Impeccable Italian Dining
The limo whisking the two women away for a special evening pulled up in front of a lovely italian restaurant. The name Enzo's meant nothing to Nyra, when she saw the discrete sign but her appreciation of the owners taste went up considerably as they entered. The host was a very gracious man that quickly found them a quiet table in the elegant space. They sat near the dance floor but not next to it and Nyra vowed to enjoy the music while they ate.
With a thankful smile to their host the artist took the menu while knowning Connie would not have brought her here if they could not accommodate her eating habits. The candle light bathed her lover's face in its golden glow adding to the romantic atmosphere. Glancing briefly at the house specialties, the vegan soon flipped through the fine paper pages for the small veggie section. She was not disappointed by their amazing sounding offerings. Deciding upon the tomato based dish rather than the garlic based dish in deference of their 'date' before petting Connie's hand lightly.
"Thank you for bringing me here. Its amazing."
As soon as she remembered that, she mentally smacked herself in the forehead as she'd forgotten to wear it that night!
Thankfully the swapping of their empty soup bowls was sufficient to hide her self-frustrated sigh.
After Nyra picked up the spoon to indulge in her meal, she watched closely before her lover paused to ask her the question. Flushing gently and feeling a bit self-conscious suddenly, the vampire simply nodded. Her eyes widened and she hoped the 'yes please' that her throat wouldn't let past her lips would be communicated to her lover.
Somehow Nyra's eyes had closed as she concentrated on the flavors and textures of the dish. Very carefully she chewed and swallowed the bite with a tiny moan in her sigh of pleasure. The dish was really fabulous. Blinking shyly while she dabbed at her lips with the napkin, the artist looked up.
"Its really very good."
She found herself smiling gently as Nyra looked up at her and claimed how 'really very good' the dish was. Arching her brow, Connie leaned forward, her eyes flicking from Nyra's plate to her lover's fork to those amazing hazel eyes. Her lips parted slightly, and her other brow rose to meet the other in an expectant look at her companion.
Nyra paused, and looked at her with an almost teasing look - as if to say 'you think you're gonna get some of this?' - but then the fork dipped into the plate. Twisted, swirled, the artist deftly picked up some of the dish and, holding her cupped palm beneath the fork, reached carefully across the table.
Not carefully enough though, as her elbow bumped her cranberry Italian soda unheeded. Connie's mind reached out and steadied the glass, pushed it barely a quarter of an inch gently aside, as she focused on the offering of Nyra's dish before her. Opening her mouth, she leaned forward just a bit more and, using her teeth, carefully pulled the swirled pasta and sauce from the utensil. Chewing slowly, relishing the smokey-garlic flavor with a hint of tomato, she waited for Nyra to return her hands back to the edge of the table. Swallowing, she mirrored Nyra's dainty cleaning of her lips and nodded, her eyes wide. "You're right, it is very good."
Pursing her lips she cleaned up a bit of herb she felt pressing against her lower front teeth with her tongue. She quietly savored the gentle aftertaste of the dish before washing it away with her own glass of pomegranate soda. Lifting up her own fork, she indicated it while asking Nyra, "Would you like to try a bite of mine, love?"
Sharing food was such a sensual thing. Their whole evening seemed designed to delight their senses and stimulate them more and more. A walk along a moonlit beach would delight her in just the same way and she was quite looking forward to the rest of the evening.
Smiling across the table she nodded at the offer of a taste of the eggplant dish. Leaning forward slightly, but not enough to put her chest in her bowl of pasta she licked her lips slighly and awaited the bite to be delivered.
As the accountant waited patiently for Nyra to take her morsel, she felt a bubbling begin in her belly. An unfavorable burning began to creep its way up her innards as Nyra took the morsel from the fork. A foul taste began tickling at Connie's throat, and she whispered, "Right back" as her hand picked up her purse from the seat next to hers on her way out to the ladies' room.
The acidic tang of bile bit at the back of her tongue as she swung open one of the stall doors (a bit too roughly) and quickly kneeled at the porcelain recepticle.
Slowly she opened her eyes to spy her lover moving swiftly to the ladies room. Recalling the comment she wondered if in the transfer of food, something had gotten on her dress. Taking a sip of her soda she nibbled her lip and awaited the return of Connie, unsure weather to follow or stay at the table. The minutes passed slowly and Nyra worried her napkin between her fingers, silently cursing the pack mentality of trips to the ladies room.
