"We've just met, and strangely, I like you,"

***

"What about this one?" she gasped as she walked through one of the long lines of the animal pet shop that housed puppies from a lot of different breeds. There were even some mixed breeds that were exceptionally enthralling and almost irresistible with their big multi-coloured eyes. Cassandra was filled to the brim with ecstasy with all these puppies in one room, even the presence of the cats on the other side of the room-like-warehouse didn't dwindle her excitement one bit. Lily on the other hand could care less and was practically a walking rainy cloud, with a scowl on her face as she looked around in the aisle full of mutts.

Now don't get her wrong, she has no ill feelings towards dogs like Cassandra was. In actual fact, she used to have one as a kid before it was put down by her father after he found out that the dog had been in her care without any given permission from him whatsoever and him being a bloody control freak did not soften the blow at all, instead it just fed fuel to the fire that was her sick-minded sperm donor. She only had the scowl on her face because Cassandra practically dragged her out of the apartment to look for a puppy while she was getting her daily dose of Friends and her little kitten that she quickly grew fond of. That and the fact that she does not like any human contact, other than Cassandra of course, whatsoever. The only time she could tolerate people was if she was at a club enjoying her ass off. And the fact that the lady behind them seemed to follow them everywhere they went did nothing to ease the scowl of her face.

You could say she's built different, or rather made different.

Cassandra had a shit-eating "No, no, no, no this one, definitely this one," she said she pointed to a fluffy white puppy that was mostly known as a Samoyed. The puppy yipped and turned around as if it were chasing its tail, obviously happy with getting attention, "Just look at it!" she screeched in joy. Lily reared her head back in shock. She very much knew that Cassandra does not screech and the fact that she screeched for the puppy, or puppies meant... well she didn't what it meant. This was the bloody first time. "What do you think Lily?" she whipped her head back to Lily, her lively, brown curls moved just as quickly with her head, her caramel skin was practically glowing from the happiness she protruded, that and the sun's rays that also happened to shine slightly in her whiskey, brown eyes, forcing the freckles hiding in them to come alive. The sight and energy of her best friend were almost enough to grow a smile on her full lips.

The keyword here being almost.

Lily crossed her arms defiantly, "You wanna know what I think, Cas," Cassandra nodded her head frantically, her eyes bursting with glee, "Well... I think, no wait, I know that I want to go home and snuggle with Libra and leave you here to your own devices," she hissed in exasperation, her scowl deepened even more.

"Why are you so grumpy, like damn lighten up,"

Lily gave Cassandra a pointed look and subtly nodded to the worker that had the fakest smile in the world if Lily had ever seen one, then she motioned to her hoodie's print that had the word Friends written on it in bold with the infinity stones like dots in between each letter. Cassandra ignored her friend entirely after giving her a sly look and looked towards the attendee that had followed them since they entered the store.

Cassandra had a sickly-sweet smile towards the lady, "I'm sorry to bother you ma'am, but it seems as if my friend over here is shy and wanted to ask you to accompany her to the bathroom to do her ladies things. It would be of great help if you could help her navigate her way during the process of excretion, you could say," lady looked as if she were happy to help, but the look in her eyes said otherwise and seemed to be fighting a scowl. Lily was practically bathing in embarrassment at what the sly bastard implied and was not happy at all. Heat climbed up to her cheeks and stained her pale skin, adding to the notion that Lily was in fact shy when she was nowhere near close related to that word whatsoever.

Cassandra was smirking in her thoughts as she turned back and continued to look at the puppies the place had to offer. She knew that Lily hated asking for help or having someone else do that for her. It probably had something to do with her childhood that Lily refused to share, or just that way she was born, either way, it was effective on getting rid of her brooding friend and the lady with the suffocating presence and the eye of an eagle. Cassandra hummed to herself as she walked down the isle of puppies with all types of colours, when suddenly she caught sight of the most adorable sight. She didn't know what type of dog it was, but all she knew was that it was adorable, and she had to have it. She was staring at it for so long that she didn't realize that someone had snuck up on her.

"Did you find anything that you'd like,"

Cassandra jumped mid-air; her heart was beating erratically in her chest. The deep voice had shocked her so much, it felt like she was sent into cardiac arrest. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to shock you," the voice held concern and sent waves to places that hadn't had action in a while. It was thirsty like the damn desert. Cassandra slowly peered her eyes up to a man in uniform, the uniform of the pet shop she was currently in. Her eyes drank him up as she mindlessly nodded.

