Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue 14, February 2026
“Meet Cute at the Inter-Dimensional Café” is a tender and inventive romance about two café owners from parallel dimensions who fall in love after an unlikely accident forces them to share the same physical space.
Jeffreylynn runs Universally Sweet Café when a dimensional overlap suddenly merges her café with an identical one from another dimension. In the chaos that follows — tables and patrons blurring between realities — she has a panic attack, and a kind stranger in a baseball cap, Gabe, kneels beside her and coaches her through it with silent, patient breathing. Though separated by a dimensional divide that renders them slightly desaturated to each other and unable to speak or touch, a connection is immediately established.
When government scientists declare the overlap stable but uninhabitable pending permits, both owners face the prospect of an indefinite closure. Jeffreylynn, characteristically thorough, returns a week later armed with schematics, color-coded pro/con lists, and a plan: if they rearrange the café so identical furniture from both dimensions overlaps seamlessly, customers from either dimension can coexist without confusion, and the café can reopen. Gabe — quieter, more reserved, but equally brilliant — is immediately won over.
Over the following weeks, the two develop a warm working partnership and an increasingly inventive communication system. Unable to hear each other across the dimensional divide, they begin with written notes, graduate to speech-to-text tablets (Gabe’s idea, deployed at every table and behind every counter), and slowly learn American Sign Language together — though Gabe proves far more naturally gifted at it. Every obstacle they solve together deepens their bond, and small moments — a frosting taste test, a shared laugh, a signed compliment — begin to carry unmistakable romantic weight.
The tension crests one evening when, caught up in a playful baking session, Gabe reaches out to touch Jeffreylynn’s face — only for his hand to pass clean through her. The reminder of their physical incompatibility shocks them both apart. Gabe retreats in shame and confusion; Jeffreylynn is left shaken and longing.
In the sleepless hours before the grand reopening, each independently makes their way to the café in the dark. Gabe bakes forty-two fruit tarts as an outlet for feelings he doesn’t know how to voice. Jeffreylynn checks on her jellies and stays, sitting on a bench at the edge of the overlap. Neither knows the other is there — until they catch sight of each other’s shoes, side by side. Gabe whispers “I love you” into the dark. Jeffreylynn doesn’t hear him.
On opening day, with the café thriving and a couple at table four visibly flirting across the dimensional divide, Jeffreylynn forces the conversation. She walks Gabe through an imagined pro/con list of inter-dimensional dating, gently dismantling every objection he raises until, finally, she crosses her arms over her chest and points at him — signing I love you. Gabe, undone, responds the only way he can: by inviting her to bake ube cake with him that evening, with lime frosting. Jeffreylynn slides her panda boot next to his sensible loafer under the table, and calls it a date.
Catherine Tavares is a speculative fiction author and member of both SFWA and Codex. Her work has been featured on the Nebula Recommended Reading List, Reactor’s Must Reads, and in magazines such as Apex, Nature Futures, Flash Point SF, Heartlines, and more. An avid reader, she spends most of her time haunting the shelves of her local library, but she can on occasion be persuaded to try a new recipe or work on a knitting project. Read her work and learn more about her at catherinetavares.com.