#Brunch Bureau menu

[beingjellybeans]

Brunch Bureau: A Delightful Brunch Haven for Titas... and more!

Titas of Manila, let me introduce you to the newest hidden gem in the heart of Makati—Brunch Bureau! Nestled discreetly on the second floor of the Proscenium 1 Office Building in Rockwell Center, this cozy cafe is destined to be your go-to spot for a leisurely and delectable brunch experience with your beloved amigas. A Peek into Paradise: Ambiance and Vibe Brunch Bureau welcomes you with an…

[atlafan]

Take it Slow - Part Three

a/n: okay this is my first shot at a harry:y/n fic, and it will be multiple parts. y/n had a bad experience with an ex over a year ago, and finally accepts her coworker and good friend Niall’s invitation to go on a blind date with his friend Harry. (Fluff and slight smut? If you squint? )

Part One Part Two

You woke up at eight-thirty so you could shower and get yourself ready for the day. You blow dried your hair and threw some curls in at the ends. You put on some light makeup, and then rummaged through your closest for something cute, but casual to wear for brunch. You decide on a pair of light, high wasted jeans and a black shirt to tuck into them. You grab your white toms and slip them on. Five after ten Harry texts you letting you know he’s downstairs.

He’s standing outside his car. He has a beanie on over his gorgeous hair, a few curls peeking through. Today he has a white t-shirt on with dark blue jeans. He looked heavenly. You could see more of his tattoos peeking through the white fabric. In the light of day you could tell he really did have a lot. Eagerly, you wrap your arms around his neck to give him a hug and a peck on the cheek. He wraps his arms around your waist and gives you a squeeze before letting you go.

“G’morning.” He smiles.

“Morning.” He opens the door for you, closes it, and gets in himself. “So, where are we going for brunch?”

“It’s called Rick’s, it’s really good. I like it because it actually has things I can eat.” He laughs. He starts driving towards the restaurant.

“What can a vegan eat for breakfast? I still eat eggs and stuff.”

“Typically, I’ll go for some fruit, potatoes, maybe even a slice of toast. I also eat beans.”

“That sounds good.”

“On any given day though I usually just make a smoothie.”

“I usually do a smoothie too.”

You pull up to the restaurant. He opens your door for you. He’s such a gentleman. When you enter he takes his beanie off and shakes his hair out. Respectful of the establishment too. It’s a seat yourself kind of place, so you find a booth in the back, and sit down.

A waiter comes over and pours you both some coffee and water, and tells you he’ll be back. You both look over the menu. You agree to split a bowl of fruit. You opt for some oatmeal. You don’t like how greasy omelets tend to be at place likes this. Harry orders beans on gluten-free toast. Your food is brought out pretty quickly. You didn’t realize how hungry you were until you took your first bite of oatmeal.

“Mm, this is perfectly made.”

“Oh good, I’m glad.” He smiles taking a spoon full beans. “So…”

“So?”

“After this I’ll take you to get your car. I’m sure you have things you need to do today, but I was wondering if you had plans tonight?”

“Just had a date with my TV, but I can cancel.” You laugh. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well, I was wondering if you’d like to come to my place. I’d like to cook for you.” Your jaw nearly drops.

“You cook?”

“Sure do. I worked in a bakery as a teenager back in the U.K.”

“Oh, cool. I’d love to do that. Can I bring anything?”

“Just yourself.” He winks.

“No really, I hate showing up empty handed.”

“How about you bring a dessert?”

“What can a vegan eat for dessert?”

“Dark chocolate, fruit?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“Perfect.”

You both continue to eat. He puts his beanie back on when you get outside. He drives you to your car at Pinz. He gets out to let you out.

“You don’t have to keep doing that.” You say, taking his hand to help you out.

“Sure I do, how would I get a proper hug goodbye in?” He says with a smirk on his face. He wraps his arms around you, and you reciprocate.

“Thank you again for breakfast.” You say into his ear, and give him a nice kiss on the cheek.

“You’re more than welcome.” He says looking at you. His lips press to yours, and you happily kiss him back. This time he breaks the kiss first. “Right, well we could be like this all day, so, um, I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yup, what time?” You ask getting into your car.

“Seven?”

“Works for me.”

You stop by the store on your way home. You grab some melting chocolate and some strawberries. When you get home you melt the chocolate and dip the strawberries in it, and pop them in the freezer. You also grabbed some red wine that would taste good with such a dessert. You take the remainder of the day to tidy up, work on some emails, and catch up on a TV show you were desperate to watch on Netflix.

Around five-thirty, you go into your room to look for something to wear. You wanted to look nice, so you decide on a dress. You pull out your navy blue dress that had the buttons down the front. The straps were thick, and it flowed around you down to the midpoint of your thighs. You put on a jean jacket, and slipped your white toms on. Harry texted you his address, and out the door you went with your dessert and wine.

You got to his place promptly at seven. He buzzed you in, and up you went. The door was opened a crack for you. You walked in and closed it behind you.

“Harry?”

“Over here, love.”

He had his back turned to you, as he was just straining some pasta in the sink. He had an apron tied around his waist. He had put a long sleeve button down shirt on, it was blue, not navy though, baby blue. He changed into an unripped pair of black jeans. When he turns around to look at you he rushes over to kiss you on the cheek and take the items out of your full arms.

“That can go in the freezer.” You say pointing to the strawberries. You take your jacket off, and scan his studio apartment.

He had it set up perfectly. The bed was at one end, up against the wall, but still room for someone to walk on both sides of it. In front of the bed was a couch, and in front of that was a coffee table, and a TV mounted to the wall. He had a bureau adjacent to the bed. There was a full bath down a hall way. Opposite the bedroom/living area was a pretty decent sized kitchen. He had a small cart that he used as an island. There was a table that fit four chairs around it. He had camera bags and a giant iMac and desk in the corner next to his bed. He clearly worked at home quite a bit.

“Harry, your place is lovely.” You say walking over to him.

“Thank you. You look beautiful by the way.” You kiss him on the cheek.

“So, what’s for dinner?”

“I made black bean pasta, and roasted some vegetables. I’m just making up the plates now.”

“It smells delicious.”

“Please, have a seat. I can open this wine up.”

“The wine will taste better with dessert.” You say sitting down at the table. He had lit two candles and you feel yourself melt a little. He’s romantic.

“Alright, I have some other wine that will go with this particular dish anyways.”

He brings a plate over to you. You notice he had drizzled some olive oil on top. It looked like something someone could get at a restaurant. He sits down adjacent to you, instead of across, much more intimate.

“This looks amazing, Harry, thank you.”

“Of course, I was happy to do it.” He takes out his phone, and you see him go into the Spotify app. He puts on some light music. You smile at him as you take a bite. You can’t help but moan at how delicious the food it.

“This is delicious!”

“I’m so glad you like it. Sometimes that pasta can be bland.” You love the way he says pasta. It sounds so different from the way you say it.

“S’not bland at all. Lots of flavor. And I love what you put on these veggies. Is that paprika?”

“Yes, and a little chili powder. I didn’t want to use too much because I didn’t know if you liked hot food.”

“Love it, I love spicy food. Hot wings used to be my favorite thing when I used to eat meat. Now I do buffalo cauliflower.”

“You make it yourself?”

“Yup.”

“I’d love to try that sometime.”

“Maybe next weekend I could make it for you.”

“You’d make me wait an entire week?” He asks playfully, shoveling some food into his mouth.

“Wednesday is usually my rest day from the gym, if that works for you.”

“Wednesday it is.” He smiles.

You couldn’t believe how often he already wanted to see you. Your second and third date, now technically fourth, were back to back. It was nice to feel wanted for a change. After you two finish eating, Harry insisted he didn’t want you to help clean up, but you insisted you did because he cooked. You decided on you wash, him dry.

“Care to have dessert over by the sofa?”

“Sure.”

You pad over to the couch, and sit down, crossing your legs at the ankle. You hear Harry pop the cork to the wine you brought. You watch as he takes the chocolate covered strawberries, and puts them on a serving plate. He brings two glasses, the wine, and the dessert over. He pours you each a glass of wine.

“Did you make these?” He asks, pointing to the strawberries.

“Sure did.” You take a sip of the sweet wine. “Here.” You pick one up and hold it in front of his mouth. You expect him to take it from you, but instead he just takes a bite. You feel goosebumps raise on your body. He licks his lips after and takes a sip of the wine.

“You were right, this wine is perfect for dessert. That’s a juicy strawberry.” He picks one up and smiles at you, gesturing for you to do the same as him. You nervously lean forward and take a small bite. The chocolate shell cracks off, and falls onto your dress.

“Oh, shit.” You pick it off and place it onto the napkins on the coffee table. “I guess I could’ve done that more gracefully.” You laugh.

“It’s easier if you bite up here.” He shows you where, eating the rest of the strawberry you just bit into. “Here, try again.” He holds up another for you, and you bite where he showed you, this time not making a mess. “Perfectly executed.” You both laugh.

You guzzle down two glasses of wine like it’s nothing. He does the same, but seems less intoxicated than you. The majority of the strawberries have been eaten. You can’t help but stare at the tattoo on his wrist. It’s an anchor, you reach of his hand and trace over it with your index finger.

“Can I look at the others? The ones on your arms?”

