said Orbra as Vivien ventured into the Tea House via the back entrance. She’d brought Butch to hang out with his great-aunt while she waited for Helga to come and pick her up.
“How’s Ricky doing?” Orbra continued after having given Butch an appropriate greeting. “Have a seat up there with Maxine and Juanita—if you don’t, they’ll just shout across the place at you until you do,” she added, shaking her head as they walked into the main seating area. “Not a good look for the customers.”
“Mr. DeRiccio should be coming home today. He was doing much better once they pumped some steroids into him,” Vivien replied.
“That’s what we heard. We’ve got a bunch of meals put together for him—Maxine and Juanita are going to take things over this afternoon after he gets home and settled.”
“That’s very nice of you,” Vivien replied, suddenly feeling guilty that one, she hadn’t thought to do the same, and two, that she didn’t cook, so she couldn’t even if the thought had occurred to her. She supposed she could bring him a pizza—the guy was Italian; he’d probably go for that.
Vivien had no choice but to sit with Maxine and Juanita, even if she would prefer not to have to talk about everything that had been going on over the last week. But she wanted tea and food, and she’d walked here so Helga could come by when she had a spare moment and drop Vivien off at the theater. So she headed to the table that hosted the Tuesday Ladies.
Maxine and Juanita, along with Iva, were sitting at their regular table at the front window of the tea shop. A Scrabble board took over a portion of the round top, but there was plenty of space for teapots (each a different style and shape), cups and saucers, and the plate-sized three-tier servers of scones, muffins, and paper-thin sandwiches. Vivien’s stomach growled in anticipation. Dinner at Federico’s had been a long time ago.
“Well, look at that,” exclaimed Maxine in a voice that probably carried all the way to Lake Michigan. She was definitely not going to need a mic for the show. “Our esteemed director is deigning to mingle with us lowlifes, Nita! Now you come on over here and sit right down, missy,” she demanded. “I’m about to beat Juanita here in Scrabble for the three thousandth time, but there’s room for you at the table.”
Maxine thwacked her cane onto an empty seat right next to her, and Vivien understood that she was to sit there. As she did, she noticed a large leather tote on the deep windowsill next to Juanita’s chair. A pair of soft, furry ears, each as large as a plum and with wispy, long hair, peeked out from the bag. They were attached to the sweetest dog face she’d ever seen, with a small button nose and two very large black eyes. They blinked, watching Vivien as she took a seat.
“That’s Bruce Banner,” said Juanita, noticing Vivien’s interest. “He can be a little testy, so go slow if you want to pet him. But he’s really just a sweet little angel, aren’t you, bebecito-Brucie?”
Deciding it wasn’t worth commenting about the dog being in a café—after all, he was in a bag and not causing any problems at all—Vivien sat down. She gave Orbra her order.
“So…Scrabble, huh?” she said in an effort to not have to talk about what had happened over the last couple of days at the theater. “And you’re winning, Maxine?”
“She is not winning,” said Juanita as she set down seven tiles in a row: click, click, click, click, click, click, click. “Because I’ve just played a bingo on a triple word score square with a V and a Z.”
Maxine’s eyes bugged out of their sockets as she spun away from Vivien and whipped her attention to the lazy-Susan-style game board. “There’s no bingo word with V and Z,” she snarled. “You made it up like you always do—”
“Not true,” said Juanita, looking pleased as punch—and fresh as a lemon drop—in a frosty-yellow maxi dress. For once, her fingernails didn’t match her clothing but picked up the same rosy pink as her lipstick. She appeared extremely satisfied with herself. “‘Vizards’ is a perfectly acceptable Scrabble word and you know it, Maxine. Unlike ‘slidiest,’ which you tried to use on me last week.”
Juanita’s eyes danced as she went on to calculate her score. “That’ll be…let me see…ah yes…twenty points for the word, tripled is sixty points, plus fifty