You.

She harshly swallowed, the stranger electric blues seemed to follow the motion but didn't comment on it. She didn't realize she was staring until the devilishly handsome cleared his throat, which moved her attention from his sharp, diamond jawline to his electric blue eyes. A harsh blush threatened to fight its way to her face, when she was suddenly overcome with the need to shy away from the delectable stranger.

"Ma'am,"

A velvety, deep voice suddenly called out, roughly taking her out of her thoughts. Cassandra crossed her arms and hummed in acknowledgment and slowly drifted her gaze back to the puppy that still yipped and barked in happiness, "Sorry what?" she asked as she subtly scratched her arms and slightly smiled when the puppy put it's paws over its eyes while its tail swung back and forth.

"I was asking if you found anything that you like," he said, the smile practically glowing from the sound of his voice. Cassandra wished not to look at him in case her eyes started to wander once more, luckily, he seemed to keep his distance. She nodded and pointed towards the fluffy, white, and brown dog with black, beady eyes that kept a playful watch on her, "Ahh, the Chowski. You're just in luck, because she just happened to be the last one of the batch we received not so long ago,"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it seems like people really like crossbreeds of Siberian Huskies and Chow chows, huh,"

Cassandra hummed in agreement, "Seems so," she dared to turn around and look back at the helpful worker and gave him a shy smile and pointed to the female chowski, "How much does she cost?" she said and hoped and prayed to whatever celestial being that lived in the heavens above that the price would be within her and Lily's budget.

He seemed thoughtful for a minute, "I believe that its two hundred and fifty dollars for the dog alone, but if you want some accessories or essentials for the puppy, like toys, a leash, a bed, and/or an injection, then it would amount to about four hundred dollars for all of that," he answered as a strand of his dark, blonde hair found its way to his face, Cassandra clenched her fists to stop her from reaching out to push the strand back. Luckily, he ran his fingers through his hair, effectively pushing that tempting piece back, but for some reason, she felt disappointed that she couldn't do it herself.

Cassandra knew that she could give about two hundred bucks from the money she had been saving, so she hoped to high heaven and above that Lily would be thoughtful enough to give her a few hundred more, it's not like they are still paying rent, seeing as how they finished paying two months ago and they are also not in debt any longer like they were the end of last year. She just hoped that Lily wouldn't be petty and disagree with giving her the remaining amount.

Speaking of the devil, the brooding woman suddenly made her presence known when she was in close proximity to Cassandra and the male with blue eyes. The glower on her face dwindled Cassandra's hope at getting any money from her, but she would try, after all, Lily did promise to buy her a puppy and that is what they were doing today. The notion lifted the slight chance of a frown finding its way to her face. Lily eyed the blue-eyed stranger warily and forgot about the ill feelings that were eating away at her soul a few moments ago, her resting bitch face doing wonders to make the strange feel uncomfortable as he shifted his feet a couple of times.

Cassandra noticed the absence of the women that accompanied Lily to the bathroom and furrowed her brows and dropped her arms, "Where is-"

The look Lily gave Cassandra was enough to make her second guess her question. Lily seemed to size him up, after a while, she seemed to deem him safe enough to drop her guard a bit. Cassandra always wondered why Lily was like this, but never made an effort to find out, mostly because she didn't want to push her to tell her what had happened in her past to make her so wary of people, women and men alike. Cassandra immediately felt bad for the blue-eyed man, who was under the scrutinizing gaze of Lily Denkworth.

She still remembered the day they met at the diner. They both came for the job application and both got the job and were forced to work together, Granted, Lily's resting bitch face made Cassandra feel wary and forced her to tread lightly, but after a while, they quickly became friends and two months after they became friends and Lily slightly opened up to Cassandra enough to bring up the idea of living together. Ever since then. Lily had been known to switch from the most intimidating wom- scratch that, person that she ever met to the sweetest and most out-going person she knew. It was almost scary how in tune she was with her emotions. Any person can tell that she had been through a lot, and Cassandra didn't want to bring up bad memories because she wanted to ask questions to feed her mildly curious mind. She didn't want to awake the demons that plagued Lily's past.

She would never do that, especially with the monsters lurking in her past.

