Phaedra sipped her coffee and sighed happily.  It was so worth sneaking out of the house for!<br/><br/>Then, in reply to Ari’s offer, she stammered in pleasure,  “I’d love to have you as a friend, if you’ll have me as yours.”  Friends… for the longest time she had resisted the idea of having friends.  She had never thought she could have the luxury of one.  Who would want her as a friend?  Maybe, if Ari knew what she was, where she was from, she wouldn't be so quick to offer...<br/><br/>But she found herself extending her hand to enclose the other woman’s, smiling.  “My name is …is Phaedra Calantha.”  It was the closest she could find that matched her Atlantean name, and saying it felt strange on her tongue… and in saying it, she was planting the seed of her new life in the soil of this world.<br/><br/>While Ari talked to Tom, she let her eyes wander curiously over the rim of her coffee mug around the shop , her ‘little while’ stretching into more as she watched the customers and other employees enter.  She smiled tentatively at the raven-haired, blue-eyed customer, and waved at Ally as she came in.<br/><br/>To Sophie, she said with a friendly smile, patting the seat of the chair next to her. “Hi, would you like to sit down here?”  She had had enough of her own company during the day for the past week, so now she was making the very conscious choice to grab whoever might be hapless enough to be in her vicinity!<br/><br/><br/><br/>