Alexa worked the magic of the espresso maker, grinding, pounding, pulling, and steaming until the dark elixir dripped into her tiny cup. Her morning routine started with a quick shot, followed by a more leisurely cappuccino. She loved this gleaming machine as much as she’d ever loved any object and most people. Except Penny, her daughter, the light of her life despite being her complete opposite in personality and preferences. A grandchild would be a tiebreaker of sorts, Alexa thought. “Hold on, I’m almost done.”

Alexa’s back was turned to the camera, but she heard her daughter laugh and then explain. “She’s a fiend about the coffee. She’s Greek; she doesn’t function without it. Give her a minute.” A man’s voice answered back, something about how they should have waited to call.

Alexa didn’t turn, but she knew it must be the boyfriend. Chris? Chess? Ah, Chase! Yes, he was a charming guy, the type you do bring home to Mother. She scrolled through her mental files to conjure up an impression of him. She’d only met him once, on layover in New York City, and Penny had brought him to dinner unannounced, disrupting Alexa’s plans for a serious mother-daughter talk about Penny leaving her corporate public relations job and coming back to work for the family business. Instead, it was an evening of first impressions and impressing, everyone at the table aware of the stakes. From the moment she met him, Alexa knew he was a serious contender for Penny’s heart.

Chase looked to be every bit a Chase, Alexa supposed. Dark hair, normal build, good suit. In politics. As she recalled, he grew up outside the city in suburban Connecticut and now worked for the Mayor of the City of New York, as he said multiple times. He talked about the city like it was a small town and, of course, he worked for the mayor because who else would he work for? Alexa liked him, liked his confidence, liked the way he held the door for her daughter but also let her tell a story without interrupting. This new generation of men had qualities that Alexa admired. They could share the spotlight in a way the men of her generation disdained. Still, did Penny really need him to live a satisfying life?

Funny, when she and Penny talked most afternoons on Penny’s walk home from work, Chase was rarely a topic of conversation. The Diamandis women talked about work, friends and family, the latest celebrities whom Alexa had seen at Bettina, the star-studded pizza place of choice in Montecito, but almost never about men.

But that was fitting, because men had never been a part of their daily life as mother and daughter. One thing she knew for sure: Chase and Penny would make handsome babies. She swallowed down the single shot of espresso and went to work on the cappuccino.