He'd rather be alone

"No, it's okay..." Jack was quick to decline the girl's offer, but noticed how both she and Catherine looked quite disappointed about his decision. It wasn't like he'd refused his daughter's company after all, but he just didn't feel up to playing along with her silly little games. And especially not as he guessed that she did it just to be able and trick her poor friend into working double in her stead.

That didn't mean he was angry with her though, and he couldn't help from smiling about the fact that some of those people actually believed he was the boyfriend of a girl who was barely half his own age. He soon came to realize how his refusal to play the part would cost him however, as Kate didn't hesitate to use her charms on just about every other male in the room, which led to his own reputation being somewhat tarnished as well.

"Hey, Kate...!" He heard Rosalyn trying to rebuke her a couple of times, but was barely able to keep from laughing herself as she seemed to know full well what kind of games her friend was up to. It was still unclear whether she also understood that Jack wasn't actually the girl's boyfriend, but that was of minor importance when Catherine kept acting like a cheap tramp in front of him.

Somehow he managed to stay calm throughout this ordeal, and it seemed like his daughter finally grew tired of teasing him as she disappeared into the kitchen, leaving her friend to take care of the slow trickle of arriving customers.

Just as Jack was about to get up and leave he happened to notice a kind of billboard right next to the counter, not far away from where he was sitting, and he found himself watching the few notes and pictures for a while. One of them seemed to be an article, taken from a local newspaper or something, and even if he couldn't read the small text from a distance it was easy to tell that both Rosalyn and his own daughter was posing on the picture, along with a pair of other girls who he'd never seen before.

There was another, even smaller picture that caught his attention though, as it showed a young brunette who was strangely familiar to him. According to a side note she was apparently a journalist, and a regular customer at the small cafe, which also suggested that she was the one who'd wrote the article.

"Hey, who's this...?" He asked Rosalyn when she was passing by with a plate, as Kate still hadn't returned from the rooms behind the counter, and he could see her frowning as if trying hard to remember the girl's name.

"I'm sorry, I was never good with names!" She shrugged eventually, but brightened up a little when she pointed to the article. Just like Jack had thought it was written by the same young woman, and apparently she'd recently been doing some stuff for the local TV team as well.

"Yeah, that's it..." Jack nodded slowly to himself, as he knew he'd seen that cute face before, but decided to keep from asking his daughter about any details before he left. If Rosalyn couldn't remember the name then Catherine wasn't likely to so either, even if she was a bit smarter than her frivolous manners would suggest. "Thanks Rose! Would you mind if I paid my bill now...?"

"Aren't you waiting for Kate?" She seemed almost stunned for a second, but then she laughed and winked while she followed him back to the counter. "Can't be easy having a girl like that, huh?"

"No, it's certainly not." He gave her a quick smile in return, but decided against trying to tell her that his relation to Catherine wasn't quite what the girl had been led to believe. His daughter could have some fun explaining it herself some time, as long as Jack himself wouldn't have to suffer any further consequences. "Tell her the next treat is on me, will you?"

A few minutes later he was on his way back to his car again, and decided to leave before something else was able to go overboard around him. There was something still bothering him about the girl on the picture however, but he just couldn't put his finger on what...