Cass walked up to the bar and slid on to the empty stool. Not exactly a rocking place. Dark corners, warm smell. Alcohol. It would do.

“Gin and tonic.” The bartender just stared over her shoulder, waiting for something. “Please.”

“It’s no good being polite to him, he’s not used to it. Wouldn’t know how to handle it. Out of his range.”

It was a young guy, two seats down, hunched over what looked like the latest in a long line of drinks. His eyes looked sober though, bright.

“Really. I guess being impolite is something you have in common.”

She caught a sparkle then, a glint in his eye, an edge to his lips. He was quite cute, really. There was something else, too. Something familiar.

Cass looked away and stared out the window in front of her. She brought her drink to her lips and froze.

There was something wrong with the reflection, something that didn’t fit. It was just a flash, but it brought a rush of heat up her spine.

For a moment she saw it, a scene from a dream. Two figures lying on the grass, soaking wet and gasping for air, another all in black collapsed on the ground, not moving. A fourth standing over them all. One of the figures was her.

Cass forced herself to swallow.

“I’ve seen you before. Your name’s Cass isn’t it? I’m Adlai.”

His hand reached over and tapped her shoulder, wrenching her eyes from the glass. The vision was gone.

“There now, that was polite, wasn’t it?” He turned back to his drink but kept his eyes on her. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

There was something in his tone, a knowingness.

“Maybe it was just a daydream. I don’t have them much anymore.”

“No, not since the Separation I guess. That’s what they call it isn’t it? Very dramatic.”

“It was for some.”

Why did she feel herself getting angry?

“Don’t get me wrong, I can understand it was difficult, I just don’t see why you can’t look on the bright side, why it has to be all doom and gloom. The dreams are free to choose their own paths now. So are the dreamers.”

Cass stared back at him. She’d seen that somewhere before, scrawled on a wall. On the Boulevard.

“You’ve been there yourself, haven’t you.”

It wasn’t a question, you could see it in his eyes, in the way he clasped his drink. He’d lost something too.

“I spent quite a lot of time there. Most people have. The important thing is being able to leave it behind and move on. On to others. There’s more than one path to walk down, that’s what I always try to remember. It’s not just a straight road, that’s why they called it Milky Way Boulevard.”

He was smiling at her now and she felt her face relax in turn. A weight dropped from her belly, allowing her to float free of the dread and emptiness she’d felt for so long she’d forgotten it was there.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she realised she no longer cared what Kane was doing now. He was now that other guy. The past. She no longer even needed this drink.

He must have felt the same way. The bartender reached out with a new glass but was waved back. He moved down two seats to sit next to her, the smile still there on his lips.

Cass smiled back and repeated his name to herself to make sure she remembered. Adlai.

“Of course, company always helps.”

***