MadameFrankie by Stanley Bennett Clay Page A

casting an Alfred
Hitchcock-like shadow along the courtyard’s cobbled ground.
    “ Nada importante ,” she answered, smiling winsomely up
at her host.
    “May I?” he asked indicating the empty wicker chair at her
table.
    “But of course, Cedric. Please.”
    “Thank you,” he said, sitting down across from her. He
looked up at the starry sky and the bright moon. “What a beautiful night it is
tonight.”
    “Yes it is. But it seems like every night’s beautiful here.”
    “That is nearly true,” he concurred. Though American by
birth and rearing, Cedric had been in the Dominican Republic so long that there
was a distinct Cajun-Latin cadence to his speech. “Did you have a nice time?”
    “Very nice, as usual. Thank you so much.”
    “I see Yvette is still enjoying her nice time.”
    “Well Yvette is definitely a
getting-it-good-to-the-last-drop kind of gal.” Frankie chuckled again before
taking another sip of her drink.
    “And no Edgar for you tonight?”
    “No, not tonight,” she sighed good-naturedly.
    “You do know there’s quite a lovely array to choose from in
the parlor.”
    “I’m enjoying this right now. Sitting out here under the
stars and having a lovely conversation with you.”
    “You are so sweet, Frankie. You have been one of my favorite
guests ever since your brother introduced me to you.”
    “Well Casa de Mita has always been my favorite
vacation spot.”
    “Good. So how is Jesse anyway? And how is his handsome
Dominican husband, Étienne, right?”
    “Yes. Étienne. They’re both doing well. Very well. They’re
such a married couple. They’re so much in love.”
    “Good for them.”
    “Yes.”
    “Ahhh…love. What a beautiful thing to share with someone.”
    “Yes it is, I suppose.”
    “And you are not in love, Frankie?”
    “I think if I were in love, I probably wouldn’t be coming
down here.”
    “And why not? Who’s to say love is not big enough to share
with more than one? I suspect you love Edgar and he loves you. And I suspect
you have those, or perhaps that one special one, you love back in the States,
just as you and I know Edgar certainly has other loves here.”
    “Of course he does.”
    “Edgar is a wonderful man. And even your brother-in-law
Étienne knows that.”
    “I don’t know about that, Cedric. Étienne is a lot more
traditional than you think.”
    “Is he?”
    “The reason he broke up with Edgar was because he found out
Edgar was a bugarrone .”
    “Perhaps if Edgar would have explained to him upfront,
perhaps things would have turned out differently.”
    “Perhaps.”
    “But then, if Étienne had not left Edgar, then he would not
have been available to fall in love with your brother Jesse.”
    “Perhaps.”
    “Or perhaps he would have fallen in love with both.”
    “Perhaps.”
    “What I do know is Edgar is in love with you.”
    “I believe that.”
    “And he is also in love with Emmanuel.”
    “Emmanuel?”
    “Yes.”
    “Who is Emmanuel?”
    “The young man he shares his house with.”
    “I see.”
    “But of course you do. And of course you are not surprised.”
    “Yes and no.”
    “Oh?”
    “I didn’t know. But then again, he had no reason to tell me.
He always makes me feel like I’m the only one when I’m with him.”
    “And when you are with him, I’m sure you are the only one.”
    “I believe that, Cedric.”
    “So, tell me about your number one in the States.”
    “He’s a lot like my brother and Étienne.”
    “And you would wish that he would be more like Edgar.”
    “Not really, Cedric. I do…love him for being him. I do love
his devotion to me. But he wants to get married.”
    “And you don’t.”
    “Marriage for me is a you-and-me commitment sort of thing
’til death or divorce do us part. I wouldn’t want to give up Edgar for Jazz.”
    “Jazz?”
    “That’s his name. And I wouldn’t want to give up Jazz for
Edgar.”
    “Then why give up either?”
    “That’s the way I see it. But I