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“Who are you?” Claire refused to lower her gun. This woman looked like the barista at the coffee shop Claire hung out at every day. Specifically, the barista that Claire went to the coffee shop to see. It wasn’t stalking, she didn’t get upset when Kaia wasn’t there unexpectedly or anything, she’d just noticed the patterns in when Kaia was there and when she wasn’t and did her best to plan her busy days when she couldn’t stay and drink her coffee there for the days Kaia wouldn’t be either.
Kaia didn’t have the scars this woman did, though. She was a nice girl who would never stick a spear in someone’s face. Who went around with a spear anyway? Really, that was the weirdest part of this whole thing. At least Claire’s uncles had done a good job training her to defend herself, and she was able to get to her gun and get it up and aimed before the woman had a chance to run her through.
“Name’s Kaia. No, I’m not your Kaia. I just know who you are because… it’s complicated. Your Kaia and I see bits and pieces of each other’s lives in dreams. Just go with it, okay? I don’t have time to argue with you over this.” Not!Kaia lowered her spear. “You can put that gun away. If I’d wanted to hurt you, I’d have done it while you were still getting it drawn.”
Claire lowered the gun, but didn’t put it away. “What the hell is going on? However you got here, why bother?”
“Because your Kaia wouldn’t ever get up the guts to say anything to you herself. I’m in her head, and I care about her, for obvious reasons. Why the hell haven’t you been to the coffee shop in like a month?”
Claire blinked a couple times. Kaia noticing, fine, when one of your regulars stops showing up that’s noticeable. She wasn’t a good enough tipper to believe that Kaia cared, though. “Not really any of her business, let alone yours, but since you came all this way to find out – my uncle found my mom. Haven’t seen her in ten years, but finding her in a crack house was kind of a shock, you know? Spent the past month trying to get her help, but she’d wrecked her health, and the withdrawal ended up killing her.”
“Sucks. Sorry to hear that. But you’re coming back to the coffee shop, right?”
Claire’s jaw dropped a little, and her hand clenched a little more tightly around the gun. “I tell you my mom died and all you care about is if Kaia’s going to get my tips back?”
Not!Kaia reached out and smacked the back of Claire’s head. “Your Kaia’s got a crush on you. She thought you felt the same way, and she was gonna say something next time you came in… and then you went AWOL. That’s the big deal here, you’re breaking her heart!”
…Oh. Well then. “Yeah, I’m going back tomorrow. Getting back into normal routines, all that shit you do when life has to go on after you lose someone you love. If you talk to her in a dream tonight or something, tell her not to hit on me just yet.”
“It doesn’t work like that. We don’t control what we learn about the other’s life. I don’t know what’ll happen when you go see her tomorrow. Be nice if she does hit on you.” Not!Kaia started to walk away, ignoring Claire calling after her.
Kaia’s face lit up when she saw Claire in line. A couple minutes after Claire had settled in with her coffee and her laptop, Kaia walked over to her. “So, this may be a little awkward, and I hope I don’t have to explain, but I’m really sorry about your mom.”
“So she did find a way to tell you.” Claire set her coffee down and scooted her laptop a little off to the side so she could focus on Kaia. “Thanks, I appreciate that.”
“I know it’s a little weird, we barely know each other, but if you need someone to talk to, you can call me. I know I can’t really do much to make it better, but I can at least let you vent or give you validation or whatever. Shrink I went to said that kind of thing is important in the grieving process.” Kaia handed Claire a napkin with her phone number. “This isn’t me hitting on you, I know it’s a bad time, no ulterior motives.”
“If things happen later, great, if not, at least you were here when I needed an ear?” Kaia shrugged with a kind of embarrassed smile. Claire had heard that one before, and it hadn’t gone well, but who knew. Her instincts were telling her this time was different. Worth a shot, anyway. “Sounds good to me. When’s a good time to call you?”
“Most evenings… I get off here about 4, usually have some errands or shit to get done, and get home around 6. After that, well, NetFlix has a pause button.”