Her human Mate

6 . Noah

I sat in the coffee shop at the back staring at the door while my ridiculously priced grandee extra something or other, slowly went cold. It was ridiculous, She was only a few minutes late but already I had been here nearly an hour waiting. I had awoken this morning to a short text from Casey asking to meet me here and asking when was a good time. I had text back my two classes, omitting the other two. I was not making this meeting difficult. We had quickly arranged a time but this had been achieved through 2 short texts, no sweetness flirting or even conversation. Just 'is 10 o'clock in the coffee shop on joy street ok with you?'. So I for some reason had decided to head here stupidly early and sit staring at the door. Not a good move for someone who is most likely about to hear the its not you it's me speech, but yeah turning up an hour early and staring at the door in a pretty creepy way won't help. The door suddenly opened and in she walked. Instantly my chest felt tight but I couldn't stop a smile which she returned, our eyes instantly locking. she walked up to the counter and quickly placed an order pointing gently at the table I was sitting at before walking over,

"Hi." she said sitting opposite me.

"Hey." I said when in reality I just wanted to launch myself across the table and kiss the s**t out of her.

"Thank you for meeting me." she said formally, her eyes down now she was talking to the sugar packets on the table. "I just thought I needed to apologise about ...um... yesterday, and um...I can sort of explain although it doesn't excuse my behaviour."

"um...ok." I said slowly a smiling barista brought over a coffee and set it down. I was silent as Casey dumped what seemed like half the sugar bowl into her coffee casually. My girl definitely has a sweet tooth.

"Well, the thing is," she began still talking to the table ,

"You are not a literature student." I blurted out not what I had been intending to say at all. She finally lifted her eyes to mine, frowning slightly, " I know I haven't known you long but I've never seen you with any books or notes or s**t like that and you never mention a lecture not once ."

"No," she said slowly, almost sadly, "I'm not a student.... we were in the student union bar for cheap drinks. Sorry guess I lied about that."

"I don't care." I said calmly, "did you lie about anything else?"

"Yes," she said simply, I was amazed by how little this bothered me.

"So what do you do?" I asked, deciding not to chase the answer to what she had lied about. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like the responses. Generally people lie for a reason.

"Please don't ask me that," she said again addressing the sugar pot, "because I'm not proud of it. I don't want to tell you."

"I'm not a snob or anything, I would never be ashamed of you." she reached into a pocket and pulled out a card that she put on the table and slid across to me. I took it and she finally lifted her eyes to mine, "ask for Destiny. See if you can watch for 5 minutes and still not be ashamed of me."

"Your a dancer", I said looking at the strip club card. She nodded, "OK," I said, sliding the card back. She frowned slightly but took it and shoved it back in the pocket of her jeans, still frowning slightly.

"It's not illegal." I said softly, "you need a job and it's your body." part of me though was growling inside at the thought of all those eyes on that perfect body, all those secret planes and stretches of smooth skin that I had only glimpsed there were hundreds of men who had seen that, who had leered at her. I pushed this jealousy down. I had no right to feel jealous or possessive. She was far from being my girl, and even if she was I still had no right to moan about her choice of career, however much I wanted to turn up at the club and start stabbing out eyes.

"Thanks." she said gently, "but anyway the reason I wanted to see you was just to say sorry really. I know you must be really confused. I mean, I wasn't exactly an unwilling participant and we were well...it was nice ..but then well I....I kind of got...I got scared."

"Scared? " she nodded biting her lip, "was I pushing you too much. I didn't "

"No no ." she cut across "nothing like that. I think things were just progressing rather fast and both of us were just kind of caught up in the moment but... but the thing is, I got scared because I thought we might...I mean I can't, I um....I'm Catholic."

"Oh." I said, feeling completely wrong footed. That was not what I was expecting "Catholic?"

"Yeah, so I can't, um... not ...I mean we don't believe in premarital sex." she muttered into her hand.

"Oh yeah," I said vaguely, "of course... you should have said."

"Well, I would of things just got a little out of hand, a little faster than I was expecting."

"Hang on your Catholic and yet your still a stripper,"

"Um..yeah and I'm an exotic dancer not a stripper."

"Oh sorry, so are you um...you know a...um." damn how much of a geek was I, I couldn't say it.

"A virgin?" she supplied helpfully. I nodded.

"Um..no." I frowned, but wanted to growl, "a bit of a long story, and to be honest not one I know you enough to share,"

"OK." I said with a shrug, not sure what else I could say to her. This was honestly a bit too much to deal with. "so your saying that we can't...."

