After being jolted into near-drowning by a Suffolk County Police bullhorn and uncovering a possible extortion scheme by a workplace colleague, I didn’t think anything else could surprise me today, but that evening something managed to do just that—or rather someone.
Madame glided into Cuppa J in an elegant chartreuse sundress, on the arm of an elderly man I’d never seen before. His gray beard and tweedy blazer gave him the air of a professor, but his short, white ponytail, French beret, distressed jeans, and trendy rectangular glasses made him look more like a patriarch of West Village pop artists.
“Clare, you look so stressed,” Madame told me as I walked up to her cafe table. “Perhaps you should call it a night.”
Madame’s suggestion was kind but impractical. From five o’clock onward, the restaurant had been packed. It was now ten in the evening and most of the customers were here for coffee service and dessert. That may have slowed things down for Victor and Carlos in the kitchen, but not for me in the dining room. Because we were understaffed, I was pulling double duty, managing as well as waiting tables.
“We’re far too busy for me to ditch early,” I told my ex-mother-in-law with a patient smile. “Besides, I’m not at all tired.”
From her seat on one of the first floor’s green velvet couches, Madame raised a silver eyebrow. “I didn’t say tired, my dear. I said stressed.”
Sitting cozily beside Madame, the bohemian-looking senior stroked his neatly-trimmed beard and remarked, “I think perhaps your daughter-in-law has been spending too much time on the ‘fashionable’ side of the highway.”
I might have taken more offense at the man’s familiarity, if his bright blue eyes hadn’t been sparkling attractively with humor as he said it.
“And you are?” I asked.
Madame’s date stood up, clicked his heels, and extended his hand. “Edward Myers Wilson.”
I placed my hand in his. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Clare—”
“Allegro,” the man replied. “I know. Blanche has told me much about you already and your…shall we say very interesting Hamptons summer.”
I bristled at both points. Firstly, my surname was no longer Allegro. I had gone back to Cosi after the divorce. Madame knew this, of course. She just didn’t like it and, obviously, had misinformed Mr. Wilson.
“Clare, I can’t believe your giving up your married name,” she’d said to me years ago when I’d first told her. “Your daughter’s last name is Allegro. That’s never going to change. Why don’t you consider keeping it?”
“Because,” I’d answered, “your son is never going to change.”
Ever since, Madame would occasionally “forget” that I took back Cosi, an act of total passive-aggressiveness as far as I was concerned. But then, what else could I expect from Joy’s grandmother? Like my own daughter, Matt’s mother could be as stubborn as she was effervescent; as reckless as she was adventurous; as contentious as she was understanding. Also, like Joy, Madame wanted to see Matt and me get back together. In the past she’d even tried crazy schemes to achieve this goal. My greatest fear was that, one day, she might actually accomplish it.
For the moment, I silently shrugged off the Allegro surname error. I’d never seen this Wilson character before and I didn’t expect to see him again, so who cared if he got my name wrong? What I couldn’t let go, however, was Madame’s apparently telling this perfect stranger about the shooting at David’s party.
Hoping I was mistaken about his pointed implication, I went fishing. “Yes,” I replied to Mr. Wilson. “Working here has been very interesting.”
“I’m sure it has,” he said, easing back into his green velvet seat next to Madame. “But not as interesting as trying to track down a murderer, eh?”
I sent a three-alarm glare my former mother-in-law’s way. She responded with a wave of her hand.
“Don’t worry so much, Clare,” she chirped. “Edward’s here to help.”
“Help?” I whispered, glancing around me to make sure no one in the crowded dining room was listening. “How can a perfect stranger help?”
Edward Wilson appeared amused at that. He turned to Madame. “Blanche, I think perhaps you’re right. Clare does appear rather stressed this evening.”
Madame laughed.
With two fingers, I massaged the bridge of my nose, feeling the edges of a headache beginning. It was bad enough that my daughter and I weren’t talking at the moment. Now I had to put up with Ma and Pa Enigmatic.
“Edward’s not a perfect stranger,” Madame informed me.
“Although some of my colleagues have accused me of being perfectly strange,” he quipped.
“Only when the moon is full,” Madame retorted.
