The arrangement - CL

3.

I didn't leave the apartment for a week. I just went out to the restaurant and came straight home when I finished my shift.

Turns out it wasn't a one-time thing, he'd been cheating on me for months, which made things even worse.

"Are we going out tonight? On a Wednesday?" I frowned as I looked at Aimée, who had just entered the living room wearing one of her fanciest dresses.

She jumped on the kitchen counter to put on her heels. "It's Josh's birthday"

Josh was her co-worker at the store she worked at, and I knew him pretty well too, since he crashed at our apartment for a few weeks after he broke up with his boyfriend.

"Oh, can I come with you? I need to get drunk"

"Sure," she smiled. She had been begging me to get out of the apartment for days, so I guess she was pretty excited, but I was only interested in the drinks.

——————

"This is a fancy club" I looked at Aimée as we stood in front of it. It was the kind of club where you had to pay 20 euros for a drink. It was the kind of club we couldn't afford.

Aimée was probably thinking the same thing. "Then we will find a way not to spend any money" she laughed as she grabbed my hand and walked in the club.

There were so many people, very unusual for a Wednesday night. I wished I had stayed home. I didn't know if I could handle all these people.

I scanned the club as Aimée congratulated Josh. "It's crazy busy," Aimée yelled into Josh's ear, because the music was also crazy loud.

"There are some famous people there," Josh shouted as he pointed to the other side of the club. I quickly looked over to the other side. "Isn't that the cute guy from the store?" Josh said as he looked at Aimée.

A few days ago, Lando Norris forgot his credit card at the store where Aimée worked. For a moment, we thought about spending some money on ourselves with his card, but we didn't. That was something young Aimée and Kara would do, we weren't like that anymore.

Not completely at least, because we still did what we had to do to survive, or in this case, to get free drinks.

"This is our way to free drinks," I laughed as I put my arm around Aimée's.

"Come on Aimée," I pulled her with me. "I'm thirsty and he owes you for not using his card" I knew it was only normal not to use a stranger's card, but I had to convince her somehow.

She sighed a little, but followed me anyway. "Okay, fine, but you know the plan, right?" I nodded immediately. Of course I knew the plan, we did it all the time.

You don't go up to them, you don't talk to them first, you don't look at them. You get close enough, but not too close.

Make them notice you first, or at least make them think you haven't noticed them.

We pushed through the crowd and started dancing just a little bit away from them. This time I was the spotter.

It only took a few minutes for him to notice Aimée. "He's looking," I whispered in her ear.

She probably counted to ten before turning her head. He immediately smiled and gestured for us to come over.
This guy was desperate. He definitely liked her.

They talked for a while before he turned to me. "Hi, I'm Lando," he introduced himself.

"Kara, I'm her best friend."

"So what are you drinking?" he asked. I looked at Aimée with a grin on my face. Once again our plan worked.

We danced with them for a little while, but Aimée said goodbye much too early. We only got one drink out of that.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me back to Josh and his friends. "You could've asked for one more drink" I sighed.

"I'll buy you a drink, what do you want?" She was definitely trying to fix my heartbreak by giving me alcohol and it was the right move.

I laughed. "Vodka straight pleaseeee"

Aimée went to the bar to get our drinks, but I noticed that she didn't pay for them, instead the bartender pointed to Lando. He paid for her drinks, he paid for our drinks.

I didn't mention it to her because she would just deny it, but I knew there was more going on between them than just strangers meeting in the store.

I was happy for her though, even though it made me feel so lonely again.

I didn't care who I was leaving with tonight, but I knew for a fact that I wasn't gonna leave alone.