A Poor Fare

Jojo turned up on my doorstep this morning like the proverbial bad penny he is and I almost had to wrench the door open from a determined Maritka who looked more apt to roll his head down the driveway than allow him to cross the threshold.

Uncomfortably aware of her disapproval and perhaps sensitive to the echoes of our past history he asked me in tones so polite they almost resembled formal if he would be allowed to take to me to lunch. Fighting the urge to pull his hair out and run him over with Mother’s old Mercedes which I felt was quite up to the task I found myself overwhelmed with a curiosity that had me accept his invitation, albeit warily, I still accepted this unexpected offering.

Of course any hope that Jojo had turned over a new leaf was soon dispelled when he carted me over to none other than Sedero’s for lunch. We entered to see the usual crowd doing their usual wheeling and dealing, Osric and Lynx were huddled in a corner exchanging war stories no doubt and Jojo acted oblivious to her presence which again was another surprise. Perhaps being dumped twice by the same women finally gave him the message; I know I finally got mine after two rounds with him. The staff smiled over at me not with the familiarity of old colleagues for I was a Dubois now and this raised the invisible yet inevitable social barrier that was attached to the name. The astonished glance Chantal gave us reassured me that this was no set up created by Gervais and I had hopes that for once Jojo would have a thought entirely of his own creation.

I could see from his demeanor that Jojo was not entirely at ease with the situation himself and I wondered if he was bracing himself against an emotional onslaught he very much deserved but I had moved onto fighting far bigger battles than the wandering eye of a surf boy. I enjoyed the moment and for a second glimpsed the world of a Dubois residing inside of me. I suppose I should have been horrified at my pleasure at his discomfort but the events of the last year had not only removed my rose coloured glasses but crushed them into dust. If Jojo wanted my company I was not about to make it easy for him, he could fidget about until he said what he needed to say. We ordered and as he fussed about with a napkin I could almost hear him rehearsing his speech in his mind. Before a word came out of his mouth the loud braying laugh of Ladonna filled the place and she swept in on an imperious cloud of Chanel and pearls leaving in her wake-- aloof almost to the point of being invisible a detached Liselle.

I knew enough of my family to know that they do nothing upon a whim and Gervais had either sent them in as scouts, spies or even a warning. Ladonna upon seeing us at a table pronounced how sweet it was that we two young things were taking lunch and promptly invited herself to our table. Liselle sat down the outer edges pretending not to notice the other occupants of the table and was brought a martini before she even looked up to order. I could understand her liquid lunch, after a lifetime of Gervais I would probably have been on the same diet. Jojo tried glaring at Ladonna but that was about as effective as a drop of water in a drought and she dominated the conversation with whatever gossip crossed her mind. Mindless as Ladonna liked to perform I saw that all her comments shrewdly involved Jojo and his life in some way and Liselle while appearing on another planet had absorbed every word that was said so I sat quietly and observed the game at play. I could see Jojo’s resolve dissolving under the pressure and once he sat back in his chair, his tie askew I knew the ladies had achieved their objective. Whatever Jojo Sedero had wanted to say to me, he was not going to say it today and we sat an odd crowd of people none of us wishing to be at that table at that time. After demolishing Jojo Ladonna turned her foghorn voice in my direction and attempted to get me to agree to move into the compound. Her announcement that family needed to be together had me choke on my drink and I stared at her as if she were insane, even Liselle allowed a wisp of a smile to touch the corners of her lips at this unholy assertion. I gave Ladonna a stern look and she had the sense to know a dead horse when she saw one.

If I thought the lunch could not get any stranger then it did as Caspar Royale rolled up and happily also invited himself to our table. He sat down with the confidence of an invited guest and proceeded to order lunch as if Jojo and I had been waiting for him. He and Ladonna gossiped about half the town and then spent the rest of the time lamenting how much he missed me at work. Liselle worked her way through another two drinks and Jojo had given up totally and started crumbling bread sticks onto his plate. Gervais was really over doing it, all we needed now was Bianca Sangu and her husband and every loony in town would be lunching with us. There was nothing much to do but enjoy the show and wait until after lunch to talk. However this was not to be as Jojo then gets an urgent call from Royce and has to dash off. I raise an eyebrow in disbelief when at another table Lynx gets a call and dashes off. Of course Gervais was ensuring that we did not spend any time alone at least probably not until after he was able to threaten Jojo in private and the rest of the table did not even bother to conceal their collective sigh of relief. It looked like lunch was the usual fare—whatever Gervais wants, Gervais gets.

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