"Now tell me why you couldn't have called one of your other friends to help you with this packing thing? I'm sure you have those, right?"

Kimbra had made the mistake of asking her friend, River Reiff, to help her pack. She should have known better. Really, she should have. The feline probably hired people to do everything and anything for him. Maybe asking him for help was silly.

And maybe he had laughed at her for a full four minutes before he realized the Samoyed wasn't joking.

"Uhh because my friend Trisha hates Bud and would have refused." Kimbra looked at River as he lazily looked through framed photos of her family. "And I don't really have a lot of other friends."

He muttered, sitting up on the couch to set the photos in a box. "Not surprised."

Kimbra glared at him.

River caught the glare and blinked at her. "What? All I'm saying is that your apartment is a little…" Waved a hand around, trying to come up with the right adjective.

"Dinky?"

"Precisely."

Kimbra bit down on her tongue, refraining from saying something she'd most likely regret. She really needed his help, and the man could be a tad… sensitive at times. She didn't want to say the wrong thing and cause him to storm out of here. Then she'd be on her own.

The two sat in silence for a while, quietly putting away her belongings into the cardboard boxes scattered across the living room floor. It went peacefully. Better than Kimbra expected. He only insulted her possessions twice so far.

Well, it went well until River spoke again.

"So, you don't have any friends."

Kimbra dropped her hands into her lap, glaring once again at the fashion designer. "River."

He held his hands up in defense. "I'm just curious! You're not the worst looking thing in this city."

"What the hell?"

"So, you clearly aren't too ugly for friends." He stated as if Kimbra really not having many friends was a foreign concept to him. Like the feline was trying to figure out the reasoning for it. "There must be something else wrong with you then."

"Thanks, that really makes me feel so much better about myself."

"You're welcome, I try my best." River dug around the backpack he had brought along, pulling out a bottle of wine and a corkscrew.

"Did you really bring wine here?" Kimbra made a face, setting aside a stack of papers as she shifted her weight on the floor. Sitting closer to see if the feline had actually brought alcohol with him. "Seriously?"

"If I'm going to help you, I'm sure as hell not going to be sober for it." He tilted his head at the Samoyed, almost smirking. "And I was going to share with you. I'm not a monster you know."

"Fine." She waved him off. Letting it slide this time. "And I did have friends in college. I was very social, thank you very much."

River's hands swiftly uncorked the wine bottle. "You probably played beer pong or something juvenile in college."

"I did play that, how did you know?"

The feline's nose scrunched up in disdain. "I can just tell."

Rich snob.

"Come on," Kimbra stood from the floor, moving over to a box marked KITCHEN, filled with glasses. "We'll play it, and you'll see how fun it is."

River frowned. Stared at her for a long, long time. "I'd rather die."

She snorted, picking up two glasses and set them on the cluttered coffee table in front of him. "Sure you would."

River ignored her sass, instead returning to the topic at hand.

"So, you're really moving in with the water bottle salesman?" Poured the wine into the glasses, handing Kimbra a glass.

"How many times are you going to ask me this?"

He lifted an eyebrow, waiting for an actual answer. "However much it takes to make you realize what you're actually doing."

With a deep sigh, she took a seat beside him on the couch. Truthfully, Kimbra didn't know what she was doing. Moving in with Bud, of course, was a fairly big step for her. For them. It could very well be the most disastrous decision of her life. Ruin everything her and Bud had worked for in the last three years.

"No, I don't know what I'm doing. But that's the thing. I've been so paranoid about my entire life. I never just… I never take the leap to do something for myself. I never do anything without analyzing every outcome. I think I need this." Kimbra looked down into her wine glass, thinking.

"I'm scared, but I really love Bud and I want to do this," she added, feeling as if she might as well be honest with the feline.

River went quiet. She could feel him trying to hold back his pity.

"Do you have Stockholm Syndrome?" Had been the first words out of his mouth.

She jabbed into his ribs with an elbow. "That's not funny."

"Ow! And it is funny. Hilarious." His hand drifted to his now sore side. Slightly overexaggerating his injury.

Of course, Kimbra wouldn't ever admit that.