“Sure.” He shrugs his shoulders, stands up, and unbuttons his shirt. He reveals a white t-shirt, and places his button down on the bed. He sits back down and lets you examine him. “Some of them have meaning, and others were just for fun. Do you have any?”

“Oh, god no. Something Niall and I have in common, we’re afraid of needles.” You laugh.

“But your belly button is pierced.” He says raising an eyebrow at you. Your cheeks flush. “Sorry, I noticed it last night while we were playing one of the games.” He smiles nervously.

“It’s alright. Sometimes I forget it’s even there. I got it my first year at college. I got drunk with my friends, and I felt like rebelling against my parents, so I got the one piercing my mom told me I couldn’t have.”

“You’d think she would have told you not to get your nipples done or something.” He takes a sip of wine. Your eyes grow wide. “Sorry, does the word nipple bother you?” You feel your cheeks grow hot.

“Um, no. I just…” You look down at yourself. His eyes grow wide and his mouth falls open.

“Wait a second, so you won’t get a tattoo, but you’re telling me that not only do you have your naval pierced, but your nipples as well?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I need to hear this story.”

“It was my junior year of college, and all of my friends and I got them done together. I was afraid, I knew it would hurt way more than this.” You point to your stomach. “So we did a bunch of shots and went down to the parlor. The second one hurt worse since I knew what to expect after the first one.”

“Why was that something your friends all wanted to do?”

“Because not everyone was willing to get a tattoo. I think it was the permanence. Piercings can always be taken out. It was sort of childish. I couldn’t wear a bra for over a week, which is not easy to do when you’re, well, chesty, and they burned so bad. They weren’t infected or anything, it was just like this weird sting. Eventually I got used to it, and now I barely remember they’re there.” You laugh, pouring yourself a third glass of wine. You figure you can always uber home if you need to. You top off Harry’s glass. “Don’t tell Niall though, he only knows about the naval.”

“I promise you, I will not mention your nipples to him.” You both laugh. He scoots a little closer to you. “Anything else on your body you’d like to tell me about?”

“Nope, I think that’s it.”

You’re feeling bold, and want him even closer to you. You put your hand on his forearm and rub it lightly back and forth. He takes his other hand and tucks some hair behind your hair.

“Come here.” He says, gesturing to have you scoot closer. He puts his hand on your lower back, and you press your hands to chest. Similar to how you were last night at your place.

He leans in, brushing his nose with yours. You kiss him first, and he pulls you in closer. He leans back against the arm of the couch, and your crawl into his lap, putting your legs on either side of him. You finally part your lips for him. He’s slow at first, sliding his tongue along your bottom lip. You let out a small moan at the motion. His tongue enters your mouth, and you lightly suck on it, causing him to moan into you. You feel him twitch beneath you. You’re practically hovering over him, but you still feel him shift. His hands move up your back, and pull you closer to his chest. Your hands go straight for his hair as he begins to plaster kisses to your jaw, and then to just under your earlobe. He nips and sucks at the skin.

“Oh, Jesus.” You whisper.

“Wrong name, love.” He says into your ear, nibbling on your earlobe.

You moan and press your hips down on to him. Not exactly grinding, but there’s no space between you anymore. Your hands tug at his hair as he bites down on the crook up your neck. It was sure to leave a bruise, but right now you didn’t care. Nothing some makeup up and a high enough shirt couldn’t cover up. He lifts his hips to press into you, and you roll on top of him. The vibration of his moan against your neck runs through your whole body. It makes your mind wander to where else his hot breath, nipping, and sucking would feel good. Your eyes burst open. You can’t think like that, not yet.

“Harry.” It comes out as a whimper, so keeps sucking on your neck, getting a good taste of you. You push back on his chest and grab his face in your hands. His pupils are fully blown, you imagine yours are as well. “I like what we’re doing, but our clothes have to stay on, all of them, okay?”

“Of course. Taking your dress off never even crossed my mind.” He smirks at you.

“Sure it didn’t.” You roll your eyes.

“In all seriousness, I want you to feel comfortable, so if I overstep, please don’t be afraid to tell me, okay? We can stop altogether now if you want.”

“I definitely don’t want that.” You kiss him quick. “I’m just not ready to, um…”

“You don’t have to explain yourself.” He smiles. “I’m happy to just make out.”

Your shoulders lower in relief. You kiss him again, this time sticking your tongue in his mouth. They mold together perfectly. You can taste the chocolate and the wine, and you’d be lying if you said it wasn’t delectable. You could really smell his cologne too, it was intoxicating. You just wanted to berry your face in him. One of his hands slides down to the top of your ass, and gives it gentle squeeze. You lift up a little so he can get a better grip on you. He puts his other hand on your cheek, and laces his fingers in your hair. You moan into his mouth as he starts to suck on your tongue.

You desperately wish you could squeeze your legs together to relieve the pressure that’s been building. You’re certain your panties are soaked at this point. He’s so hard for you, and you want to grind against him to help him relieve his pressure, but you don’t. You know if you start this, you’ll need to finish it. He took a break from your mouth and kissed down to the top of your chest. You knew your skin had to be pink from the alcohol alone. You move to kiss down his neck. You wanted to nip and suck on him the way he did you.

“Oh, fuck.” He says breathless the minute your teeth pinch down on him. He pulls you as close as he possibly can to him. Desperate to feel your breasts against his chest. You start to roll your hips on him, moving back and forth. Your body needs the friction. He grabs your waist to halt your motions. You stop to look at him. His chest is heaving. “If you keep doing this, I’m going to come in my trousers, and I’d rather not make things awkward between us.” He gives you a half smile. You start giggling and rest your forehead on his shoulder. He giggles along with you.

“Guess we should probably cool it for the night then, yeah?”

“I guess that would be the smart choice. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, but this couch has a pull out if you’d like to stay. I don’t want to send you in an uber home alone at this time of night, and I’m in no condition to drive.” What time is it anyways?

“That’s awfully sweet, but I’d rather go home. I don’t have a toothbrush or anything here.” You smile. “I know who I can call.”

You get off of Harry, careful not ogle at the strain in his pants. You find your phone and call Niall.

“He said he can be here in about fifteen minutes.”

“Sounds good.”

You help Harry clean up the dessert and wine glasses. He gives you some water, and you guzzle it down. You two start to kiss again, slowly but with need, when you’re interrupted by a knock at the door.

“That’ll be him.” Harry says. “Use your key, mate!” Niall keys in. You think it’s cute he has a key to his friend’s apartment. Even Niall doesn’t have a key to your place.

“Oi, lad, what did ya do to my friend? Get her so drunk she couldn’t get home?”

“Everything I did was from my own doing.” You slur, putting your jacket on. “Um, I guess I’ll have to come by tomorrow to get my car. I can just uber for that.”

“I can bring ya by here, (y/n).” Niall says. “Harry and I have plans tomorrow anyways.”

“Perfect.” You and Harry smile at each other. He puts his hands in his pockets and gives Niall a look.

“I’ll go wait in the hall so you two can say g’night.”

You pad over to Harry and give me a deep kiss. Something for him to think about. He gives you a light tap on your bottom.

“I had a great time tonight, thank you for dinner.”

“Thank you for the amazing dessert.” He bites his bottom lip. “Good night.”

“Night.” You blow a kiss at him as you leave.

Thank god Niall was home, and sober. There’s no way you would’ve been able to get home tonight.

“So, I take it you had a nice night?” He asks, as he peels out of the parking lot.

“Mhm, he’s the best.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“For what?”

“For sticking to your not moving too fast thing. Not many women can resist Harry.”

“Trust me, it’s not easy. I gladly would’ve fucked him tonight, but I know it would’ve been too soon.”

“You can do other stuff y’know? He’s a giver, you wouldn’t even have to actually have sex with him.”

“What do you mean he’s a giver?”

Niall holds a hand up and separates two fingers under his chin and makes a licking motion. You scoff and nudge his arm.

“You’re fowl.”

“I’m telling you. I’m sure some heavy petting would be okay to start. You don’t need to hop right on his dick. But you also don’t need to punish yourself.”

“That’s true, and I know I don’t. We’re seeing each other again Wednesday. I’ll see how I feel then.”

[somekindofseizure]

When the Ink Dries Part IX

This is not the end of the story, still working on the last few chapters but I felt these were ready to see the world and you all have been so patient. Thank you all for that and thank you @icedteainthebag​ for editing brilliance.

This is, as the previous 22 chapters were, adult-rated material.

* * *

Chapter 23

The vinyl upholstery crackled as Mulder shifted his weight and looked out the diner window onto the expanse of knotted beltway.  FM radio scattered particles of music around him like dust that moved with the swoosh and capture of twin glass doors.  It was a busy morning in the restaurant, but for Mulder, there was only unleased space and silence, the room Scully’s voice and body would soon take up across from him, where her new reality would be borne, where time would reset itself for them as it had so many times already. 

The waitress dropped menus and clicked her gum, winked as though she knew what he was about to do.  New realities, a zero on the stopwatch - these were things of science fiction, sexy from afar, terrifying up close.  He turned down the coffee, he was jumpy enough.

