Nanoprep 2023 Day 11: Post-infusion

By Robin de Voh on 2023-10-16 - Share

tags: nanoprep, coffee, saga, jerry, rebecca

It was raining by now, and she hurried across the street. It was late, and there weren't that many people around, but she needed to be in a place she was comfortable at. Everything had gone ass-end up, and she didn't fully understand why. Why had he gone so incredibly far? His single-minded focus on this game they'd been playing had been clear for a long time, but she always figured there was an element of play underneath it all, a solid basis of messing with one another. Something which would keep the game going but never too far, an assumption she had used to continue pushing him over all this time. But she had also offered olive branches every so often as well. To keep that balance. To feed that basis.

But it hadn't been play. Not anymore. It wasn't a feisty rivalry like it was for her, but a malicious rivalry that had grown to possibly dangerous levels. He'd taken it further than she ever thought he would, even after everything they'd been through. He had been willing to burn it all down. She went to put her key in the lock, but saw a light on in the kitchen. She checked her phone, and both Kate and Dave had responded that they were on their way. It must be them, she concluded. She went in, and she could hear their voices in the back. Good. Safe.

Java House. Rebecca was home.

Frustration still raging through her, she walked over to the counter and grabbed the big glass container holding their Molokai beans. It was the most exclusive they currently sold, a very special Hawaiian coffee, which she poured into the specialty grinder and turned it on -- it wasn't as if she was going to bed anytime soon, and she fucking deserved it -- as Kate came from the kitchen, tipped off by the distinctive whir of the burrs, wreaking havoc on the beans.

"So... How are you holding up, boss?" she said, putting a hand on Rebecca's shoulder.
"I'm fine," she said, as she pre-heated the coffee machine.
"You know you should press charges, right?"
"I know, I told him I would, unless Luke can get him off my case."

Dave stuck his head around the corner, "But pressing charges would be way more fun, boss!"

Rebecca laughed, as she poured a double ristretto worth of ground coffee in the portafilter, made sure it was all distributed well by running the distribution needle through it, then tamped it all down exactly hard enough. Okay, maybe a bit harder due to the tension in her shoulders, but it would be fine.

"Part of me wants to, part of me feels pity, you know. The guy hasn't had it easy," she said as the twisted the basket into place with a loud clunk. She hit the button to pre-infuse the coffee and a bit of water was pumped into the coffee loudly, then stopped again.

During the noise of Rebecca making her double shot, Kate looked back at Dave, who nodded towards Rebecca, then just shrugged and disappeared around the corner again. Kate sighed.

"Boss, we've been talking, and..."
"Let it go, Kate," Rebecca responded as she flipped the button, a loud wrrrrrrrrr filling the air, combined with the smell of fresh espresso. "This is my problem to solve."

Kate sighed even louder, then inhaled deeply, and punched Rebecca in the arm. Not hard, but hard enough to make a point.

"Rebecca Nordstrom. Fucking stop for a second and listen."

Rebecca turned to her and just stared. Kate hadn't called her by her full name in a while, and definitely didn't do so often, but when she did, it was usually because something serious was going on. Or just because Kate was angry for some random reason. Given the situation, she felt that probably it was the first. Something serious. So she decided it was best to listen. Kate raised an eyebrow as if to ask "are you going to listen?", and Rebecca just nodded slowly.

"This has been going on for how long? Years by this point. The snark, the attacks, the sly little ways to undermine each other. That was all fine, even we enjoyed it. But he's taken it way too far, Rebecca. Something needs to be done, and a talking to by his work buddy isn't going to do it."
"But..."
"No buts. What if he'd done it before everything had been made fire-proof? What if he'd done it and me or Dave were in the back, or even in the basement? He could have killed someone."
"None of those things happened! I was prepared!"

With a balled fist, Kate slammed down hard on the counter. Rebecca took a step back.

"You and him are playing this weird supervillain and superhero game, but it's like neither of you realize there's a whole world around you guys. And in that world, there are other people, who could be at risk of being hurt if you both keep going this way. It's not just you this impacts, Rebecca."

As if to emphasize her words, she moved her face closer to Rebecca's and looked her straight in the eyes.

"It's. Not. Just. You."

Dave's head popped around the corner again, "She's right, boss, I don't want to burn."

As if acting on automatic, Rebecca turned off the machine. 6 seconds too late. It'll be a bit more bitter than she wanted, but even she had to agree at this point that none of it mattered right now. She grabbed the cup and moved to one of the tables in the back. She sat down with a thud and placed her coffee in front of her. She looked back at Kate.