Her belly felt empty. "That's because it -is-, Stone." It wasn't making the wiggly-burny movements anymore, and in fact she felt kind of hungry. Peckish, one might say... That a little bite might take the edge off.
Unfortunately... no one seemed to be entering the bathroom with her.
Shaking off the little bit of hunger she felt - she might need to eat later that night or the next day - she replaced her hygeine tools and made sure everything was ship shape. Luckily, she hadn't gotten her flowy skirt dirty, and hadn't gotten anything in her hair.
When she returned to the table, she smiled as she set her purse back down. "Sorry about that. How did you like the eggplant?"
"Yes, the eggplant is very good. Flavorfull even without the alfredo sauce."
Before returning to her dinner she placed her hand upon Connie's across the table. Unable to restrain herself she asked a cryptic question hoping to see a smile and nod in return. "Everything ok?"
Stroking Nyra's thumb once more before disengaging their hands, Connie picked up her fork and began picking at her meal slowly, then more confidently. Her stomach didn't protest; she realized it was possibly nervousness - "Nervosity, nervosity!" she heard Rachyl's voice chanting as she suddenly remembered the first time her redheaded friend got behind the wheel. This caused her to snort quietly, thankfully hidden by most of her hand and her forkful of food, though the sudden expression of air caused a bit of broccoli floret to jump from her fork back to the plate. Pursing her lips as she set her fork down, Connie tried her best to be still and not shake her chair too much as she giggled. Taking a deep breath a short moment later she wondered if it hadn't also been Nyra's dinner choice, and decided not to partake of any more if it was offered.
Just as she made that decision, she looked up to see Nyra holding her fork in her direction, a questioning look on her face. Connie shook her head and demurely replied, "No thank you, Nyra." She rescued the bit of broccoli floundering in the middle of her tomato sauced eggplant and thoughtfully chewed on her portion.
A Trivial Pursuit moment - probably brought on by Rachyl's meanderings while they were trying to teach her how to drive - hit her, and she said to Nyra, "Did you know New Jersey produces two thirds of the world's eggplant?"
"Wow, I was not aware that Jersey made anything more than petrolium products! I do know that an eggplant is a fruit, specifically a berry, rather than a vegetable"
Taking this moment to pat her lips clean with her napkin she then took a sip of her soda while she mused. "I wonder if they produce organic eggplants in New Jersey?"
Placing her glass back down carefully she pondered where exactly the random fact had come from. Smiling at her date she contemplated the situation. Maybe Connie was trying to talk to her about things she knew or enjoyed. Which could be true, she certainly loved food and would talk about it nonstop should the occasion arise. But never before had her partner shown such an interest. A brief flicker of a thought crossed her mind, what if Connie was nervous? Pushing it aside she scoffed at the idea. The young woman before her was always so sure of what she was doing and what she wanted that could hardly be the case even if this was a big day.
Blowing a quick kiss across the table, she returned her attention to eating her dinner very carefully.
Connie wasn't sure if Nyra's appraising glance was because she was impressed with the random factoid, or if she was trying to divine why the accountant had brought up such trivial matters.
Wasn't that what friends did? Talk about everything and nothing, but always something? She tried to remember the last conversation she'd had with Nyra, and couldn't exactly remember its course. Something about her mother, and the possibility of a trip, and wonderful information about the possibility of an encore gallery showing... But then, Connie realized, they'd never really had a 'nothing' conversation.
But she didn't mind. Meegan helped her with small things, with deep things that she couldn't talk immediately with Nyra about. The designer was well on her way, she thought to herself, to becoming her first true best friend since... since... Did Emily ever count? She wondered momentarily about the girl who'd been captured when she had, all those years ago.
Heaving a sigh and focusing again on her lover, and her meal, Connie realized she'd devoured the entirety of her eggplant - it really had been good! - she just hadn't paid much attention to it. A few forkfuls of pasta remained, as well as about half of her broccoli. Absently, she speared one of the florets with her fork, and swiped it across the dripped juice of her eggplant before nibbling on it.
Taking another bite of her dinner she made a mental note to talk to her friend more. Noting that, she realized she and Connie needed to talk more as well. They seemed to be much like ships passing in the night rather than dedicated partners lately. Smiling at the beauty across the table she wondered if Connie had come to this conclusion quite some time before she did.
