"It smells amazing," Poseidon said.
"Thank you."
"And I think this wine would be a good choice."He picked up one of the whites.
"I can't say that I know anything about Greek wine," I admitted.
"The whites tend to be zesty, it's perfect with a fish like sole."
I nodded, hoping that he wasn't going to regret the choice when he tasted the bolder flavours of the spices I'd used.I didn't think so, but I'd been late to discovering wine, so while I could appreciate a good one, I didn't know a huge amount about it.
"Yiamas," he said, raising his glass.
I do the same, touching mine to his."Y...mas," I repeated slowly.
"That was good," he responded.
"What does it mean?"
"It's shortened fromstin iyia mas, which isto our health.We use it instead ofcheers.What do you say in India?"
"We don't really have a saying," I responded."It's a Western custom, so we normally just saycheerswhen we want to, especially in households that speak a lot of English."
"Ah."
"Soyiamasis nice."I smiled at him and took a sip of my wine."That's really good."
"It is," he agreed as he set down his glass and picked up his knife and fork.
I watched nervously as his fish flaked.Even without tasting my own.I could tell that it was perfectly cooked, which was reassuring.The last thing I wanted was to make a fool out of myself in front of him.
I ate some of my own fish, relieved when the taste explosion on my tongue reassured me that I'd made it well.The spices complemented one another well, with an earthiness brought about by some of them, finished off with a nice zing from the lemon.
"This is excellent," Poseidon said.
"Thank you."
"And it is better than the dish I made for India."
"What you made was technically fine," I responded."And if I hadn't grown up eating Indian food, I'd probably never have thought about it."
"But you did, so you questioned it.I should have thought about that before serving it."
I shrugged."I'm yet to meet a chef who hasn't made a mistake at some point."
"I don'twantto make mistakes."A hint of frustration came through his words, but I didn't feel like I wasn't safe with him.Far from it.Poseidon might have had anger issues in the past, but I believed him when he said that he'd worked on them, it was clear whenever he spoke to me.
"Everyone needs time to grow," I pointed out."Even gods who have been alive for thousands of years."
"If you'd told me that thousands of years ago, I might have had a reason to threaten to smite you."
"Could you even do that?"I took my last bite of fish, a little sad that I was done, but at least that meant I'd be able to eat Poseidon's dish soon.
"No.Smiting isn't in anyone's power.Though I could do it the old-fashioned way with a good old hit on the head."
I snorted."I could do that."
"Exactly."He pushed his plate away from him."That was good food.I'm not sure how I'm going to match that."
