by Emily Madden
Eleven
Brianna
When Brie arrived to meet Joe the next morning, she figured out he’d given her the address across the road, which just so happened to be a drycleaners, on purpose.
At fifteen past nine, she spotted Joe hobbling towards her, his face red from exhaustion. ‘Sorry I’m late,’ he huffed, pulling out a handkerchief from his back pocket and dabbing the beads of sweat off his shiny forehead. ‘Eliza wandered off again last night and we were up half the night looking for her.’
‘Again?’ Eliza was Joe’s wife, and by the sounds of things she wasn’t in a good way.
‘Eliza was diagnosed with dementia a couple of years ago.’
‘Oh, Joe, I’m so sorry.’ She reached out and touched his arm. ‘I had no idea.’
‘Thanks, I just assumed Rosie would’ve told you.’
Brie gave him a rueful smile. ‘Rosie neglected to tell me about many things.’
‘Yes, the house; that was puzzling, I can tell you. I would like to think it was a slip of concentration. It honestly happened so fast she probably forgot to tell you. Maybe you were busy on assignment and she didn’t want to burden you?’
‘Maybe, but it wasn’t just the house, was it? She didn’t tell me about that.’ Brie glanced pointedly towards the café and Joe nodded.
‘I knew you’d figure it out as soon as you got here.’
‘Well, it wasn’t going to be anything to do with Chow’s Dry Cleaning, was it?’
‘Sorry for the ruse, I just wanted to tell you in person.’
‘That after telling me she had sold all her cafés, I discover she in fact lied and kept one? One that I never knew existed? And that she was leasing it out to my ex-boyfriend?’
Joe looked perplexed. ‘I wasn’t aware of that.’
Brie shook her head. ‘You weren’t to know.’
‘Brie, for the record, Rosie did love you very much.’
‘If by very much you mean she loved me enough to lie to me, then yeah, she loved me.’ Brie was aware of how bitter she was coming across, but emotion was getting the better of her.
‘I don’t think you can take the house sale or this café here as evidence that she meant to lie to you.’
‘Joe, how much do you know about Rosie’s connection to Kings Cross?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, why did she buy this café here? And why out of all the cafés did she not sell it? I mean, as far as I can see, it’s pretty decent, but there’s nothing special about it.’ It certainly didn’t hold a candle to Albi & Ruby’s. Not that she could see much from where she was standing, but she couldn’t imagine Josh being a better café owner than Tam and John.
‘Well …’ Joe seemed flabbergasted with her question. ‘Rosie had cafés in a number of locations in the Eastern Suburbs.’
‘It’s more than that, Joe.’ She then relayed meeting Sienna Di Norro and their conversation. ‘She referred to Rosie’s son.’
‘That’s absurd!’ Joe said. ‘Maggie was Rosie’s only child.’
‘Joe, she hid this café from me. She hid the house sale. I loved my grandmother, but the longer I’m here, I have to wonder, what else did Rosie hide?’
‘I watched you deliver the most heartfelt eulogy I have ever witnessed, and believe me, when you get to my age, you see more funerals than weddings. What I saw was a young woman who loved her grandmother, who was going to miss her. I know you have some level of anger right now, that you feel hurt Rosie didn’t tell you about Café Floss across the road there, but remember that you’re hurting right now, you’re grieving, and when a little time has passed, you’ll see this all in a different light and you’ll remember the Rosie you spoke about on Friday.’
Logically, Joe’s words made sense, but emotionally, that didn’t make the betrayal any easier to swallow. In the grand scheme of things, the house she could deal with, even whatever connection Rosie had to the Di Norros, but when it came to Josh, Rosie was well aware of how badly it all had ended when Brie had decided to move away. Hell, Rosie was the one who had encouraged her to go for it.
‘Don’t let a man or babies come between you and your dreams.’ Wasn’t that what she said? And yet, it seemed that renting the café to Josh was a slap in the face.
‘Joe, you look absolutely exhausted. Why don’t you head back to Eliza and I’ll just go and deal with this.’ By this she meant the café, and she brandished her hand pointedly.
