Page 22 of The Layover

“Your food is getting cold,” I nudged Eloise’s soup closer.

“Okay.” She ate daintily, sipping from her spoon, trying her best not to make a mess.

Raul took a seat next to me. “You won’t get the full plating experience tonight, Carly. I apologize. It’s difficult to manage the full experience with a staff of one.”

“I’m not complaining at all,” Carly said. “Pretty servings are great for photos and spreading the word, but I’m here for the food and the company. Both of which are exquisite.”

Eloise frowned. “What’s x-quiz-it?”

“It’s something that’s really good, plus extra,” Carly said. “Like when you get a banana split, and they give you an extra cherry on top.”

“They do that?” Eloise’s eyes grew wide. “What’s a banana split?”

“Do you know what an ice cream sundae is?” Carly’s tone stayed kind the entire time, never hinting at condescension or anything similar.

Eloise nodded.

“A banana split is when you split a banana in half, and put an ice cream sundae on top of it,” Carly said.

Eloise gasped. “They can do that?” She looked at Raul. “Daddy, you need banana splits on your menu. It would be quiz-it.”

I swallowed a laugh, almost able to hear Raul’s mental scream of horror at the idea of adding something so pedestrian to his world class menu. “She may be onto something.” It was a struggle to keep my tone serious.

Raul shot me a don’t you dare look. “I have a big list of things to consider for the menu. I’ll add that to the I’ll think about it column.”

“Yay.” Eloise clapped.

We chatted through dinner about the mostly-banal—what kind of weather Carly could expect while she was here, where she needed to make sure she visited, and Eloise told her where the best parks were.

Dessert was a homemade gelato—one of Raul’s specialties.

Eloise had lost patience with eating like a prim and proper princess, and shoveled a large spoonful into her mouth. “Ismffquzttly?”

“Swallow first,” I told her.

Carly snickered from behind her napkin, and Raul grinned.

Apparently Eloise wasn’t the only one who was losing patience with being good. She made a show of finishing her bite of dessert. “Isn’t this quiz-it, Carly?”

“It most certainly is.” Carly ate her gelato at a more sedate pace. “Fresh cream?”

“And hand churned,” Raul replied.

Yup, we were breaking down into innuendo territory. Which I loved the idea of, but not with young ears around. “When we’re done eating, would you like the grand tour?” I asked. “I realize you’ve already seen the place, but not through our eyes.”

“I’d love that,” Carly said.

We finished dessert and coffee. Clean-up in the kitchen went quickly with four of us—Eloise was an expert at helping dry—and it wasn’t long before we were taking Carly on a tour of the building.

The property was built hundreds of years ago as a church, and had been privately held by the same family almost as long. When Raul and I stumbled on the stunning old building, we knew it was the perfect place for our first restaurant. We wanted to respect the original use and architecture, but also breathe new life into the building.

There was already a lot of buzz around what we were doing—two men married to each other, using historic Catholic architecture to earn our way. Whether that was good or bad depended on whom one asked, but for us it was all good publicity. Raul already had a reputation in Europe as a highly recruited head chef from other restaurants—the kind of name that brought in diners, despite those places not being his. And I’d worked on several restorations locally, bringing modern to life without destroying history.

When this location worked, we had plans to expand across Europe, and then move into the US.

The four of us strolled through the structure and grounds, and I pointed out our plans to Carly—where the main dining room would be and the individual large party rooms. She oohed and ahhed over the architecture and stained glass, which was the sexiest thing I’d seen her do to date.

When we reached the chapel, Carly stopped in the entrance, and cast her gaze around the room. The statues were gone, and the relics of course, but the pews, podium, and windows remained. “Still my favorite spot. So much gorgeous work.” Awe filled her voice.

---