A Memorable Meal
by #5
Genre – Contemporary
Words – 720 words
There she sat, a vision in white, with that crazy confection of pink and white tilted at a rakish angle. She was discretely applying a heather-coloured tint to her luscious lips with a candy cane-coloured tube. Her skin was smooth and reminded Euan of a nice bar of candy. My how he wanted to taste her. He shook his head, “Where had that thought of sweets come from?
He really must be hungry.”
The restaurant was very crowded. The French Chef a.k.a. the “Gallic Chipmunk” was doing a brisk business. As he passed by her table, his sister tripped over the handle of a fellow diner’s umbrella which was laying in the aisle. He was so intent on checking out his “chocolate vision” that he tripped over his sister’s prone form and ran head first into the rail which separated the upper tier of the restaurant with the garden area. His head bounced off the rail and he staggered back and sprawled back half onto a chair.
A Gallic scream filled the air! His valiantly tried to stop the spinning in his head which was making it difficult, nay impossible to focus. Incredible! It sounded like, then a bunch of gibberish. He shook his head. In that moment he knew he should have stuck to his Latin studies.
Instead he had gone a different route and studied the Cyrillic alphabet and eventually excelled in Russian, Greek and Slavic languages. He wondered if he’d ever be able to come back here again. They had waited four months for this lunch reservation in this upscale French Restaurant.
He finally realized that his back was moving! “What the hell!”, he exclaimed. It seemed he had fallen upon this diner’s dog which had been surreptitiously brought into the restaurant.
Euan sat up and brushed back red hair from his eyes. Slowly he raised his six-foot five inches muscular frame upon his brae but shaky legs. “Och Aye, I am very sorry madam,” as his piercingly green eyes met light brown ones. “This was entirely my fault. Please let me pay for your meal.” He said as he smiling handed over his black card to a raised brow waiter. Euan looked down to the remains of her meal. A lightly fried, half of a fish surrounded by parchment paper lay upon the plate. The white asparagus lay glistening on the snowy white table cloth. A growing circle of yellow from a fluted glass loomed at one o’clock. “In fact, let me replace your meal.”, He said as he reached for her hands. They were strong work-worn hands heavily bejeweled with coloured stones. Her face lit up at the notion. He kissed her finger tips and said “Bon Chance Madam!” “Merci Beaucoup,” she cooed, blinking rapidly.
He nodded once and strode back over to his sister who had been helped to her feet by his chocolate vision in white. He looked into a pair of smiling tiger eyes and felt as though he had run a mile. “Thank you for your assistance,” he said as his brogue came to the forefront, “I’m usually not so clumsy!” “It wasn’t your fault Euan!”, explained his sister, “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking.” “Och no Fiona!” , he said as he placed his arm around her gently and kissed her temple, “Come let’s sit down!”
Suddenly a throat clearing “I’m so sorry Monsieur” was heard, as he, Fiona and his vision in white turned to the right. The Maitre D splendid in black and looking down his ample nose, “but your reservation was for yesterday!” Euan wondered if his ineptitude to walk a straight line was going to have them thrown out. “No Jacques” chimed his vision in white, “Euan and Fiona are old friends from Scotland and will dine with me!” “Very well,” sniffed Jacques, his back ramrod straight, “I will have places set promptly!”
His vision in white smiled and guided them back to her table. Euan helped her, then his sister, to their chairs. Then, as he squeezed his ample frame into the corner, she smiled and said, “By the bye my name is Roxanne and I saw that Jacques had his I’m-about-to-ban-yet-another- person-from-this-hallowed-place look on his face, and I had to step in” she said smilingly. “This is it,” thought Euan, “She’s the one!”
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