Page 1 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

TO CATCH A LATTE

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“She’s making me wearpurple,” Annie Talbot confided to her sister. They sat at a small table, beside a window at the back of Annie’s shop called The Coffee Break.

“Purple? With your red hair?” Mary cringed. “Street-length or tea-length?”

“Full-length,” Annie said. “With a hooped skirt and a parasol. She has a Scarlett O’Hara complex. Who knew?”

“Tara Plantation in Phoenix, Arizona?” Mary snorted.

“It’s not funny.” Annie glared at her older sister.

“Oh, yes it is.” Mary chortled. “Just think you can twirl your parasol as you stroll down the aisle to the theme fromGone with the Wind...’”

“I get the idea.” Annie interrupted her sister before she could start humming. She loved Mary dearly, but the woman couldn’t carry a tune in a bag, and Annie wasn’t up to listening to all of the dogs in the neighborhood bay in accompaniment.

“You could always say no,” Mary reminded her.

“Too late. The wedding is this weekend.” Annie sighed. “Eve would kill me.”

“Better that than be seen in that dress,” Mary said. She picked up her coffee cup and studied Annie over the rim. “Tell her you’re afraid of that old wives’ tale. What is it? Three times a bridesmaid never a bride?”

“Given that this is my ninth tour of duty as a bridal attendant, I don’t think she’d buy it. Besides everyone knows how I feel about marriage.”

“Yes, I know. ‘It’s an unnatural state leading to inevitable heartbreak and disappointment,’” Mary repeated Annie’s well-known sentiments like a mantra. “Good grief, it’s hard to believe I’ve been happily married for ten years.”

“You and Ken are an aberration,” Annie said.

“Gee, Sis, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“You know what I mean,” Annie said. “Marriage, a lifetime commitment, is just not natural for human beings.”

“Neither is celibacy,” Mary retorted, shaking her head. Her sleek auburn bob brushed across her cheeks in a becoming sweep and Annie felt the familiar pang of envy. No matter what she tried, her mass of curly red tangles never looked that good.

“Look at Mom and Dad,” Annie said.