"Perhaps not, but we could revisit the idea of a wine tasting at Dionysus' vineyard."
"That sounds like something that could take a while to set up."
"I could have him give us a private tour tomorrow."
I laughed."That's probably a little excessive.Next Tuesday would be fine."
"I take it that you're agreeing to a date now?"
"Yes."I leaned back in my seat."Tonight has been a lot of fun so far."
"It has," he agreed."And good food."
"That's normally what makes a night fun for me," I admitted.
"That seems like a challenge."His voice dripped with promise, and I found myself swallowing hard in response.
Instead of responding, I ate some more of my food, not really knowing what to say.It wasn't as if Iwasn'tthinking about what it would be like to be with Poseidon.To feel his hands on my skin and his fingers tangled in my hair.
The kitchen heated up in a way that had nothing to do with food, and I found myself wishing that I had a cold bucket of water that I could throw over my head to cool myself off.This was ridiculous.I was a grown woman, and I'd been around enough people to know how to keep my thoughts on the right track.
I finished my food, using the tastes to focus.
"That was really good," I said as I finished it, the tomato and garlic taste still lingering on my tongue.His food had been good when I came to eat the tasting menu, and at the Jinx event, but this had been better.This was comfort food."Why did you choose this dish tonight?"I asked curiously.
He laughed."Always the journalist."
My lips quirked up into a smile."It's hard to turn it off."
"I made it because I like it.And when I thought about what you might like, I thought about this kind of thing.An authentic taste of Greece."
"How?I mean, you barely know me.How could you know what I might like and what I might not?"I swirled the wine around my glass while I waited for him to respond, even more curious than before.
"How someone approaches food can tell me a lot about them," he responded, leaning back in his seat and studying me with dark blue eyes.It was easy to see why anyone who had seen them had thought that he was a god of the sea."I read more of your reviews too, which helped."
I had to admit to being impressed, especially when I'd only just started my job at theParanormal Gourmet, which meant that he'd really had to go digging to find some of my past reviews."And what could you tell about me?"I asked curiously.
"That you like food to be genuine.You don't want something that's an approximation of a flavour, you want the flavours to shine and tell you what they're about themselves."
I took a sip of wine."Go on."
"You don't like things like the Indian dish on my tasting menu because they take the basic elements of a cuisine, but they don't use them in an interesting way."
"Your dish wasn't that bad," I assured him."It was technically fine..."
"Yes, you've said.But technically fine isn't enough for you.The food has to have heart."
"That's surprisingly insightful for a god of your reputation."
He chuckled."I did tell you that food was where I channelled a lot of my emotions."
"So you did."
He got to his feet and cleared the plates."And now I'll serve you something I didn't make, but do love."
"Orange pie?"
"Exactly."
