politely, dropping the coins into the front pocket of his jeans and then moving to stand beside Clarke further down the counter. When he saw that there was some room between them and the next person in front of them, he put his hand on her lower back, gently pushing her forward a few steps.
Just then, the door opened, letting in a particularly chilly blast of air. It was only November, but they were having a cold snap, and Clarke hadn't put on more than a light jacket. As the cold blast of air seemed to blow right through her, Clarke unconsciously stepped closer into Bellamy's body heat.
His hand moved from her lower back to her side, holding her against him.
Clarke turned just in time to see the girl working the cash register glaring daggers at her before she turned back to the customer next in line.
Snorting, Clarke tried to turn it into a cough.
Bellamy glanced down at her, eyebrow raised. "What?"
Clarke just stared at him incredulously. "Do you really not know?"
"…know what?"
"That girl was flirting with you."
Bellamy's brow furrowed. "What girl?" he turned to the side, following Clarke's gaze. "The cashier? I doubt it."
Clarke's eyebrows rose even further. "Seriously, Bellamy. Hardcore flirting. I'm pretty sure you could've ordered a quickie behind the counter and she wouldn't even have charged you."
Color rose to his cheeks at that but he rolled his eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, Clarke."
Clarke looked to the left again, finding the girl and trying to look at her more objectively. She was pretty, even in an apron and work uniform, with straight blonde hair pulled back in a perky ponytail and what looked like hazel eyes. The ponytail wasn't the only thing that was perky, and Clarke wondered for a moment if she still looked effortlessly attractive like that, or if it was something that disappeared after you left college.
Glancing down at her scrubs and tennis shoes, her hand unconsciously patting the messy French braid in her hair, and realizing she had on the bare minimum as far as make-up was concerned, Clarke suddenly felt like a troll.
"I'm not being ridiculous, Bellamy. She was into you. You'd have to be blind not to notice." She frowned, glancing at the girl again. "Is she not your type? I know Gina had dark hair and so did Roma…" she said, mentioning the girl Bellamy used to screw around with back when Clarke and Octavia were still in undergrad. "Do you only go for brunettes?" A pang went through Clarke's stomach as she said this, but she steadfastly ignored it.
Bellamy cleared his throat, his gaze resting on Clarke before skating away. "No, Clarke, I don't only go for brunettes."
"Well then what's the problem?" Clarke asked, again scooting down a place or two in line. She wasn't sure why she couldn't let this go, but she couldn't seem to be able to.
"What do you mean, what's the problem? There is no problem," he replied.
"She's cute, Bellamy. Although now she thinks we're together."
"Huh?" he asked, glancing down at her.
Clarke looked pointedly at his hand, which was still on her side, pressing her against him.
"Oh. I don't care," he said. Clarke could swear he pulled her tighter against him.
Clarke scoffed.
"Do you want to date her, Clarke?"
"No!"
"Then that makes two of us," he said.
By the time they collected their food and found a high top away from the chilly entrance, they'd moved onto other subjects.
They spent the next few minutes eating and discussing what was going on at their respective work places. Bellamy was excited about the project he was working on now, which included building and installing a custom bar, and Clarke was a little apprehensive about her project for the next few weeks, which involved a kidney transplant chain, wherein multiple people donated kidneys to strangers in return for other strangers donating kidneys to their family members.
"I know it sounds ridiculously complicated, and it is…we have a chart at the hospital to keep everything straight, but basically all these patients need kidneys, and they have family members or friends willing to donate to them, but they aren't close enough genetically to be a match. So we found multiple cases like this…and matched them with other 'couples' that are in the same boat. We have four different pairs, each donating to a stranger and receiving from a stranger."
"Seriously? That's a thing?" he asked incredulously.
"Yup. It's pretty rare, especially around here. We're actually collaborating with a team from my Mom's hospital. Some of the patients are going to be operated on there. We don't have enough surgeons or operating rooms to do it all on our own. It's going to be amazing though, Bell. Four different people are going to get the organs they desperately need."
He smiled, seeing the excitement on her face. "And you get to help? That's amazing, Clarke."
"It really is."
They just sat there for a moment, absorbing that before Bellamy reluctantly glanced at his watch.
"I'm going to go grab a piece of streusel. You want anything?" Bellamy asked, standing up.
"No, thanks."
He nodded, heading to the back of the short line. The cashier from before seemed to have gone on break, thankfully.
Just as Clarke picked up her phone, planning to scroll through Facebook while waiting for Bellamy to return, she heard her name.
"Clarke?"
Glancing up, she found another dark-haired man standing in front of her table.
"Finn," she said, taken aback.
"Hey," he said, smiling cautiously.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Sorry, I mean…" It was a public coffee shop, after all.
