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“No thanks. No takeout?”
We stare at each other. The owner doesn’t want me to leave, and I don’t want to stay. A woman wearing very high heels walks by with a plate of steaming food. I suck in a deep breath, and the smells fill my lungs. My stomach growls. The owner gives me a big grin. We both know I’ve lost.
“As I said, I have the perfect table.” He turns, and I follow. This time, he leads me toward the back and seats me in the corner under a potted tree. “I’ll have Enzo make you a cocktail and then we’ll take your order. I’m Gio, by the way.” He leaves the leather menu holder at my side.
There are a dozen items from lobster mac and cheese with truffles to Parmesan margherita portobellos. I have no idea what to order. It’s been so long since I’ve even been in a restaurant.
Gio returns with a heavy crystal tumbler. “Whiskey neat. Enzo said you looked like a man who wouldn’t like a mixed drink.”
I peer around Gio to see a man of similar build and features waving at me. He’s not wrong. I return my attention to Gio. “I’ll have one of everything.”
“The special today is—what’d you say?”
“One of everything.”
“Are there more in your party?”
“No. It’s just me.” I tap the leather. “I can’t decide, so I’ll just take one of everything. That way, if I like something, I can eat it all, and if I don’t like it, I’ll move to the next dish.”
“Everything on the menu is going to be over a thousand dollars.” Gio’s face is frowning.
“That’s fine.”
He doesn’t move.
I sigh and place my black card on the table. “I can afford it.”
The man narrows his eyes but picks up the card. After he inspects it, he places it back on the table. “One of everything it is.”
When he leaves, I decide to check the location of the bathrooms. As I’m walking down the hallway to the men’s room, I hear Gio’s voice. “I think he’s a food critic.”
“He doesn’t look like one. He’s too thin.”
“He ordered one of everything on the menu. Who else would do that but a food critic?”
“We can’t have a food critic here. We just opened.” The voice halts me in my tracks. It’s sweet like a piece of candy but smooth like the whiskey.
“And food critics always come to new places. Make your best dishes.”
“Every dish I make is the best.”
The owner of the voice is the chef? That’s promising. If her food tastes anything like she sounds, this might be the first actual meal I’ve had in months. I hasten back to my table and wait for the first dish. It isn’t long before Gio appears with a small plate.
“This is a cheese nougat made of goat cheese, nuts, apricots, heavy cream, and chili pepper with Parmesan toast coating the top and bottom. Please enjoy.”
And I do. From the first bite of cheese to the last bite of melted chocolate soufflé, I devour nearly everything. And what I don’t eat, I’ll take home with me. I have enough leftovers to feed an army, and I know I will be going back to Mancini. An army couldn’t keep me away.
CHAPTER 4
LUCIA
“There has to be something. You have no idea what you’re doing, boomer.” Bianca snatches her phone back out of Gio’s hand. He gawks at her.
“Boomer? We’re almost the same age!” Bianca ignores him. In her defense, in this area, she knows what she is doing. I always get a small kick out of watching my older siblings fight. It’s my own personal sitcom.
My sister has multiple phones. Enzo always claims she’s a drug dealer on the down-low. She says it’s how she affords all her fancy clothes. I mean, he kinda has a point. Bianca has a few purses that cost close to the price of a house. But I know she dates very successful men that would do anything for her attention. Too bad they each fail in their efforts. Bianca isn’t one to be held down. She’s always on to the next project.
Bianca always claims her use of multiple devices has to do with marketing and things messing with her algorithms. It’s how she can properly see if ads and promotions are hitting where she is aiming them. I only understand about half of the things she tells me about how it all works. She’s the only one with a fancy job that pays her well so she obviously knows what she’s talking about. They even gave her a raise when they heard she was opening a restaurant with her family in fear she might leave. Pretty badass, if you ask me. My sister is killing it.
There is so much of my father and mother mixed into her. I can never see where I fit in this aggressive, outspoken family. I suppose when you have five Italians hovering around you your entire life, you learn to go with the flow because you’ll never beat them, so why try?
