"Someone tried to take your spot," Beth answers with a grin for Jenny when she arrives. "I almost had to fight 'em for it, but in the end I convinced them I was meeting a big, scary friend and they weren't gonna want to face you down once you got here." It had been significantly less dramatic than that, she's mostly teasing about the whole situation, but the guy who had wanted to sit down really hadn't been happy that Beth insisted the spot was saved for someone else.

People get weirdly possessive about seating in coffee shops, she's found.

Rising to her feet, she reaches out to give Jenny a hug, then pulls back and smiles. "I know, it feels like it's been forever. I guess we've both got a lot of stuff goin' on right now, though."

Beth is pretty forgiving of that and she knows Jenny is, too. There are others, she knows, who aren't. People who need to see their friends all the time and she'd met a few of those through her college classes before they'd drifted apart. Those were the people who hadn't liked that she couldn't be available to hang out at the drop of a hat, who didn't seem to understand her responsibility to Judith, but she figures that's okay. There are plenty of people, like Jenny, who would never begrudge her for that dedication she has to Judith.