The virgin & the bad boy (Gravity)

Chapter 25/we need to talk

/Earth/Europe/London/La Bodega Negra/Table 7

The waiter robot came up.

"Water for Madam" said the robot waitress standing on point like a mechanical ballerina as it  poured. Dante had taken me to what he regarded as the best (aka most expensive with a space on the 6-month waiting list which opened up because the foodie involved had a heart attack after eating the rich food from at all the other restaurants he had been to)  restaurant on the planet. We were in a strange building in Old Compton street in London. Dante found the illuminated entrance to a seedy-looking sex shop, an entrance so raw, authentic and unforgiving as to give you no reassurance whatsoever that it's not exactly what it appears to be. We went underground and for a moment I wondered if Dante was going to kidnap me or something. We entered La Bodega Negra, inside the space was quite open with only a few tables. The walls were dynamic screens which changed according to what you were eating.

I smiled at Dante. I was on water again - insert evil laugh here.

"The water is specially shipped from the ice fields of Callisto, the second largest moon of Jupiter. " the waitress robot announced "Each ice seem is assessed for it's total purity then sent back to earth on a 3 year journey for taste testing by human testers. Finally it is bottled in the finest Mercurian glass bottles made especially from the finest totally uncontaminated silicon. Each sip is personally guaranteed to be the first time human lips have touched the most unique water on the planet."

 Hmm and I and bet it wasn't cheap either, dam  Dante had me.

Dante smiled his most evil smile.

"We'll have the Prats & Symington Douro Chryseia 2011" said Dante casually. If I'd actually done five years of wine tasting classes that might have sounded really impressive, but I didn't it wasn't. 

"I will inform the vault immediately" said the robot leaving "will you need a security guard?"

"No guard, we will drink it here" said Dante.

"Certainly sir a most excellent choice worthy of Solomon himself " The robot  said and left.

Dante looked at me. 

"I guess you're wondering why I invited you out tonight" said Dante.

"Well I was thinking it wasn't Martian independence day and possibly you wanted to not celebrate it" I told him.

"Pyjamas, we need to talk" said Dante inspecting the fork.

"We need to talk? but I was rather under the impression we would come to dinner and sit in a sullen silence, broken by the odd taciturn interlude" I said.

Our starter arrived, it was a thin bag filled with a strange spiced cloud. You didn't eat it you inhaled it. I looked around someone near by was having some sea food and then the wall changed so they sat in a ocean view with the sound of the sea playing. Apparently this made the food taste better. The chef of the restaurant was apparently famous for being the most  avant garde in the solar system. According to my earrings, he had once killed a customer who asked for a pizza. 

Dante looked at me "As you know you've been my nemesis for some time now."

I lent back in my chair "Six months, four days, eight hours , nine minutes and err forty six seconds. Not that I'm counting" I said. I lied about the time.

"Quite, look this is going to be difficult for me, for both of us so I'm just going to get it out on the table" Dante said. "I have a new nemesis."

"You have a new nemesis? I'm glad this is a classy restaurant, if it wasn't I would spit the water out" I said.

I was having a vegetarian main dish, we don't get much meat on mars. Historically chicken and goat was regarded as 'authentic and patriotic' martian food unlike the beef and pork of imported off world food. It took effort to make food on mars, each plant needed a greenhouse and I was one of those who believed it was important we feed the plants to people not animals. If everyone on the Eye was vegetarian we could grow the population far more rapidly than currently. I was having some strange pasta but the table was being filled with all sorts of lovely food.