Strangers Again
When: July 19th
Where: Davey’s apartment
Who: @daveyventura
Kaitlin had started talking to the cat every night after that first night. She hadn’t meant to make a habit of it but there was something nice about having someone waiting for her. Even if that someone was a cat who didn’t talk. He mowed hello at her. Or maybe that was just feed me. Kaitlin liked to think it was hello. She liked to think he could understand her when she talked. Like that first night when she’d told him Davey was alive. After that it was just little things. Things she might have texted Davey because he liked those small things. Like what she’d seen in the park or funny things she’d overheard. Sometimes she’d wear Davey’s cap while she talked to Huck. Like he was there with them. It was an odd thing to mourn someone still living. Maybe she could stop once she gave him back his cat and hat. Or maybe she’d just miss him more without them.
While she never doubted she needed to give both Huck and the hat back she wasn’t sure if she should get in touch with Davey. She went back and forth before finally texting him. He needed his hat. Huck deserved his family. There was nothing she could do but text him. She’d just drop Huck off, find some way of sneaking Davey’s hat back to him and be gone. He didn’t need her back in his life even if he had wanted her to come back into it. Kaitlin had a feeling that’s why he’d given her his Yankee’s cap and Huck to begin with. Not because he was worried he wouldn’t make it but because he was worried she wouldn’t come find him. He knew she wouldn’t keep Huck and he knew she would especially not steal his Yankee’s cap. That thought made her feel better about it all. She still thought he was probably better off without anyone with ties to the fey in his life. But if this was what he wanted when he knew everything maybe she shouldn’t feel guilty about it.
She thought about it all the way to the address he’d given her. Huck in her arms, a bag with most of his stuff, and Davey’s Yankee’s cap hidden safely in her purse. Her heart beating a little faster at the idea of seeing him again. Before she could knock she took a deep breath to steady herself and whispered a few words of encouragement to Huck. Davey didn’t know her. She was a stranger. When he answered Kaitlin smiled, forgetting for a moment she was a stranger. But there was no familiarity in his eyes, she was a stranger. “Hi, I’m the one who texted you about your cat.” Huck wiggled in her arms and she tacked on, “Obviously.”