Lattes & Lace

by Annora Green

¨°¨

  They got to the restaurant at quarter to 11 and their dinner reservations had long since been given away, but the restaurant found them another table and seated them graciously. The courtyard was filled with other diners, but the interior was pretty anyway. It was a quiet sort of restaurant, dark and charming, with exposed brick walls and rustic wooden floors that revealed the age of the building. They ordered glasses of chilled white wine and mussels as an appetizer.

  “Everyone is obsessed with oysters now, but give me a classic moules frites any day,” Sophia was saying as she helped herself to the little shelled creatures, which were drowning in a bowl of what was supposed to be some sort of white wine, butter and garlic sauce.

  Ari did not know what to say to that. She did not exactly love the kinds of food that required de-shelling before consuming, but she gamely tried some of the little mollusks and decided they could be worse.

  The wine was definitely good, at least.

  “You fit very well into this world,” Ari observed, halfway through dinner.

  Sophia looked up at her, the candlelight flickering on her face. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you belong here. Everything you worked for - your education, your business - clearly it’s all led to this. You have a job that you deserve and are a natural in, you have a beautiful apartment, you live in a romantic city. This is you.”

  Sophia smiled. “I suppose I do. It is everything I imagined it would be.”

  Ari smiled sadly and took another sip of wine.

  Sophia hesitated. It was everything she imagined. Almost, at least. Even if she belonged here, she was not sure the people she cared for most also belonged here.

  “Percy, however, fluctuates from being okay with this situation, to not being okay with it all and complaining about wanting to go home. Things aren’t perfect,” Sophia admitted.

  Ari nodded. “He’s a kid. He’s having good experiences here. I heard him speak some French the other day. It’s impressive.”

  “I suppose so,” Sophia said a little uncertainly.

  She took a sip of wine and dipped a small piece of bread into the soupy liquid of her bowl.

  “It’s not the same without you here,” Sophia admitted.

  Ari paused. Took a breath. Looked into her eyes.

  “I don’t belong here, Sophia.”

  Sophia’s eyes quickly darted down to her food. “I know.”

  “You’re doing the right thing by doing all of this, you know,” Ari said. “I’d never have felt right about keeping you from all of this, back in California. You can’t have this there. If you’d stayed home for me, you would’ve always wondered what it might have been like. It wouldn’t have been good.”

  Sophia nodded, recalling the conversation they’d had a year ago before she left.

  Ari placed her hand on top of Sophia’s. “When -if - you’re ready to come home someday, the cafe will be there. No doubt thanks in part to you, and your advice and your willingness to answer my middle-of-the-night pleas for help with tax forms and budgets and supplier price increases.”

  Sophia laughed to ease some of the tension. “The time zone difference helps with answering those emails.”

  They went back to their food for a few moments, eating in the dim candlelight. Somewhere in the restaurant, a live musician started to play a guitar and sing.

  “Ari?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Despite these past few days, what we agreed before I left still stands. I don’t expect you to wait for me, you know. I’m not there.”

  “Okay,” Ari said.

  So, they were talking about this.

  “I don’t exactly have a plan for when I’m coming back,” Sophia said quietly, taking a nervous sip of wine.

  Ari took a deep breath. “I know you don’t. There hasn’t been anyone else, though.”

  Sophia nodded. “Nor for me. But we’re adults. I just didn’t want you to think you had to... hold off.”

  Ari shook her head. “I don’t. I know. And... the same. For you.”

  Sophia nodded.

  After dinner, they walked a bit, going up and down the picturesque, dark streets, coming across tall, old statues and finally, standing on a bridge overlooking the Seine.

  “I guess I should head back to my hotel now,” Ari said.

  Sophia looked at her sadly, as if trying to memorize her face, her features... her full lips, her golden-straw hair, her strong jaw and graceful yet athletic body. She never wanted to forget any of it, how Ari looked in this moment, in the city lights at night. She moved just a bit closer. She wanted to memorize her smile, the way she smelled, the way her hair fell around her shoulders.

  “I had a dream when I was here last year,” Sophia recalled. “You were in it. You had arrived and were staying with me at a hotel. You and I were sitting outside, and you got mad at me and left... I almost texted you that night when I woke up, after that dream, but I was too nervous to do so. To admit that I had any feelings about you, to admit that I’d grown so attached to you in such a short amount of time.”

  “I remember you didn’t text me much while you were gone on that trip,” Ari recalled.

  Sophia took both of Ari’s hands into her own.

  “I deeply, deeply care about you, Ari,” she said, squeezing them lightly.

  “And I you,” Ari said softly, the breeze kicking up the hair around her shoulders. She leaned forward, hugged Sophia closely. “I’m so proud of you.”

  Sophia laughed a bit at that. “I’m proud of you. I wish I could see how much the cafe has grown, and drink that coffee every morning.”

  “It’ll be there when you come home,” Ari said, though she was starting to doubt that Sophia would ever return home. It felt a bit like wishful thinking, especially once it had been spoken out loud.

  “If you would like, despite all of this, I would like you to come back to my place with me tonight,” Sophia said nervously.

