The breakfast is a hit. Cheese omelette with whole wheat toast, an array of spreads and preserves: here is strawberry jam, blackcurrant jam, redcurrant jelly , grape jelly, ginger marmalade, apricot jam, rosehip jam, blackberry jelly, raspberry jam, boysenberry jam, and pear jam and crabapple jelly. We have also natural peanut butter, almond butter and cashew butter, all resplendent in little porcelain dishes trimmed with gold and tiny red roses. And there are more croissants. Melissa's been baking again, and of course good wholesome artery clogging ordinary yellow butter. And more fruit, prepared by Carl, pineapple, melon, papaya, mango and banana practically overflowing the white and blue and gold trim bowl barely containing it, and a smaller, matching bowl full of vanilla yogurt.
Everyone is present: Carol, Jesús, Aaron, Francois, Melissa and Carl. There is something special about participating in making breakfast. Carol is stirring cream and sugar into what must be her third or fourth cup of coffee.
"You never drink tea in the mornings?" Melissa asks her.
"Oh God no, I would never wake up then",she says.
"Not very British", remarks Carl.
"And so drowns another cliché", Carol says, "In one strong piping hot brew of Java." She takes a long sensuous draft from her cup.
"Hear hear!" Says Aaron, taking a generous gulp from his cup.
"What, are we in parliament", says Carol, smiling.
"We're in the bloody House of Lords", says Carl with his fake Cockney.
And this time, Carol is laughing.
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