King of Her Desire

32

Elliott leaned down to put her arms around my neck and I gave her a kiss on the wrist.

We were watching this chef "de-bone" two whole fish that he'd cooked in all kinds of butter right at our table. I couldn't believe how carefully he'd done it, like it was theater or something.

He prepared these copper frying pans and put the fish in at just the right moment and kept dousing them with the butter until they were perfectly done. And then he cut them in these precise places so that each one would give us four little fillets—there was nothing left but heads and bones in those frying pans. Clean bones, not a speck of flesh left behind.

And he laid those fillets on our plates perfectly, too. While Ben sat there nodding like he'd taught him how to do it.

It was his favorite "old school French" restaurant. And we were seated in the VIP room in the actual kitchen, not out with the other guests who'd been on a waiting list for years.

The head chef, the famous one who owned the place—do not ask me to spell his name--had come to get us at a rear entrance and led us in grinning from ear to ear.

And he looked at me and winked and said, "Such an honor! Come!"

And as soon as we sat down they started bringing these "amuse bouche" things, little appetizers you were supposed to pop in your mouth all at once. A lot of them were in big spoons like the ones you get in ramen places, to make that easier.

I didn't recognize anything much, but I ate them all because the chef was standing there grinning like his whole life depended on me liking everything. And I liked every single one, too. I could've made a meal out of those little spoons full, actually. They were incredible.

And then he sent out this army of waiters who started popping bottles and setting up for the fish "event." I sat back and just let it all happen. And Elliott must've seen my expression, because she got up and put those arms around me like that.

And as they were finishing up with the fish and the other stuff to put on our plates, she said, "William Morris. Well done, you!"

"Them, you've heard of, right?" Ben said to me. He looked like a happy little kid. He was in heaven that day, honest to God.

So I said, "I think so," as one of the waiters set a plate too pretty to eat from in front of me. I wanted to Tweet it. And I hate that shit, but they'd set the food on it so beautifully that I wanted to save a shot of it forever.

And the fish...if I'd died right after dinner, I would've been satisfied that I'd had the best piece of fish you could possibly wish for before I left this world. Moist and flaky and buttery...

"Well, CAA and Paradigm are good, too," Elliott said, as she sat back down next to me. "UTA, ICM...those are right up there in the top five, too. But Morris has been on top forever, so of course we want you there."

"I don't really know...I mean, it's getting weird now. Out of control."

She kissed my cheek and said, "That's why you need them. We thought we could wing it a little bit longer but that avalanche today, wow."

And she looked over at Gerri then, and said, "I got a spanking today, though."

"You deserved it," Gerri said. "Nobody knows what the hell's in those injections, Elliott."