He had run his finger up and down the coiled spine of the menu for the fortieth time when she finally slid into the booth, brushed back a front-leaning strand of hair from root to end, an impractical gesture that had never really seemed to serve any purpose except to distract him.  Saturday brunch sunlight pierced the window like a bullet and Scully chose her spot carefully, taking redheaded cover in a shadow.  He fidgeted in parallel, wanting to be directly opposite her when he said what he had to say.  She laughed, as though he was making fun of her, and reached across for a quick squeeze of his hand.  He fumbled the gesture, his grip still favoring the safety of carefully-named omelets over human women.  She didn’t seem to notice his worriedness.  Maybe in her mind worriedness had become his natural state.

“How was London?” he asked because he didn’t want to say you look so good, I missed you, please come sit next to me, and these exclusions limited small talk.  And yes, because he wondered if she would tell him what happened with Stella.

“Nice,” she evaded, scanning the menu.  They both knew she would get two eggs scrambled with an avocado instead of bacon, tell them to hold the home fries but on-purpose-forget to tell them to hold the buttered toast.  Looking at the menu was mere formality. “How are you, Mulder?” 

And now she flicked her eyes up to note the quality and integrity of his answer, a doctor assessing a patient, if the doctor and patient had spent many years being in love.  And so he could assess back, could see now as she studied him was that though she was happy to see him, there was sadness too.  No doubt this sadness had something to do with Stella’s phone call from the bathroom floor. The realization was bittersweet - a poignant comfort on Stella’s behalf that the heartbreak she’d nursed was shared by the silent party, the dizzying disappointment that that other party was the person he himself was still heartbroken over.

“I’m good, Scully.  You were right about the therapist.”

“Well--”

Normally, she was happy as anybody to accept an I-told-you-so, but she demurred here, waving him off.  He persisted.

“I should’ve gotten help much sooner.  You were right.”

“Okay.  Good.  You look well.”

She turned the menu over, pretended to consider a milkshake.  He’d only seen her actually order one once.  It was as memorable a diner moment as they came - glow-cheeked and kohl-smeared, she’d asked for it with a sigh of relief, as though the night they’d just spent together had earned her some sort of bonus.  Relief.

It had been like making love to her all over again, watching her gaze into the frothy glass, the Redi-Whip level and locking like a canal as she sucked her cheeks in making pinwheels of her cheek and jaw bones.  He had reached over to take it, slurp the remains from the bottom of the straw and she’d slapped his hand away.  When she finally chose something, she possessed it, devoted herself to it. What happened when there were two competing items on the table?

“Any good cases lately?” she asked.  

Strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, her finger physically skimming the plastic cover over these joyful words.

“No… well, some,” he said.  “Hospital good?”

“They’re still a little sore over my long leave, but they’ll get over it.  I’m starting to think about retirement.  I think I could do more good that way, volunteering on my own terms… It’s not like I’d do nothing, but...”

Myriad were the hypothetical topics Mulder loved and Scully hated, but this was one of a few that went the other way around.  She could pass hours daydreaming aloud about what she’d do with free time.  It incited a sense of panic in Mulder, made some voice inside him start chanting, I will work until I die.  He muffled a sigh by coughing into his elbow, trying not to sound annoyed, and waited for her to take a short pause before interrupting her.

“I actually brought you here to tell you something,” he blurted.

She looked up, eyebrows at a two percent incline that indicated she was in no way prepared for this moment.  He picked up the file folder on the seat beside him, but the waitress came by with her pad.  Scully made Mulder go first, buying time she didn’t need, and then ordered her usual.

“And a black and white with whipped cream,” Mulder tacked on at the end.

“No, I’m on a cleanse.  London was all red meat and chocolate and alcohol.”

London, not Stella. As though she’d been in a hotel somewhere alone.

“I’ll have it, then,” he said.  

The waitress nodded as she jotted and Mulder wondered how many people used places to set a scene.  Should he have done it in private, where she could cry or scream or do something else (he didn’t know what)?  It was true, he’d been counting on the fake-leather booth and egg-pan breeze to undercut the drama, but now that he was here with her it seemed more likely to exacerbate the situation.

“Sounds like big news,” she said but lightly, a benign reduction - you, the boy who cried aliens.  She folded her elbows on the table and leaned forward.  “Come on, you’re killing me.”

No sooner did the sarcasm settle than she spotted the mustard yellow folder under his hand and her technicolor complexion went grey.  This news was not we’re going to a basketball game, I’m getting a dog, or I found your favorite sweater, here ya go.  This news required a folder with a standard bureau label on it.

He placed it in front of her on the table, laid his hand flat on top of it so that she’d have to look at him before she opened it.  She knew the moment their eyes met.

“How?” she demanded immediately.  She regarded the folder itself like a bomb, waiting for him to tell her which wire was which.  His heart raced and he tried to remember his patience, tried to quell the urge to rush her into feeling any one specific thing. 

“I wasn’t sure we’d be able to find him at all.  That’s not how we set it up,” he said to stall, and to explain why he hadn’t told her he was looking into it in the first place.  He hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up.  

“And… how?”  she repeated, now sounding light headed, shallow-breathed.

“Working for the FBI for a hundred years has to come in handy at some point, right?”

“Is he…?”  

He reached for her hands, bending forward like a branch, an unexpected gale of guilt curling his back.  Generally file folders appeared when a body turned up.  Of course he should have led with this:

“He’s fine, honey.  Just fine.  Sorry.  I should have...”

She nodded quickly, let out a breath.  

The waitress arrived with the milkshake in a deep old-fashioned glass, a spoon, two straws and the stem of a cherry sticking up out the top. For the first time, he understood Scully’s gravitas around ordering these things.  There was a time and place.  Celebration could turn to sorrowfulness, expectation to terror quickly.  Sometimes you’d be sorry or embarrassed you had a milkshake in front of you. Neither of them touched it.

“There’s a picture,” he said.  “Pictures.”

In slow motion, she registered this development, licked her lips, straightened up as gradually as a puppet, pulled her hand from under his and placed it on her stomach.  Air shifted visibly within her ribcage, rippling her fingers as she tried to support her diaphragm externally.  Condensation began to encircle the base of the glass.

“I know, it’s a shock.  I’d half been hoping Stella told you, even though I asked her not to.”

Her face twitched in confusion.  

“Stella knew?”

He shook his head quickly.  

“Just for a couple days before you came back.  It came up.”

Color reappeared in her cheeks and her fingers went to her temples.  The kind of face she normally made when she found herself in the middle of a desert in a suit in hundred-degree heat, chasing down one of Mulder’s hunches, her how the fuck did we get here again face.

“Sorry -I -?  When did it come up?  How?” she stammered.

“She probably didn’t think it was her place.”

“Why do you talk to each other behind my back?”

“We weren’t talking behind your back, we were talking and it came out, Scully.”  

This was a coping mechanism of hers, to bicker through a loss of control, but sometimes mechanisms malfunctioned, caused damage.  He knew that ‘cause he went to therapy now.  Sometime - definitely not now - he would tell her she should go too.  

“I hate feeling like I’m the last one to know things,” she said.

He leaned forward and lowered his voice.

“I hate that there’s someone who can make you come faster than I can.”

She startled, almost laughed, but couldn’t - that folder was still here, in the room, staring her down, just like the milkshake.  

Her eyes moved over the edge of the piece of cardboard, as though it required planning - how does one open a file folder that contains the son you gave away? He tore it open for her, a Bandaid off a scab.

Mulder wasn’t there the first time Scully laid eyes on their son.  He’d had to guess at the way she must have marvelled, the beauty, the awesomeness of it.  No telling how he might have held up then, how that experience might have toughened his tolerance so that now thirteen years later he might not fall apart watching this second first-time.

His chest tightened, tears freezing somewhere between his eyebrows to avoid falling.  Across from him, Scully shed them with sensible abandon, weeping as science intended, peeling the surfaces of her eyes away like dead skin, leaving behind something new and unprotected, something healthier but easier to wound.

There was a school photo of William, a close-up, and then a few surveillance photos that had been taken at a distance.  Mulder had insisted they take no chances disturbing the boy, so these were a little blurry, taken at odd angles, slightly refractory images.  You had to use your imagination in order to piece him together.  But Scully stared, tracing a finger over his profile like he might pop up from the paper and sit with them.  What would he order if he could join them, Mulder wondered?  

He was tall for his age and pouty-lipped, possessed of the pronounced Mulder brow.  But he had Scully’s eyes and his skin was so fair he looked like he’d get a burn just turning the lights on.  And there was one odd thing -

“He’s blonde,” she said finally, mystified.  

“Yeah. Tell Stella I want a paternity test.”

She smiled and laughed, held a napkin to her upper lip to blot the snot.  

“There’s some information, too,” he said.  “It’s mostly, well, you’ll see.”

She flipped nimbly through, taking it all in like one of the old casefiles she’d had to cram before she got out of the car.  As in those cases, there was little to go on.  A tonsillectomy.  One school change to enter a gifted children’s program, a broken arm when he was ten from falling off the edge of a staircase, climbing up the wrong side of the rail, an activity which had almost gotten him kicked out of the fancy school.

She looked up, topmost edges of the papers trembling over her knuckles.  Her fingers were ripply at the knuckle, but her hands were still lovely, expensive looking - little blown-glass figurines that would outlast every piece of furniture in the house.

“He’s fine?” 

