“I’m so glad that you agreed to come out with me again.”
“Me too, this place is beautiful, I don’t think I’ve ever been to this nice of a restaurant before.”
“Well, only the best for you.”
I smiled at his sentiment. I knew that this could only be a onetime event; he didn’t have the money to always dine at the best places in town. But it was nice that he tried. Not all men do.
And it really was an absolutely stunning restaurant. The wine list exceeded the full menus of every place I had been to before, and there were many bottles even older than I was. The professional looking waiters went to and fro carrying platters full of dishes that smelled and looked absolutely divine. And the room! They had hit that perfect spot between opulent and gaudy, between vastness and intimacy. We were seated right next to the elaborate fountain and pool, which was just big enough to impress but small enough to feel like it was yours to enjoy personally.
A waiter stopped at the table, and politely asked, “Have you made your decision?”
“Yes,” replied Steven, “I’ll have the Indonesian soy beef ribs, while the lady will have the pork roast with fennel and rosemary. And two glasses of your Cabernet Sauvignon 1979 as well.”
The waiter looked confused at me for a moment but wrote the order down quickly and hurried off. He must have been new and had trouble keeping up with the order.
“So did you order for me to be a gentleman, or so that I didn’t see the prices,” I asked, teasingly.
“I’m appalled at the suggestion I’d have anything but gentlemanly intentions, Candice,” he replied, just as teasingly. “But if I must level with you, then yes, I did select some of the cheaper things on the menu.”
We laughed together.
“Excuse me,” he said, suddenly and as if he had been offended, looking down at the seat next to him. “Absolutely not, I think a couple should be straightforward with each other. Sorry about the interruption,” he said, looking back at me.
I tried to sit up and strain my neck to see what he was talking to, but I only saw a corner of the black backpack that seemed to accompany him everywhere. Steven must have read the rather surprised look on my face. “Don’t worry,” he comforted me, “it’s nothing important.” That didn’t exactly console me, but I tried to put it out of my mind.
“How did you pick the wine,” I asked, changing the topic. “1979 seems very specific.”
“Well, I have to admit to you that I am a bit of a wino. That orchard’s Cabernet Sauvignon is one of my favorites, though I’ve only tried the newer vintages. Seventy-nine has always been my lucky number.”
“At least you know what you’re doing, I don’t even know which color goes with which sort of meal.”
“Well then, I suppose I’ll have to give you the basics then. In general, the red…” He stopped and looked back down at his black bag. “Hush you. No, she wants to know, I’m not boring her.” He looked back at me just as suddenly and asked, “Does it bore you to hear about wine?”
“Um… no?”
He nodded, pleased, and told the bag, “See? Now if you’d just let me talk to her without interruption, Candice and I could have a proper conversation. You’re being very rude.” He looked back at me and smiled pleasantly.
Even his beautiful smile and handsome looks couldn’t distract me from what had just happened a second time. His backpack had interrupted our conversation twice now.
“I’m sorry, are you…” I wasn’t sure how to phrase it. “Are you talking with your bag there?”
He laughed loudly, “Oh, no no no, I’m not talking to the bag. I’m talking to Roger.”
That didn’t sound much better. “Who is Roger?”
“Roger is my puppy, he’s usually very such a personable little guy, but I’m afraid he doesn’t actually like you very much.” Steven shook his head, disappointedly. "I'm not sure why not."
“And Roger is there in the bag? You carry a dog around with you everywhere? Shouldn’t you open it up, let him breathe a little?”
“Oh, he’s fine, I let him out to play frequently, but this is hardly the place for that, don’t you think? I can’t imagine that they’d let us eat here if my puppy was splashing around in the fountain.”
“I guess that’s reasonable.” There was still some other pressing matter I felt like I needed to ask him, but I had lost my train of thought already, and the rails came off entirely when the food arrived.
The pork was absolutely delectable. The flavor seemed to explode into your mouth when you bit in, only to have the explosion turn into a cool breeze that just melted into your taste buds. And the wine was a perfect complement, a crisp, sweet, and refreshing contrast that seemed to make the next bite even more welcome.
We chatted about family over dinner. “I never met my father,” Steven told me, “though I’ve exchanged a few letters with him in the past couple years. My mother died when I was young, so my older sister and I were raised by my aunt Nora. I keep in touch with her, but I haven’t heard from my sister in many years. I tried to find her recently, but didn’t find what I was looking for. It’s funny, but you actually seem a lot like her.”
I was about to try to change the topic away from what was obviously a rather depressing subject, but Roger interrupted again. Or he must have, because Steven looked back down at his backpack and told it, “I said no such thing! I told her that she seemed similar to my sister, not that I was dating her because she reminds me of my sister, I don’t know how you made that connection. Honestly, Roger, I don’t know what’s come over you lately.” Steven was silent for a while, though he was nodding and adding an occasional 'mhm' of agreement while Roger apparently made his case. “Fine, I see, but I’m not replacing you, I’m just finding somebody else for both of us, I think that if you give her a chance you’ll like her, and we can have even more fun as three than as two.”
“Steven,” I said, rather sternly, getting him to pay attention to me. It had suddenly reoccurred to me what I had intended on asking him earlier. “You’re having a conversation with a dog in a bag.”
“Have you had pets, Candice?”
“Yes, I had some cats when I was younger, what does that have to do with anything?”
“And didn’t you talk to them occasionally?”
“I did, but they didn’t talk back.”
“So you will talk to your pets, knowing that they won’t speak back, but as soon as I imagine that it’s talking back that’s crazy?”
“I never said crazy…” I said, trailing off. I hadn’t said crazy, but I had certainly implied it with my tone of voice.
“It’s a bit strange, I know, but I’ll talk to Roger to get an idea off my chest, and the answer that comes back is my own but it’s easier for me to imagine that it’s coming from him.”
I was starting to nod slightly and be convinced again, but I refused to forget the point this time. “Steven, you’re talking out loud to him, in public. And you’re not just talking to him, he’s interrupting you, that’s a serious issue. I’m not sure you even have a dog in there.”
“Of course he’s in there,” Steven replied, answering the least of my worries. “Here, I’ll show you.” He reached down into his bag, brought out a small dog’s skull, and placed it gently on the table.
“Steven,” I said, with growing panic.
“He won’t bite, Candice, don’t worry. See, now that he’s seen you he’s liking you more already!” I didn’t share his excitement about this development.
Somebody who appeared to be the manager approached the table. “Sir, you have been disturbing some of the other patrons, could you…” He stopped mid sentence, finally noticing the dog’s skull and a panicked woman. “Is that… sir, you’re going to have to leave the premises immediately.”
“We’ve only just started our dinners,” Steven protested.
“You won’t have to pay for them, just gather your things and leave. Now.”
Steven sighed, looked at me apologetically, and packed Roger back into the bag. He stood up and walked over to me. There was a tingling sensation and the world blinked out of existence as he lifted up the urn containing his sister’s ashes and put it into the bag as well.
He shouldered his pack, and, escorted by the manager, left the building with his two companions.