That's why Cassandra was gobsmacked when she saw a mischievous grin planted itself on Lily's face. The relief on the guy's facelifted, when he suddenly chuckled nervously. He was slightly less uncomfortable when the glower on her face evaporated into a smile. Suspicion immediately washed over Cassandra in huge waves, it was like the previous emotions of the other two just jumped on over straight to her.

"We've just met, and strangely, I like you," Lily kept quiet for a moment, as if she couldn't believe the words spewing from her own mouth. The look on her face showed that she was second-guessing what she was about to say, but didn't do anything to show otherwise, "Which I don't like, but...," she gave a subtle, sly look towards Cassandra then looked back to blue eyes, "Would you like to come with us when we go clubbing tomorrow, that is if you're free?"

Cassandra lost the brown pigment in her skin as she watched Lily ask the very person, she was crushing over a few moments ago.

Blue eyes looked extremely uncomfortable, "Um... I-,"

Lily didn't notice the nervous state of Mr, blue eyes, and even if she did, she seemed to not give a damn and continued anyway, "Of course not for me," she pointed to a wide-open mouthed Cassandra, "For her. She has a hard time conversing with boys, and sometimes I worry for her, you know. Like a mother hen almost, except I don't want grandkids just yet,"

Please stop talking. Cassandra pleaded into her thoughts

"But that doesn't mean that you can't have sex. You can still use condoms and contraception, and if you forget there's still plan B. But I must warn you about my friend over there, she tends to do some weird shit with her tongue, you'd swear she was possessed, buy ignoring that, what do you say, blue eyes?"

And just like that, the stranger was gone. Never to be seen again.

"Did I say something wrong?"

***

"Your bad for that,"

Cassandra says as they got in the car, the perky barking of the chowski was heard in the background of the conversation of the two friends. After the whole ordeal, Cassandra was just basking in the aftermath of her friend's revenge. The look on the stranger's face would be engraved in the deep cataloged storage in the dark parts of her brain, the even replayed over and over in her brain as she leaned her head against the dashboard of the passenger seat of the car. A mist the thoughts swarming in her head, deep down she was still wondering about what happened to our original helper, though she didn't dare ask Lily, considering what had transpired before when she originally tried to ask, she didn't feel the sudden urge to ask any questions about the whereabouts about the lady. She learned a long time ago that ignorance is bliss, and this time, she planned to stick to that memorable quote that basically ruled her life.

"What?"

If the sly smirk on Lily's face was anything to go by, she already knew what she did and obviously extremely smug by it, "I was simply approving of what your thoughts were expressing,"

"Oh really? What were my thoughts expressing, oh great one,"

"'Fuck me',"

"That is not true," That sounds about right

"Oh really now?"

Cassandra couldn't possibly miss the taunting in her voice. She crossed her arms defiantly as if she were a child, whose mother spoke condescendingly towards her over a matter that the child clearly wanted to forget, but clearly, the mother wouldn't let the child live this down. The only thing Cassandra could do in that moment to express her feelings was pout, and that's exactly what she did and did with pride.

Cassandra nodded and stared out the window and watched the everyday objects pass by, the engine purring softly under her body, "Uh-huh," Yes

Lily's smirk turned into a shit-eating grin, and at that moment, Cassandra wished that Lilly was in fact eating a pile of shit and wondered if Lily would stay smiling. Probably not, but the imagery of her do just that had Cassandra's pout twitching to become a smile, but she fought against it, "Well, the bedroom eyes you were giving were stating otherwise,"

She gasped, "That's a lie," It was not.

Lily shrugged with a mocking smile that protruded mock sadness, her vibrant eyes though, showed amusement, "It's a shame I didn't get to capture the moment with a phone, but I'm pretty sure that your mind already captured that, right?"

Cassandra scoffed, "It did not," It certainly did.

She sighed, "Ok, if you say so, Cassie,"

Cassandra crossed her arms and watched as the pulled into the parking lot that belonged to the apartment building, they resided in, "I do say so,"

Cassandra turned back and picked up a tired-looking puppy, that exerted its energy running about as much she could in the confined space of the car. The pair also picked up food and bowls for the puppy and the kitten; and for the kitten, some toys and a comfy bed for it to lay in, the puppy already having its own because Cassandra managed to get some money out of Lily to buy the package deal for the dog, but she still had to buy feeding bowls and water bowls for her.