Maurice arrived with the dinner check and placed the black leather folder with the bill on the table as he cleared the Louise’s dishes and baby bottle and placed them on the serving tray himself rather than have the waiter do it. “Was everything satisfactory, Madam? Did your husband enjoy the ‘child’s’ dinner you ordered for him?”, he intoned ritually as he placed the dishes on the tray for the busboy to remove.
Louise smiled up at the Maitre-de and said, “Everything was just perfect! Thank you so much!”
Maurice allowed himself the half-smile of a Maitre-de who’s patron is well-pleased with his efforts. Then he said a low, business-like tone, “The discount chicken plate that you ordered is on the bill for your supper. May I ask how Madam wishes to cover the special charge? I would like to remind Madam that she has been told that Louder’s does not accept personal checks.”
Louise flashed a stern glint at the man and asked sweetly, “Not even a Certified Cashier’s Check for the ‘special’ charges? I’d be happy to wait while you call the bank to verify it. I’d rather not put the entire amount on my credit card. Records, you know,” she said with a winning smile.
“Madam is the soul of discretion,” Maurice said with a tight smile of understanding, “I think that in this particular instance, Louder’s may waive the rule for a Certified Cashier’s Check.”
Roly-Roly eyes drooped from the effects of the alcohol in his mother’s milk. He smiled sleepily, needing to be winded. Louise noticed that he’d stopped feeding and slipped her hand under the blanket to put her breast back into her blouse and button it modestly. She lifted the blanket from Roly-Roly’s head and began gently patting his back as Maurice asked solicitously, “Would either of you like anything else, Madam? Perhaps some dessert for Madam?”
Roly-Roly belched loudly as the air he had swallowed escaped his stomach. Both adults smiled at the infant’s noise and the sleepy look on his face. Louise said as she put her platinum Master Card on the leather folder with the bill and slipped a Certified Cashier’s Check for ten thousand dollars along with a hundred dollar note between the covers of the folder, “I think that this dinner satisfied both of our needs completely, Thank you! Please ask our waiter to add a thirty percent gratuity to the bill for his services when he totals it.”
As Maurice picked up the folder with the bill and check, he smiled broadly and said, “I hope that Madam’s experience at Louder’s was everything she expected. We were pleased to have you and your baby as our guests this afternoon. The Chef has asked me to tell you that if you wish to come in again and have him prepare regular baby food for your little one, that the charge will be the same as the regular child’s plate.”
Roland heard the Maitre-de’s question and attempted to protest although Louise’s milk had made him so sleepy that he could barely think. He contested in an infant’s babble, “Aaaaga…magaaba…ga-ga..ma…da!”
Louise snorted derisively as she took a pacifier out of the diaper bag and popped it between the sleepy infant’s lips to silence him. although he was almost asleep, his instinctive need to suckle caused Roly-Roly to begin pulling the nipple of the pacifier to and fro as he drew it into his mouth rhythmically while he clenched his tiny fists in pleasure. Louise used a diaper pin to fasten the ribbon that had been knotted to the ring of the pacifier to Roly-Roly’s T-shirt as she said, “Thank you for the offer, but I’m afraid that this little baby isn’t ready to be weaned. Nor will he ever be! I’ll feed him a few tablespoons of puréed baby food at every meal, but his main source of food will be his mother’s milk. He’s going to be Mommy’s little titty baby forever!”
Maurice smiled and said, “As Madam wishes..” He was about to turn around when he added, “Still,…in a few years, Madam might think about asking the Chef for one of his dishes that he prepares for our younger clientele. We like to please everyone here and he has a special pizza for diners between the age of eighteen and twenty-five. He told me that he’d be pleased to make it to your exact needs for no extra charge.”
Louise smiled and said, “I’ll bear that in mind. Right now, however, there have been enough changes in our household. I’d like to let the dust settle before I make anymore changes at the present.”
“Madam is prudent,” Maurice intoned before taking his leave of the table.
When Maurice returned with the charge slip in the black leather folder he said solicitously, “One hopes that Madam’s male companion will be pleased with his new lot in life.”