Love And Coffee: A Cup Of Grace Romance Series Book 1 (15 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

              “Mocha double shot, hotter than hades, coming right up,” Janey said to the customer in front of her.

              I turned around and gave her a look.

              “What? I was using a Biblical theme?” she said, shrugging her shoulders and taking a cup out of the holder.

              I smiled.  I really liked Janey, green spikey hair and all.  As a matter of fact, I’d like to clone her.  She was fast, thorough, and the customers liked her. 

              “Hey,” Jillian said coming out of the kitchen.

              “Hey, I said looking up at her.  She had a dot of flour on the tip of her nose and I pointed to mine to let her know.

              She wiped it off and took her apron off.  “I need a break,” she said and poured herself a plain iced coffee.

              I grabbed a wet cloth and started wiping the table that she sat at. “Thank you. You’re such a good cleaner,” she said. 

              “You are so welcome,” I replied and started on the table next to hers.  From the looks of it, several children had sat there and dipped their hands in chocolate and used the top of the table as a finger painting easel.

              “So what are you going to tell roach lady?” she asked, sipping on her coffee.  She whispered ‘roach lady’ so no one would hear.

              “We are just going to wait until she makes the next move.  Matt’s cousin said he didn’t think she would do much, except maybe try and scare us with a lawsuit.”

              “Oh, well, then you can just tell her to go take a hike, right?”

              “You betcha,” I said.  I was starting to feel pretty good about things.  There was still the outside chance that roach lady would actually make good on her threat, but I didn’t think so.  Not after hearing what Jeffery had to say.

              “Well, when she comes in today, you just be firm.  And tell her to go away and leave us alone.”

              Wait.  What?  I turned around and faced Jillian.  “What did you say?”

              “When she comes in today, you tell her to go away and leave us alone.”

              “How do you know she’s coming in today?” I asked.

              “Oh I messaged her on Facebook,” she said, and then stopped smiling.  “Wait.  I didn’t tell you that?”

              My mouth dropped open.  “No you didn’t tell me that!  Why did you do that?  What did you tell her?”

              “What’s going on?” Matt asked, coming up to us. 

              “Jillian messaged roach lady on Facebook.”

“What?” he asked.

              Jillian swallowed.  “I’m sorry.  I meant to tell you.  I was up late the other night and I got really mad thinking about what she was threatening to do, so I sent her a message on Facebook.  She said she was out of town on business but would be back this afternoon and she was coming in here to give you a piece of her mind.  I told her she should keep it because it was probably the only piece she had left.”

              I didn’t think my mouth could drop any wider, but it did.  “Are you kidding me, Jillian?  Why on earth would you do such a thing?  We don’t want to taunt her!”

              “Keep your voice down, Tara,” Matt whispered.  I guess I was getting loud because the only customer in the shop glanced over in our direction.

              Kathryn and Janey hurried over and asked what was going on.  After filling them in, it was their turn to stand open mouthed.

              “Oh Jillian, we were not supposed to be provoking her,” Kathryn said.

              “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to provoke her.  It’s just that I didn’t want everyone to worry about her lawsuit.  I thought I had told you guys, but I guess not.”  Tears sprung to her eyes and I wanted to feel sorry for her, but now was not the time that I could manage it.

              “Well, we’re in trouble now,” Janey said, folding her arms across her chest.

              “Yes we are,” Kathryn said.

              I looked at Matt.  “Okay, I am not going into that back room by myself when she gets here.  I need backup.”

              “Okay, okay,” he said.  “Maybe if we don’t have a lot of customers, Kathryn can come back with us.  There’s safety in numbers.”

              “Do you want me to go back with you?” Jillian asked.

              “No!” we all said in unison.

              “Well you don’t have to shout about it,” she said.

              I looked up in time to see our only customer scurrying out the door.  Sometimes I wondered how we had any customers left at all.

              I spent the next couple of hours nervously glancing at the door and waiting for roach lady to come barreling through it.  I kept imagining the different scenarios.  In one, she came through, called me out, and pulled a gun from her purse. 

In another one, she stood in the middle of the packed shop and started screaming ‘Roach! Roach!’  And yet another featured her dumping a jar full or roaches in the middle of the packed shop and watching the customers scream and run for the door, knocking each other down as they went.  I figured we would have plenty of lawsuits coming from that one, what with all the broken legs and skull fractures.  I sighed.  Anyway I looked at it; we were not going to have a happy ending.  At least, not happy for us.

              At 3:15 the door swung open and in marched roach lady with her roach husband.  Thankfully there were only three other customers in the shop.  She had preceded the afternoon rush by approximately forty-five minutes. And I wished she hadn’t brought her husband as backup, but at least we still outnumbered them.

              “Matt,” I whispered.

              Matt was refilling the row of coffee pots and he turned to look at me.  I nodded my head at the roach couple.  I saw him straighten up.  He looked back at me.

              Mrs. Roach saw me and made a beeline for me, leaving Mr. Roach still gazing around the room.  After a moment, he saw where his wife was headed and followed after her.

              “I want to speak to you!” she said pointing a boney finger at me. 

              “Of course. Right this way,” I said motioning toward the back room.  I wanted to give her a piece of my own mind, but Matt had made me promise that I would behave myself and not make any smart remarks.  I don’t know why he didn’t trust me.

              Matt pulled up a couple of chairs when we got to the office and motioned for them to sit.

