Say yes, she told herself. Tell him you're busy. Nat would have been an easy excuse. She could have claimed that Stefan and Rebekah were out and that she was babysitting. That would have been a lie, though, and Claire couldn't bring herself to do it.
"Yeah [...] I mean I'm not busy, we can talk." She had a feeling this wasn't going to be a very comfortable conversation, but she also knew that she did miss him. She didn't know if she was ready to go back to what they had been, but she didn't want to go on barely having him in her life at all. Claire wondered if it was even possible that they could be friends, after everything. Whatever happened there, it couldn't hurt anything to just talk.
"Um, do you want to [...] there's a coffee place down the street."