Fox hugs her, then kisses her. Sebastian just pulls her into a hug as soon as she’s free.
“Sit, please,” I say gently. “Tonight is all about you.”
“Us,” she corrects.
I smile at her and pour a glass of white wine. She takes it gratefully and sips, making a sound of pure pleasure.
“This place is amazing,” she says, turning in her seat to take in the massive interior. It might be big, but it’s themed to be dark and cozy, for reasons she will soon find out.
“It is incredible,” Fox murmurs, stroking his thumb over her knuckles. He’s not looking at the restaurant. He’s staring at her. When she notices, she blushes and looks away, but there’s a smile, one that makes the world stop.
The lights fade, leaving us in near darkness. Only the glow of the light on the table keeps us from descending into it.
“What’s happening?”
The window slowly changes opacity, and we see a massive owl sitting on a branch of a tree. Even though I know what to expect, I still think it’s a statue until it moves its head.
“Oh, wow!” Cordelia whispers.
The owl is dark grey and silver-coloured with large black eyes.
“The Sooty Owl is a territorial Australian owl that is monogamous and mates for life. It eats small lizards, mammals, and insects. We found Argent injured. She is here to recover before we take her back to where she was found. There are an estimated ten thousand individuals left in the wild, and they are considered a threatened species.”
Cordelia tears her eyes from the owl to face the person who is standing in the shadows. He’s wearing a black uniform of the Skyperch Nature Resort.
“I’m Wayne Patterson, and I’ll be introducing you to some of our nocturnal residents while you enjoy your stay. Our aim here at Skyperch is education, conservation, and rehabilitation.”
“You’re Asher’s friend, aren’t you?” Cordie suddenly says. “I recognise you. You were at the town meeting about Sully.”
“I was hoping I wasn’t going to have to stage an intervention and rescue the poor bird. The town got pretty fired up for a minute.” Wayne shakes his head. “Don’t tell them I said that.”
She chuckles. “It did. Sully is still leading the town, though.”
“Interesting seagull. I’ll be down in the summer to help Asher start collating marine data.”
“We look forward to having you,” Sebastian says with confidence.
Wayne clears his throat. “So, while you are eating, this section of the restaurant will be slowly rotating, mostly unnoticed by you. By the time you are done, you will have seen several different enclosures with our nocturnal animals. But your first course is here, so enjoy. I will return soon; enjoy your dinner.”
He disappears, and Cordie turns to me and smiles. “This is incredible.”
“We thought you might like it.”
“As long as there are no echidnas, I’m good,” Fox mutters.
She tosses her head back and laughs while a young man puts our plates down in front of us.
“Oh, it looks so good. Like a piece of art,” she murmurs.
I glance at the perfectly grilled prawns on a bed of pureed cauliflower. I remember looking at the menu and being impressed, but I’d eat anything so long as I was with her.
Sebastian whispers in her ear. She blushes and pulls out her phone to take a photo. He kisses the side of her head.
The next display is the Eastern Spotted Quoll, which is a small, cat-sized marsupial with spots on its back.
I’d like to say I listened to Wayne, and I did at the time, but all my attention was on Cordelia, and a lot of the information slipped away. Seeing her awe was worth it, though.
The second course is brought out. It’s some kind of fish in a foaming soup, but the taste is so incredibly rich. It’s unique and very, very good.
