Lapis Lazuli [Prequel To : For The love Of Chéri]

Chapter 4 : Innuendo

It was nearly five in the morning at the café, and the sky outside was black against the pure white of the snow that covered everything and gave every feature of the street corner a strange luminance.

Maurice was managing to prep the barista machine with just his left hand as he held a sleepy Béatrix on his hip, holding her tightly with his right hand.

"I feel guilty that we had to pull her and Romain out of bed," Monique said as she started to lift chairs off the tabletops.

Maurice sighed, "I had no choice. I am decidedly short on childcare... again. Childcare seems to be the bane of my life! I should just hire another babysitter."

Monique just stared back at Maurice, "I don't want that topic raised again. It's a sore point with me. We are not having another babysitter!"

Maurice sighed and then stopped trying to set up the coffee machine and carried Béatrix over to a long cushioned seat where Romain was fast asleep. He laid the little girl down to sleep beside her brother and then walked back behind the bar to Monique, "We've talked about this! It was an accident! A mistake! A momentary lapse on my part! She meant nothing to me at all!"

"Maury, I had never been so humiliated in my life! We had only been married for six months! And you were flaunting the affair in front of the serving staff here!"

"I was not 'flaunting' anything!" Maurice replied indignantly.

Monique looked frustrated at his total lack of accountability, "Yes you were! Danielle told me what she saw with her own eyes!"

Maurice held up his hands, "I fired her!"

"Yes, you did, but only because she told me! And it was backed up by Camille, that she walked into the kitchen to see you smoking while mixing for a salad for a customer, with Cecile on her knees in front of you! I was so ashamed when she told me that. You humiliated me, yet again." Monique lamented.

Maurice slapped his forehead, "Why, do I have to keep hearing this total fable! Now look, I know you've told me not to smoke in the kitchen...-"

Monique interrupted him, "Are you not even listening to me?! Why can you never admit the truth, even when you've been caught, dead to rights!"

"It, never, happened!" Maurice protested.

"Well, Danielle and Camille had no problem describing you accurately." Monique sighed.

"A lucky and general guess." Maurice said.

"I just don't believe you! You never take responsibility!"

"I don't know what they think they saw, but it was not as they described it. Perhaps, just perhaps, while I was mixing a salad, Cecile dropped something, and was merely picking it up? Their young and overactive imaginations can mentally conjure all kinds of false realities! Remember that they are hormonal teenage girls who are biologically inclined towards having babies. This innate need hijacks their minds, and makes them imagine things."

"So it was a female hallucination that they saw you standing there with your belt and trousers around your ankles?! How stupid do you think I am, Maury?! I'm sure I could 'mentally conjure' something far more exciting than that if I were them."

"Monique! How dare you! Those two girls conspired against me! Fabricated this shameless story to rile your natural feminine trait of jealousy! They asked me for a raise, I told them the workplace criteria to obtain one, and they said no! So they concocted and created this tale to embarrass me, purely because they have knowledge of a couple of past indiscretions of mine! They were trying to extort me! Yes, I did have a very, very brief excursion with Cecile, but nothing occurred here!" Maurice said.