“And I’m out of single-malt Scotch. Either that or every last tube of 538.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Madame said. “You are obsessed with Prussian blue, aren’t you?”
“Not the color, love. The sky. Matching its palette out here has been a lifelong obsession.” He put his arm around Madame’s shoulders. “One of them anyway.”
I raised both eyebrows at the old guy’s smooth move, wondering whether or not Mr. Wilson knew (or cared) about Madame’s ongoing relationship back in the city with Dr. Gary MacTavish.
“So you two are old friends?” I prodded, expecting them to amplify the subject.
“Well, we are friends,” said Edward, stroking Madame’s bare shoulder. “And we are old. Aren’t we, Blanche?”
“Speak for yourself.”
I couldn’t believe both Joy and her grandmother seemed set on testing my nerves this evening.
My daughter had done it earlier, when she’d shown up late to work, in the company of Graydon Faas. I’d jumped down her throat the minute she’d walked in the kitchen door. We’d had a furious fight about where she’d been all day and what she’d been doing, but she refused to answer any of my questions, or apologize for ignoring my many worried cell phone messages.
All night, I couldn’t help noticing how Joy and Graydon kept lightly brushing against each other, exchanging subtle touches. With alarm, I realized just how little I knew about this surfer-waiter “dude.” Graydon was a good worker and a quick study with the barista techniques. But I could have described Treat Mazzelli the same way, and he’d ended up being a systematic womanizer. (I couldn’t very well blame him for the bullet in his brain since I didn’t even believe it was meant for him. Nevertheless, where my daughter’s happiness was concerned, I considered womanizing bad enough, thank you very much!)
At the moment, I couldn’t discuss my thousand-and-one worries with Joy, but, considering the way Treat had ended up, I felt I had a right to butt in and grill her about her relationship with Graydon. When we finally had some privacy, I intended to do just that. I also intended to quiz Joy’s grandmother. Here she was, flirting shamelessly with a man about whom I knew even less than Mr. Faas.
“Why don’t I take your orders?” I suggested, glancing over my shoulder to make sure my other customers weren’t getting antsy. “We can chat again when I bring your food.”
“Very good,” said Edward with a smile.
“We’re just having dessert and coffee tonight,” Madame said. She pulled a delicate pair of vermilion reading glasses out of her clutch, balanced them on the end of her nose and looked over my pairings menu.
“Very nice selection, my dear,” she said after a minute.
“Thank you.” I replied, trying not to blush. A “very nice” from Madame regarding coffee was akin to a grad student finally earning that Ph.D. The woman knew more about beans, blends, microclimates, harvests, processing, roasting, brewing, and serving than any professional I’d ever met in the food and beverage trade.
Edward glanced over Cuppa J’s coffee selections, as well. “Estate Java, Costa Rican Tres Rios, Kona, Ethiopian Harrar, Kenya AA, Sumatra,” he recited. “My goodness how do we choose what coffee?”
Madame and I exchanged little smiles. “Well, lucky for you my daughter-in-law here is Cuppa J’s coffee steward.”
“Excuse my hearing,” said Edward, “did you say coffee steward?”
“Indeed I did. It’s a delightful notion of Clare’s that every fine restaurant should have someone on staff who knows how to buy, store, and properly serve a large variety of coffees and can knowledgeably recommend them to customers.”
“Ah, I see,” said Edward, “like a sommelier only with coffee?”
Madame nodded. “Turn the page on your menu and you’ll see that she’s suggested pairings with tonight’s dessert selections.”
Edward turned the page. “Ah! Yes, yes…and you give a little description of how each coffee tastes—”
“The flavor profile,” Madame informed him, with a wink for me.
Edward stroked his gray beard. “Well, I must say, it’s still difficult to decide.”
“Do you enjoy chocolate?” I asked, trying to help.
“Not really,” said Edward.
“Why don’t we go for something a little more subtle,” Madame suggested. “Edward, I wonder, do you still have a passion for…figs and almonds?”
Still looking down at the menu, Edward smiled. “Oh, yes, Blanche,” he replied, covering Madame’s hand with his own. “That afternoon on my porch? Indeed I do.”