“Yeah.  He’s fine.”

William’s life was average in the extreme.  It was regular.  It was everything they could have hoped for.

She put the photos down in a neat pile, straightened her shirt, her lipstick, her hair, pushed the file folder closer to the center of the table beside a ceramic bed of sugar packets.  In a moment, food would arrive and they’d have to pack everything up, put it on a seat to her left or to his right, but for now it sat evenly between them.  Just as much his as it was hers.  

She scratched her lips thoughtfully, tapped the other set of fingernails on the table.  

“He’s fine,” she said, this time quietly, talking to herself, or to the folder, or maybe to God.

And then her gaze settled on Mulder.  It lingered there as the waitress balanced their food on her shoulder, placed down little dishes of overly cold butter and plasticky jam.  A few feet away, a newly minted middle-aged couple joined hands for the first time ever beside their forks.  Behind Scully, an aide helped an old woman into the booth.  Two college girls cooed at the counter, full up with things to tell each other.  Time moving forward and backwards, borrowed and stolen and still and running in circles at every table.

“Fine,” Scully repeated and tugged the cuff of his sleeve.  She mouthed the words thank you, bottom lip grazing her teeth.  She did it again, this time forehead collapsing into the center of her face to make that vertical wrinkle she’d had above her nose since she was twenty seven.  

He nodded, reached his foot under the table so that it rested against hers, his rubbery arch warming the sharp edge of her shoe and he pushed the milkshake across the table.  

She laughed and then took a sip.  Relief.

Chapter 24

As a biology major, Scully had sometimes been warned she was signing up for a life of disappointment.  Satisfaction would be fleeting.  Few of them, if any, would make grand discoveries in their careers.  The earth was already round.  The miracle of penicillin had already been witnessed, sprouted hundreds of other little miracles that bore an ever-less-impressive resemblance. A scientist, Scully was told, must learn to love the question, not live for an answer.

William had been a hypothesis for most of these past thirteen years, and though that was sometimes painful, it was familiar.  It was a circumstance Scully had come to accept.  She’d given him up because she’d firmly believed it was better for him.  Conclusions: none.  Control: none.  It was how she’d assumed things would always be.  But now there was an answer. William existed once again. He looked a certain way and sounded a certain way and lived a very certain life and she would always miss him.  This was harder than she’d ever expected or allowed herself to imagine.  The earth is round - think what that had taken for people to get used to it.  

She rationalized things like the thing she was doing by going over this, comparing the unfamiliar emotions associated with her son to the familiar territory of science.  But Stella was no scientist, and she was no poet like Mulder. She was an answers person. And now she was here, involved in Scully’s experiments, and was not particularly happy about it.

They were seated on a cool-slatted autumn park bench, Stella draped in cashmere and reluctance, the chilly peach East Coast air settling on her cheekbones like stains of faint embarrassment.  It had been eight months since their parting ways - eight months of silence. Stella had granted Scully’s request for a visit without knowing specifically what it would entail.  Now she clasped her brown butter leather gloves over a tightly crossed thigh, pulled the cuffs of her sweater down closer to the edge of her gloves to warm her wrists.

Had this once come easier?  The restraint it took to refrain from touch and mentioning the effect of light on the color of her eyes?  An evening they’d spent in a hotel as just-friends came to mind.

“Did you color?” Scully asks, her surgeon-steady hand poised over Stella’s, light pink bottle of Chanel nail polish in place of a scalpel.

“Color… my nails?” Stella asks and blows a stream of air across her other hand.

“No, you know, like, crayons.”

“Oh.  No, not that I remember.”

Scully glances up quickly to make sure of two things – first, that Stella’s not touching her hair, her spaghetti straps, her Scotch, anything that would smudge the half-finished work, and secondly, that she hasn’t overstepped Stella’s bounds by asking questions.

Stella smiles, quick, casual, disappearing.  It’s hard to tell if it ends quickly because there is no reason to force it longer or because some shadow of the past has swallowed it.

“Isn’t that the sweater you let me keep?” Scully asked, eyeing the grey marled drawstrings on the hood.

“Bought myself another one.”

“And here I thought you’d made an ultimate sacrifice.”

“That would be unnecessary when I could just re-purchase it.”

“You could have just asked for it back, it was expensive,” Scully says, feeling the sting.

“And now it has dog hair on it,” Stella continued.

A stranger’s Golden Retriever had brushed up against Scully’s leg and she’d kept him there for a matter of seconds

“It’s barely noticeable.  You and the dog have the same color hair,” Scully said.

“I don’t shed.”

“We all shed.”

“I don’t like dogs.”

“You just pretend not to like them.”

Perhaps this had been a terrible idea.  Perhaps she should have waited for Stella to call first.

“Are you certain he’s coming today?” 

“No, not certain.  I haven’t really established a pattern.”

“That’s good to hear.  Aren’t you freezing in that denim jacket?  What have you got under it?”

“A t-shirt.  I’m fine.”  

“I’m not pretending, I truly dislike dogs.  They’re jumpy and they stink.”

Suddenly, Scully thought of some version of her life not lived, pictured Stella in their home, going stone cold as she brought in this or that mutt home from the pound.

“You’re a cat person, is that what you’re telling me?” she asked.

“I’m not an animal person, I’m a people-person.”

Scully double licked her lips as she waited for a punchline that never came.

“What?” Stella pushed back.  “I’m good with people.”

“You’re good at making people do what you want, that’s not the same thing.”

“You should know.”

Scully looked away, scanned a group of children without guardians - not the right group of children.

“I should have told you this was where we were going, but I thought you’d say no.”

Stella looked at her hard - her hardest countenances were reserved for her kindness.

“I think you know me better than that,” she chided softly.

“Did you swim?”  Scully asks with eager intrigue, that new friendship glee still fresh even after a few years of knowing one another.

“No.  I learned when I was older,” Stella says.

Scully nodded, dug the heels of her hands into the bench as she shuffled her feet - uncrossed and then recrossed.  She tossed her hair to the other shoulder so the wind wouldn’t pin it to her lip balm.  Maybe it would be better if he didn’t show up.

“How many times have you done this?” Stella asked.

“Five or six times.  Seven.”  Eight, nine, if she counted the times he hadn’t showed.

“Long drive coming from your place, isn’t it,” Stella murmured.  

Scully said nothing.  She had never even noticed how long.  She had spent exactly none of those hours considering the moral quandaries involved.  It was only talking to other people about it that even made her aware of them.  Alone, driving here, she wondered about his favorite color, his favorite food, if he could play any instruments.  

“Mulder go with you?”

“Just once.”  

He’d thought it was weird, said it felt wrong.  She’d pretended to agree. 

“What did you do then?” Scully presses.

“Horses.  Everything was my horse.  Riding, being with him, sitting there staring at him leaning on a fence, anything.”

Scully laughs and mumbles something about how very English this is and still Stella’s cuticles stay clean, not a stray stripe. Steady fingers, doctor’s fingers.

“Look at that,” Stella says in a soft, appreciative voice, eyes hot and hard where their hands are occupationally joined. “Even better with your hands than I remember.”

The flirtation is a change of subject, a subtle warning, and Scully licks her lips, doubles back for a second coat of the other hand, prepared to drop the topic of the horse.   But Stella keeps talking.

“My father would take me.”

The father, yes. Somehow always comes back to him, somehow always seems like the best and worst of what Stella remembers.  Scully paints, carefully considering her next question.  The color on Stella’s nails thickens so that it goes from a translucent skin color to a ballet pink that matches Stella’s satin slip camisole top.

Stella had turned slightly to watch a crowd of nearby teenagers approaching the skate park.  She slipped off a glove to scratch her lip with her nail.  This was the kind of thing Stella remembered to do that Scully wouldn’t have - all her leather gloves were marked with pink, red, mauve colored wax.

“How did you and I wind up friends?” Scully asked, eyes on her son, voice going wistful against her better judgment  Sometimes she wondered why they’d had to break up (was that what it was?).  Other times, she wondered how they’d started in the first place.   She caught Stella’s profile for a moment at such a perfect angle that she had to look the opposite direction to catch her breath.  Perhaps eight months had not been enough.  “Two not-people-people from separate parts of the world sitting on a bench together.”

“We almost didn’t.”

“And?”

“And I have irrepressible impulses to fuck beautiful people I know for certain I’ll never see again,” Stella said, pronouncing the F so hard it produced pulp in the air.  The playground moms turned to look.

“Blonde, you said? How’s he blonde?”

“Mulder said to ask you.”

“Idiot,” Stella murmured absently, busy separating the boy out from a crowd, putting him at the crosshairs of her attention. Scully found him at once. She knew his walk by now.  His carriage.  She could spot him a mile away.  She didn’t worry when he didn’t come.  She didn’t think about talking to him or touching him.  It was just this, watching, at a distance, periodically.  Still there.  Still there, watching him like he was an infant sleeping in a cradle rather than an almost adult riding a skateboard.

“There, yes?” Stella said, a voice like a long hooked finger, the drawl so sustained the word could have reached across the Atlantic Ocean.  “That’s him, isn’t it?”  

“Yes,” she hissed to herself without Scully saying anything at all.

