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“Luke!” Allie calls out the back door ofTurbine. Well—ofVoyeur Café, now.
“Yes?” I ask, around the boxI’m holding.
“Get in here. I want you to meet someone.” The door closes behind her before I have a chance to respond.
“I’ll finish this up,” Cam says, taking the box back from me. “You heard the lady. Get in there.”
I find her in Brian’s chair by the front window, Betty laying by her feet, and an older couple sitting in the two seats across from her. Lots of retirees in Palm Springs, but I don’t know these two.
“There you are,” Allie chimes. “This is Nora and Lou!”
Nora and Lou. The names sound familiar, and I realize there’s an old photograph of this woman in my desk drawer that I can finally return to its owners. I’d recognize that mischievous glint in her eyes anywhere. “Hi, son,” Lou says, extending a hand to me. “We’re the ones who used to own the place. I ran the diner here, and Nora had the bookstore on that side.”
“You knew that.” Allie bats at me playfully in the chest before indicating we should share the leather armchair. She gets up just long enough for me to sit before leaning back into my lap.
“We heard there were big changes, and I told Lou we had to come see for ourselves,” Nora says, waving a hand toward the counter.
There have been big changes. Devon and Bea worked non-stop getting the place ready for our opening. The wall behind the bar, that used to be painted a crisp white, now boasts sunflower-yellow two-by-six tiles stacked in crisp lines up to the ceiling, brass sconces, and a set of taps. The counter itself is still white quartz, which was a battle I lost against Devon. I would have preferred concrete to match the floors, but she said that was, “Industrial, unnecessary, and incongruent with the mid-century modern flair of this space.”
There’s a second register at the bar, framed black and white photos of vintage bikes, including a blown-up version of thepicture of Grandad that lives in my toolbox, and the fucking white pedestal tables are finally gone, replaced by sensible black ones with four legs. More hanging plants have been added around the glass wall and the windows to the outside. The sputnik lights and the massive starburst clock remain, but the black barstools have been replaced with walnut ones with back support.
The kitchen in the back also received a hefty facelift, now boasting a full chef’s set up.
“I tell people your story all the time,” Allie beams.
“That she does,” I nod. I found the original blueprints for the building while I was working on splitting the deed. They confirmed there was always a window, so people could see the work being done on their cars. But I tucked them away. The story brings Allie so much joy. No harm in her believing it. Still, I wonder why this couple lied.
“He’s so silly. He doesn’t believe it.” Allie squeezes my hand.
“Allie, can I borrow you for a minute,” Devon calls from behind the bar, voice firm in a statement, not a question.
“I’m sorry,” Allie apologizes to Nora and Lou. “I have to see what she needs, but I’ll be back.” Betty lifts her head and watches as Allie hurries away.
“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Nora says. “It’s a big day. Take care of what you need to.” Looking at Lou, she says, “I’m going to visit the little girl’s room,” and follows Allie toward the back of the restaurant.
As soon as they’re both out of earshot, I lean forward, bracing my forearms on my knees. “Lou, I have to ask,” he smiles, knowingly, before I have the question fully out. “Why the story about the window?”
“Nora and I didn’t always get along. She hated me for a long time.” He shakes his head, laughing to himself. “I came in one day, and she’d boarded up the windows from her side, still won’ttell me how she pulled it off by herself. She’s tall, but not that tall. Couldn’t have done it without a ladder, and I know she didn’t have one of those. The boards she used were nasty and splintered. Took me hours to get them all down.”
“How’d you get her to let you take them down?”
“Oh, she didn’t let me.” He smiles warmly, reminiscing.
“I broke in after she left that night. And the night after that, while I was gone, she put them up again. The next night, I threw the boards away a few streets over. She found new ones. Went back and forth like that for an entire week.”
I glance over to the curtains that Allie put up months ago, still hanging next to the glass wall, that she only used for a weekend. Mild in comparison.
“The final night I went in to take them down was New Year’s Eve, and I had a party to get to. Nora was waiting for me, and we had it out. She yelled and told me how I was a selfish prick, and I told her why she was a spoiled princess.” A sly grin tugs at the edge of his mouth briefly. “Well, we worked it out. I didn’t make it to the party. She didn’t make it to whatever plans she had. The boards never went back up, and she’s been mine ever since. I told her she could build an entire wall to block the windows, and I’d just put in new ones.”
“Well, that explains it,” I chuckle, and I can’t help but smile.
Lou nods. “That’s where it comes from. The windows were already there, but if they weren’t, I would have had them put in the moment I laid eyes on that woman. I was never going to miss a second of Nora.”
Chapter 34
Allie
“Celebrate today. Big things, little things. You know how to throw a party better than anyone. Take advantage of that fiery center-of-attention energy.” -Allie’s horoscope, August 1st
