“Ah, but this is Duchess Rousseau’s first visit!” Luca smiled widely. He motioned us to follow him, and he sat at us at a booth in the back. It was far from the little window at the front and I knew he was used to dealing with public figures.
“You’re going to love this place.” Cathy smiled at me over the table. She pushed a menu at me. “I already know what I want.”
Alex eyed the booth for a minute before taking a seat next to his sister. I was relieved. Sitting next to him in the car had been difficult enough. It’s amazing the little things you notice about someone when you have the hot’s for them. Like the way he smells or how long his legs are compared to mine. Then there are the other things, like wondering how his hands would feel running over my skin. Things I wouldn’t think about sitting next to just anyone, but here I was thinking about them and trying to pretend that I wasn’t.
I opened the menu and looked over the selections. I frowned when I realized it was in Lilarian. There weren’t even any pictures to help me pick. I looked up at my companions and Alex was watching me with shrewd eyes.
“Need help?”
“A translator would be nice.” I winced and laid down the open menu on the table. “I have no idea where to begin. I want to try something new.”
“I hadn’t thought about that. You don’t speak Lilarian, do you?” Cathy shook her head. “You need a teacher.”
“I have a teacher.” I raised my eyebrow at Alex. “I won one in a bet.”
“Really?” Cathy looked at her brother. “You lost at something?”
“Don’t.” He shook his head. “It’ll never happen again.”
“What was it? The bet?” Cathy looked at me, her large eyes wide with curiosity.
“I beat him at Monopoly.” Alex groaned and leaned back in his seat.
“No way!” Cathy leaned forward. “Did you figure it out? He has to be cheating. There’s no way he’s won that many times otherwise!”
“Maybe the karma gods thought it was time he lost.” I shrugged.
“Karma gods, huh? Well, it’s about time.” Cathy sat back in her seat.
“So, foreign-language teacher. Tell me what this is!” I pointed at the first thing on the menu.
“Well, that is the word for stuffed.” Alex grinned while Cathy laughed.
“Oh.” I looked at the menu and wondered if there were any words that wouldn’t trigger naughty thoughts.
“And I said I’d be your teacher, not your translator.” Alex shook his head.
“Well, you’re not doing such a good job. I’ve been here a day and know nothing. I think I should get the drawing as forfeit.” I narrowed my eyes at him. Luca brought over three glasses of water, wineglasses, and a bottle before quickly departing.
“Drawing? Is that the one I saw on your desk?” Cathy turned toward Alex with a small smile.
“Miss Nosy wanted to know what I was working on, so I made a bet. I won.”
“So she hasn’t seen the picture?” Cathy narrowed her eyes at Alex.
“No. But she does owe me a week of volunteer work for the FBT.”
“Then how did he end up being your Lilarian teacher?” Cathy looked at me, confused.
“It was a long flight. He lost the second game.”
“Ha! Alex, you better start teaching her, or that lovely sketch isn’t going to belong to you anymore.”
“Fine.” He leaned forward and pointed at the menu. “This is the word for stuffed. What do you think would be good stuffed?” His eyes twinkled at me in the candlelight. I could think of something I’d like to stuff, all right. And who I’d like to do the stuffing.#p#分页标题#e#
“Chicken? Lamb? Some kind of pasta?” I ignored the innuendo, though it was hard to do.
“Chicken. So, this is the word for chicken, this is stuffed, and see how these words are in the front? They tell you what the chicken is stuffed with. Here.” He turned the menu so that it was facing me. “See if you can figure out any of the other dishes with these words.”
“What is this? Advanced classes? What happened to starting with the alphabet?” I let my eyes run over the menu and tried to pick out words that seemed familiar. There were a few words I remembered from my high school French class.
“Go over there and help her! She’s starving and Luca will be back any minute.” Cathy shoved his shoulder.
He looked at me and I could see the hesitation in his eyes, but he slid out of the booth and in beside me. Leaning close, he pointed out some of the words that would help me most. After a minute I’d found a dish that sounded great and we were ready to order. Luca came over, blocking Alex’s exit from my side of the booth, and started pouring wine.