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“Good evening. My name is Miles. I thought about presenting something that could be eaten with your hands. Tonight, I would like to present to you a po’ boy sandwich with shrimp, shark, calamari, and alligator. I’ve added a homemade spicy mayonnaise sauce. There is extra sauce on the side for dipping. On the side is a serving of Cajun fries. Bon appetite.”
Ah, it’s not just shrimp.
I bit into my sandwich expecting the calamari to be rubbery since it has to be cooked a shorter amount of time than the other seafood. I was surprised at how delicate it was. It blended well with the other bites. I was impressed. I took back my thought about creativity. I looked over to see what Ms. Patterson thought about the dish. She was forcing the last of the fries into her mouth. I guess she liked it.
“Whew! That was delicious, right?” She leaned down to speak with her sisters.
All three women had cleared their small plates.
“It was amazing!” Kenzie replied.
“Did you enjoy the sandwich?”
“Is it gone?” Ms. Patterson laughed while taking a sip of her cognac. “Upon first inspection, it looked like a shrimp sandwich, but I am so pleased that it wasn’t.”
“I thought the same thing. He did a good job.”
“I think so, too.”
“Okay, everyone. Fill out your cards please,” Frannie instructed.
Hugo came into the room the same way and presented us with his version of seafood jambalaya and crawfish cornbread with jalapeno smoked corn butter.
His dish was a little more intricate than Miles’, but both were delicious.
“I would order a whole pan of this cornbread, for real. Who would have thought to put crawfish in cornbread? It’s genius,” Ms. Patterson commented.
She was on her second glass of cognac, and she seemed to be more relaxed.
Leann was last to present. She created peach cobbler cheesecake bites. She also gave two other versions, apple cobbler cheesecake and pecan pie cheesecake.
I was expecting for the bites to be too sweet, but I was pleasantly surprised by the balance of sugar used in the desserts. I think the cheesecakes were my favorites.
After we finished our desserts and filled out our cards, I sat back satisfied. The plates were small but filling.
“Which one was your favorite, Mr. Valentine?”
“You can call me Samuel if you would like.”
“What took you so long to give me the option of using your first name?”
She’d turned her whole body towards me. The squint to her eyes told me she was slightly tipsy. She was enchanting. It wasn’t something that she was trying to be. She just was with no effort at all.
“I thought you would just pick up on what everyone else called me, but you haven’t. Maybe, I was waiting for you to offer me the usage of your first name.”
“You have my full permission to call me by my first name. You hadn’t offered your first name, either.”
“Up until now, you hadn’t earned the privilege,” she smiled. “But, after coming through today with your family and giving my sisters and me the meal of our dreams, you’ve earned it. Please call me Averie, Samuel,” she smiled.
Averie
“Your Honor we were not informed of any discovery sent to us by the prosecution,” I informed the judge at our pre-trial hearing.
“We sent it this morning to Valentine Law Group, Your Honor. We have a delivery receipt right here signed by the receptionist,” Barry one of the lawyers from the DA’s office explained.
“Your honor! We were due in court by nine am. How on earth were we supposed to see boxes sent to the office when we were en route here? I feel like the prosecution is playing games and I for one, don’t think we should play games with two parent’s futures. They have small children to care for. We hold such high regard for the office of the DA and those employed there, this act of withholding discovery seems even more egregious, Your Honor.”
I was laying it on thick. We all knew the DA was known for playing games. They just didn’t realize I was on the other team now and knew a lot of their plays.