  Ari thought about it for a moment. “I know I should say no, but what the hell, I’m here. If I come with you though, will you promise me one thing?”

  “What’s that?”

  “When I leave, will you at least say to me, ‘We’ll always have Paris?’”

  They both laughed at that, then wandered off into the dark night.

  15. Home

  Nearly One Year Later

  It was a glorious Saturday in summer. The trees were a lush green color that heralded in the summer months, a warm breeze was making itself known through the city, and red and pink flowers were growing in charming window boxes on apartment buildings and outside of cafes.

  Sophia insisted that Percy join her for a walk.

  “Let’s go to that bookstore you like,” she offered from the doorway to his room, “The one where we found all of the old comic books.”

  Percy shrugged from where he lay on his bed, playing a game on his phone. Outside, on the window ledge, a small bird chirped. There was a tree on their street, and fresh, vibrant green leaves had just started to push out, bringing new life to what had become a monochromatic watercolor of a cityscape over the past few months during a winter marked with frequent rain and heavy, overcast skies.

  Inside the room, however, in contrast to the outdoors, it was still a little chilly. The spring sun had yet to warm up the air.

  Sophia cocked her head, waiting for a reply from her son.

  Percy had drifted away from her over the past months, becoming more distant than usual. At first she chalked it up to teenage moodiness, but his out-of-character attitude was starting to worry her more and more.

  “Percy, what is it?”

  “Fine, I’ll go,” he relented grumpily.

  “What is this attitude I’ve been getting from you all of the time lately?” she asked, her voice turning darker.

  Yes, she was concerned about him, but talking to her in that tone was unreasonable.

  Percy did not answer.

  “Percy. Talk to me. I’m your mother
,” she said sternly, and as she did, she internally cringed. She sounded just like her mother.

  He looked up. “Sorry. I don’t have anything to say. I don’t really want to go.”

  Her voice softened and she spoke again. “I was simply suggesting we get out on such a nice day. We can do something you’d enjoy.”

  “That’s a new one,” Percy snapped back. “You’ve been so busy lately I don’t even know if you remember what I like doing.”

  “Percy,” she said, her voice sharp again and her hand instinctively raising up to her hip. “Don’t speak to me that way. Apologize, please.”

  “Sorry,” he grumbled, his eyes on his phone, not sounding at all genuine.

  “Forget about the bookstore, then,” she said, frustrated and tired from the conversation, turning to walk out of his room.

  She turned though and paused, studying him laying on his bed morosely, his eyes glued to the screen of his phone.

  “I’ll leave you alone this afternoon, but we’re going out for dinner tonight. Be ready by eight,” she said before leaving him alone.

  ¨°¨

  Percy picked at a piece of bread and kept glancing down at his phone as they sat at the table at the restaurant. Sophia was just as bad, unable to detach from her own phone, even though it was a Saturday night and the last thing she should be doing was thinking about work.

  She caught a glimpse at a family at an adjoining table, no phones in sight, laughing and talking and sharing a plate of food. That made her pause, glance back at the phone in her hand and then at the one in her son’s hand, sigh heavily, and drop her phone back in her designer leather purse.

  “Percy,” she said, willing her tone to be gentle. “Let’s put the phones away tonight. I just put mine away.”

  He frowned slightly, but the conciliatory tone of her voice prompted him to cooperate. He put it into his pocket.

  “What do you think looks good on the menu?” Sophia asked, glancing at the evening’s menu written on a chalkboard on the wall. Duck and steak were the highlights of the night.

  “Maybe the steak,” Percy said.

  Sophia raised her eyebrows. The steak looked like a hearty meal. But then again, her son was now taller than she was. He’d grown up in a blink of an eye in these past two years.

  “It looks good,” she agreed, trying to remain pleasant.

  She’d been tempted to try the duck breast and sautéed greens, but at Percy’s mention of the steak, she changed her mind. Parisian bistros like these always had the best steak and fries. A hearty meal indeed, but she felt she deserved a little treat.

  “You know what, I think I’ll have the same.”

  “With the fries?” Percy asked, his eyebrows rising in surprise.

  “Hmm. Don’t you think we should have some vegetables, too?”

  “Like we do every night,” he grumbled.

  “Eating greens is a good idea, even when we’re indulging, my dear.”

  He sighed. “Healthy food, work, you glued to your phone when we’re eating out on a Saturday night. You used to be fun.”

  “Percy. I’m your mother, don’t take that tone with me,” Sophia said, her patience once again waning.

  He looked down at his lap sheepishly, the tops of his ears turning red. This time he did look apologetic.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “What do you mean ‘used to be fun’?” she asked gently a few moments later.

  “Nothing,” he said, looking slightly guilty. “I didn’t mean it.”

  Her tone softened again. “No, I really want to know what is on your mind. I used to be fun? What did I used to do that you enjoyed? Maybe we can try to do some of those things again sometime.”

  “It’s just...” Percy started hesitantly. “Ever since we moved to Paris, you’ve gone back to all business, all the time. Just like you were before The Little Cafe opened next door.”

  “Before Arianna?” Sophia asked, surprised by this observation.

  She took a sip of her sparkling water.

