"Don't be such a prude, Dottie," Ida exclaimed. She turned to Josie. "Sleeping with the boss, eh! That's how I met my former husband. It's a tried-and-true way to find a good man."
Josie was red in the face. "She gave me free cookie dough," she explained when the women had left, cackling.
I smirked. "Ida is a local character, isn't she?"
Henry looked at the menu while Josie read it out to him.
"They have panfried fish with a fresh salad and a lemon butter garlic sauce. That looks amazing!" Josie said.
"There's a pasta dish; you might like that, Henry," I said. I did not want him to order something exotic, hate it, then make a scene.
"You can order what you want," Josie assured Henry.
"I want the lamb," Henry decided.
"You should order the fish," she told me. "I'm having the duck with plumb sauce."
"Could we also order the pasta?" I asked the waiter. If Henry didn't like the lamb, maybe he would eat the noodles.
When the food came, though, Henry dug in. He took a bite of the chards, and I winced, waiting for him to start complaining.
"This is good!" he announced. I wanted to tell him not to talk with his mouth full, but he was eating vegetables, so I didn't want to jinx anything. Henry reached for a whole lamb chop.
"Let me cut that for you," Josie said, making neat kid-size pieces with her knife and fork.
"Can I try some?" Josie asked him.
Henry nodded, his mouth full.
"Yum! It has a nice Mediterranean seasoning. It's very tasty," she said.
Henry nodded, his cheeks bulging.
"How's your fish?" Josie asked me.
"Good."
She looked at me expectantly.
"What?"
"Uh—"
"What?" I set down my fork.
"I want to try some of your food," she said sheepishly. "When I go to restaurants, I basically treat them all like tapas places because you can sample a lot of different dishes!"
She seemed so delighted that I couldn't help but smile.
She reached out with her fork. I took it and cut off a piece of fish. But when I extended the fork across the table, she didn't take it. Instead she bit the piece of fish off the fork. It felt strangely intimate to feed her a piece of my food.
"Mmh!" she said, pleasure on her face. I felt the breath leave my body. "That isso good."
21
Josie
Ihad no shame. I stole bites off Mace's plate all through lunch. The fish was amazing; it was slightly crunchy, and the sauce was tangy and almost sweet.