He was wearing a hat today, a striped beanie and a pair of Ray-Bans, trying to look cool, Scully thought, but the rest of him was still sloppy and silly, lecturing at his friends about something.  Like his father, she thought, and still she felt no angst, no sadness, only peace.  It was like bird-watching, only it was her son out there in the wild.  And this lanky creature here is known as a young human.

“Not what I expected,” Stella murmured, as though a voice any louder might make him flit away, all the way across the park.  Stella said.  “All you.”

“Why is that unexpected?”

“They say the first child always resembles the father, to keep him from wanting to kill it, eat it or abandon it.”

Scully looked at her knees. 

“That’s not what I meant,” Stella said quickly.

“I know.”

Ten, it had been ten times.

“Were you pretty?  You must have been very pretty.”  Scully is flirting and she knows it but it seems harmless enough.  

“I don’t know.”

Scully gives one of Stella’s fingers a little tug, bats her eyelashes to let Stella know she’s teasing, overdoing it.  She doesn’t know how to pay compliments without turning them into jokes.

“Did people tell you you were pretty, fawn over your golden hair while you relentlessly questioned them?”

It’s Stella’s turn to laugh.

The kids were moving closer, William looking at his phone as he smoldered leaves underfoot, swiveling on the balls of his feet with each step to make the crunch and sizzle.  Who was he texting with?  His mom?  Maybe a girl.  Or boy.  She lost herself in the last of the questions she could dredge up - imagining his turns of phrase, his favorite emoji and soon he was closer than he had ever been, just a few feet away, kicking a ball as he walked.  Scully felt her breath quicken as one of the boys got William’s attention, asked him something.  She had heard his voice only a couple of times, from much further away.

Stella nudged her in the side, drew her attention to the map on her phone.

“Here look,” Stella said.  “Says they’ve a good Caesar salad.  I’m in the mood for that.”

Scully nodded, her ankles brittle as weak stemmed flowers succumbing to first frost. Stella tugged her up from the bench.  She suddenly was very cold and shivered as she wrapped her denim jacket tighter.  She knew Stella’s instincts were right, that it was too strange, too risky for them to just sit there, so close to him.  Don’t turn back, she told herself.  And:

“Don’t turn back,” Stella echoed aloud.

Stella’s hands were in her pockets as they walked, eyes sympathetic but stern. Scully imagined it was how she looked when she brought someone in to identify a body, tell someone their sister had been strangled.

“Mulder’s right about this, you know that.”

Stella’s mention of his name, even in this context of William, or maybe because of it, angered her.  Stella pulled the scarf from her neck and forced it around Scully’s neck.  Loving Stella was no more or less painful than loving someone else, but it was more embarrassing, like loving a ghost or a phantom limb.

“How did you know I asked lots of questions?” 

“Most children do.  And you’re a detective.”

“So are you.”

“Not like you, not a born one.”

“Well you do have a second profession to fall back on.”

“A doctor?”

“A manicurist.”

Scully fake-raps Stella on the wrist and a bit of paint splatters on the crests of her knuckles.

She was grateful that she was not alone, that Stella’s footsteps were falling right beside her own, Stella’s musk-heavy floral scent bedded in the fabric beneath her own chin.  

“I’m glad I got to see him this once,” Stella said. That’s it, William was in the past again, at least for today.

Would she have disliked him as she disliked other children (and dogs?)  She would have been good to him, spoiled him, refused to stop cursing in front of him, probably?

“You and Mulder doing all right?”

“I don’t really want to talk about that.”

“You’ll have to get used to it again at some point.”

“So you’re not going to fight for me,” Scully said, meaning it as a joke, but her voice cracked.

“Fight for you,” Stella repeated dubiously, deciding whether to enter a game or a boxing ring.

Scully was glad they weren’t facing each other now.  She had things she wanted to say.  A fireplace burned somewhere in the neighborhood, the smell of a family gathering around it.

“You sent me back home because of William, didn’t you?  Mulder told you.  That’s why you made me leave you and now I’m home and you don’t think I should see William but you’re not going to try to get me back either. It doesn’t quite track for me.”

She stopped only because her breath ran out.  Stella was silent a moment. Walk, keep walking.  

“I don’t fight for people.”

If not people, then what, Scully wanted to say.  But she bit her lip instead, trying to keep it from trembling as she faced the chill, keeping time as though accidentally, side by side like strangers just off the same bus.  

“You can’t keep doing it.  This was the last time.  All right?”

Scully pursed her lips, shook her head, looked at the sky.  Stella was not going to use her son to change the subject.  

Or were they the same subject?

“You could do worse than Mulder,” Stella said, sharpening the edge on her voice, her weapon of choice, that vicious casualness.  “You love him.  He loves you.  You’re best friends.  He’s very well-endowed, from what I remember.  He can reach things.  Kill bugs.  He found your son for you despite absolute impropriety and deep ethical and legal breaches.”

“Stop,” Scully said, looking away over her other shoulder just to keep from crying.  A cadre of barren trees was ready to march off into winter, leave their dead, once-treasured leaves at their feet.  “Please stop.”

“Fine.”

This was how Stella faced her fears, she knew.  Laughed in the face of murderers, memorized her nightmares, re-read them like fairytales, salivated at the sight of blood, sneered at a plane nose-diving with a slug of Scotch.  

“You aren’t supposed to tell little girls they’re pretty too often,” Stella says with slow, deliberate breaths placed mid-phrase, as though she regrets having to tell anyone this, having to spoil an innocent, unruined worldview where a compliment to a child is merely a compliment, where little girls can be pretty and not suffer for it.

“Why not?”

“Because it makes them think they’re nothing else.”

“Mm,” Scully says and caps the polish.  Stella sits still as stone, hands out in front of her on the magazine, watching the polish dry with more patience than Scully has ever seen her muster.

“Sometimes you just have to let a person go,” Stella said as a boy - not her boy - on a skateboard sailed by.

“Which of you are you talking about now?”

Yes, the same subject.

Stella stopped abruptly, took Scully’s chin in one hand.  Rough enough that Scully might have objected except that it was stopping the incessant spinning she’d felt since they got up from the bench.

“I can’t do what Mulder can do, Dana.  And Mulder can’t do what I’m doing right now, and I don’t live here, so you need to let me say this right fucking now and tell me you hear me.”

Scully tightened her jaw stubbornly.  She felt small but safe here in Stella’s one hand.

“This is the last time you see him until he’s eighteen and you can ask.  Or you’ll regret it.”

Scully nodded, gulped away the tears in her throat, but they were tears of embarrassment, not sadness.  Stella’s grip loosened but did not release her.

“Tell me you hear me.”

Stella finally dropped her hand and held Scully’s.  The skin was bare.  Where was her glove?

“I wish I could have known you then,” Scully says, replacing the fancy second square cap over the little ridged round one.

“Take this,” Stella said and handed her one glove.

“Why?”

Scully heard the footsteps before she saw him and she saw the slightly sad, slightly satisfied smile in Stella’s eyes.  It could be any of them, Scully told herself, any of those kids.

“Excuse me!  Lady!”  

But it was him.  Stella nodded for her to turn.

“This yours?” he asked.

He held the abandoned glove out at arm’s length and Scully choked the sob in her throat.  Despite Stella’s impression, he looked just like Mulder the first day she met him.  First day of school science lab boy, nerdy and needy, sanguine and sweet and unaware of his charms, willing to cut open anything you didn’t want to touch even if he had to hold his breath to do it himself.

“Yes, yeah that’s mine,” she forced herself to say finally, knowing that once she did it would be over.  Her pause made him laugh for some reason.  When she stuck her hand out to take the glove, she must have still looked dazed, lame, because he frowned at her as though she’d made a silly mistake, then stuck his tongue between his molars and held her wrist with one hand, pretending to struggle to put it on her like a toddler.  She laughed, counting the seconds until she could collapse.  She’d have to make it out of the park, clear the area, she knew.

“Thanks,” she said and he nodded, licked his lips, and yes that was all her, turning them chapped to the wind and jogging off to meet his friends, a thirteen year old interrupting his afternoon to return a single glove to two middle aged women he’d never seen before.

Stella immediately took her arm, keeping the pace steady but consistent.  Scully kept up but would not stop looking until Stella looked back.

“What if he didn’t return it?” Scully managed to whisper.

“Why?” Stella asks.

As in why would anyone want to have known a four- and six- and eight-year-old girl like her, freckle faced and quiet eyed, brushing a horse’s back as she stands on a stool, proud and kind and a little strange, inconceivably wise beyond her years.

“Because,” Scully says and picks up Stella’s hands, squeezes her palms between thumb and middle fingers. “Then I could have told you you were everything.”

“I was willing to lose a glove today.”

Chapter 25

He realized he’d left the door unlocked by the way the early November candy corn breeze whistled through the first grade teeth of the patched screen door, winter dragging autumn out by its ankles.  The kitchen was as clean as it had been when Scully lived there, back when she’d tidy it every night before bed, caring for it like she cared for her teeth or her skin.  

It had taken him some time to figure out how to do this.  Time plus a therapist, two bottles of pills on the bathroom counter, and experiments with various citrusy smelling liquids in spray bottles.  Toxic, non-toxic, lemon-mint, gingerberry, when to hit the hard stuff - bleach, served neat.  Certain things like mental health and spotless surfaces had always been Scully’s area of expertise, but in her absence, he’d learned about both.