Madame looked up at me, but I’d already guessed their order.
“Spanish fig cake,” I said. “And the almond torte. Both pair nicely with the Sul de Minas.”
Customers who knew a little about coffee sometimes raised an eyebrow at putting a Brazilian on the menu. But a little knowledge sometimes can be as worthless as none at all.
Yes, Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, and much of it comes from lower-grade Arabicas and Robustas grown on massive plantations. And, yes, these coffees are flat and average, many of them ending up in mass-marketed blends—the kind you find canned on grocery store shelves. But Brazil is a huge country with a wide spectrum of conditions and quality. In recent years, its growing associations have been working to recreate the image of its coffees. Small farms, like the one Matteo found in the south of Minas Gerais, use higher quality harvesting and processing methods to produce specialty-level coffees that really sing in lighter and medium roasts.
I was surprised to see Madame, of all people, raising an eyebrow at my recommendation. But then she smiled and said—
“The Brazilian is the ideal choice for passion, isn’t it?”
“Passion,” Edward said, seeing Madame’s little smile. “Let me guess why? It reminds you of an old Brazilian beau?”
“Oh, yes, he was Brazilian, but he wasn’t my beau,” said Madame. “He was the lover of the French governor’s wife.”
Edward’s look of curiosity turned into one of confusion.
Madame laughed. “It’s a very old story.”
“Go on,” Edward said.
“Well, you see, ages ago, when coffee plants first came to the New World, they were limited to certain regions. French Guiana and Dutch Guiana both grew coffee, but they jealously guarded the export of their seeds. Then, during a border dispute between the two colonies, Brazil sent a diplomat to help settle it…now what was his name? Clare, help me?”
“Francisco De Mello Peheta.”
“Oh, yes! That’s right. Francisco was a dashing Brazilian, you see, and the wife of the French governor fell for him. They had a passionate affair, and afterward, she sent him back to Brazil with a bouquet of flowers. Buried inside was her real gift to him—clippings from a coffee tree, including fertile coffee cherries. Voila! The Brazilian coffee industry was born.”
Brazilians in the coffee trade loved to repeat the story Madame had just told, which claimed their entire billion-dollar coffee industry had emerged from a love affair. I knew the legend had very little credibility. Madame knew it, too. But, clearly, tonight she was having too much fun seeing the world through her rose-colored reading glasses.
“Shall I bring separate presses?” I asked flatly. “Or just the one pot for the two of you?”
“Make it for two, dear. We’ll share,” she replied.
Of course, they’ll share, I thought, heading back to the coffee bar to prepare their order. They’re sitting so close to each other, they’re practically sharing each other’s laps!
Needless to say, I was less than thrilled to see Madame with a new man. Dr. MacTavish had been her steady beau for over a year, and I had become used to that…comfortable with that. She hadn’t broken up with the good doctor, of that I was sure. Yet here she was tonight practically giddy over Edward.
Part of me knew I was being way too harsh. At her age, Madame had a right to enjoy happiness wherever she found it, whenever she found it, with whomever she found it. But another part of me felt she was betraying her friendship back in the city.
As I told myself (or at least tried to) that it was really none of my business, I began to prepare their order at the coffee bar.
“Who’s that man with Grandmother?” Joy whispered.
It was the first time Joy had spoken to me in six hours, ever since we’d had that fight at the start of dinner service.
“He’s her date,” I replied. “His name’s Edward Myers Wilson. That’s all I know.”
“What do you mean that’s all you know?” Joy hissed. “They’re all over each other. Where did she meet him? Does he live around here? Don’t you know anything else?”
I put my hands on my hips and stared at my daughter. “No, I do not know anything else,” I told her. “In fact, I know as little about Mr. Wilson as I do about Graydon Faas.”
“That’s not fair,” Joy snapped. “You’ve been working with Graydon for over a month—”
“I could say the same about Treat.”
“Graydon’s not like Treat. And, anyway, it’s my private business whom I see.”
I folded my arms. “Just like it’s your grandmother’s private business whom she sees.”
Joy’s mouth moved but no words came out. Knowing she was trumped, she frowned, wheeled, and slammed through the leather padded doors to the kitchen.