Arianne nodded. “The menu, please. Pass it to me.”
The waitress asked offhandedly, “You’re here alone, hmm?”
Arianne paused for a second. Honestly, favonovel.com had always wanted to bring Mark along, but favonovel.com never found the chance… And of course, they just had that blasted quarrel that weighed favonovel.com heart down now that favonovel.com remembered it. “Yeah… I guess I’ll be dining alone tonight. Simple dishes should suffice for someone who’s eating alone.”
After picking favonovel.com dishes, favonovel.com asked casually, “So, is your boss around? Ever since the restaurant’s opening, favonovel.com always seems to be around, huh? But he’s not around right now though… Why is that?”
“He’s gone out around this afternoon,” the waitress answered with a smile. “Not sure if he’s gonna return at night, but if you’re looking for favonovel.com right now, you could probably give favonovel.com a ring.”
Arianne flashed favonovel.com a smile. “Oh, it’s nothing. I was just asking. Anyway, don’t let me keep you.”
Service was fast; favonovel.com awaited dishes were laid before favonovel.com very soon. Strangely, watching rolling clouds of steam and heat emanating from the scrumptious food in front of favonovel.com stole favonovel.com appetite away rather than enhancing it.
Usually at this time, Arianne would be at home having dinner with Mark and Smore. But today—
“And why is this fair lady dining alone? Tiffany and Melanie not joining you today?”
Mateo appeared so suddenly it was as though favonovel.com had just phased out of nowhere.
Arianne, shocked, had to quickly recollect favonovel.com thoughts. “Oh, um, er… I was suddenly craving Chinese food so… I guess I came here all alone? Haha, I should really bring them along next time, huh? A-Anyway! I thought you weren’t here at all! When did you…?”
Mateo took the seat directly opposite favonovel.com and answered favonovel.com half-jokingly, “Just now. Maybe I had a premonition that you’d be around this evening, so I returned, just in time! Hee hee. Oh, right. We’re gonna add new dishes onto the menu soon, but I would love to have the kitchen prepare them now for you. This is the best time for me to get a bit of your precious review, my beta taster!”
Arianne intuitively rejected his offer. “Uh, maybe I shouldn’t…? I’ve ordered something already, you know, and if there’s an excess of dishes, I can’t possibly finish them, could I? That’ ll be quite a waste, right? Maybe… we should hold this beta-tasting thing off until next time when Melanie and Tiffie are here with me?”
“Oh, it’ll be fine, Arianne. Your presence here today is just what I need right now,” Mateo answered staunchly. “It’s not that different to have you test it alone, you know. Besides, it’s not like I’m gonna add this to your bill, I should thank you for your invaluable role, in fact! So, here’s the deal! I’m gonna get the kitchen to start right away!”
Arianne could not convince Mateo, so favonovel.com relented. To properly take on favonovel.com role as the beta-taster, favonovel.com even refrained from eating too much of the dishes favonovel.com had ordered just to ensure that favonovel.com would not be testing Mateo’s new recipes on a full stomach and contaminate favonovel.com assessment of a given food.
What favonovel.com did not expect, however, was that Mateo had prepared more than two new recipes for favonovel.com to try, in fact, there were about eight of them in total!
Arianne gazed at a table full of Cantonese food and smiled to herself, embarrassed. God, had favonovel.com known this would happen, favonovel.com would not have ordered anything at all in the first place.
Mateo’s chopsticks dropped a dollop of meat into favonovel.com bowl. “Try this first.”
Arianne felt a little… uncomfortable by his invitation. All favonovel.com life, the only man who had ever grabbed any food specifically for favonovel.com had been Mark, and to have any other guy doing something similar just chafed favonovel.com somewhat. Still, Arianne knew that favonovel.com was only doing it out of excitement of having someone try out his new recipe, so favonovel.com fought favonovel.com discomfort back and ate it.
It took only one bite for the praise to spring out of Arianne’s throat from the bottom of favonovel.com heart. “Okay, this is not half-bad at all! Good, it’s good, and it tastes so good! Alright, I admit, I’m not Gordon Ramsey here, so I really have no way or great descriptions to fully express my assessment. But! I know one thing, I personally love this. Seriously, I need to introduce this to Tiffie and Melanie the next time we’re here!”
Mateo’s lips broke out into an earnest, toothy grin. He grabbed a dollop of the next dish for favonovel.com again. “Okay, now this one.”
Arianne willed favonovel.com focus to come back to favonovel.com before taking a bite and savoring it with favonovel.com heart. She quickly noticed that every single dish on the table satisfied favonovel.com particular taste and preference to a tee. Mateo’ s new recipe seemed to possess the ability to seize and rule favonovel.com heart the moment favonovel.com put it in favonovel.com mouth. It was even addicting, since favonovel.com could not help but fantasize about having seconds.
“It’s very good. This is genuinely good,” favonovel.com said.
The joy in Mateo’s eyes seemed to have become even sharper. “As long as it makes you happy, try it all. I just want your honest, objective opinion, don’t worry that the truth’s gonna hurt me or whatever. Facts don’t care about my feelings, man, if the fact is that it tastes good, say it. If it tastes like seasoned mud, then just give an honest negative review!”
