Pleasurable Expectations

t h r e e

Jeremiah and I were seated on the restaurant's second floor at a nice table by the window, one with the view of the driveway we had just walked up a few minutes ago. A bottle of Riesling made its way over to our table, two glasses being poured with the bottle being placed into a shining silver bucket occupied with ice.

I'd almost forgotten just how ornate restaurants like this were.

I gingerly picked up my glass, taking a small sip of the wine that was poured for me. I closed my eyes as the liquid splashed against my tongue, savoring the taste of the expensive wine. It's been so long since I'd tasted anything over twenty dollars.

"So, your parents run Sunshine Suites?" Jeremiah asked as he joined me in sipping our wine.

"Yeah," I nodded. I placed my glass down on the crisp white tablecloth. "They built it from the ground up and trained my older sister to take over for when they planned on stepping down." It's been a while since I'd talked to anybody besides my family or friends about the business. It felt strange.

"They didn't get you ready as well?" he asked with curiosity.

"They did, but I wasn't next in line to take the throne," I joked with a reminiscent smile. "It didn't really matter in the long run, anyway," I added. I refrained from letting a look cross my face, the one I always got when talking about the company's demise.

"Why not?"

A waiter clad in a white button-down, black tie, black vest, and dress pants appeared at the table, a notepad and pencil in hand. He introduced himself and announced that he'd be our server tonight before asking what we'd like to order.

"We'll take a bottle of your finest red," Jeremiah informed the waiter. He nodded as he scribbled that down on his notepad, his attention turning to me to order my food.

"May I get the Canlis salad for course one, followed by the Abalone dish, the Sole, and then the Persimmon for dessert? Thank you." I closed my menu and held it in my hands while the waiter scribbled down my order, followed closely behind by Jeremiah's.

Once the waiter disappeared to go deliver our orders to the chef, I sparked up Jeremiah and I's previous conversation. "Why not? Oh, because four years ago, my parents took a few months' vacation to just travel and see the world, like most older people with money do. When they came back, some douchebag had mismanaged funds and caused the whole business to crumble," I explained. I angrily took a sip of my wine.

"So, the company is no longer in business?" It was nice that he was so interested in my story. Most people I talk to don't really like hearing about it because they feel they've learned everything they needed to from the news.

"That's right." I finished up my glass of wine and placed it on the table. I swiped up a stray drop that was trailing down the side of the glass with my thumb, careful not to let it drop onto the clean tablecloth. "All because the snakes in the business world decided to handle things their own way."

"Snakes? Plural?" he clarified. The man who dropped off our first bottle of wine came back around and took both the bottle and our glasses. He replaced them with sparkling glasses, filling them appropriately with the red wine Jeremiah had ordered.

"Yes, plural." I smiled at the man before returning to the conversation. "There were so many people who could have stopped him from making us go bankrupt, but they all just sat on their asses and did bullshit about bullshit. Anyone who has to do with anything like that is a snake."

Jeremiah fixed his watch once again and ran a finger over one of his thick, shapely eyebrows. "So you don't associate with anyone like that? At all?" I shook my head. "But what if they're actually a good person?"