Who: Robin and Svetlana What: Random meetings at a coffee shop Where: A coffee house When: Early January Warnings: Low Status: Complete Partner Thread
Robin couldn’t remember when she had started drinking coffee. She just always had and she couldn’t picture a day without it. She didn’t want to, quite honestly. Because of that she was something of a fixture at the local coffee houses in the area, not just by her home or her store, but by the universities, the shopping centers. Anywhere and everywhere coffee was served, Robin had been to on more than one occasion.
She had just ordered her drink of choice for the afternoon and as she waited for it to be made, she reviewed what her afternoon held for her. She had done as much at her shop as she was going to be able to do to tidy up after the gremlins. She was going to now have to spend time searching for items to replace the ones that had broken, and that required her to sit at her computer and let her fingers do some searching and reaching out to contacts in the region. A trifle dull to start with until she got a nibble. She had her laptop in a messenger bag over her shoulder. At least she could start her search here and get some People Watching in as she did so.
Robin’s gaze wandered over the coffee shop and those in it and finally settled on a woman who looked very familiar to her. Robin tilted her head and went through her mental rolladex of faces and names and came up with the woman who had hosted the gala Jonathan had taken her to a few months ago.
“Svetlana?” Robin stepped up to her carefully, just in case she had the face and name wrong. “Good afternoon. I’m Robin, we met at your gala in September.”
With the hours Svetlana kept and how she often was doing ten things at once, sometimes just escaping to a coffee house was the only break in the day she had. Or at least a change in scenery. It was only when she set aside lunches or such with Veronica or Jonathan that she remembered to actually leave work behind for a bit. Even the dinners with Anatoly came about because it was the end of his working day and she’d been there with a case and so it just made sense.
Which was why, even though she wasn’t at the office, Svetlana had some cases with her to work on while she had tea. Mostly just going over things to make sure nothing was left out in the write up she needed to do. Focused on her work or not though, the Russian woman was aware of someone walking towards her. A hypersensitivity to her surroundings brought on both from her work here as well as dreams of living in the Soviet Union and always being on the watch for Molokov or other KGB members.
Someone who knew her then. As Robin said where they met, Svetlana nodded.
“Ah yes. Hello. It’s nice to see you again, Robin.”
“You as well,” Robin answered, pleased she had not accidentally mistaken the poor woman for someone else. She was usually pretty good about that sort of thing, but mistakes happened now and again. She gave the woman a pleasant smile before taking note of the files Svetlana had with her. Her expression immediately turned apologetic. “Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your work. I just noticed you while I was waiting for my order to fill and thought I should say hello and tell you that I had a wonderful time at the gala and that I hope it was a success.”
“Oh it’s no problem at all.” Waving off the apology, Svetlana marked her place where she’d been before motioning to Robin to join her if she so desired. “It’s only some last minute looking over to make sure I have everything in order.” Which she did. Not once had Svetlana made a mistake in her reports no matter how stressed she got. Which… was quite a common occurrence all things considered. “How have you been?”
Robin smiled, relieved she hadn’t rudely jumped in on Svetlana while the poor woman was trying to work. She knew how much she hated that. She nodded and accepted the seat offered to her.
“I’ve been…” how best to describe her life since the gala? Busy, of course with the holiday season. She’d had some exciting dreams. She witnessed first-hand a horror inflicted on a dear friend that she would have wished on a mortal enemy. There had been gremlins in her store. “Busy,” she decided to go with. “Very busy. I finally have a few moments to breathe. Yourself?”
While Svetlana was polite, she was also blunt. So if Robin had been bothering her, it would have been known. So really, it was fine. The Russian woman just liked to be meticulous in her work, that and she tended to hide behind it and so doing things like checking over and over again just to be sure happened in ways to avoid dealing with the stress.
“Busy as well.” It was around the time of the gala Svetlana had stopped checking the network if she thought about it. Between everything with Stahma and the stabbing, to Helena and trying to help her, stressing about the fallout with Stahma and then work in general which was always chaotic… busy was the safest of answers. If it weren’t for Veronica making sure she got out to eat lunch periodically or dinners with Anatoly following sessions with one of her girls, it was likely Svetlana would only work. “We have a walk coming up on the 16th, which takes a lot of time to put together.” On top of conferences to plan and prepare presentations for, which also was happening. But usually walks were easier to get people interested in.
Always working.
“Busy seems to go with the season,” Robin said with a sigh, “however, I’m willing to bet that while I can take a breather after the holidays are through, you probably don’t have such a luxury.”
The barista called out Robin’s order. The dark haired woman excused herself momentarily to fetch her coffee drink and then she returned. Once back in her seat she picked up their conversation.
