A group of 6 men come in accompanied by one woman. She appears to be the alpha whether by design or mutual agreement. They sit, she smiles at us and the men start to dominate the conversation. Three more men arrive and join the party. She becomes strangely quiet. The group as a whole chat about contracts and technical issues. What to tell upper management and what to tell clients. We are under the impression that they know each other, and work together but not in the same cities. There is a mutual respect for each other, much like people who are in a club have a bond that exists when they are in the company of each other.
There is a woman in what at first seems like a conversation but as she wraps it up was actually a job interview for a man who is a photographer. She says she likes his work. We do not see a portfolio. Oscar winks at me. Maybe it was not a regular job interview.
Oscar and I are the only ones drinking wine in here in the middle of the day. He raises his glass and toasts the room. The soup is a clear broth with root vegetables, I think it is turnip, kale, celery and onion, and is awful. Bitter and stringy, we are sure we are being punished. We should have ordered a cup not a bowl. Being offered some bread would make this more tolerable Oscar says aloud. Still the wait staff ignores us. I suggest we order some chocolate dessert. Oscar leans in to kiss me and says “whatever the Lady likes!”
We decide on the double chocolate cake. Perfect with red wine. Oscar is euphoric and is draping himself over the chair like a slinky silk dress. Half in, half on and half off the chair.
A man across the room has ordered a greyhound. It comes out pink with the salty rim sparkling in the dim diffused lighting of the room. Oscar decides that we shall feast on greyhounds at our next meeting. They are sophisticated and unexpected he says. They command a nod from the bar tender as they are slightly old school and don’t contain dead baby bulls as Oscar calls the ingredient in most of today’s mixer Red Bull.
The cake is 5 layers of moist dark chocolate, layered with dark chocolate Grenache, raspberry reduction, blackberries, and a strawberry sitting on a dollop of vanilla whipped cream. I think Oscar is in the middle of sexual overload judging by the sighs and moans coming from him. Two men have turned around and a woman is giggling. Oscar winks at her. She is wearing the obligatory woman who wants to be taken seriously but still appear feminine suit with a skirt. Her hair is straight and long, blonde and the slit up the back of the painted on skirt had Oscar on his knees gazing longingly after her.
He is so adorable.
There is a man in the room, black suit, white shirt, red tie. I will spare you Oscar’s dissertation on the qualities of a man who needs to sport a vagina on his chest. However it has me and the Lady next to us in stitches.
We order coffee just as a bacon cheeseburger is delivered to the Lady at a table near us. “Well we ordered wrong” Oscar sums up. We all laugh.
Afternoons spent with Oscar are simply magical.