Taking a few last bites she wiped her mouth clean on the napkin in her lap before pushing the mostly empty bowl towards the edge of the table. "When I was in college the underaged crowd would throw parties in the common areas, with poetry and short story readings. Sometimes even staging small plays or musical acts. While I never joined the festivities, I could enjoy the sound coming into my window. I wonder if anything like that happens here in Nachton because I think with the right companion, I would greatly enjoy seeing something of that nature in person."
She finished the bit of pasta and broccoli left on her plate, and drained the minute remainder of her soda as well. She listened with a smile to Nyra's recounting of her college experience. Pondering the event she'd described, she replied, "Well, I admit, I haven't looked up anything suchly here in Nachton. It does sound like a fun treat, though. I wonder," she mused, idly dabbing her napkin on her lip, "if the Marina has such entertainment, since I think I saw an amphitheatre nearby when I was there last, or maybe Founder's Square. The new Park, too maybe?" She half shrugged. "Just some ideas that we could certainly explore."
Her brain chimed in silently, "As long as it's not in daytime, Stone." "When I lived near Austin they had a lot of such entertainment. But then again," she grinned wryly "Austin is the live music capitol of the world." She snickered to herself. "The city's motto is 'Keep Austin Weird.' You just have to love a city that almost makes fun of itself like that."
"I dont think I have ever heard of a city with a motto quite like that. In fact, I dont really know many city motto's at all. Interesting trivia though, I wonder what Nachton's is. Do you know any?"
The evening was just perfect. Their waiter promptly and silently cleared off their table before returning with a dessert menu. Nyra sighed and shook her head, not expecting to be able to find anything without dairy or eggs in their offerings. Undetered the waiter pointed out specifically the poached pears with a pear sorbet topping or the fresh berry tart which contained neither milk nor eggs. Knowing that most tarts contained gelatin, the artist opted for the other. "The pears please. Thank you."
He stood politely awaiting Connie's choice if any while Nyra sipped her soda.
When the waiter handed the artist a dessert menu, Connie realized she had technically barely eaten. She requested the same when Nyra chose the pears as well as a soda refill.
After he moved away, Connie noted, "I think he's done well tonight, he was rather knowledgable about the meal options that we presented him and also seemed to know what dessert you might be able to partake."
Slipping her foot from her shoe, she gently slid her toes and the top of her foot up and down Nyra's smooth leg. Her lover's warm skin brought a little bit of sensation back into her foot; she hadn't realized til just then how cold it was on the floor. "Though, I won't mind being outside where it's just a tad warmer," she said with a bit of a sigh.
When she looked away from Nyra's eyes, their waiter was back with their plates of poached pears. The oval-shaped plate had three half-cut pears lying rounded-side to long side. Each had a scoop of sorbet in the hollow of the wide part and a small twist of cinnamon or chocolate in the hollow of the point. "This looks lovely."
The artist was slightly distracted when Connie complimented the waiter for providing such good service. It was not something she had experienced often in a standard type restaurant, which was why she prefered vegetarian restaurants instead. She had honestly found him to be quite like the servers at one of her favorite places to eat. "Your quite right. I had not been paying attention much as this is the type of service I get at the Veggie Table, but to get it here in a mainstream type place is quite outstanding."
They would have to tip the young man generously. That thought slid from her mind as her date's frozen foot slid up her leg. Trying not to gasp at the shockingly cold touch Nyra instead squished the apendage between her warm calves. "Good grief! Your freezing."
The foot warmed slowly, or her legs cooled down to match, she could not tell which. But by the time their food arrived she was no longer toasty warm and Connie's foot was not frozen. They were both more of a happy medium. The plate in front of her was beautiful and smelled amazing. The warm sauce under the pears looked pale and smelled faintly of lemon and ginger. Her first bite included a tiny bit of sauce, pear and sorbet. The warm flesh of the fruit was soft and bursting with flavor while the sorbet was mild and sweet, complimenting the more tart sauce nicely. A quiet moan of joy at the mingled flavor and variety of temperatures and textures escaped her throat. Blushing slightly at her lovely table companion she returned to her treat.
The women both finished only about half of their plates, though each bite was lovely, as the sorbet melted Nyra found some of the charm of the dish melted away. Two pear halves would have been more than enough for each of them, or sharing one order. She would have to remember that should they come again.
Once their plates were cleared away it was only a matter of minutes until they were ready to leave and outside the restaurant awaiting the limo to take them to the beach.
((Nyra and Connie out, with permission. Please lock.))