Page 87 of I'm Looking for a Man in Finance
“A true family business,” I mused as I took in how happy they all looked for a few more seconds. “That’s what makes restaurants so magical. The love that comes from people that care just as much about what they do as each other.”
“That is exactly why I think people will love this place as much as I do. Tourists and locals alike. The people that live around here are loyalists. There are customers that have been coming in here for decades. But those are few and far between. We can’t keep up with the flashy restaurants tourists love to go to. I just know that if they were to step in through those doors, they’d get the exact New York experience they wanted.”
I looked again at the photo, wanting to remember exactly how James’s description of this place’s potential impact on NYC’s food scene made me feel. And how honored I felt that he’d enlisted my help to do it.
“How are your finals going?” James asked Brandon, as we made our way through the dining room to a back table where five people were sitting.
“Good. I’ve got one more and then I’m done. Graduated.” Brandon’s pride was evident as we approached the table.
“You’re in college? Where are you going?” I asked, postponing being the center of everyone’s attention for a few seconds longer.
“NYU,” Brandon said.
“Me, too. I graduated a few years back,” I told him.
A smile broke out across his face. “No way! What did you study?”
“Journalism. What about you?”
“Business,” Brandon said proudly. “I want to take this place over someday. Keep it in the family.”
Everything about this restaurant was what made me fall in love with reviewing. It didn’t have a Michelin star. Celebrities weren’t trying to get reservations here. The chef in the back wasn’t renowned on a global scale. But none of that mattered. Not when the backbone of this place was thetruedefinition of Brooklyn.
“James!” an older version of the woman in the picture I’d just looked at called out. She still had the same ethereal energy.
“Hi, Mom.” James leaned away from me to give the woman a kiss on the cheek as she wrapped her arms around her son.
“I thought you told me you weren’t bringing anyone?” she asked, her voice tight as she gave me a smile.
James’s mother had fair skin and white-blonde hair. Her skin was flawless, and she wore her age like it was its own accessory. She was the kind of woman I used to watch walk out of Bergdorf Goodman’s in college with their arms weighed down with bags.
“I said I wasn’t bringing Sebastian, Mom.” I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen James blush so much in one evening. It was charming knowing he was just as nervous about this situation as I was.
“So now I have to explain myself when I ask if you’re bringing guests? How do you think she feels? Walking in here with your entire family staring at her like she’s a zoo animal? Did you even tell her we’d all be here? I swear, I thought I raised you better than that.”
“Eloise, come on now. You’re only going to make it worse.” The man that looked like an older version of James reached for Eloise to return her to her seat.
“Giacomo, Eloise is right. I would have made something for her to take home.” An older woman at the table glared at James’s father.
“We’re at a restaurant, Ma. She’ll probably have food to take home already.”
I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole as they all looked at me expectantly. My family was much quieter and much more reserved than the bunch in front of me.
My lips opened, then they closed. Then opened again. I wasn’t sure how many times I tried to find anything to say to these people that James cared about so fiercely, but nothing came out.
James rescued me.
“Everyone, this is Hallie,” James said, his voice a blend of pride and something softer.
He went around the table, introducing his mother, Eloise. His father, Giacomo. His uncle, Antonio, or Tony. His younger cousin, Emilia, who had just come from a volleyball game. And his grandmother, Giulietta.
Eloise waved me over to the open seat beside her, the previous irritation she’d directed at James gone, replaced by genuine enthusiasm.
“Hallie, it’s a pleasure to have you join tonight for family dinner.” Then she dropped her voice to a stage whisper as I took the seat next to her. “I’m sorry about my son. I think he believes having us unprepared for his surprises is better, so we don’t have an entire list of questions prepared.” She rolled her eyes. “Men. What can we do? But I don’t blame him. He’s never brought a woman to the restaurant before, much less to a family dinner. So, you must be special.”
James slid into the seat beside me and casually draped his arm across my chair, like we did this all the time. “This isn’tfamily dinner, by the way,” he added with a quick glance in my direction. “That’s on Wednesdays at Nonna’s house. This is just dinner with the family, totally different.”
“And you brought her?” Emilia asked. “Are you two like together?”
