Authors: G.V. Steitz
Tony nods back with a smile. Dashing man in a tux even in his sixties. Damn fool won
’t retire no matter what I offer him. I shake my head at him. He arches one brow, making me chuckle. He walks to Emma, picks up her napkin from the table and offers to place it on her lap for her. She takes it from him, thanking him with a strange glare. I twitch my lips trying not to smile. I place my napkin on my lap as well, following suit. Tony moves to show me the wine. I wave him off. “No need Tony. It’s perfect. Thank you.”
“
Very good, Sir.” He says before he leaves.
Emma leans in toward me over the table. She whispers,
“You just tipped everyone a total of $250.00 and we haven’t even had anything to eat yet. Are you sure we should be here?” She asks looking at me with her eyes as wide as dinner plates.
I lean over the table and place my hand on top of hers she has on the side of the table as she spoke to me. She looks petrified the poor thing.
“Yes, we definitely should be here. It’s just dinner. Relax. You will enjoy the food I am sure.” I give her hand a little squeeze leaving my hand a few moments longer since she hasn’t seem to notice yet due to her amazed look as she keeps looking around like we are on Mars for the first time with no need for oxygen. I smile.
The waiter comes over, I feel her tense under my touch, so I slowly move my hand from hers, looking up at the waiter. He picks up the menu
’s left on a side table for us, handing Emma’s to her first. Then hands me mine. I wave him off to take my menu back with him. I have it memorized. I don’t need to look at it. And what makes me really happy, is there are no prices listed on the menus. Not for me or my guests at least. We have special menus for my visits.
Emma looks up from hers to my empty hands. Back down to hers she clears her throat, taking a sip of her water. She looks like she might run away.
I offer her wine. It’s red, mmm, and it’s merlot. One I enjoy a great deal. Not sure if she knows wine or not. I will be able to tell shortly though. She nods, thanks me. Waiting for me to take a sip first, she slowly brings the crystal goblet to her lips. She parts her lips as she raises the glass to her mouth. Slowly taking a sip, she closes her eyes to savor the first taste of the wine I had breathing before we arrived.
“
Matthew, this wine is amazing.” She says as she takes another sip. God my new favorite thing to watch is her drinking wine. Not going to tell her it’s a $400.00 bottle of wine. She might never taste another sip if I did.
“
It’s one of my favorites actually. I’m glad you approve.” I say placing my glass down. She looks back down to the menu and back up at me after she had placed her glass down. She closes her lips into her mouth over her teeth, looking worried.
“
Matthew.” She whispers.
“
Yes?” I say looking back up into her sparkling eyes.
“
Is something wrong?” I ask back looking around to see if someone is near or I don’t know what.
“
Umm… Well, there aren’t any prices on this menu. I’m really not too sure of what to order.” She whispers.
“
Why are we whispering?” I whisper back to her, smiling.
She straightens her posture up in a perfect line. Her mouth drops open a bit, looking a little pout. I watch her mouth as she squirms around looking nervous. She then had the nerve to torture me further by taking the tip of her plush little pink tongue out of between her barely parted perfect lips and runs it across her lips to wet them. Good God, take me now.
I reach over to take her hand. “Emma, listen. You have nothing to worry about here. I own this place. Order anything you want. My guests never have menus with prices. Consider it as it were a kitchen in a home. You just eat whatever you want, even if it’s not on the menu. I can assure you, the chef can make anything you desire. Ok?”
Emma just stares at me with her mouth open. She closes it, blinks a couple times. Opens her mouth again as to say something, Closes it again. Is she breathing?
“Are you ok sweetheart?” I ask. Shit. I just called her sweetheart. I let out a sigh.
She keeps her mouth closed. Just nods slowly.
“Ok, good. So what do you like to eat?” I ask moving my hand from hers to give her a moment to adjust.
Chapter 4~Emma
Dear God. He owns this place. Oh my GOD!!! I scream at myself. What in the hell am I doing here? Shit. I am going to completely screw this business arrangement up completely. One I cannot afford to screw up at all. My father
’s health depends on this business deal to close on. I can’t screw this up.
I notice the waiter once again. I look up to Matthew. I can
’t order. I just can’t. “How about you order for us, since you know the menu so well, I am sure you can pick something better than I could.” I say calmly. Inside however, I am feeling like I might vomit. Right now, I would eat live worms from the dirt if he served them to me.
“
Very well, if you say.” He nods looking back to the waiter. “You like seafood?” I ask to make sure she doesn’t have some allergy to land us in the emergency room. She nods. “Very much, thank you for asking.” She politely responds. I nod with a wink. I notice she gives me a shy little smile back with her cheeks getting a little pink from blushing. She likes the winks. I will make sure to keep those going her way. I like to see her blush. So, damn, adorable.
“
Franco, Emma will have the lobster and crab stuffed shells, and I will have the shrimp fettuccini. Salads for both of us, first. Bring a variety of dressings and some brushetta please.” He asks looking back at me. I notice the waiter doesn’t even write the order down. “Very well sir. Thank you.” The waiter guy says with a small bow and walks back to the kitchen I suppose.
“
That sounds very rich. I can’t wait to try it.” I say with a smile. I can’t stop smiling at this man. I think my face is going to freeze tonight in this position. I can’t believe this place.
“
So, would you care to talk about the demographics you mentioned earlier today?” I ask him as I take my glass of wine to my lips again. I better not drink this too much. All I need is to show what nutcase I sound like with too much wine.
Matthew just shakes his head slowly.