Finn smiled ruefully. "You're never going to be happy to see me, are you?"
She glanced away guiltily. "Finn…"
"I know." His face turned serious. "I'm here because I'm going to be on the team doing the kidney transplant chain."
"…I'm working on that too."
"…then I guess you'll have to deal with me for the next few weeks."
"Finn…" her gaze searched his. "It's fine. We're both professionals, right? And after everything…"
"That's actually why I wanted to talk to you. Are you doing okay?"
"I'm fine, thanks to you."
He moved a step closer. "Are you really? I kept wanting to reach out…but I wasn't sure if you'd want to hear from me."
"I'm doing a lot better now, honestly. And…if I didn't do it properly before…thank you for everything."
"Of course. Clarke…I…"
"What's the matter Finn? Get kicked out of all the coffee shops on your side of town? Can't say I blame them…need to keep clientele up to a certain standard, ya know," Bellamy said, bumping his shoulder against Finn's as he pushed past him to reclaim his seat.
"Bellamy, charming as ever, I see," Finn said, a scowl on his face.
"Were you on your way out or were you on your way out?" Bellamy asked, his face impassive, although his tone held an edge of malice.
Finn rolled his eyes. "Pleasure as always, Blake," he said, turning back to Clarke, a small smirk playing on his face. "See you in a few minutes, Clarke."
With that, he left, heading in the direction of the hospital.
Bellamy turned in the direction he'd gone, then looked back at Clarke. "What the hell is he talking about?"
Clarke sighed. "He's part of the team working with us on the transplants."
"Shit."
"It's fine, Bellamy."
"It's not fine, Clarke. After what he did to you and Raven…"
"It was years ago. And we're both in the same field and living in the same town. We were bound to run into each other at some point in our careers."
"Since when do you not want him pecked to death by hungry ostriches?" At Clarke's raised eyebrow, he continued, "yes, you seriously said that one time. I'm fairly sure it was mostly the tequila talking, but none of us were about to object."
Clarke sighed, remembering the time immediately following Finn's betrayal her sophomore year of undergrad. He had lied, effectively cheating on Raven with Clarke without informing anyone of his relationship status. When Clarke had run across Finn and Raven, looking entirely like a couple in the library one day, she'd left without a word. Finn had tried to make himself look like the victim, claiming that he and Raven were on shaky ground because she'd been attending another college a few hours away, so he didn't think he'd done anything wrong by starting a new relationship with Clarke. Spring semester came around, and Raven decided to surprise her long-time boyfriend by transferring.
Since Clarke was Pre-Med, and Raven was working on a mechanical engineering degree, they both ended up in the same Calculus class, and Raven, who thought that Clarke was one of Finn's friends, tried to befriend her.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Finn seemed to want to somehow keep both girls. Although Clarke made it extremely clear she wanted nothing to do with him, he kept trying to insinuate himself into her life, often even showing a preference for her over Raven, who he'd dated since they were children. It was these instances that finally alerted Raven to Finn's duplicity.
Although Raven had initially been mad at Clarke too, she'd eventually realized that Finn was the only jackass in the less-than-ideal situation.
The next few months consisted of Clarke and Raven bonding, Raven officially joining their group of misfits, and more than a few dart games in which Finn's picture was featured on the dart board.
"Like I said, that was a long time ago," Clarke reiterated.
Bellamy was watching her, a frown marring his features. "Did I hear you thanking him for something? You don't even talk to him anymore, do you? Clarke…you're not…"
"…not what?"
"You're not thinking about going back to that…that…" he seemed incapable of finding words to express the incredulity he was feeling.
"No! God,no." Clarke assured him. "I…remember I told you I ran into him at Mom's hospital a while ago? We were just talking about that. He…helped me out with something. It doesn't matter now. I promise I'm not letting him back into my life. Well, at least not in any capacity except colleague for the next few weeks. But I doubt we'll see each other all that much anyway."
Bellamy was still slightly dubious, if the look on his face was any indication.
"Bell…seriously. You know I'd pick Raven over him every damn day of the week and twice on Sundays. I wouldn't jeopardize my friendship with her to let a fuckboy like him back into my life."
At that, he finally smiled. "Fuckboy, huh?"
She shrugged, grinning.
"I've always been partial to calling him douchebag, but I like where you're going with this."
She chuckled. "So…how's that streusel?" she asked, glancing at the large piece on the table, which was still untouched.
Bellamy grinned, holding up two forks and handing her one. "You tell me."
She tried to look surprised. "You didn't have to get me a fork! I told you I didn't want any," she said, just as she broke off a large chunk.
He rolled his eyes, although he was watching her fondly. "Please, Clarke. This isn't my first rodeo."