The dog lunged ahead, dragging Selena and narrowly missing a couple heading into the tattoo parlor. Constantly chasing after this mutt, why wasn’t she a size two?
Although the rain hadn’t started yet, February clouds loomed ominously. It would be quicker to take BART, the underground transit system, but it only allowed service dogs. Her arm pulled nearly out of its socket, Selena harrumphed at the thought of Axel serving anyone but his own dogged interests, which consisted of eating, sleeping and running and jumping, followed by more running and jumping. Drew wanted to take him to the annual Blessing of the Animals on the Feast of St. Francis, but Axel was so ill-behaved Selena despaired of ever making that date. Sadly, their pet would try the patience of even a dead and sainted animal advocate.
Blocks later, the only reason Axel stopped in front of Margo’s Bistro was that he knew Margo or Robert or one of their kids would have a biscuit for him if he stood still and looked pathetic.
“Do you want me to get you something?” Selena asked, handing Drew the leash. After one afternoon of busing tables—before the customers had had a chance to eat the food themselves—Axel was doggie-non-grata inside Margo’s during business hours.
“A ginger-peach smoothie. And, Mom, do you know you have toilet paper stuck to your shoe?”
She looked down at her feet to see a long, white streamer trailing from one heel. Not surprised, but exasperated nonetheless, she bent to remove the offending accessory, then tossed it in the trash can. “Hold on to Axel. I’m going in.”
Too late. The café door opened, and a customer came out. The scrabble of claws on the pavement warned Selena that Drew didn’t have control of his dog. When did he ever? Before she could sound the alarm, the overgrown mutt knocked the man aside, then burst through the doorway, shedding hair and shaking drool and looking for the biscuit that was his due.
A teenager at the counter screamed. Robert stepped protectively in front of the girl as Margo reached for a broom. Axel took the move as an invitation to play and, grabbing the bristles, proceeded to drag Margo for a turn around the café. Selena tried to grab Axel’s collar, but the dog, delighted that everyone found this game as much fun as he did, spun around and planted his front paws on Selena’s shoulders for the second time that day.
“Hey, you two,” Robert called out, trying not to laugh. “We’re only a café. We don’t have a permit for dancing.”
Her son managed to pull his dog to a sitting position.
Margo shook her broom at Drew. “Your mother doesn’t give you an allowance big enough to buy this monster a leash?”
Drew held up the broken end of the now useless restraint. “The third one this week.”
“Oh, no,” Selena moaned. “Now how are you going to take him to the park?”
“I’ll use my belt.”
He might as well. The thing never seemed to hold up his pants.
“And you—” Margo shook her broom at Axel, who now lolled belly-up on the floor at Drew’s feet “—I’m not sure you deserve a cookie.”
“Aw,” Robert said, “can’t you see he’s wasting away to nothing? Skin and bones.” He reached behind the counter, then palmed a biscuit to Drew. “Give it to him in the park. After he’s done something he’s supposed to, for a change. So what’ll you have, kid?”
“I was going to have a smoothie,” Drew replied, eyeing another customer walking through the door, “but I think I’ll just grab a Snapple and head out. Mom’s paying.” Bottle in hand, he shrugged away from Selena’s attempted kiss.
“I have a meeting with a sponsor at noon,” she said after his retreating form. “Pick me up in an hour, but wait outside this time.” She resisted the urge to tell him to zip up his jacket. To ask if he’d remembered gloves. If he wanted the umbrella. Twelve-year-olds were a universe apart from eleven-year-olds in what they would tolerate from Mom. Pity. At times she missed her little boy.
As the door shut behind the pair, warmth and peace descended on the café. Selena desperately needed some quiet time with adults. Ever since she’d walked into Margo’s Bistro from an installation she was doing in SOMA, the café had become a touchstone. A safe haven. A place where no one was a stranger for long.
Robert stepped behind the counter, and as Margo put away her broom, she surreptitiously ran her hand down his back. Selena smiled. Robert, a former flat-out workaholic, had wandered into Margo’s Bistro ten months ago to read the want ads over a cup of coffee. He hadn’t counted on falling for Margo and being swept up in her definitely noncorporate way of life. But did he ever look happy now. Not even a visit from Axel the Demolition Dog could eradicate the smile marriage to Margo had put on his face.
Selena flopped into one of the two overstuffed armchairs by the front window. When Margo joined her in the chair opposite, Selena asked, “Is it too early for Irish coffee?”
“A wee bit. And every time you ask you seem to conveniently forget we don’t have a liquor license.”
“You can’t blame a girl for suggesting.”
“Rough week?”
“No more than usual. You know that controlled chaos I call my life? I think I’m losing the controlled part.” Glancing around the crowded room, Selena didn’t see any of the friends who made up their core circle. “Where is everybody?”
“Well,” Margo replied, stretching slowly and luxuriously as if she were the most contented woman in the world, “Rosie and Hud are still on honeymoon. A working honeymoon, some political retreat in D.C. Casey’s staying with Bailey and Derrick, who’ve taken all the kids to Fisherman’s Wharf today. Say a little prayer for those brave souls. And Nora and Erik are at a medical conference in Lake Tahoe. Nora’s sister has Danny.”
Pairs. Selena was struck by the realization the once tight single-parents coffee group had become a loose confederation of married friends who got together when new, blended and extended family commitments allowed.
And she was the last staunchly single person standing.
“And Ellie and Peter?” she asked before she could examine how she felt about being left behind. “Is it your ex’s weekend to have them?”
“Yes. Tom and Catherine are taking the kids to look at prospective summer camps.”
Selena was pleased to see Margo finally speak of her custody arrangement without a trace of stress.
“So you have my undivided attention,” Margo promised, “and Robert’s on call if we need him.”
As if on cue, Robert brought two cups of coffee, a double mocha with vanilla whipped cream for Margo and espresso for Selena. “Your usual, ladies. Apart from the dog-and-pony show, Selena, how’s it going?”
“Fine. Only if you don’t count the dog.”
“Oh, that sweet baby,” Margo cooed in exaggerated admiration. “You can’t stay mad at him.”
“You don’t live with him. And my neighbors aren’t as forgiving as you two.” Selena sipped her high-octane drink. “I know I wasn’t a dog-savvy person when
