Chai and chocolate mousse

I was unobtrusively sitting in the corner at the Sebastopol Starbucks with my soy chai and cell phone.  My friend had been stuck in 101 traffic and texted telling me she was hopefully able to get off at the next exit.  Two soccer moms were next to me complaining about a teacher’s aide.  There was no indication I was even in Sebastopol.  Or so one would think. 

As the moms got up and left a bigger group of people sat down, pulling out some containers of lentil salad, quinoa something-or-other, steamed veggies and chocolate mousse.  I only know this because they announced each one as it came out of a big bag with an Om sign on it.

Apparently they were here visiting from Marin and other parts of the bay area.  As it turned out, I learned a few minutes later after two of them left the table, three of the women were involved with the same man.  And there was a primary partner – I wasn’t sure who it was – and the non-primary partners were not happy with some dynamics in the situation.  I sat at a small corner table, they had actually boxed me in.  So there was no way to avoid hearing the conversation which they weren’t particularly having quietly.  I didn’t know if they just tended to talk loudly about personal matters, or if they were just oblivious to the fact I was there.

The man at the epi-center of this clan was Daniel, and apparently he had the annoying habit of comparing his different women to his primary partner.  I was curious to know which of the three was the “primary partner” when I finally realized there was a fourth woman.  The primary partner actually wasn’t present.   Everyone was in Sebastopol for a 25^th wedding anniversary party (in which I found a little irony given the topic of conversation) - minus his primary partner, and they were trying to decide how to tell Daniel to stop comparing them to her without causing drama. 

There is a reality show for polygamous wives.  But seriously, there hasn’t been one for open relationships?  Because I think it would be very interesting to follow this little tribe around.  (Although it would probably be more of an HBO show.)  Apparently each of them individually had talked to Daniel about the comparisons but they had not stopped.  Maybe they had to confront him as a group.  A man and a woman walked up and sat down with their drinks and the group fell silent.  I realized, this must be Daniel.  Everybody was suddenly overly-interested in the containers of food.  Just then my friend walked in and motioned for me to come stand in line with her.  I just wanted to stay in my seat and pretend to text, but two of the women turned around and looked at me.  “Oh, we’re sorry,” one of them said.  “I didn’t see you there.”  Which would explain why she backed her chair practically up to my feet.

“No problem,” I said, standing up.  Several of them moved their chairs and one of them offered me some chocolate mousse.  “No thanks,” I said, although it did look quite good.  (And I noticed Daniel appeared rather taken with my friend, who is quite attractive.  He kept staring at her.) 

As we were standing in line I told my friend the topic of conversation.  A bit intrigued, she suggested, "We should go back and sit next to them!"  But there was no one else inside Starbucks at the moment, so there was no way to casually sit down right by them.  Unless, it occurred to my friend, we could ask for some of that chocolate mousse. 

Favorite line of the week:

“No, really - that’s his dog’s name.  His dog is named Buddha.”