              “You have some nerve contacting me on Facebook and threatening me!” Mrs. Roach said.  Her face was bright red and it made the makeup blush she had painted on her face look like it floated on the top of a red sea, adrift.

              “First of all, that wasn’t me that contacted you. Second of all, I highly doubt that Jillian threatened you,” I said as calmly as I could mange.  I knew Jillian and she couldn’t threaten a fly.

              “Oh, yes she did threaten me!” She said.  “I know a threat when I hear one!”

              “Jillian wouldn’t threaten anyone.  She’s as sweet as they come,” Kathryn said.

              “Listen, no one threatens my wife,” Mr. Roach said and stood up, taking a step closer to Matt.

              Oh no.  There was going to be a brawl.  I couldn’t bear to see Matt bruised and bloody from a fight with Mr. Roach.

              “Now, we don’t want any trouble.  I think we can discuss this like adults and get to the bottom of it,” Matt said.  Always the neutral party.

              “I’m going to get Jillian.  She did not make any threats.  I know her better than that,” I said.

              “Matt, you know Jillian well enough to know it can’t be true,” Kathryn said, her cheeks turning pink.  Kathryn was usually as calm as Matt, but her friend was being falsely accused and she was not going to stand by and let that happen.

              “Hold on a minute, let’s let Mrs. Donoghue speak,” Matt said.

              “What did she threaten you with?” Matt asked.  “I’m sure she didn’t mean to threaten.  It must have been a misunderstanding.”

              “It was no misunderstanding!” Mrs. Roach insisted, leaning forward in her chair.

              “Well, what did she say?” Matt asked.

              “She, she, well, she said we had better not come back and threaten you with a lawsuit!”

              “Or?  What was the threat?” Matt asked, leaning back against the office wall.

              “I know Jillian didn’t threaten her, Matt,” I said.

              “Let’s let her tell us, Tara,” Matt said, still calm.  I don’t know how he cold stay so calm at a time like this.

              “What did she threaten you with sweetheart?”  Her husband spoke up.

              Oh gag.  Sweetheart.  She would always be Mrs. Roach to me.

              “Well, she said, we better stop threatening them, or, or, else,” she said and at the end, she stuck her chin out like we finally had proof that Jillian was a deplorable human being.

              “Or else?” Mr. Roach said.  “Or else what?  That’s all she said?”

              Mrs. Roach looked at him, then darted her eyes way.  Maybe Mrs. Roach hadn’t been completely honest with Mr. Roach.

              “Well,” she began.  “It was all in her tone.  I could tell her intent,” she said, nodding her head at her husband.

              Mr. Roach sighed.  “It’s impossible to tell tone through email and private messages.”  He looked at us.  “I apologize.  I think my wife may have gotten carried away.”

              “Carried away?” She protested.  “You aren’t the one that ended up with a roach in your food!”

              He looked at us again.  “She has a point.  That’s pretty disgusting.”

              “We completely agree,” I said.  “And if there was any way to make up for it, we certainly would.  We apologize for this entire thing!”

              “We would love to make it up to you,” Matt said.  “In fact, we’d love to give you a gift card.  After giving you a tour of the place, so you can see that we do not have a roach infestation,” he added.

              “I’ll pass.”  Mrs. Roach said.  “I have nightmares just thinking about this thing.  I tell you what I’d like to do.  I’d like to sue you all!”

              Mrs. Roach wasn’t giving in. 

              “I think we’re due some damages,” Mr. Roach said, looking square at Matt.

              Oh, here we go.

              “Damages?  What kind of damages?” Kathryn asked.

              “I think we should settle out of court,” Mrs. Roach said.

              I sighed.  This was going to get ugly.

              “Listen, this was all a mistake.  Something that could have happened to anyone,” Kathryn said.  “I wish we could change things and have kept it from happening, but there isn’t anything we can do at this point, and going to court will be expensive.”

              I desperately wanted to mention the fact that they had filed one too many lawsuits, but Matt had warned against it.  He was hoping it didn’t come down to that.

              “We still need reparations,” Mr. Roach said.

              Then I had it.  “How about we make a donation to your favorite charity?  Then we will all be spared the time and expense of a court proceeding.”  Brilliant.

              “That is an excellent idea!” Kathryn said.

              “No!  I want reparations made!”  Mrs. Roach insisted.

              Mr. Roach looked at us, then glanced at his wife, and then back to us.  “May I have a minute or two alone with my wife?”

              “Sure,” Matt said and we left the storeroom.  I put my ear to the door to see if I could hear anything.  No good.  Apparently the door was pretty solid.  All I heard were some low tones, but no clear words.

              After a couple of minutes, Mr. Roach opened the door and I nearly fell into him.  “Oh!  Look, a penny!” I said, reaching down for an imaginary penny and putting it into my pocket.

              “We’ve decided to settle for the charitable donation. In our name so we get the tax write-off,” he said.

              I could see Mrs. Roach over his shoulder, red faced and flustered.  I thought she may not have agreed to the donation, but had been outvoted by her husband.

              “That’s awesome.  Thank you,” Matt said. 

              I felt like pinching myself.  This was turning out better than I thought it would.

              “$5,000 to the local pet shelter.”

              “What?” Kathryn exclaimed.

              “What?” I repeated.

              “We were hoping for something a little more amenable,” Matt said, crossing his arms across his chest.