The Cursed King

Loriel was impressed to see Elise tried to learn more about Italian food before she took him here. She not only chose a place with Italian dishes, but she also decided to follow the dinner customs of Northern Italy.

Aperitivo came from the Latin verb "aperire," and it was something that meant "to open." It was the idea of opening your tastebuds to new flavors and cuisines before diving into dinner.

Loriel thought that this was going to be the perfect dinner with Elise. He was also happy because finally, he could show off his language fluency.

"What do you want to order?" he asked Elise with a smile. The girl pointed at several dishes, from the starter, appetizer, side dish, main dish, and dessert. Loriel nodded and turned to the waiter. He repeated Elise's order in his perfect Italian.

The waiter looked dumbfounded. He was American and didn't speak Italian. So, he was taken aback by this guest's Italian.

Once or twice a month they would have Italian guests in their establishments, but even those people didn't order in Italian because they could quickly see that the waiters were not Italians and wouldn't understand them anyway.

Once, the chef came out to greet two Italian guests, and spoke Italian with them, because the couple was actually very famous movie stars. But this man here, albeit very handsome, wasn't a movie star.

Should he call his chef and let him know there was an obnoxious Italian in their restaurant who insisted on using Italian to order food, even though the menu was in English?

"Pardon?" the waiter finally asked Loriel to repeat what he said in English. "I am very sorry, Sir. I don't speak Italian."

Loriel could only roll his eyes and scoffed. He couldn't help it. He wanted to impress Elise, but this fool didn't even speak Italian, working in this fancy Italian restaurant.

"You are amazing," Elise gushed. "You speak the language that even the waiters don't speak."

Loriel's face beamed again. He smiled and shrugged. "Ah, this is nothing. I learned it when I lived in Tuscany for several years."

In fact, he had a nice castle in Tuscany that he still visited several times a year. The region was one of his favorites in the world.

He couldn't wait to bring Elise there and show off his perfect Italian to real Italian farmers as they visited the vineyards and mamma's and nonna's home restaurants.

Those older women loved talking to him and they were all so happy when they heard him speak their language.

  "You are very interesting," Elise said, "You speak Japanese, and now Italian too? Wow.. what other languages do you know?"

  Loriel puffed up his chest when he heard her question. "I speak 70 languages fluently and know around 100 local dialects."

  The waiter was now staring at Loriel in awe. Wow.. no wonder this man spoke Italian, he thought. Apparently, he knew so many languages.

  "That is amazing! How did you learn all that? It must take years and years to learn a new language for regular people. You are still very young, yet you already speak so many languages…" said Elise. "You must be a genius."

  Loriel hiccuped when he heard her compliment. Well... if only Elise knew that he was not as young as she thought he was.

  "Thank you," he said. To change the topic, he turned to the waiter and repeated their order in English. The waiter breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to take their order and came inside to get their food.

  He came back five minutes later with their wine and starter. Loriel had ordered the wine pairing for each dish and the waiter came with their orders one by one with meticulous precision.

  "The food is good," Loriel commented. 

"Not as good as yours," said Elise, much to the man's delight. "But I hope you like it."

  "I do," said the man. "Thank you for taking me to dinner. This is really nice."

  "Yeah, I figured, it is nice to eat out from time to time. We spent way too much time inside. I mean… now I can already earn some money, I want to treat you."

  Loriel was suddenly in a panic when he heard Elise said they spent too much time inside the penthouse. Did she not like it? Did she want them to go out more? Did she like places like this?

Should he take her out to eat too?

  He hated public places and meeting a lot of people. Should he start liking them now?

  "What's the matter?" Elise asked Loriel. She had seen the man's face paled. "Are you unwell?"

  The man downed his wine and motioned the waiter for a refill. Then, he shook his head. "No. I am fine."

  Elise thought Loriel was quite mysterious but she didn't probe him further. She thought he would share with her if he felt the need.

  They both enjoyed dinner with a light chat over food and wine. Sometimes, Loriel would explain the dish, where it originally came from, and the many different variations of the recipe.

  He was enjoying their dinner so much and slowly changed his mind about going to public places to eat with Elise. This was not too bad, he thought. As long as he was with her, even hell sounded like an amazing place.

  There were always things that would ruin one's evening if one allowed them to. Sometimes little accidents occurred when a waiter clumsily spilled their drink or served the wrong dish.

  Maybe it was a minor disagreement or something else came up that made dinner with loved ones estranged.

  And yet Loriel never imagined that his lovely dinner with Elise would be ruined because of some other people who could have been very much called the scum of the earth.

  It was when those two arrived.

  Loriel and Elise were enjoying their main dishes when two new guests arrived in the restaurant.  They were a couple, and they instantly caught Loriel's attention.

  Their eyes were focused on Elise and the two immediately started to head toward their table and ignored the maitre'd that was asking about their reservation.

  Loriel glanced at his wife who was still happily tasting their light meal. "Elise, I think—"

  "Madeline!" the woman shouted and drowned out Loriel's voice. "You're here!"

  The two instantly came up to their table without any hint of hesitation. Elise froze up in her seat at the sound of Tessa's voice. 

  She glanced up and saw that it was her cousin Tessa and her boyfriend, Julian.

  Something cold went down Elise's spine at the sight of the two of them.