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“She’s a bright button. She has to be to study modern languages,” she explains. Her voice has a hypnotic depth, her accent a mixture of places. “Yet she’s making coffee on a weekend and evenings when her student friends are out on the town spending mommy and daddy’s money.” I screw my eyes up, trying to calculate Faith’s assessment.
“So, she has to work to put herself through university?”
“I’m only guessing.” Faith holds up her hands, the cloth still clutched between her thumb and her palm. “I could be wrong, but she seems very bitter about being here. And to top it all off, she doesn’t even like coffee.” I can’t help but smile at the way she appears to understand people. I wonder if it’s something she has gained with age or whether she has always been intuitive. Some people seem to read people better than others as if they have a sixth sense. I wish I had this ability. I take people at face value. What you see is what you get. Maybe if I had Faith’s gift, I could avoid a lot of pain.
“What about Lewis?” I lower my voice.
“Lewis, I’m not so sure about.”
When it becomes clear she has nothing else to add, I chip in.
“Don’t you feel there’s something about him that doesn’t quite sit right?” Faith returns to polishing the machine while seeming to chew this over. “He told me the other day he can drive, yet he catches the train to work. Then I overheard him telling Piero he can’t drive and has never had any lessons,” I explain.
“So, you think he’s a liar?” Faith asks.
“I’m not sure. I just think it’s odd.”
“People lie for many reasons,” Faith says. Her words hit me as if I’ve been slogged with a sledgehammer. Her eyes suddenly look beyond me, as if she’s penetrated my makeup and is seeing my pale skin with all its blemishes.
I’m back in the café meeting Richard.
The air in the café has become toxic. Little dark spots dance before my eyes, and I want to blink them away, but my eyes refuse to close, too struck with disbelief at what they are seeing.
“Isn’t he handsome? Now you know why I snapped him up so quickly,” Cora gushes, moving over to Richard and sliding her hand across his chest. His hair is dark with a wave in the front. His Adam’s apple protrudes from his throat, appearing grafted on. There is a shadow where his stubble appears to be coming through.
It all looks wrong.
“He finished work early and came to surprise me.” Cora has turned into a simpering woman, her transformation quick like it always is. Although she has many sides, I’ve never seen this one. I don’t care for it, much the same as her other personalities. “He is such a darling. So busy at work but not too busy to stop in on his loving wife.” Cora’s hand roams across his shirt.
I want to run from the café, suddenly envious of Alice and her rabbit hole and Lucy with her wardrobe. I am here in the café with Cora and…
“I’m Richard. Nice to meet you, Chloe.” He nods in my direction, his eyes holding mine. There is a slick grin across his face, appearing as a gash in his skin. He is challenging me. I am too shocked to say anything.
“Earth to Chloe.” Cora sings. I must look stupid standing here in silence. “I think she drifted off.” Cora sniggers to her husband. “I told you she can be a little slow.”
My anger boils. I am right here. I push my anger down. On this occasion, I’m not the one who is being slow. It’s Cora who knows nothing. Cora has drifted off into a fantasy world because I know.
I know who is standing in the café. And his name isn’t Richard.
Blinking, I banish Richard to where he belongs and tell myself to stop being paranoid—there is no way Faith can know about my past. She releases me from her stare and picks up the thread of conversation as if she’d never dropped it. “Maybe he’s nervous about the business. It’s a big responsibility running a new shop.”
“I guess.” I nod and manage a small smile, relieved when Piero arrives and the conversation is abandoned.
* * *
The building debris doesn’t seem to want to leave the coffee shop yet, so I clean down the large shelves on the back wall, a job we’d repeated throughout the week. I glance at the clock, noting I have an hour before my shift finishes. Faith left over two hours ago, yet our conversation lingers amongst the dust on the shelves.People lie for many reasons.
I escaped the café barely intact, mumbling something about a headache and painkillers. I hope the cold weather will sober me from my drunken state of bewilderment, but as I drive home, I still can’t admit what I witnessed. I don’t think Cora noticed my strange behavior. She was far too wrapped up in her husband.
Richard.
I can’t say his name as I know it is a lie. I am trembling. There was a time when this feeling had been my day and my night. But that was a long time ago.
A door opens, but my precarious position on the stepladder means I cannot swing my head around. I take three steps down, cloth in hand, ready to be greeted by a builder or a delivery man.
I push my hair behind my ear, and I turn to face Gianni. My mouth remains open. I cannot breathe as his presence sucks the air from the room. His shirt and face are sharp, yet a wildness surrounds him that the smart suit cannot hide. I pass the cloth from one hand to the other, unable to pull myself away. I’m unsure of what exactly I’ve done wrong, but the snarl on his brow suggests something is amiss, even without my knowledge of his conversation with Piero.
“Where is Lewis?” he growls.
