‘The brand decided to go in a different direction,’ Jacob explained grumpily.
‘The brand is clearly deluded.’ Ethan chuckled, holding up his crystal glass of water. ‘Anything with you as the face of it would sell in a second.’
‘Hear hear! Or whatever it is you Brits say,’ Skylar said as Jacob smiled, lifted his glass and clinked it with Ethan’s.
Timothy came over to explain the menu and, after recommending the chef?’s specials, he left to give us time to decide. Skylar and Carly began to discuss Dolly’s appeal with Jacob, and Ethan turned his attention to me.
‘What was it like growing up here?’ he asked.
‘It was . . . uh . . . it was great,’ I answered, wishing I had something more interesting to say.
‘I bet this place has a cool history.’
‘Yes. It does.’
‘Fill me in.’
‘Sorry?’
‘On the history,’ he explained enthusiastically. ‘I love that kind of thing, and I’ve always been so intrigued about Hotel Royale. There’s just something so . . . grand about this place. How did it all begin?’
I gulped.
Hotel Royale does have a really interesting history. I know that because I’ve heard people say it over and over again. When Mum talks about it, I do try really hard to be interested, but she can go on, and it’s usually at really inconvenient times, like when I’m following a YouTube tutorial on curling my hair and trying not to burn my scalp. Stuff like that takes a lot of concentration. Mum never understands, though, and gets all naggy with me. I don’t know why she thinks it’s important for me to fill my brain with all those boring historical facts when I’m not the one in charge. Now, though, it would have been quite handy to impress Ethan with some hotel secrets. I was going to have to wing it. ‘It was founded by my great-great-grandfather in the early 1900s,’ I stated, which was a true story . . . I just didn’t know what happened after that.
He nodded thoughtfully and I waited apprehensively for his question.
‘Who runs it now?’
YES. I knew the answer to that one.
‘My mum.’
‘Wow,’ he said, sounding genuinely impressed, for some reason. ‘So it stayed in the family? Which means, you’ll be taking the reins in the future, I’m guessing?’
I stared at him. ‘Huh?’
‘Unless you have any siblings?’
‘No, just me.’
‘So you’ll be running this place one day.’ He whistled, his glance sweeping across the dining room before coming round back to me. ‘Not bad.’
‘I haven’t really thought about it,’ I admitted with a shrug, fiddling with the menu.
‘Seriously?’ He looked stunned. ‘Man, if it was me, that would be on my mind all the time.’
He picked up the menu and studied it.
‘Every time I eat in this place, I can never decide what to pick. It all looks so good,’ Ethan informed the table. I pretended to consider everything on the menu myself, even though most of it sounded gross. Duck liver? BLEUGH. Smoked eel? Ew! What was Chef thinking? I was going to have to have a word with him.
‘You must know the menu off by heart,’ Carly commented, smiling at me. ‘Does it change a lot?’
‘Not sure.’
They all looked surprised.
‘You don’t know about the menu in your own restaurant?’ Ethan asked. ‘But –’
