“I’ll be right back with your drinks to take your orders, alright?”
We both nod, and he strolls away, stopping on his way at a few tables to check on the other customers.
“Did I just spot salted caramel in the sweet categories?” Nate shrieked, an horrified look on his face.
I turn the black board to look at the back and grin.
“You’d be surprised what people try when they have the option to. I once heard a guy order pesto, peanuts, smoked salmon, and maple syrup in his.” Nate winces. “It looked and smelled disgusting. But the guy loved it and didn’t leave a bite.”
“I don’t think I’m ready to be that adventurous yet,” he chuckles. “I might go with regular ingredients for my first time.”
I look at the list and quickly make my choice, before I hand him the small board. He looks at it thoughtfully, sometimes grimacing, gasping or outright laughing.
“Okay, I think I’ve made my choice. I’ll take—”
“No, no, no, don’t tell me!” I whisper yell, plugging my ears with my fingers. “I’ll find out when you order.”
He arches a brow and I unplug my ears warily. “But what if what I’m choosing is—”
“If you chose the ingredients, it’s because you like those ingredients, and your brain wants to taste them together. Trust your instinct,” I add solemnly.
He shakes his head, a little exasperated smile pulling at his lips. Claudio comes back a couple of seconds later with our drinks and a notepad.
“Scarlett says she has dried morels. Not on the list, but she’ll use them for you if you want,” he says in a low voice to Nate and I.
“What is the pasta of the day?” I ask him.
“Linguine or fusilli.”
“Okay… So, I’ll have creamy linguine, with pancetta, shallots, chopped zucchini, parmigiano, and… Morels.”
“Good choice,” he winks, writing my order down with a smile before turning towards Nate.
“Uhm… Can I have the spicy tomato fusilli, with minced beef, and green onions?”
Claudio chuckles, writing it down. “You guys are no fun.”
“Well, I wanted to add some garlic, but I’m planning on kissing her later and I’d rather not kill her in the process.”
I almost choke on my drink, getting really close to having Dr Pepper coming out of my nose.
“Smart man,” Claudio says, clapping him on the shoulder before taking off towards the kitchen.
Nate’s thumb is rubbing soft circles on my knuckles, his eyes lost towards the motion, and his fist propped under his chin.
“So basically,” he says slowly, “you stayed here for hours, imagining the life of the other people?”
“It’s how it started, yes,” I shrug. “Now, we spend time with just the two of us and we create a story and illustration. He has an idea that he’ll give me, for examplethe story takes place in the forest, so I’ll start drawing a forest, and then I have to give him a detail that I chose likeIt’s autumn and the red leaves are falling. He’ll write about it or change what he previously wrote, then give me something else likepeople are searching for mushrooms, and there are wild animals watching them… It goes on and on until the story doesn’t make any sense and the drawing basically looks like it’s been made by someone on crack.”
Nate laughs, flashing his dimple.
“I hope I’ll get to read a few of those sometimes.”
“Jack wants to publish them.”
“Then I hope they don’t all look like they were written under the influence…”
“Nah, I was exaggerating a little. A lot of them turned out pretty good.”