“How about we bench the demographics for the night? To be quite honest with you Emma, I used that as an excuse to ask you to dinner. If you don’t mind putting aside business tonight, I would like to just get to know Emma Evans a little better. Is that something you would be comfortable with?” He asks me, appearing to be trying to study my expressions to get a feel from what I might be thinking... God if he only knew. I just hope its not just business.
“
That’s sounds good to me. Personally, I don’t mind taking a break from it all. I am pretty confident you and your associates will find our proposal very competitive and our firm comes with very highly regarded credentials.” I try to sound professional. I hope that sounded professional. I can’t think straight since he told me he owns this place, which happens to have a six month waiting list.
I look down at his hands on the table. Slowly rolling the knife back and forth on the table, he looks up at me from time to time. The waiter brings us the brushetta and salads with some tray that holds four different dressings. I look up and thank the waiter. Matthew nods and pours us some more wine. I drizzle some of the house dressing across my salad. The waiter asks if we want cracked pepper on them. We both say yes.
So we start on our salads, comfortably in silence. Trying to gage ourselves from what the other might be thinking I suppose.
“
So do you have any family near by?” Matthew casually asks, before placing another forkful of salad in his mouth.
I nod.
“My father, He ah… He’s in a nursing home with medical care at all times.” I say trying to stuff some more salad in my mouth trying to buy some time to say anything more.
Matthew stops chewing. Shit. That doesn
’t look good.
“
I’m so sorry Emma. I had no idea. Do you have any siblings to help you out?” He sounds genuinely concerned. That was so sweet. I doubt he really cares, but he seems sincere.
I shake my head as I cut my salad a bit more.
“No, it’s just me. I was an only child. My mother passed away when I was very young, breast cancer. So it’s just been my father and I for oh… Fifteen years already.” I say with a shrug, not trying to sound too serious over the boring life I lead. Besides sounding terribly lonely I suppose.
“
Wow. You had a lot to deal with at such a young age. Loosing your mother, and now taking care of your father.
I really admire your ability to stay so focused. You show a great deal of strength Emma.
” He says. Paying me a kind compliment.
“
It’s not like I have anything to compare it to. I mean it’s only been us two for so long. My father, his name is Tom. He has been sick with cancer for a few years now. He just recently had to get admitted into a full time care facility. It was getting to be too much to leave him to go to work and worry about him falling and hurting himself. He has lost a great deal of strength and weight so it’s better for him where he is. I try to get there to visit him at least three or four times a week.” I explain trying to sound calm. I feel like my eyes are going to well up with tears shortly. “How about you?” I ask trying to change the subject.
Well, I have been fortunate. Both my parents are retired, living down south. Famous Florida for that, they have a nice condo in Ft. Myers Beach. They enjoy it there. Some sort of senior citizen, exclusive community or something. I don
’t know. They get out more than I do. I have two younger sisters, Lexi is 30 and Ella is 25. They both live closer to my parents. Lexi is married with two little boys I adore and Ella, well. She is still enjoying her freedom quite a bit. She doesn’t seem too interested in business. She floats around a great deal. I think she was switched at birth. She is my little gypsy sister. Always dashing off some place or another, she drives us all crazy.” I finish.
“
Are you all close? I mean do you all get along?” I ask.
“
Yeah, pretty much. I am usually the one Ella calls for money or favors. Lexi is a stay at home mom. Her husband Ryan has his own private practice in corporate law. They live in Georgia, near Atlanta. My parents, I can’t get them to slow down. I swear they act like teenagers sometimes.” He chuckles as he explains his family status.
I can
’t take my eyes off of him. He talks with such pride when he speaks of them. It’s sweet. He seems to look out for his younger sisters. I envy he has such a large family.
“
That sounds really nice.” I say with a smile.
“
So what made you get into Architecture?” He asks as the waiter comes in to take our salad plates away, bringing our entrees over. I look down, at this platter that could easily feed 3 adults. “What is all this?” I ask looking back up at Matthew.
“
Ah, it looks like stuffed shells to me.” He winks with a smirk. I cut into one of the shells, and slowly take a tentative taste. I let out a moan I didn’t intend to. I close my eyes savoring the rich aroma and creamy sauce over the shells, stuffed like I have never seen with cheeses, crab and lobster. “God, Matthew, this is unbelievable. Have you ever tasted this?” I ask him taking another bite, moaning again. I just can’t help it. I feel like my taste buds are having an orgasm in my mouth. I look back over to Matthew after my little show of moans and groans over this succulent meal I can’t believe I am enjoying.
“
What? Are you ok?” I ask looking concerned at him…
Chapter 5~Matthew
I cannot believe she just moaned when she took a bite of her meal. I almost dropped the damn fork on my plate watching her roll her head back as she slowly closed her eyes letting out a soft moan. Jesus Christ. I am positive that now is my new favorite thing to see. First, watch her eat sea food. Second, watch her drink good wine. Her lips moving together as she chews. When she brought her fork up to her mouth the second time, I froze watching her open her mouth, as her tongue darted out slightly to feel the food touch her mouth. Pulling the crab meat into her mouth, with her tongue and lips, I never have seen anything so erotic in my life. I need to get a basket of lobsters and just watch her.
“I’m sorry. I never seen anyone enjoy that meal so much as you are tonight. It makes me feel good someone really enjoys it.” I explain, reminding myself to keep my chin closed to help hold my tongue from rolling out after it, as it drops to roll out and hit the table with my chin.
“
You have to try this Matthew, I am so serious. I never had anything like this in my life before.” She says as she holds out a forkful of stuffed shell to me. Her other hand she holds under the one with the fork of food held out to feed it to me. Oh God, I swear I won’t make it out of here alive.
I slowly lean in, she is smiling, so I think this is ok to do.