Dining with Poseidon (Jinx Paranormal Dating Agency #12)

Chapter 1

LAILA

The taxi pulled up in front of Il Cavalluccio Marino, and my nerves about the evening ahead disappeared.

I got out of the car, smoothing down my electric blue dress and flicking out my hair.

There was always something thrilling about arriving at a new restaurant, especially when I was going there in order to write a review.

"Laila!"

I turned to find my roommate waving me over to where she was standing with her boyfriend and another man I'd been introduced to a couple of times.

"Hey, Ivy," I said with a smile.

"You remember Nick, right?" she asked, gesturing to her boyfriend.

"It's hard to forget Captain Christmas," I joked, still not entirely used to the fact that one of my best friends was dating Santa.

He chuckled. "I still prefer Nick. This is Pieter."

"I remember. Pieter is the sensible one," I said, flashing a smile at the other guest.

"That's me," the other man responded.

"He's sensible, but he's already complained twice about having to turn down a date tonight," Ivy said.

Pieter shrugged. "Getting to eat at Poseidon's restaurant for free is worth missing a date."

I laughed. "You still have to pay for it with your opinions," I responded. "That's why the magazine lets me bring you all, they want me to work on more opinions than my own."

"Worth it. Have you seen his prices?" Pieter responded.

"Good food costs good money," I responded. I knew enough about gourmet food to be certain that the prices would be worth it.

Another car pulled up, and a giggling Eloise spilt out of it, followed by the curly-haired god she was dating. And if it was strange to me that one of my best friends was dating Santa, it got stranger still when the other one was dating one of the most famous love gods in existence.

"Why do they look like they've just fooled around?" Ivy whispered to me.

"They probably have," I responded.

"Sorry, we're late," Eloise said, a little out of breath.

"Do we want to know why?" I asked.

"There was a matchmaking emergency." The way she said it made it seem as if it was true, though I wouldn't be surprised if a little of Ivy's suggestion was also true.

"We should tell your boss not to keep you late," I teased.

Cupid laughed and put his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

"Her boss told her to go home and get ready, but she insisted on helping," he said, looking at her with a devoted expression on his face.

If I didn't get them into the restaurant, there was going to be a chance that they'd sneak off to do something more and delay our meal.

I cleared my throat. "All right, well, everyone's here now. Shall we head inside?" I didn't wait for any of them to respond and headed into the restaurant. We had a reservation, and I did not want to be late for it.

I half-expected there to be some kind of nautical theme to the seafood restaurant, but that seemed to have been relegated to the beautiful pieces of art on the cream walls.

Everything around us was beautifully presented, and made it feel as upscale as the menu made it seem.

There was a low murmur of chatter coming from the people already dining, and it added to the ambience in a pleasing way.

If the food was anywhere near as good as I'd read about, then it was going to be a great evening.

A waiter dressed in a black suit with a matching tie approached. "Good evening, Madam," he said.

"Evening," I responded. "I've got a table booked under Mandal, for six."

"Right this way." He gestured for us to follow him, leading us over to a table in an alcove that was already set up for us. "Have you eaten with us before?" he asked.

"No, this is our first time," I said, knowing from when I invited my friends that the same is true for their plus-ones. I slipped into my seat, pleased to find that there was plenty of room at the table for the six of us.

The waiter nodded. "Each course will be served with a drink at regular intervals. If you wish for any extra drinks, then please signal to one of the serving staff and we'll bring them to you."

"Thank you," I responded.

"The tasting menu at the moment is Around the World, featuring seafood dishes inspired by different cuisines from across the globe. Are there any allergies, dietary requirements, or non-drinkers in the party?" he asked, looking between us all.

I shook my head and waited for the others to respond.

"Excellent. Your first course will be with you momentarily." He dipped his head and disappeared.

"Oh, so are we not picking anything today?" Ivy asked.

I shook my head. "There's a menu if you want to check it."

She reached out and picked up the menu printed on heavy cream paper from the middle of the table, scanning down it.

I didn't pay any attention to my friends' discussion as I readied myself for the work portion of my evening.

I set a notebook down by my place setting, along with my phone.

I wouldn't normally have it out during a meal with friends, but I wanted to take photos of the food we were served so that I could effectively write my review.

It wasn't long before the waiters returned to the table, the first pouring a surprisingly large amount of wine into my glass. I was going to have to be careful with that, I didn't want to drink too much and ruin the food.

A couple of others followed with the first course, setting a plate down in front of each of us.

"Your first course is a mussel tortelli," a waiter said as he put a plate with a black stuffed pasta shaped like a mussel shell in front of me. "It's served with a sea salt crumb, and a white wine and garlic reduction."

"Thank you," I said, reaching for my phone so that I could take a photo of the dish before I ate it. The sweet smell of garlic emanated from the dish, making my stomach rumble in response. I was hungry, which was a good thing when I was here to eat.

"So this is Italy?" Ivy asked as she examined the dish in front of her. "The waiter said that the theme was Around the World."

"France," I responded. "I think it's a take on moules frites, just without the chips.

" Which was an interesting way to do it, and I had to appreciate the way that the chef had decided to present it.

Though I was trying not to think about the fact that the chef was Poseidon.

All head chefs could be a little temperamental at times, but I was a little worried about whether there'd be any potential blowback if I reviewed a god badly.

Not that I was going to hold back for his benefit.

I was sure a god could deal with a little honest critique of his food.

"Tortelli is one of my favourites," Cupid said. "It'll be interesting to see if a Greek god can pull it off."

I didn't think it through when I invited a Roman god tonight.

From what Eloise had told me, the enmity between the Greek and Roman pantheons was still at a simmer even after thousands of years.

Hopefully, I wasn't going to regret the invitation.

I liked Cupid with my best friend. I didn't want to change that.

I pushed those thoughts to the side and focused on my food instead. The pasta was black, presumably from squid ink, and had been shaped to look like a mussel shell. I appreciated the attention to detail, even if it probably wouldn't add anything to the taste of the dish.

Carefully, I pushed my knife through the shell.

The inside was firm and generously filled, though I was glad I only had one of the tortelli on my plate, but that was because I knew there were a lot more courses to come.

The menu was expensive, but it was also extensive, and I hoped there would be a lot of delicious seafood to come.

I took a bite, letting an explosion of garlic and white wine, along with the distinct texture that I only ever associated with seafood.

It was excellently cooked, and I had to admit that I was impressed.

Sometimes, having a celebrity chef meant that there wasn't as much attention actually paid to the food, but that didn't seem to be the case at Il Cavalluccio Marino.

I was looking forward to discovering what Poseidon had in store for us for the rest of the meal.