  What he was saying touched a nerve. Deep down, on some level, she recognized that she had changed a little bit in the past two years, and not necessarily in the way she had intended on changing when she decided to pursue the opportunity in Paris.

  “How, exactly, did you think I changed after I met Arianna and before we left California?”

  “Well, before Ari, you were like this. Email at dinner, all salads and healthy foods, no pizza or fries, not even once in a while. You lightened up for a while when you were with her, but it’s all just gone back to the way things were.”

  Sophia considered this. She knew she changed after she met Arianna. That time in her life was a beautiful memory, a happy time, a time that she loved and cherished.

  But when she got the job offer, she thought she had finally found the career opportunity that was the reward for all of her hard work, that would give her the respect and satisfaction she had been seeking for so long, had been building towards her whole life.

  She also distinctly remembered thinking that it would allow her to spend more time with Percy.

  Funny that that part had not come to pass in the least.

  Percy went to school and Sophia went to work. Percy got home from school hours before she got home from her job. He was alone for hours, then she would come home, usually tired, bringing some sort of takeout or pre-made food from the corner store that they could have for dinner, before crashing not long after dinner.

  It was quite clear that nothing had turned out at all as she had intended.

  “I’ve been busy, Percy. And I don’t need to explain myself to you,” she said, and even to her ears, that statement sounded too harsh.

  “You were busy with work when you were with Ari that year, too. And you were still more fun, and spent less time on email on the weekends.”

  “That was then, this was now,” Sophia said, processing what he was saying.

  “I wish we were home,” Percy said quietly.

  Sophia studied him. He was playing with the corner of his napkin, taking a sip of water. He looked so old - so much older than he had when they left California. He had become more serious, more sullen. He had always been a little withdrawn, but he had not really taken to Paris, nor had he made many friends. She knew he was alone too much.

  And while her new work schedule in their first few months - first year, even - had left more time for her to spend evenings and weekends with Percy, gradually, as she excelled in her new consulting role, work picked up, and became more and more demanding, until her life was just an endless parade of phone meetings, business trips, and emails 24/7.

  She had to admit, this was not everything she imagined that it would be.

  And bottom line, she had known for a while that Percy was not thriving here, but she had not wanted to admit that fact to herself. He had given the new place, the new school, the new people, a fair trial, but gradually he became withdrawn as it became more and more evident that he just was not thriving there.

  “Let’s get fries,” Sophia said, closing her menu. “And skip the greens for one night.”

  It was the least she could do at the moment.

  ¨°¨

  “Vegas,” Sabrina said over FaceTime.

  “Vegas?” Sophia asked.

  “I want to celebrate over two years of marriage. It’s been my longest marriage ever!” Sabrina said proudly.

  As if on cue, William walked up behind her and kissed her on the top of her head. “Hi, Sophia,” he said, waving to the camera.

  Sophia waved back.

  “Congratulations,” Sophia said. “But it’s odd for you and William to go to Vegas... can’t you think of somewhere more romantic?”

  “William isn’t coming along, sis. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I want to celebrate with all of my friends, and you of course. It’s a girl’s weekend. We’re going to cut loose, celebrate love and life and everything else wonderful in the world. With copious drinking
and dancing, of course.”

  “That is ridiculous, and on top of being ridiculous, sounds suspiciously like a bachelorette party, except you’re married this time around,” Sophia said.

  “Oh, come on Sophia, don’t be a bore. I want you to come. Ari already agreed to join us. Rachel will be there, along with Cassandra - the two of them have threatened to use the weekend in Vegas as an excuse to elope - it will be lots of fun and who knows what might happen!”

  “Vegas is really far away from Paris.”

  “You haven’t visited in a long time. Let Percy visit mummy and daddy, they miss him and say so all of the time. Come on, sis. It’s time to come home.”

  Sophia hesitated. On some level, she knew her sister was right. She should take Percy home for a visit sometime soon. Perhaps more than a visit. Maybe it was time to go back for good. After all, the plan all along had been to work for the Gaulle-Boisvert Group for a year or two, then take stock of things. The two years was just about up. Percy was fast approaching his final two years of high school, and she knew he would like to finish school in the U.S. Attending an international school in Paris just was not the same experience he would be getting back home.

  And she... well, even without Percy pointing it out, she knew she had sunk into her old habits of work, of being busy at all hours, of thinking about nothing other than her emails, her phone calls, her texts... it was a routine that she used to relish, but this time around it felt different. Work was okay, she knew what she was doing and she was good at it, but her life, in general, simply was not as satisfying as she thought it would be by now.

  “You said Ari is going?” Sophia asked after a pause.

  “She is.”

  “Do you happen to know if she’s seeing anyone?” Sophia asked casually.

  She had not talked to Sophia much in the past few months. Their last conversation in Paris crept into her thoughts occasionally. She had, in all fairness, told her to move on. She was glad if she had. The woman deserved to be happy, to be with someone who could give her the full attention she deserved. Someone who could adore her, treat her well, and not put her second place to a career.

  “I don’t know,” Sabrina said honestly. “But if you come to Vegas, you’ll find out.”