He’d done this often over the years, sat with William’s baby picture, forearms resting on the kitchen table, staring at it the way most people had learned during those years to stare at their tablets and phones.  He only ever did it alone - waited for Scully to leave and go home, which she always did.  When she lived here, he’d had to wait for her to go to sleep.  He had never told her it wasn’t all research and computer screens wrestling him from their bed.  

The photo paper was pliant from age and attention and it took only ten minutes or so for it to warm between his fingertips so thoroughly that he worried the colors would come off on his fingers, that baby William would disappear from prosperity into the temporariness of his skin.  He used to think of old world boy-things - model rockets and baseball caps, the stuff of fifties sitcoms and Norman Rockwell.  He used to think you belong here.

He used to wonder if William would look at him the same way Scully did when she was thinking aloud, the little line forming between her eyebrows, the squint, the lips tightening in distaste and restraint, or if William was more like him, a dreamer and a rambler.  He knew himself.  He knew Scully.  That William possible, knowable. But now he was a third thing - himself.

The screen door hinge cracked and smacked behind him.  He’d recently tightened the screws and she wasn’t used to its newfound snap.  Stella must have gone back to London.  He had not asked for dates and times - had never done that, not even when they were together.  He’d always had plenty to keep himself busy while Stella was in town.  He more often had trouble stopping that busyness when Stella had gone.  He always made Scully re-announce her presence. “Just me, Mulder.” “I know.”  I can tell by the way the gravel crunches under your tires, can tell by the tone of the wooden moan in the porch floorboards, by the way you breathe on the other side of a weight-bearing wall.  You belong here. “So clean,” she marvelled quietly, as she often did when she stopped by these days to say hello or drop off some pizza or check on him, he knew that’s what it was.  He wondered if someday it would sound like superiority.  He wondered if he’d ever learn to take her for granted again, just a little bit, just enough to relax.

“How’s Stella?” he asked, and considered shuffling the photo out of view as he normally would, but for some reason, this time, he did not.

“She’s good, I think.  You know, Stella doesn’t say much.”  

She dropped William’s folder on the table. She’d had possession of it since the diner. Now she leaned on the back of the chair over him, her fingers snuggling between the wood and his back as she saw the baby picture.  She petted his hair from behind, rested her chin on his head so that her voice came out funny.  He wondered how long she’d been watching from the door.

“I didn’t know you still had that,” she said and her voice sounded strangled by the lump in her throat.

Someday something like that might feel like a vote of underconfidence, a dig… he wished for that someday to come.

“I don’t know what’s harder, having information about him, or when we had nothing,” she said.

“I was just thinking that.”

“Were you?”  

For years, they’d resisted this.  Done everything else together while they mourned the loss of their family in private.  Like they’d had separate roles in that crime.  Like they weren’t serving the same sentence.  Just minutes ago, he’d been making plans to keep doing it forever.  Why?

“I spoke to him,” she said.  “Heard his voice.”

He tried not to look alarmed.

“No, not like that, not about anything.  Just accidentally left something behind and he… he was… good, he’s good.”

“Of course he is, Scully.  He’s yours.”

She came around the chair and leaned her behind against the edge of the table, half-smiled.

“Maybe it’ll be better if we put them away,” she said.  “For us.  And for him.”

Someday this might sound like she was couching her own self-correction in a criticism but tonight it sounded like thank Christ, Stella had talked sense into her.

“I think you’re right.”

“Regular people with normal jobs wouldn’t have even gotten this much.”

“No.”

“But I’m glad you did, Mulder,” she said and this would always mean what it meant tonight.

She picked up the photos - the baby one and the new ones, stared at them as she shuffled to the drawer next to the fridge and laid them in there with their love notes, blank birthday cards, Scotch tape.  Sometimes junk drawers weren’t for junk, they were just for the things you didn’t know what to do with.

She hesitated, then pushed it shut, and then, leaning back against it, hands still behind her on the pull, she looked at him, really looked at him.  Sweet and sexy and yes, a little sad.  Her lips shined, caught the glow of the single source of light in the room over his head.  He held his breath.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me,” she demanded softly.  “That you were sad about it?”

“I didn’t think I had to.”

He waved her over and she came, held his hands like the holster of a carousel horse.  In her eyes, shades of blue spun as she tried not to cry.

“Hard to say goodbye to him all over again.”

He nodded, swallowed, and put one arm around her hips.

“But this time I’m here.”

Her belly shook at his ear, though he heard nothing.  He kissed the hem of her sweater, leaned his chin into the dip of her navel.  She wiped her cheeks dry and then took his face in one wet salted palm, bent to kiss him on the mouth.

Her hands crept around his throat, thumbs at his Adam’s apple.  The room stopped smelling “clean” and smelled instead like her, like the perfume she’d been wearing since the day she first walked into his office, something he had never heard the name of, never heard her mention having to replace.   She was only good at keeping the silliest secrets. He put his hands around the trunk of her right thigh and tugged her towards him.  More need than want is what it was up until then. 

But now her body swayed toward him and she climbed into his lap in her sweatpants.  It had been years and her lips dripped with salt.  She tasted like love and sadness and the future.  He was hard for her, hell, hard for all of it.

“I’m here this time,” he said, pulling his mouth just far enough from hers to speak, letting her tongue catch the chap of his lips.  “I’ll always be here.”

She stopped then and something passed behind her eyes, a shift of color behind blue-tinted glass, a sheet in the wind, a wave of blonde hair, a silk shirt.  Would she think of Stella whenever they kissed, when he made love to her on this table?  Would he ever not wonder?  

“Always is a long time,” she said without hiding the hint of mournfulness, of missing something, and he nodded.

“I didn’t say she’d be gone.  I just said I’ll be here.”

She frowned, breath quickening even as her mind slowed.

“Mulder?”

“We’re too old to give up things we love,” he said and meant it. Who cared what she thought of when he kissed her?

She unzipped her sweatshirt, pushed it back off her shoulders.

He placed a kiss on her neck, stripped her naked from the waist up.  She moved his lips back to her own and dropped her weight deeper into the cusp of his pelvis.  With their noses pushed together and her shoulder blades clipped toward one another over the table, she breathed into his mouth.

“God, I missed you,” he said.

“Fuck me, Mulder.”  

Her hair frizzed in his fist as she pulled her hamstrings tight atop his quadriceps.  The grace of youth was gone but it was replaced with something better.  This is what age looked like.  This is what fixed mistakes looked like.

One hand on her lower back, hooked into the back of her pants, the tag silky between his thumb and her skin, he pulled her closer and tighter, sucking her into his mouth, savoring her like a sublingual pill, like he was waiting for her to melt under his tongue and be absorbed into his blood.  

She arched and stretched, placing herself over him with such anatomical precision that he might as well be inside her rather than on either side of four layers of clothes.  Her body was hot and impatient against his belly as his fingers slipped into her pants and under her thigh, past the cotton seam of her underwear.  She hummed in his ear, fit her body more closely over his hand.  

He lifted her at the waist, laid her back on the table, pulled her bottoms off in a swift but clumsy motion.  He leaned over to kiss her cheeks, her neck, her chest. She bent a knee and brought the top of her foot to brush his cock through his pants, rubbed the sharp crest of her instep against him until it hurt.

“Fuck me, Mulder,” she said again, the solid edges of her voice absorbed by the wood at her back.  She squeezed his arms. “Easy, baby,” he said and as he entered her, her eyes watered and a tear rolled out onto the table, crystal clear.  She’d come over for dinner and television, sweatpants and chopsticks, but he had trapped her with his clean surfaces and exposed wounds.   Her body shuddered, shoulders convulsing, shrugging off the past, making herself new for him.  “So tight.  How are you still so tight for me?”

She grinned wickedly.

“She only has so many fingers.”

And he laughed, bit her neck as he fucked her slowly.

They’d made their baby just like this, in a bed rather than on a table, but just like this, with this much love and intent.  He’d known right away that it had worked, known just looking at her collapsed on his torso. “Oh my God,” she whispered as the edge of the table met the back of her knees.  She pinched his t-shirt to her in both fists, then slammed one hand down hard next to her hip.  He moved his hands from table to body, alternatingly bracing his weight and cupping her breasts, aligning her hips and brushing her lips, fucking her until she white knuckled the slab he used to eat his depressed dinners on.

She pulled herself up against him, gripped his neck and pushed her feet against the seat of the chair behind him for leverage.  Sometimes it upset him how little he had to do to make her come.  Sometimes but not now.

“Look at me like you used to,” she said and he spun around to sit on the table, let her put her knees down on either side of him.   “Look at me so I can make you come.”

They did it together, like they did most things, their work and their driving and their arguing and their meals and now their goodbyes to their son.  Soft staccatoed moans and her pelvic muscles squeezed and tugged him and he peeled the cheeks of her ass so that she’d take him deeper and then the rhythm of their bodies broke like a fever, madness taking over, breath tangling, toxic and medicinal at once, words all nonsense and undictionaried.   If she was thinking of Stella too, that didn’t matter, that was not a bad thing, because nothing associated with this could be bad.