‘We have a nurse that comes in the mornings, although after last night, I should be looking into organising live-in help or something else.’ Brie knew that Joe was referring to placing Eliza into a nursing home, and by the look in his eyes she knew it was breaking his heart. ‘Besides, I’m due back in court soon.’
They made plans for Brie to come into the office for the official reading of the will, and once she bid Joe farewell, she crossed the road and walked into Café Floss.
‘Hey, dine in or take away?’ a young girl behind the coffee machine asked her.
‘Um, dine in.’
‘Cool, take a seat, we’ll be with you in a mo.’
The café was deceptively larger than it appeared from the outside. It was almost rambling with a distinct bohemian feel. There were booths that ran along one side of the wall, while round dark wood tables took up residence down the centre, the kind you expect in a café in Paris. On the other side, a long industrial-style communal table took up the expanse, littered with newspapers, books and magazines. As she surveyed the space, Brie felt as if it was three different cafés. It was eclectic, a little chaotic and yet, much to her chagrin, it seemed to work.
‘Hey, sit anywhere you like,’ another waitress, this time with dark curly hair and sun-kissed skin, said as she walked past. Her accent was more likely than not South American, but like her blonde workmate, she was young and beautiful.
Josh obviously had a type, she thought drily as she took a seat at one of the centre tables. And would it kill them to use proper manners and say hello rather than hey? And where was Josh anyway? What type of place was he running if he left it solely in the hands of millennials? Brie didn’t let the fact that both she and Josh were also considered millennials come between her and her criticism. Besides, depending on whom you spoke to, she and Josh could be considered Generation Xers.
‘Here you go.’ Dark-curly was back, smiling serenely at her and handing her a menu. ‘Would you like some coffees to start with?’
‘Yes, I would like a coffee.’ Brie couldn’t help emphasising the singular term. When the girl stared blankly at her, Brie realised she was waiting for her to order a type. ‘A double-shot latte, thanks.’
‘Okay, I’ll be back in a few minutes to take your order.’
Brie perused the menu as she waited for her coffee. The offerings were of the usual funky-café variety—acai, dragon-fruit bowls, zucchini-and-corn fritters, that sort of thing, with a couple of signature dishes.
When her coffee arrived, she ordered toast with vegemite and butter, partly because she hadn’t had it in years and seeing it on the menu had induced a hankering. The coffee was fine. Truth be told, it was good, but because this was Josh’s café Brie was hesitant to admit it.
By the time she walked up to the counter to pay, there was still no sign of Josh.
‘Is Josh around?’ she asked the blonde girl, who immediately lost her smile and eyed her suspiciously.
‘Joshie doesn’t normally work on Mondays.’
Joshie? Brie remembered just how much Josh hated the moniker. She used to say it on purpose sometimes just to piss him off. ‘Besides, he was at a funeral on the weekend, so he’s pretty drained.’
Brie cocked her brow skyward and was about to inform Blondie that Josh had attended her grandmother’s funeral, so if anyone should be feeling drained it should be her, when the devil walked in.
‘Skye, did the delivery of—’ Josh stopped mid-sentence, a resigned look crossing his face, as if he had been expecting her.
&n
bsp; ‘Brie.’ He nodded curtly, his storm-grey eyes regarding her warily.
Nice to know nothing’s changed.
‘Josh,’ Brie breathed his name as if it was a curse. ‘How are you?’
‘Wait, you two know each other?’ There was no mistaking the annoyance in Blondie’s voice. By now, the other waitress was at the counter, too.
Josh stood there, hands on hips, all six foot four of him glaring at her. When he finally spoke, he disregarded both her and Blondie’s questions. ‘Skye, Leticia, meet our new landlady—Brianna Hart.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ Leticia drawled in an almost Sofia Vergara kind of way. Skye simply flicked her gaze up and down and considered Brie with cool regard. ‘Hello,’ she said shortly, and Brie almost applauded her proper greeting.
‘Is there somewhere we can talk?’ she asked and waited for him to tell her to leave. But they both knew this was business, not personal.
‘Follow me.’ He turned on his heels and strode out of the café.
