Coffee & Criminals

8. Mom!

After I recovered from the coffee incident in the cellar, I went back upstairs. Wolfe and Brice had left. At least, to my knowledge they had. They were probably lurking around somewhere, kicking puppies and frying ants with a magnifying glass. They seemed like big enough assholes to do something like that. Of course, I had searched thoroughly in all four corners of the Espresso House for them. When all I got out of my hunt was silence and a couple of dust bunnies to which I greeted with sneezes, I closed up shop and went home, embarassed and soaked.

"Florence!" was the first thing my mother exclaimed when I stepped into the front hallway. She was holding a laundry basket filled with clothes and had been making her way to the storage room where the washing machine was until she saw me enter, coffee-covered and teary-eyed and all. Mom paused at the foot of the steps, her mouth open.

Quickly, I wiped my eyes and tried my best to appear as though I wasn't about to start sniffling right there and then. You have no idea how much I despised Wolfe Sterling at the moment. I'll admit, pouring coffee on him wasn't the greatest idea I ever had. But that didn't make it okay for him to ruin our business. Or my clothes. 

The one thing my parents had worked their entire lives for, and he was going to take it away. 

Harboring a mafia leader, especially one as dangerous as Wolfe, was never going to end well. Damn, why didn't I just run back to the kitchen and call the cops when I had the chance? It wasn't fair.

"Hi, Mom." I grimaced, dropping my bag and jacket near the table by the front hallway.

"Florence." Mom said again. "What happened to you? Why are you covered in brown junk? Is that soda or something?"

Well, it's not like I could just come out and tell her everything. I especially couldn't mention anything about Wolfe Sterling because I wasn't supposed to be in the Espresso House in the first place. Freaking her out was stupid, so I decided to pull my luck on this one. I hated lying to my parents but it was necessary at the moment, so I went with the flow of my bad fortune. "Nothing. I just spilled coffee on myself."

"Over your head?" She questioned skeptically.

"I tripped on the sidewalk and it went flying." I mumbled. I was inching my way towards the stairs, hoping to get out of this as quickly as possible. The coffee was trying on my skin, leaving a sticky residue like tape adhesive. "I know, it was stupid."

"Are we all just cursed with clumsiness or what?" Mom sighed. "Your father cut his finger again trying to make quiches this morning. Anyways-" She eyed my clothes with annoyance. "-I'm doing laundry in thirty minutes. Change your clothes and send them to me, okay? Your father's in the living room if you need him. He's sulking so be nice."

"Okay." I stepped backwards onto the first step, itching to go take a shower. Mom knew how to hold things up better than construction work in the middle of a busy road. She picked up my jacket and added it to the pile of dirty laundry. "Uh, I'm gonna go take a shower, Mom." A conclusion suddenly formed in my head. "But I have something to show you later, okay? It's very important."

"Whatever it is, can it wait until tomorrow?" Mom raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. "Your father and I are going over to the Lane diner tonight. Lord knows they need all the love they can get right now. Stewart never took out insurance on the diner when he first bought the place. Now, they're in a huge legal mess and the lawyers aren't doing crap to help them. When do they ever, honestly? Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked."

"It'll only take a few minutes." The conclusion I was forming was suddenly turning complicated. Soon, that conclusion turned into an idea, and then into a plan. A plan that I needed to carry out as soon as possible. "I promise, it'll be quick. I just need to show you something. And about tonight...can I come along? I haven't seen Martha in so long and I could help clean up and distract some of the lawyers so you can carry out their assassination and-"