He held her until he went soft inside her, and she smiled - her favorite magic trick, his dick going from hard to soft and back again, biology and anatomy in motion at her whim. When they got up, she picked up her clothes, tucked them under one arm, and led him up the staircase naked, her rear silhouette incarnadine with freckles and friction.  He followed her three steps behind, watching each calf raise each heel carefully on the edge of each plank, soles searching the wood grains for the stamps that showed where her footsteps belonged.

[greekowl87]

Fic: Chicago Layover Pt 4

Catch up.  Part One. Part Two. Part Three.

Just a heads up.

There be smut ahead. So NSFWish.

Well, my attempt at it anyway. I really hope this didn’t turn out horrible. Enjoy.

Mulder ordered them room service while Scully conceded to check her laptop for any emails from work. “Scully,” Mulder called, thumbing through the menu, “do you have any preference for anything this morning?”

Scully looked up from her laptop thoughtfully. “Do you want to share again?”

“Is that even a question?”

She chuckled and focused her attention back onto her laptop. “Well, even from the frozen tundra of Chicago, we managed to piss of Kersh.”

“How’s that?” he asked. Mulder went to the complimentary coffee maker and made them a small pot. “I can’t control the weather.”

“Well, apparently he thinks you can. He’s wondering why we aren’t back in D.C. yet even though we told him. You did send the email, right?”

“For once I actually followed through with Bureau protocol. Of course, I did,” he mused. “How does french toast sound? Or do you need some bee pollen and yogurt?”

“Shut up, Mulder,” she grumbled.

He smiled to himself and set her coffee next to her. Without breaking her attention, she grabbed Mulder’s hand and squeezed it affectionate before going back to click on something. He liked this Scully. Her normally stoic armor had fallen away. She seemed happier, more relaxed, almost like she had when he had first met her all those years ago.

“Hey, Scully,” he called after a moment, “can I ask you something?”

“Hm?”

She tore her eyes from the laptop screen. He had settled on the edge of the bed tentatively. He leaned over, rested his elbows on his knees, and tented his hands in front of his face. She frowned and easily recognized his uncertainty.

“Mulder.”

He looked up. How did she do it? How was she able to convey so much meaning and emotion by such saying his name? “I don’t want this to end. I don’t want this to end when we leave this hotel and go back to D.C. I am hoping that we…” He did not want to say it. He did not want to scare her and lose her. “Eventually. But I don’t want to take two steps forward and go three steps back, Scully.”

“Well, if yesterday was any indication, I’m sure it will be mind blowing.”

“How the hell are we not fucking like bunnies right now?” he asked bluntly.

“I suspect the same reason why it took it us this long,” she said. Scully closed the lid of the laptop with a resounding thud and got up. “But you want to know a little secret, Mulder? I am enjoying this. I am enjoying just being with you and playing house. Do you know the last time I woke up like this? In the arms of someone I love? Years.” She paused. “Nothing ever happened between me and Jerse, Mulder except some kissing. I promise you. I couldn’t go through with it because, well, it wasn’t you.” She sat next to him on the bed. She gently pulled his hands from his face. She was going to take the lead now. Her fingers gently traced his cheek. “Right now, Mulder, the only place I want to be is here with you, stuck in a hotel room, during a raging blizzard, in Chicago.”

He kissed her finger tips and nodded quietly. “So, I’m guessing pancakes then?”

She chuckled. “Way to kill the mood, Mr. Romance. But yes, pancakes will be fine. And get some bacon, lots of bacon, home fries, and some fruit. No screw drivers this morning though.”

“What happens if I need the liquid courage?”

“You don’t,” she said. She kissed him soundly. Feeling emboldened, she darted her tongue out, teasing him, tasting him. He groaned quietly in appreciation. She pulled gently on his lower lip. “Trust me, you don’t need it. Now, I have to make a quick phone call before we go back to bed.”

“Who?”

“My mother. I was supposed to go to church and then brunch with the church ladies this Sunday and obviously I’m not going to be there,” she explained, gesturing outside to the blizzard.

He tilted his head in thought. “We should be home by then.”

She chuckled. “For being an Oxford educated profiler and the FBI’s former golden boy, you can be really dense sometimes, Mulder.” She stared at him as if willing to convey her meaning. “I will be busy when I get home because we have work to catch up on, catch my meaning?” His brows rose in understanding and he laughed. She got her cell phone out of her bag and went to the bathroom. “Go order us breakfast. And don’t forget the bacon.”

… .

Fox Mulder was finally getting lucky, he thought. Scully lay on her side, cuddled up next to him. Her right arm rested lazily across his chest and he was just content to hold her. Breakfast went through with no fanfare and here they knew, just laying and watching whatever was on tv.

“No! Mulder, turn the channel! We are not watching ‘World’s Deadliest Swarms.’ Find a movie or something.” Her right hand drifted lazily up and down his chest. And it was getting dangerously lower. “There’s nothing platonic about that show.”

Platonic my ass, he groaned inwardly. He shifted uncomfortably as her hand had now found its way under his tee shirt. She traced his abdomen tentatively as if learning something new. But her touch was that of a new lover. And she did all this without tearing her gaze from the television. He sucked in his breath sharply as her hand traced his waist. He grabbed her by the wrist gently. “Ah! Shit, Scully,” he gulped. “I don’t know if I can take it going any lower.”

She pushed herself against him and let her hand travel below the covers. He flinched as she grasped him gently, gingerly running her hand up and down his length. “We’re being platonic about this, remember, Mulder?” she teased.

“Fuck being platonic, Scully,” he moaned.

“Stay still,” she warned.

Feeling confident, she rolled on top of him and straddled his waist. “What happened to be all platonic, Scully?”

She looked at them and then back up to his hazel eyes. “That went out the window thirty seconds ago when you decided to pull out your weapon there, Agent Mulder.” She squirmed on his lap and he threw his head back and groaned in appreciation. “And I must say, you have quite a weapon there.”

Mulder looked at her lovingly. The heat had rushed to her cheeks and her eyes stared at him possessively. “We’re really going to do this?” he whispered.

She nodded mutely. She felt set aflame. It had been so long and Mulder felt so good. She inched up his waist and slid back down slowly. “Jesus, Scully,” he groaned as she felt his elicited response nudging her. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“Me, Mulder? Why would I want to do that? This is what platonic partners do, isn’t it?”

“Fuck,” he groaned. She smiled and let her hands travel up his chest and pull off his tee shirt. “Not fair, Scully, not fair.”

“I didn’t say you had to keep your hands at your side. We’re equals in this,” she said.

Scully leaned forward, hesitated for a second and kissed him deeply. It was different from the few chaste kisses they shared in the past and the couple of deep ones that had since being trapped in the hotel room. She plunged her tongue into his mouth and both groaned simultaneously. Feeling feisty, she let her teeth graze and pull gently at his bottom lip as she pulled back. His hands were lightly caressing her under her shirt, going which way and that way. She writhed against him, making her laugh. “What?” he asked.

She bit her lip, her pale cheeks rushing with color. “I’m somewhat ticklish,” she admitted in a small voice.

“Ticklish, hm?”

He lightened his touch, moving his fingers even slower around her waist and stomach slowly inching up towards her breasts. She drew in a sharp breath and held it as she closed her eyes. Mulder drew the Knicks t-shirt off her and ceased to touch her altogether.

She opened her eyes and frowned with worry. Was it something she did? “Mulder?”

He smiled adoringly at her, running his hands up and down her sides. He drew her in quietly for a kiss and whispered, “Do you know how beautiful you are, Scully?”

Her? Right now she felt like she was being examined under a microscope. She shifted uncomfortably on his lap, still feeling his desire nudge her in the thigh. “You’re just saying that, Mulder,” she whispered, lowering her eyes.

He pushed back her wild red hair. His Scully insecure? He could have none of that. He kissed her temples gently and began to recite, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, when in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

She chuckled to herself. “Shakespeare, Mulder, really?” She had tears in her eyes. How could he see her as beautiful?

“Well, he is the timeless bard. Why are you crying? Is it something I did?” he asked tenderly.

She shook her head and looked down at her naked form. “How could you find me desirable? You know I can’t have children.  Me, the Ice Queen?”

He rised an eyebrow, unused to seeing this side of his partner. “You are selling yourself short, Scully. Instead of me telling you, why don’t I show you?”

“Well, you never been really good at talking,” she whispered, feeling him grind against her. She sucked in a short breath. “Neither have I for that matter.”

“No. We haven’t.” She rested her hands on his chest and moved to greet him. “So, are we going to do this?”

“Tell me how you want it,” he whispered huskily. He kissed her deeply again. “This is all about you.”

“This is all about us.” She brought his hands to her hips. “Off, now.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

They discarded the last of the clothes awkwardly as he continued to run his hands down the rest of her body, taking time to memorize the new lands of her thighs, legs, and behind. He took a deep breath and nodded towards her. “You’re taking the lead on this, Scully.”

“This is fine,” she said quickly, looking down at them. “This is real, isn’t it, Mulder?”

“If not, it is a fan-fucking-tastic dream.” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her one last time. “It’s real, Scully. This is all real.”

She nodded one last time and took a deep breath before lowering herself on him inch by agonizing inch. She held her breath, not expecting him to be so large. She moved slowly and shallowly, testing the waters. He sensed her rhythm and fell easily in place, moving up to greet her with his own thrusts. Gradually, they increased with each other. Scully brought her hand downwards to help herself along.

