Page 62 of Alpha Dragon's Mating Contract
If there’s anything I can help you with, please let me know
Uriel
Will do. Granted, you and Raptor are both paying me for these spells, so don’t feel like you owe me more.
Walren
You’re double dipping so hard
Uriel
The very best sort of dipping
Walren
You might be wrong
Uriel
What’s a better kind of dipping?
Walren
The meat sausage kind of dipping
Uriel
Snort
Walren deleted the messages just in case. Now all he needed was to keep refreshing his spell every twelve hours, and... things would be okay.
Right?
17
UNFORTUNATE COOKIES
They arrivedat Nood’s Good early enough that it wasn’t busy yet.
In the day, the restaurant was bright and airy, with large windows in the front and cozy wooden booths filling up the space. A zen water feature tinkled in the middle of the restaurant, soft lights shining down from the ceiling. Fake bamboo plants dotted the place. Paintings decorated the walls, including a majestic wave, and...
“Is that an octopus... courting... a woman?” Walren asked incredulously.
Raptor grinned. “Are you not familiar with that piece? It’s by the same artist who painted The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.” He nodded at the wave painting.
Walren’s attention kept drifting back to the octopus painting. “I’m glad it’s not in full view of the entire restaurant,” he said weakly. Just the hallway leading to the office.
He followed Raptor past the empty booths to the kitchen in the back. Chefs were busy at work there, chopping and prepping various ingredients for the lunch crowd.
“Want a tour, sweetheart?”
“If you don’t mind.” Walren bit his lip. “I mean, if it’s not a bother.”
“Naw. You’ll never be a bother. A few minutes won’t set us back by too much.” Raptor wrapped his arm around Walren’s waist and led him through the kitchen. The chefs continued to work, adding to the piles of colorful vegetables on the stainless steel counters.
“We prep the ingredients for the lunch crowd here. Noodles are boiled in this pot, and this is the bone broth we use for most of our ramen bowls. I lived in Japan for a few years to sample all the ramen I could find. Then I apprenticed under a master chef until he was satisfied with my ramen-making skills.” Raptor looked exceedingly humble through it all, despite how much work he must have put into his restaurant.
“That sounds amazing. And the food you made last night was delicious.”
