J, GoB, Saturday Morning

[withoutverona]

It was early, before graduation, when Romeo ducked into town to find some breakfast. His terribly original plan was to take a bagel and some coffee down to the beach and watch the water. He might even write some poetry. (Romeo didn't mess with his classic modes of behavior.)

He took a moment, though, to sit at a table in the cafe, letting his coffee cool before he began the walk. It was a thoughtful kind of day, with graduation hanging in the air.

[OOC: Open for your Romeo/God of Biscuit needs, but the thread with Angela is last chronologically.]

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[chasingangela]

Angela and Marty had left Connecticut at Oh God It's Too Early o'clock to make Fandom before the graduation, and she was hungry when they got there.

Marty dispatched on some errand, she ducked into Jeff's. A muffin sounded like ambrosia right then.

[withoutverona]

Romeo didn't notice the girl at the counter at first, intent on his drink. All he saw was a flash of red hair and a loose-fitting blue dress.

Then she turned, and, even from across a coffee shop, he knew that face, that shape.

Oh.

He tried not to stare. He did. He just couldn't help it.

[chasingangela]

Angela was fussing with her muffin bag when she felt eyes on her and glanced up.

Hmmm. He was cute, cute enough to make her fumbled with her hair for a second. But still, someone should tell him not to stare like that. She raised one eyebrow in a what-are-you-looking-at expression mastered in New York and went back to dumping packets of sugar in her (ugh) decaf.

[withoutverona]

Romeo was still staring, inspecting her fingers, her form. There were some years on this not-Juliet, and the hair was very different, but everything else was exactly right.

Or wrong, as the case may be.

"Angela," he said, to remind himself that his wasn't his wife. He didn't mean to speak aloud, but it came out anyhow.

[chasingangela]

Startled but defensive, Angela let out a kind of shhyeah right half-laugh. "You know what I love?" she loudly told, oh, the entire bakery. "I love it when guys think they have the right to stare and say my name like they know me."

[withoutverona]

Romeo took to his shaking legs, stepping across the bakery. "Good lady, I meant no harm," he assured Angela quietly. "You did remind me of one I knew before. That is all."

[chasingangela]

Angela gave him a speculative look, intrigued by the "good lady" bit. Usually when she got that, the guy turned out to be either from 1300 or a knight. Regardless, the doubles thing wasunnerving, and she felt a tiny flicker of sympathy.

But still. Staring was hardly the way to handle it.

"It's no big deal," she half-lied. "How'd you know my name, though? Because it is. Angela."

[withoutverona]

"Friends told me to watch for you," Romeo explained. "The person you look like was ..." and no, he wasn't going to drop his entire life story on this girl who probably just wanted to get her muffin and leave.

"..important to me," he finished instead. "Anders and Rikku both knew her, you, from a photo, and let me know you would come for graduation."

"And I'm called Romeo," he added as an afterthought.

[chasingangela]

"Let me see the photo," Angela requested, picking out the truly important bit in that conversation. Everyone else got a double, even freaking Jordan Catalano got a double, and she'd never had one.

[withoutverona]

With fumbling hands, Romeo quietly removed his wedding photo from his wallet and held it out to the girl.

"She could be your twin."

[chasingangela]

Angela took the photo and inspected it. It was her with brown hair in an updo, standing at what looked like an altar with her new friend, here.

"Pretty," she murmured, feeling conceited.

And then something clicked in her brain as she remembered a weekend when she hadn't quite been herself and had been very interested in someone named Romeo. "Is her name Juliet?"

[withoutverona]

And now Romeo was staring at her for a different reason, photo forgotten.

"Zounds, how could you know that?"

[chasingangela]

Angela bit her lip, splashed coffee down her suddenly dry throat. From the intensity with which it was asked, she knew it wasn't an idle question.

"Um, I-" she began, fumbled for more coffee, then started again. "So there was a weekend about a year and a half back where we all thought we were other people?"

[withoutverona]

Romeo nodded slowly. "We had one as well," he said shortly. "In January, I mean."

He thought he knew what she was trying to tell him, but he needed to hear it from those perfect lips.

[chasingangela]

Had someone emailed Angela about that? She couldn't remember.

"Right," she said instead. "I ... I was your" wife, but he wouldn't know she knew that, "friend."

[withoutverona]

There was no answer; Romeo just stared, blue eyes very intent.

[chasingangela]

Not sure how to read that reaction, Angela just kept talking.

"She spent the whole weekend looking for you," she babbled. "Like, everyone I met, I had to ask if they knew Romeo, and I was looking for a messenger, and ... it was weird." Especially the married-at-13 part. "You guys must have had something really special."

[withoutverona]

Romeo snorted, a snort that meant You could say that. His insides were churning, consumed by the idea there had been a Juliet (if a fake one) on this island, a well and breathing one, before he even knew her in life.

And she hadn't found him.

[chasingangela]

He still wasn't talking, and that and the expression on his face, as though he were holding back vomit, freaked Angela out.

"Are you okay? And so did she?" she asked. "Find you, I mean."

[withoutverona]

"Yes," he lied. "And I found her."

On a bier, frozen in apparent death.

He abruptly snatched back the photo and rose from the table. "I need to - " and there was no appropriate destination, none he could think of except away. So he just gestured at the door and, for the sake of not appearing a complete lunatic, added, "Enjoy graduation."

Then Romeo stalked out, coffee and bagel plan forgotten.

[chasingangela]

"...Bye" Angela said softly to his back.

Her eyes fell on the food he'd left behind; she considered chasing after him with it, decided some things were better left undone.

She also decided, as she morosely bit into her muffin, that she was absolutely fine not having doubles.