Chapter 265: Date Strategy
** Eli **
The pasta proved itself to be good indeed. Eli succeeded in coaxing Harper to try the sage butter scallops with house-made gnocchi, and he had quite a few good laughs as the girl stared suspiciously at the creamy white sauce before lifting a dripping bite into her mouth.
At the same time — much to his relief — Tyler didn’t spend the rest of dinner frowning on those laughs, or on any further starry-eyed sips that the two shared over their Lovebirds drink. Between praising his own food in pleasant surprise and dodging Chelsea’s many hilarious comments on both the restaurant and the company at the table, the grumpy guy’s mood visibly lifted over time, and he even deigned to share a toast with Eli without grudging snark involved.
It looked like Harper was truly a genius for setting up this dinner arrangement, making it work out so well to their advantage and successfully easing her meddling brother into the new role of a future brother-in-law.
Eli appreciated the peaceful turnout. Although, silently in his own mind, he wished that the two of them had tried this restaurant themselves before bringing a group of guests along. Because the more they sipped on that Lovebird Duo and shared a beautifully presented tiramisu with a heart drawn across the plate, the more he felt like the restaurant’s subtle yet surely romantic atmosphere was placing a rosy filter over his eyes. It made it harder and harder for him to keep paying attention to the other two people on the table, and he wished Harper was the only one here with him tonight, so that all he had to do for the rest of the evening was to simper at her without any other company present as unnecessary witnesses.
He would have to save that todo item for after they got home though. Along with the leftover pasta that he already had ten thousand plans for.
His girl, meanwhile blissfully unaware of his drifting attention, was getting increasingly intrigued instead by the mysterious dynamics happening between her brother and her bestie. At the end of the evening when her friend left the table briefly for the restroom, she finally couldn’t hold back the curiosity to ask.
"You guys really haven’t met before?" she interrogated her brother once more, eyeing the empty bottle of Sassicaia that the two had shared. "I feel like I’m missing something here. Did you two just happen to like the same wine so much without knowing it ahead of time? And what’s that look Chelsea gave you when you said you work at Sanderson Funds?"
Tyler continued to clean up his dessert plate without looking up. "Well, I was curious about that too," he said casually. "Maybe we should ask your friend instead? I mean, I’d also like to know if it’s just me getting lied to too much these days and getting paranoid, or if it’s your friend actually discovering some interesting story there that I’m not aware of."