‘Wait, Joshie, about that delivery?’ Blondie called after him.
‘Not now, Skye,’ Josh barked and she almost felt sorry for Blondie. Almost.
Brie thought about making a comment about the whole Joshie thing, but doubted it would go down well. Josh’s pace was brisk and Brie needed to quicken her footfalls to keep up.
When they were out of the café, he turned right and opened a narrow door. Holding the door open, he nodded towards the stairs inside. ‘After you.’
Sliding her gaze from the steps to Josh and then back to the steps, she wondered what was upstairs.
‘It’s my secret lair,’ Josh quipped churlishly, reading her question. There was a time when Josh would’ve said those words in jest, as a smart-arsed comeback that suited his dry wit, but there was no joviality in his tone.
‘It’s my office,’ he sighed with more than a hint of annoyance. It was like her turning up had been a massive inconvenience for him. ‘Up to the first landing then right.’
Brie obeyed his instructions and started up the creaky stairs. She could feel him right behind her, and dammit, she could smell him. Butterflies swarmed in her stomach and she told herself they were from nerves and not from his proximity. When they reached the top of the landing she paused in front of a door.
‘Excuse me,’ he said, jangling a set of keys. Brie moved a little too quickly to get out of his way.
‘Ouch,’ she cried out, rubbing the side of her noggin.
‘Watch your head.’
‘Too late for that,’ Brie muttered, scowling.
Josh unlocked the door, and as he did before, he held the door and she squeezed past, careful not to touch him or breathe in. She failed on both counts. She brushed past his arm and felt the hardness of his bicep. Was it her imagination, or did he tense a little at the barely there contact? He smelled of coffee and aftershave.
‘Take a seat.’ He motioned to a threadbare chair.
‘Coffee?’ Josh asked, taking a seat across from her on an equally ancient office chair. The large walnut fifties-style desk, every inch covered with stacks of paper, dwarfed the room, but its sheer size provided some buffering between them. Still, that didn’t stop Josh glaring at her, making her squirm involuntarily. Why was he making her feel like a high schooler sent to the brooding principal’s office?
‘No thank you, I had one just before you arrived.’
Josh kicked up a brow. She squirmed some more.
She cleared her throat and added, ‘It was pretty good.’
‘I wasn’t looking for praise.’
‘I wasn’t giving it,’ Brie snapped back. ‘I was simply making conversation.’
His lips curled into a half-smile. He leaned back into the chair, forming a steeple with his fingers. ‘Why are you here, Brie?’
She was taken aback by the question. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’
‘So, you want to lay claim to your café.’ He stated it as fact. God he was infuriating.
‘It’s not my café, Josh. It’s yours.’
‘But you inherited it, right? Now that Rosie has passed?’
‘Yes, at least that’s what I gather, but that’s not why I’m here. I don’t want to “claim” it,’ Brie angrily used inverted commas as she spoke. ‘I wouldn’t have the first idea about running the joint, and from what I can see, you’re doing a pretty good job on your own, although your staff could perhaps use proper greetings instead of merely saying “hey” all the time.’ Josh sat silently through her tirade, not showing the slightest emotion. She thought his lip actually moved into something resembling a smirk at her last comment, but it was likely he was laughing at her, not with her. ‘And furthermore, I don’t even live in the country, if you’ve forgotten.’
And then, there was no mistaking it. He did smirk. ‘No, Brie, I’m well aware of that. Where’s home for you these days?’
‘Narita, Japan. It’s near Tokyo.’
‘I know where Narita is. Nice part of the world.’
Brie was about to ask him if he meant Tokyo or Narita. When on earth had Josh gone to Japan? Before or after she’d moved there? But before she could explore that line of questioning, Josh got in first.
‘So tell me, Brianna. Just why are you here?’
‘Because until a couple of days ago, I had no idea that Rosie had kept this place. Hell, I had no idea it existed. As far as I knew, she sold the last café a year and a half ago, but then I come back to find she sold the house, and then I not only discover a secret café I never knew about, but that she leased it to you.’
For the first time Josh showed an emotion other than annoyance or irritation; it was genuine surprise. ‘Rosie didn’t tell you she sold the house?’
