Cafe Fina, Saturday Afternoon

[heromaniac]

Momoko loved the Cafe Fina for many reasons, mostly having to do with the food. But she also loved the cafe staff, and the fact that they put up with so much from her.

Which was totally what they were doing now. She had a large table in the back of the dining room covered in papers and calendars and notebooks, her laptop set to one side; August was only eight days away and after that, she and Jaime would be leaving the island for different worlds. She was totally not going to give him up without a fight, and so she was trying to work on a plan.

She was working so hard on it, actually, that she didn't notice the bowl of beef stew the Napkin had just set in front of her... and because she was reading a pricing brochure from Portalocity, no less!

The wait staff had an amused side-bet going on with the kitchen staff about whether or not she'd break when they brought out the white chocolate raspberry chocolate tart.



[Momoko is expecting one, but the Cafe is open otherwise!]

Comments

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime didn't actually have anything with him. In fact, his hands were stuffed into his pockets a bit awkwardly as he walked into the cafe. The last time he'd tried to have this conversation, it had been a disaster, and while he didn't think it would go so badly this time, he didn't have hopes for it going... well?

After all, the problems he and Momoko had to figure out were really hard ones. Maybe even insurmountable ones.

Which totally sucked.

[heromaniac]

Momoko had given up looking at the pricing chart and was reaching again for the print-out she'd made of American holidays when she noticed Jaime. She waved, trying to get his attention. "Jaime! Back here!"

[weldedtomyspine]

He couldn't help but laugh at the wave. "I'm pretty sure I could have found you without any help," he teased, looking around at all the stuff she had scattered around.

[heromaniac]

She grinned, trying to gather some of the stuff into neater piles. "It's all stuff that can help! I think so, at least! What's Flag Day?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Um... I don't know?" Was that a trick question?

[heromaniac]

Momoko frowned and looked at her list of holidays again. "Flag Day. June 14th." She held the paper out to him, pointing at a line. "It's one of your holidays. Or at least the internet says so?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, that sounds right?" Jaime allowed. "I don't know that we celelbrate it, really. I mean, at home."

[heromaniac]

"Oh." She bit her pen. "Hmm. I was trying to figure out holidays, so we could have days when we know we have to visit. But you don't celebrate all of them?" That was actually good. There were a lot of holidays on the page.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime shook his head with a grin. "No." Then he cocked his head. "Did you ever google Japanese holidays? I bet there are tons that don't really get celebrated..."

[heromaniac]

Momoko rolled her eyes and pulled another piece of paper from a pile. "Well, someone celebrates them. But I know which ones are important to my family." Hence the highlighting.

[weldedtomyspine]

"Right. So, yeah, my guess is that most of whatever you have on that list isn't going to be useful. But some of them will be."

[heromaniac]

She reached into the bag in the chair beside her and handed him a blue highlighter. "Can you mark the ones I missed? The ones where I should come to El Paso? I have Christmas and Independence Day and Valentines Day!"

[weldedtomyspine]

"How do I know which ones you should visit for?" Jaime asked, frowning as he took the highlighter and looked over the list.

[heromaniac]

"Which ones do you want me to spend with you? I thought it would be easiest to start with holidays; did you have a better idea?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well..." Jaime pursed his lips thoughtfully. "We should probably figure out how many visits you can afford before we start planning too many..."

[heromaniac]

Momoko's face fell and she reached again for the brochure from Portalocity. "I was looking at that. They have packages? But they're totally expensive, so I was hoping to figure out how many we'd need."

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime smiled a bit sadly. "I'm pretty sure that we could use an unlimited number of them, but..." Well, neither of them had that kind of money.

[heromaniac]

Even if Momoko had been putting all her earnings from work into rebuilding her savings account, she totally had to agree.

"See? If we can come up with a list, we can see how much that will cost! And maybe it won't be too bad?"

MOMOKO WILL NOT GIVE IN TO DESPAIR!

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, you've got three of them down," Jaime said thoughtfully, tapping his chin.

[heromaniac]

Momoko nodded. "And two of them are ones that are important to me, too, so I can cross them off my list!" Which she promptly did.

[weldedtomyspine]

...

"Cross them off your list?" Jaime asked, blinking in confusion. She wasn't going to visit for them?

[heromaniac]

"Mhmm!" More biting of her pen as she looked over her list. Luckily, her family wasn't too traditional, so hers was short. "Christmas and Valentines! They're both romantic holidays, so I totally want to be with you on those days. It is kind of annoying that you don't celebrate White Day, but I don't mind too much."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well... we could celebrate White Day? Maybe? If... we have enough money..."

Really, if she did. Jaime doubted he'd have any spare money at all...

[heromaniac]

Momoko shook her head, smiling. "It's fine! If we want to celebrate it, you can totally just mail me something. It's that kind of holiday. Totally better to spend a whole other important day with you if I can... I totally have to be in Japan for both Shunbun no hi and Obon. They're family holidays."

She sighed. "But they're more than one day. Would you even be able to get away from classes?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, I might be able to schedule my classes so that there's a gap on certain days," Jaime mused. "But I don't know how many trips I can afford."

Actually, he did have a pretty good idea. And the number was probably smaller than one.