Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jada was used to feeling so observant, sometimes, when it came to emotions, but she wasn't the only one. She looked at Kam with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, and patted his arm as he blew out a heavy breath. Maybe that was the thing about surrounding yourself with other broken people. Lying was so much harder when you knew they knew you were full of s**t. At least, lying to anyone but herself was harder. (She was lost, lonely, and clinging to two six year-olds to keep from driving herself back into a bottle.)

She closed her eyes, swallowed, and opened them back up. "I wouldn't say decades," she said and gave the woman a smile as she passed by, "Just that someone at one point or another wanted really strong coffee." a tanned hand pushed black curls out of her face, and she reached out for one of the other menus, hardly paying any mind to the fact there were other humans in the coffee shop. "I guess you don't come here very often, if they know your name." her lips quirked.

A french-tipped fingernail slid over the laminated menu, tapping thoughtfully as she considered her options and followed him towards the counter, considering. "Do they serve Bailey's as their creamer?" she muttered low, knowing he would probably hear her, "Maybe butterscotch schnapps, not butterscotch syrup?" it would be too much to hope for, and definitely unlikely. "No," she said after a moment, "if you order first, I'll be ready by the time you're done, Kam."

Choices were hard, and her body was still adjusting to the heat of the building. The menu was a pleasant distraction for her mind, and much as she was loath to give it up, a warm drink would serve her better still.

Jada stood there considering the menu as her companion joked and jested with a kind of irrepressible humor that Jada herself had never had someone similar to share it with. Growing up with a more rigi, stringent lifestyle, she'd little time to make connections that meant anything more than business, and the idea of interacting so with a friend was almost alien to her. It wasn't like the way she would joke and tease with her own friends, this was... more coarse, perhaps? Jovial, certainly. This was a level of comraderie and knowing a person that she didn't have with anyone in Destiny City. At least no one who was currently...

No one she was speaking to, anyways. or who was speaking to her? Her brow furrowed, and white teeth worried her blood-red lower lip, bright eyes fixed solidly on the menu, not looking up or down. Her eyes were looking at the words, but her mind was not; her mind was wondering- why was she here? Why had she decided to come to the meeting in the first place? She could handle this on her own. She didn't need help. Didn't need pity. Didn't need to see this jovial comraderie, and know that it was the kind of thing she would never have.

But it was the kind of thing she wanted for Giulia and Aidan. The kind of thing she would have wanted for Hope. Without Szelem to get in her children's way, could she let Giulia and Aidan enjoy the fruits of a freedom their older siblings had never known? None of them had known it. Jada had only been able to protect her siblings to a point, and the twins' father... He wasn't known for being particularly relaxed either.

Right now she desperately wanted a drink, and not the kind that the cafe could offer.

At the mention of food, her head lifted from the menu at last. "Cinnamon pull-apart thingies?" there was an interest in her tone she couldn't hide, her sweet tooth, perhaps, overriding her insatiable thirst for just a moment. "Like a bundt cake type pull apart with a little icing cup, or a lava cake type?" she tilted her head up to look at the man as he slid to hover, instinctively inviting him in closer to her with relaxed body language, even tilting the menu up to he could read it more easily.

"I mean, you're more than welcome to throw a dart at the menu to decide for me, if you think your barista friend won't mind, but I was more thinking I'd try the Salted Caramel Cocoa..."

Jada made a little noise low in the back of her throat at the idea of a from-scratch cinnamon pull-apart with icing. Well. She thought it was going to be little. Hadn't planned on making one at all. In fact, the 'little' noise was hella loud, and punctuated by a grumble from her stomach that sounded a lot like an angry bear. or a hungry bear. Or just... hungry. "Apparently," she said, eyes closing briefly, "that sounds delicious."

Peeking one eye open again, she flashed him a grin. "Pumpkin spice is okay," she disagreed lightly, "but I didn't want to wander into your Cosmos Cup acting too basic and clearly having missed the turn for Starbucks." she gave him an amused little smile, weight shifting from foot to foot. "I have a fondness for pumpkin bread this time of the year. And pumpkin muffins. And especially pumpkin pie. I'll fight anyone who says pumpkin pie is terrible or overrated. They may be right, but I don't want to hear it."

She released the menu easily to his grip and followed him forward, shifting to bump her hip against the counter and take another look around the restaurant while he called out her decision to the barista. Her eyes had flicked over the heavy black card in his hand, but she had looked away just as quickly. The color was an interesting match for their meeting, though she shouldn't have been surprised. After all, she was another prime example that even the well-off needed AA meetings once in a while.

It really was a nice place. It surprised her she'd never been in here, but there were probably a lot of coffee houses now that she'd never indulged in. It was more the age of it than the existence. If they were good, it would be yet another new place to add to her rotation.

His voice grabbed her attention and she tilted her head to peer up at Kam through her dark lashes. "Definitely Astrophysics," she agreed with a grin, "in my dreams, anyways." she might be sometimes clever, but nowhere near that clever. Her superpower was money, not brains. "No acrobatics, though I'm quite fond of heights." Kam had hit it right on the nose with modeling, and it made her wonder if he actually picked up gossip once in a while, or if he'd caught a pin-up and just recognized her, or just gotten a lucky guess in. It didn't much matter, she supposed. "Right now," she said honestly, "I'm a bit between jobs in my career of choice. Focusing on other things."

Like her alcoholism. Her family. Fixing up the house. Stewing herself into a lonely, anxious ball. Getting her a** kicked at 2am.

Important things.