"Have sex." she again supplied helpfully. I nodded, "Yes, we cannot have s*x without getting married."

"Huh." I said thoughtfully, "no sort of way to hail Mary your way around that?" she smiled but shook her head. Her long dark hair swung lightly around her face like a shining waterfall, "well I don't think there are any drive through chapels in this town." I saw a beautiful smile appear on her face that made my pulse double, "so I guess we will just have to wait." The smile faded and was replaced by a frown ,

"So you're OK with that?" She asked gently. I sighed heavily. I sure can pick them but I guess involuntary celibacy it was. This girl had done something to my brain and I knew there was nothing I could do. She was the one I wanted no matter what.

"I'm twenty, so of course not but there's not much I can do about it is there. It's part of you, so I'll deal with it." she smiled,

"So the no s*x thing is ok with you, the exotic dancer is okay. is there anything I can say that is a deal breaker?" I shrugged,

"Don't think so."

"how about I'm really a guy?", I smiled,

"your not, I checked." she smiled playfully, her beautiful golden eyes sparkling.

"I live in a trailer with my seven children," I smiled,

"Wow, you look good for your age. You must be older than I thought."

"I'm a cocaine addict?"

"excellent excuse to lock you in my bedroom for a few weeks."

"I'm married." she whispered. I frowned. The tone had suddenly changed,

" Are you?" I asked honestly, just curious,

"So there's your deal breaker " she said softly. I shook my head,

"I'd deal with it, I don't really have a choice." I said, focused on her, "I think I'm a little smitten with you." I froze a second too late my eyes widening as I realised what I had said. Casey smiled at me fondly though,

"Well if you can stop It might be a good idea, I'm not good for you."

"Self-preservation is overrated," I said, trying to smile, but in reality I just wanted to stop talking, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cringe, but I couldn't seem to stop myself. I was the opposite of myself when it came down to this girl. She smiled gently at me ,

"Is there anything I can do to change your mind ?" she asked. I smiled back,

"stop smiling at me like that." she laughed. f**k that was worse. I could feel my body reacting to her laugh, f**k I was in trouble where this girl was concerned. She was examining her nails and it looked like she was steeling herself to say something. "Casey?"

"Look I...I really like you." she told the tabletop.

"I'm sure your nails are thrilled to hear that." a smile crept onto her face but she quickly dismissed it.

"Noah stop being cute." I laughed ,

"I'm not trying to be cute, no guy wants to be cute."

"Look I really like you, but I think you should have some deal breakers with me. I think that a lot of what I said should have made you want to walk away from me. I have a f****d up family, a screwed up life and...I...I don't want you to... I don't think."

"Cass." I said, reaching out and grasping her hands. She instantly fell silent, looking at our hands. My palms seemed to just tingle from touching her. "You know my grandma always said speaking from your heart is easy, the words just pour out. I'm starting to believe her. She said its logical brains that struggle to find the right words and interfere with what needs to be said . So if it's difficult to say that's because your listening to your head, not your heart, and your hearts desperately trying to say what it wants to." She finally lifted her eyes to mine.

"I think most guys listen to their d**k, not their heart."

"Well I'm not most guys." I said softly, "There's definitely something about you that makes my heart Ache." kill me now !

"You aren't like most guys are you." she said dreamily, resting her chin in her hand.

"No. I seem to be a git who usually can't put two words coherently together when talking to a girl and yet when talking to you I can't stop every f*****g thing that pops into my head pouring out."

"Well, maybe your talking from your heart," she said gently, "listening to your heart tends to cause trouble."

"No, I think you just seem to like me, so I'm desperate to ruin it," she sighed but smiled.

"You are going to get me in so much trouble."

"No, I'm one of those good guys you can take home to meet your parents, which is why I'm eternally single. " She looked down at our hands.

"Do you fancy taking leave of your senses?"

"What?" she smiled,

"Let's go."

"Where?"

"I don't care." she said, wrapping our fingers together. Her dark eyes seemed to shine golden. were her eyes dark or gold? I'm sure they looked gold a moment ago,

"Maybe somewhere public if you want me to keep my hands to myself. " she smiled,

" I never said I wanted that , and you don't need to keep them 100% to yourself." Damn, now I have to try and walk with a f*****g hard on. But she just leapt to her feet and all but skipped out of the coffeehouse as I tried to regain my composure, until I got a sight of her ass. Damn, this was going to be a long day.