Sugar and Spice

Chapter 7: Audrey, Coco, and Chocolat Chaud

"Jennie, it's got to be one of the hottest days of the year so far and we're here for hot chocolate?"

Lisa had taken a seat opposite Jennie, and was looking around her with an expression of slightly terrified awe on her face. Smiling over at her, trying to put her at ease, Jennie wondered if the terror was down to their recent conversation and near miss with Chitthip, or the high-end gilt-and-marble interior of Angelina's. Somehow, she suspected it was the latter. Lisa had looked as if she was cycling on air all the way from Notre-Dame to the Jardin des Tuileries, where they had deposited the bikes, and had only begun to hesitate when she saw the entrance to the salon de thé.

"Unfortunate, I know," Jennie conceded. "But you can't come to Paris and not have chocolate at Angelina's or anything, really. The cakes are wonderful too, but the chocolat l'Africain is...well, you'll see."

She didn't add that Angelina's was one of her own favourite places and that, having taken Lisa and Chitthip to so many of her others that day, she hadn't wanted to miss Angelina's off the list. Neither did she mention that Angelina's was the place that she always went to when she had something to celebrate. Jennie's mother had started the tradition by marking the opening of her first Paris exhibition with a large chocolat chaud and a side of whipped cream, while four-year old Jennie had received a mini version of the same. It had been one of the few occasions that she could remember when her mother had actually included her in anything and perhaps, for that reason as much as the chocolate, it had stuck in her mind. After that, Angelina's had become something of a ritual whenever there was something that warranted a visit, even if she did mostly go on her own.

All her early birthdays. Moving to Boston. Moving back from Boston. Passing her test for a French driving license, which, in Paris, was no mean feat. Signing the lease on the pâtisserie and apartment. The opening of the pâtisserie. Her first wedding cake order. The arrival of Kuma.

Now, after her conversation with Lisa on the bench outside Notre-Dame, she felt like she had something to celebrate again.

"It's certainly well." Chitthip looked around her, drinking it all in with wide eyes, and Jennie chuckled as she saw that, for once, Lisa's mother was struggling for words.

"Posh?" Lisa supplied. She still looked a little uncomfortable, but not nearly as worried as when she had first walked in. Maybe, Jennie thought, the smell of the chocolate was working its magic already.

"Yes, but it feels nicely posh." Chitthip settled into her seat. "More kind of..."

"Decadent?" Jennie had always thought that the word could probably have been invented to describe Angelina's, and Chitthip evidently agreed.