Brie exhaled sharply. How was it that even Josh knew about the house? ‘No, Josh, she did not.’
‘That means you don’t know about her plans to move here.’
‘What?’ Brie asked, casting a dubious eye around the shoebox of a room. ‘Here, in this office?’
‘No, Rosie was planning to move into the apartment upstairs.’
Brie sat in disbelief, trying to process the bomb Josh had dropped. ‘Are you telling me that my eighty-one-year-old grandmother sold her multimillion-dollar home in Rose Bay and was planning to move into a flat above a café in Kings Cross?’ Even as she spoke the words out loud, the idea seemed too incredulous.
‘I think you’ll find the official designation of this address is in Potts Point, but yes, I’m certain of it.’
‘But … there are stairs. Lots of them.’
‘Rosie seemed to manage fine the few times a week she would come here.’
‘She was already coming here?’
‘She’d been doing it for years, apparently.’
Brie was rendered speechless, and Josh tilted his head to one side. ‘You really had no idea,’ he said quietly, as if it was only now that he believed her.
She had no words. Dropping her head into her hands, she massaged her aching temples. ‘What’s up there?’ she finally asked. If Rosie had been coming regularly, there must’ve been something there.
‘I don’t know. Rosie never invited me up and I never asked.’
‘Do you have a key?’
Josh shook his head.
‘I guess I could call a locksmith.’
‘Brie, I’m not sure you can do that.’
‘Why not?’ she barked. ‘As you pointed out, it is mine.’ She regretted her tone immediately. ‘Sorry, that was uncalled for. It just seems there’s one secret after the other. Secret café, secret house sale, secret son …’
‘Secret son?’ Josh furrowed his brows. ‘But I thought your mum was an only child?’
‘So did I.’ Brie sighed heavily, the tension moving down her head to her neck. ‘But the other day at the wake … never mind.’ She found she didn’t have the energy to finish, nor did she feel comfortable discussing it with Josh.
‘The lease was drawn up by Rosie’s solicitor. And if he’s the one ha
ndling the will, he’ll have more details, maybe even a key.’
It was a good suggestion. But there was one question that burned in her mind.
‘Why you, Josh? How did Rosie come to lease the café to you? Last I heard, you were well into your commerce degree and planning on working with your dad. Isn’t that what you wanted?’
He threaded his fingers behind his head as he considered his response. ‘I thought I wanted a lot of things back then. It took me some time to realise that I was focusing on the wrong things to make me happy.’
Brie felt a pang of guilt. He was talking about her, she was sure of it.
‘Time tends to make things a little clearer,’ Brie murmured so quietly she wasn’t sure Josh heard. But he had.
‘It does,’ he replied. ‘To answer your question, though, it all happened by a total fluke. I’d been working with my dad for a couple of years when I was at a client meeting, just around the corner from here. The meeting finished early, so I decided to grab a coffee. I walked in and the first person I saw was Rosie. Actually, truth was she saw me first. I told her that I needed to get back to the office, but she refused to take no for an answer.’
Brie smiled. ‘That sounds like Rosie.’
‘Anyway, she asked how I was, I gave her the usual spiel about being great, how work was really busy, but it was good, I liked being busy. But …’
‘She saw right through you, didn’t she?’
He simply nodded. ‘Rosie told me that if I wasn’t happy I needed to follow my dreams. She was right, I wasn’t happy. I hated corporate life, but the problem was—I hadn’t the slightest clue what I wanted to do. She offered me a job. Told me that if I wanted to take time out to have a think about what I wanted to do, I could work in the café while I sorted myself out. The next week, I quit my job, travelled for six months, then walked into the café and asked Rosie when she wanted me to start.’
Brie couldn’t help asking, ‘What did your parents think of all this?’
‘Dad was fine with it. He trusted me enough to let me do my own thing. He said he knew I wasn’t happy and he regretted pressuring me to follow in his footsteps, but Mum …’ Josh shook his head and it spoke volumes. Brie could only imagine how infuriated Abigail Cooper had been. She probably blamed Rosie for it all.