"You're right. But it's hard to admit it's gotten so out of hand. I didn't expect it to, really. On my way back I was thinking a lot of the same things. How did it go so far, why would he push it to actual arson? The only thing I could think of was that he really is just that lonely, sad, with nothing else going on in his life."
"That describes him, pretty much. Dude's all coffee and ... Yep." Dave shouted from the kitchen.
"What are you even doing in there?!" Rebecca shouted at him.
"Nothing! I don't like serious talks!"

Kate walked over and sat down next to her.

"Look. I enjoyed messing with him as much as you did. And we certainly did our fair share of damage to his psyche. But it's time to get serious. It's not just fun anymore. He's either already snapped or he's about to, and if this is the before, I'm afraid of what the after's going to be."
"I know. But I still want to wait to hear from Luke first. He was going to try and get Jerry to maybe go into therapy or something. We still have the camera footage, so we'll have time to press charges."
"You told the cops it was a false alarm, though," Kate said.
"Doesn't matter. Oh, no, officer, look at this security footage I forgot about, it totally wasn't a false alarm after all, you should go get this guy, I know where he lives. So it'll be fine. But if I can handle this by myself, with some help from Luke, then that's what I'd really prefer to do. I don't want to deal with cops, or a lawyer, or having to spend any more time on this nonsense than needed."

Kate sighed and took a sip from her tea.

"Alright, your call. But you have to do something. Do you want us to stick around a little longer?"
"If at least one of you could stay until I hear from Luke, that'd be awesome."
"Then both of us stay."

An unhappy grunt came from the kitchen.

"You good?" Kate yelled.
"Fine. So happy. This is awesome, exactly how I want to spend tonight," Dave sarcastically yelled back.

Rebecca finished her coffee, and then just puttered around cleaning a bit, straightening out some paintings, ordering the cash registers' coins so they were all perfectly lined up, when her phone finally rang.

"Luke? How'd it... Over decaf, really?" she said as she pinched the bridge of her nose with her other hand. "Yeah, okay, no, I get it. I'll figure out what to do soon, okay. Thanks for trying. Get home safe."
Kate raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. "I take it Jerry decided to keep fucking around?"
"It seems he did. Kicked Luke out because he wanted decaf."

A loud "Ha! Classic Jerry!" from the kitchen.

"So, Rebecca. It's time for you to decide. He fucked around. Then he fucked around again. Then he fucker around too hard. And he's now decided that he very much wants to keep fucking around."
"Is there a question coming?"

Kate sat up straight and her gaze was piercing to Rebecca's eyes.

"When are you going to make him find out?"

Rebecca thought for a second and then grinned.

"Right now," she said as she unlocked her phone again.
"I don't like the grin, Rebecca. It seems a lot like you're also planning to keep playing this stupid game."

Rebecca just grinned more, no longer listening. Then she hit dial on some number and held the phone up to her ear, as she walked towards the front door. Kate got up and walked to the kitchen. She just shook her head at Dave, who shrugged again.

"They've been at it for years, you thought one boundary-crossing action was going to break whatever game they're playing?"
"Maybe. I think it should."
"This goes deeper, sweetie, much deeper. We tried. She's doing something, which you asked of her. Let's hope it's something that ends well."

Kate looked outside, and saw that Rebecca was pacing back and forth, talking to someone animatedly, for about 15 minutes in total. Afterwards, Rebecca came back in and walked straight back over to the coffee machine. She grabbed the small bag of Esmeralda Special Geisha -- which they had received a few days before from their specialty importer as a tester -- from the freezer and unceremoniously opened it up.

"Get your asses over here," she yelled towards the back.

They did so. They saw the bag of stupidly premium coffee, and their mouths opened as if to say something, but they then stopped themselves when Rebecca emptied it out into the specialty coffee grinder and turned it on.

"We're drinking something special tonight. You've seen it. You've read about it. Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha. To celebrate something. A dash of revenge combined with jasmine, bergamot, stone fruits, and berries. According to the importer, anyway."
"So... What are we celebrating?"
"Luke told me quite a bit about Jerry, his background, his family, to try and figure out what his reasons were, you know. And I remembered something that is going to come in extremely handy. Jerry's going to be in a lot of trouble. Possibly life-altering trouble. And I won't even have to lift a finger. All I had to do was make one phone call and send over the security footage, and it'll all take care of itself from there."
"Oh that sounds very good," Kate said.
"It sounds very good," Rebecca said, still grinning.
"And so does the Jerry thing," Dave added, having not looked away from the coffee grinder as it had been whirring along.

For the first time tonight, all three of them felt the same. It was okay to smile.

Meanwhile, in a depressing apartment, smelling of Kona and the friendless, Jerry's neck hairs stood on end suddenly. He looked at his right arm. Goosebumps.

"Oh no," he thought. "Not her."