“The Chef will begin the dishes that you ordered when you made the reservation as soon as your dinner companion arrives, Madam. Would Madam like an aperitif or appetizer while you wait for him?”, the distinguished looking Maitre-de asked attentively as he came over to check on his solitary diner after allowing her to peruse the menu for a decent period. Even though Louise had pre-ordered, it was the policy of the restaurant to allow a diner to change his or her order at the last minute if the patron so desired. Of course, there would be a service charge levied for non-menued dishes that a patron had ordered in advance and then declined, but that was only reasonable. In any event, Louder’s menu was its best advertisement and restaurant policy required that a patron be given a menu unless “special circumstances” prevailed. Those circumstances would be effected by the patron’s stated wishes.
“Yes, please. I’d like a glass of Rosé, thank you! My husband will be along directly, he’s probably caught up in traffic..,” answered Louise patiently with a pleasant tone, knowing that her husband’s daily dalliance with his mistress was over for the day and he was merely fighting traffic. Maurice smiled and bowed slightly, then called over a waiter and whispered in his ear before he returned to his station at the entrance to the restaurant. Within minutes, the waiter appeared at Louise’s table with a glass of Rosé and carefully set it before her on the table.
Louise sat patiently, sipping her glass of Rosé as she looked over her surroundings while awaiting her husband’s arrival. The area in which she had been seated was evidently used as a storage area for the dinning area; next to the wall behind her table was a line of four expensive, heavily-built, oaken high chairs for patrons who brought their babies in to eat with them. The high chairs were matched by the strong oak wide-backed comfortable dining chairs that graced each linen bedecked table in the restaurant. The dining chairs were exceedingly well constructed with forest green cathedral velvet coverings over the thick foam cushions which overlay a solid foundation of steel coil springs and interwoven canvas straps that formed the base of the chair. The combination of the mattress-like construction and the firm but pliant cushions gave solid support for a patron’s weary bones but also allowed the cushion to mould itself to the musculature of the diner. The armrests wrapped around the chairs in gentle curves which gracefully dipped down at the front to allow the diner to pull the chair as close to the table as the diner would like. When not in use while eating, they well extremely comfortable chairs to relax in and sip one’s drink as one imbued the ambiance of the well appointed restaurant.
A tall redwood planter separated her table from the rest of the guests and the thick greenery growing from the planter shielded her table completely from view. With her chair pulled back, she could barely see the front of the restaurant’s foyer by the front door. Louise was satisfied with the table she had gotten; from her vantage point, she could quietly observe the front door to see when Roland arrived. Once she saw that he was there, she could pull her chair back up to the table and resume her hidden position. While she waited, she mulled over what the private detective had told her. Roland spent every afternoon at his mistress’s apartment and had probably been delayed by his erotic encounter. Louise smiled in anticipation of his comeuppance and used her right foot to shove the large blue bag she had purchased that morning further under the table to be hidden by the white tablecloth. She had made a number of purchases over the past two weeks and everything was ready for her husband’s reformation. Since he came home late every evening, he had never noticed how she had redecorated and refurbished the spare bedroom during the mornings and afternoons while he was at “work”.
The medications prescribed by the obstetrician-gynecologist that her friend had recommended had begun to take full effect days ago. The hormones that the gynecologist had given her made her breasts swell up almost immediately in anticipation of the infant she would soon have. Louise had been forced to go out and buy a whole new set of bras two days before as her bust size swelled from an “A” cup to a “DD” cup over a period of two weeks. She was ready for the baby her husband would give her in recompense for his wayward behavior. Only the dinner at the restaurant remained to put him in his proper place. He would either provide a baby for her, or he would die. There was no middle ground.