“A walk?” She tilted her head. “Oh, I think I saw your post about that on the network. I haven’t had the opportunity to do any research yet, but if someone wanted to participate in the walk, what would they have to do?”
“That would be a fair bet. There rarely is time to get a break, though I don’t mind.” It was easier than dealing with life and feelings. At least with her work, Svetlana felt like she was doing something with her life. Helping those who could not help themselves. Helping them while she was unable to do anything for her parents and hadn’t been able to help Erik.
A small break while Robin got her order, Svetlana placed the file back in her bag and then nodded as the timing had worked to Robin returning with the question as she looked up.
“Show up, really. If you have people to sponsor you then get them involved and bring your own water. If you have signs you want to bring, those are welcome as well. The Freedom Fair starts at 8:30, the walk itself starts at 9:15 though everyone prepares at 9 and will be led by survivors. The walk itself is 2.3 miles and starts at Immanuel Presbyterian Church on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles.”
All of that sounded perfectly feasible to Robin. And it was all for a good cause, something she could involve herself in now that the holidays were over. Something other than worrying about filling her store again and how much financial damage had been done to her year because of it. Such worries seemed a little superfluous when confronted by the worlds’ much larger problems.
“I think I might be able to get a couple of the shop owners in the area to sponsor me,” she said thoughtfully as she sipped her coffee. “It’d be good for them to get their name out. There’s a woman across the street from my store who sells little doo-dads and such. I wonder if she’d be interested in going. I’m sure I can talk her into it.”
There always was a sense of things could always been worse when one stopped to think about the issues that happened on a global scale, especially those that were often ignored or were invisible because it wasn’t directly in the area. There were also personal issues that of course would come up and people would focus on, but there was something to be said about empathy and being concerned about others and wanting to help.
“That would be wonderful. And if they want to continue sponsorship, we always are looking for more when we put on such events.” It was beneficial for the shop owners and it helped raise awareness. It was also why there were programmes in place for student internships with local universities. It helped students receive both college credit and experience, while also helping the different groups with keeping up personnel.
“I didn’t realize that continuing a sponsorship from one event to another was possible,” Robin said, putting a thoughtful finger to her chin. “I think I might be interested in that since I can’t guarantee that I won’t be traveling the next time an event comes around. I would still like to contribute.” Robin had spent her entire childhood traveling around the world with her mother. Her experience had been unique given that rather than staying in posh hotels at hot destinations designed for tourists, she had seen some of the world’s poorest places. She had been too young at the time to really understand it, the reason for it or what such poverty could lead to, especially the fates of impoverished women. Now she was adult, a little wiser, a little less innocent. Plus, putting some of her more ill gotten profits to a good cause might not be a bad thing, overall. She was an odd pirate, Robin Nico.
“My store was hit a little hard during the whole…infestation we had recently,” she went on, “But, I would still like to help, at least a little bit, with what I can. Perhaps I can set up a continued sponsorship myself?” She sipped her coffee. “As for the other shop owners, the free advertising might be enough to perk their interest.”
Svetlana gave a nod as she took a sip of tea. “It is. And does indeed give you free promotion.” Anything to get one’s name out there, right? And really, whenever they were able to get more long term sponsorships, the better as far as Svetlana was concerned. It helped in the long run and allowed leeway if one project didn’t get as much help as another if continuous players were involved. It also provided good networking for both sides of the equation. “However you feel most comfortable helping.” Travelling always did make it difficult to be able to attend events so it did seem a good compromise.
And ah yes. The gremlins. “I can only imagine. So if you would like to participate as well as set up a continued sponsorship yourself, that can certainly be arranged.”
“Brilliant,” Robin beamed at her companion. Oh, she was very excited about all this. It felt good to help, even if it wasn’t directly. “Do you have a business card or an email I can use to contact you with once I’ve talked to the other shop owners. Like I said, I’m pretty sure the woman who owns the shop across from mine will be interested. She’s a worldly woman in her own right.”
Robin had no idea how long her neighbor'd had her shop, but she was a friendly sort and had been extremely helpful when Robin had taken over Remember Yesterday. Offering advice, letting her know who was worth talking to in their little corner of the shopping center, who to keep an eye on when in the store, etc. All useful information Robin’d had no idea about. She just seemed to be the helpful variety of people. Robin was sure she’d like to participate.
If there was one thing Svetlana kept on her, it was a business card. Given the fact there was always a chance of coming across someone who needed her help, it just was easier to keep them on hand even when there weren’t events going on. As such when she was asked, Svetlana pulled up her bag and pulled out one of her cards.
“This has all of my contact information.” Then of course there was the network, but really for things like this, her email or mobile were easier to reach her on given her perchance to forget the network existed half the time. Hard to believe with the insanity of Orange County, but she was a busy woman.