The Winter tale of the curious Amber Perking

Part two

"Looks wonderful! Oh and the smell of it", Catherine gushed while snapping a photo of the richly placed table with her smartphone.
Indeed, the food looked like art and the combination of the mouth watering smells only added to that impression.
Everybody was seated, including Cosi and Conner, which was quite frankly a wonder, because they seemed to blow around the house like a storm at all times.

On each of their plates was a piece of roasted salmon filet with an olive crust and next to it some russian Olivier salad with rosemary potatoes.
Some thyme twigs served as the final garnish of the opulent meal.
It looked positively dazzling.

After a prayer everybody dug in greedily, savoring the food immensely.
In the background an old gramophone record crackled away, the deep voice of some Jazz artist filling the air, probably Dean Martin. Amber was a big fan of his.

But there was another sound, an annoying ticking of sorts. She looked up and saw that Aden was writing a message on his smartphone. Looking at Bryan she saw the murderous glance he threw his way.
She almost laughed out loud, because Aden was oblivious of it. She always had this fancy picture of the family in her head, but it seemed, they were all the same.
Parents fighting against the invasion of smartphones at the dinner table.

Under her breath she started counting down. Five, four, three, two and one..
"Carl, I swear that if you don't put that mobile down this instant, I'll throw it against the wall." Bryan voice boomed across the table.

The boy looked up like a deer caught in the headlights, hastily shoving it into the pocket of his jeans. "Yes, sorry, won't happen again."
(His jeans by the way always hung so low, you could see his underwear. Quite ridiculous in Ambers opinion.)

After that Catherine started chattering away about her last trip to Hong Kong, obviously to remove the awkward atmosphere. She was nice like that.
"Oh I forgot to tell you. On my last business trip to HK I discovered a beautiful restaurant.
It's a magical place, really.
From the outside it looks like a stamp shop, but when you go inside it looks like you've been sent to the twenties. Like an old gentlemans club. You know what I mean right?" She threw everybody a significant glance.
"After you walk through a narrow walkway you enter a beautiful hall, mirrors everywhere and its stacked with reliques from old times. From all around the world.
France, England, stuff from Geishas. It's amazing! You would love it."
When she spoke about traveling it always seemed to light a fire in her eyes.

Aden, having recovered from his dad's attack, spoke up. "And the food? Is it good?"
He was a chef at heart so of course he couldn't resist asking.
"Yes it's .. what's the right way to describe it? It's exquisite. Some would say exotic.
It also has something old fashioned to it, but with a new twist." She waved her arms around, her whole face displaying emotion.
"Imagine Creme Brûlée, but spiced up with a mixture of tonca bean and a little bit of chili.
It's like sex for you taste buds, really."
Everybody laughed, they were used to her mothers straight forward way of expressing herself.

Yet Amber who was currently sipping at her drink almost choked from coughing.
Sometimes her mother was way too straight forward for her taste. Luckily the laughing covered it up ... almost.
She caught Adens eye, his lips curling up into a smirk. Obviously he had seen her.
As an answer she only frowned and proceeded with munching away on her food.

For the next minutes the adults' titter-tatter filled the air, accentuated by the soft cocktail-music.
They finished their meals slowly, occasionally sipping on red wine.
The children had already left the table and You could hear them playing pirates.
(One exact expression was: "Will you fight like a man or die?", screamed with at least fifty decibels. Cosima, obviously.)