With the exception of the howling blizzard and whatever was on the television, they moved and watched each other’s face in silence with the exception of the occasional grunt and moan. Even as it happened, they still could not believe it was actually happening.

“Mulder!”

She lurched forward and Mulder wrapped his arms tightly around her. He bit into her shoulder gently as she coiled herself around him tightly. She could feel herself inwardly clinching him, drawing him closer as her orgasm went off like a bomb. “Shit, Scully,” he groaned, thrusting hard four more times before following suit.

She was breathing hard and covered in sweat as she came down from her high. Mulder, still clutching her, eased back into the pillows and drew the rich comforter around them. She giggled and kissed his chest, then his neck, and nestled herself within his post coital embrace. Mulder sighed contently. “Well, do you want to go hunting for Big Blue now in the whirlpool,” he whispered tenderly in her ear.

She smiled and pressed a kiss against his temple. “Maybe later, monster hunting boy.”

“Monster hunting boy? Really, Scully?”

She stretched against him like a cat before throwing her leg around him and resting her arm across his chest. She sighed contently and closed her eyes. As far as awkward first times went, they did amazing, she thought sleepily.

“Shut up, Mulder.”

He placed a tender kiss on her hair and looked out to the snowy outside. Thank goodness for layovers, he thought.

[wiremagazine]

DINING DELICIOUS: 18TH ANNUAL MIAMI SPICE RESTAURANT PROGRAM

Welcome to Wire Magazine's annual Dining Delicious Miami Spice issue. I encourage you to keep your print copy as a dining out reference tool, and to visit wiremag.com to get your digital magazine copy. This issue will help you experience many of the best restaurants participating in the 2019 Miami Spice dining program. This year, I had my best culinary journey for Miami Spice since I embarked on my annual previewing of Miami Spice for our readers who love dining out.

Enjoy learning about 20 of the best restaurants offering delicious dishes for their Miami Spice menus at affordable prices. I chose going to dinners, but you can also savor their lunch and brunch Miami Spice menus. Participating restaurants usually offer a three-course meal that includes appetizer, entrée and dessert. Beverage, tax and gratuity are not included. I also want to remind you that restaurant participation, days offered and menus vary and are subject to change. I recommend previewing your favorite restaurant's Miami Spice menu by visiting wiremag.com/miamispice2019 to review their current Spice offerings before making your dining reservation.

Miami Spice was developed by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) and designed to allow everyone to enjoy the best culinary experiences Miami and The Beaches have to offer at very reasonable prices. This year, the program returns stronger than ever until September 30, 2019, with more than 200 participating restaurants. "Over the course of 18 years, the Miami Spice program has evolved into a culinary movement celebrating the best in Greater Miami's food scene," said GMCVB President and CEO William D. Talbert, III, CDME. "We're thrilled this program not only gives diners the opportunity to sample signature dishes by world-class chefs but also offers exceptional seasonal savings to visitors and locals alike."

Participating fine dining restaurants are offering three-course prix-fixe Miami Spice menus at reduced prices of $23 per person for lunch and brunch, and $39 per person for dinner. Many restaurants also offer libations from their cocktail menus and wine lists at special prices to complement your dining experience. The Miami Spice program celebrates our city's thriving culinary scene and showcases the amazingly diverse restaurants in some of the hottest neighborhoods in town, including Miami Beach, Brickell, Downtown, Doral, Coral Gables, Little Havana, South Miami, Wynwood, Little Haiti, Sunny Isles, and Bal Harbour.

In addition to perusing this week's Dining Delicious Miami Spice issue and the delightful photos, I invite you to visit diningdelicious.com and view videos of many of the dishes we enjoyed at the 20 restaurants included in this dining edition.

Bon appétit!

Cheers,

Rafa Carvajal Publisher & Editor in Chief rafa@wiremag.com

"I ALWAYS SAY THAT I DON'T BELIEVE I'M A CHEF. I TRY TO BE A STORYTELLER." - JOSÉ ANDRÉS

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 18.2019

[leslieslane]

FABULOUS DINING! Tony and I visited Saltine Restaurant for it's St. Paddy's Brunch! What a dectable menu! We’re celebrating St. Paddy’s Day in the beautiful city of Jackson, Mississippi! I am honored to be in “The City of Soul” as a guest of the AWESOME Jackson Convention & Visitor’s Bureau! Please follow me on social media as I share all types of fun, fabulous, and family-friendly highlights including the parades delectable cuisine, museums, before and after parties, local must-visit stores, and so much more! Stay tuned for the article that I will be writing on this beautiful city! But if you can’t wait for me, just click on this link to plan your spring vacay or summer getaway today! - https://www.visitjackson.com/ #VisitJacksonMS #CityWithSoul #LesliesLane #party#weekend #love #FamilyFriendly #instaparty #instaparade #instafood #FodorsOnTheGo #instacelebration #LesliesLaneTheBook #Parade #History #AAA #aaaSouthernTraveler #HalandMals #HalsStPaddys2019 #Mississippi #travel #trip #traveling #traveltheworld #traveladdict #travellife #traveldiaries #travelgirl #traveldiary #Saltine @saltinerestaurant (at Saltine Restaurant) https://www.instagram.com/leslieslane/p/BvaS5_FBkfJ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=zlequejd34x7

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/travel/asheville-where-breweries-come-to-play/

Asheville: Where breweries come to play

Asheville, North Carolina (CNN) — Before any of the breweries in Asheville can brew beer, Lisa White knows they need yeast.

A co-owner of White Labs, a San Diego-based provider of yeast to professional and home brewers, White opened up an Asheville, North Carolina, location in January 2017 to better serve her company’s East Coast clients.

White wanted the company’s new location to have a quirky, beer- and music-loving scene and a hiking, biking and kayaking culture.

“If Mammoth Lakes and Austin had a baby, it would be Asheville, and that’s why I love this place,” says White, who was in medical school while her husband, Chris, was finishing a PhD in biochemistry.

His lab work on fermentation furthered his interest in getting a higher quality yeast for his home brewing projects, and Chris founded White Labs in San Diego in 1995. Lisa left medical school and joined the company full-time in 1997. (They’re now divorced but still co-own their company together.)

It’s a brewer’s city

Asheville is home to dozens of breweries.

Channon Hodge/CNN

Asheville has 33 breweries in the city alone, at last count, and 48 breweries in the greater Asheville area, according to the Explore Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Highland Brewing Company was the first brewery to open in Asheville in 1994, followed by several others, including Green Man, Asheville Brewing and Pisgah (in nearby Black Mountain), according to Explore Asheville.

And the industry is still expanding, with Fermented Nonsense Brewing and Black Mountain Brewing opening in 2018, and other breweries scheduled to open in 2019, the tourism bureau says.

While brewers can choose from around 300 regular and seasonal yeast strains, grown from White Labs’ mother cultures stored in yeast banks at minus 80 degrees Celsius, the top three sellers are the California Ale Yeast, London Fog Ale Yeast and the German Lager Yeast.

Playing with yeast

Lisa White, co-owner of White Labs, explains all the miraculous ways yeast imparts flavor and texture to beer, bread, pizza and more.

Once in Asheville, White started inviting breweries to experiment with new and different strains of yeast.

“We’ve gotten so many requests and have done a lot of collaborations with breweries in the area, and even cideries in the area who want to do special projects with us.”

She also wanted to teach a wider audience about the power of yeast. So she opened White Labs Kitchen & Tap in October 2017, feeding people in the same building as the lab, demonstrating that changing the yeast changes the taste of beer, pizza crust, hamburger buns and fries.

White Labs Kitchen & Tap features yeast in many of its offerings.

Channon Hodge/CNN

“What a lot of people don’t know is there are over 500 flavor and aroma compounds that yeast can provide to the beer,” she says. “What we do (in the restaurant) is we take one recipe, it’s one stock recipe, and we put it in different fermenters and the only thing we change in those say four different types is the yeast.”

She recommends trying their Tabberer IPA flight to taste the differences between the different yeasts.

“We’re just the cool scientists. That’s just who we are.”

White Labs Kitchen & Tap offers flights of beer featuring different strains of yeast.

Diana Diroy/CNN

Although White is relatively new to the Asheville area, it was easy for her to come up with a list of her favorite places to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner; listen to music; check out the visual art scene; find a good book; and explore the outdoors. She also has an extensive list of places to drink beer, although she gets to call that work.

With her best friend Lara Wenner, a Las Vegas-based doctor, coming to town for a visit, White came up with a list of places she wanted to share with her friend.

Let’s start with breakfast

Over Easy is White’s top breakfast choice. “I get a local vibe from that place, and I love the care they put in their food,” she says. She recommends the huevos rancheros. “And the coffee is good and strong, and they make some good brunch cocktails.”

Option B: Sunny Point Café is “a nice lively place, and I can go there with my kids,” she says. The southern omelet is a favorite.

Flying through the air

Lisa White zipped above the trees at Navitat.

Channon Hodge/CNN

Zip lining at Navitat has been on White’s bucket list since before she moved to Asheville. “They also take you on a trail and show you about the flora around, and then you get to ride above it and see a great view,” she says.

Navitat’s zip lines are located at Moody Cove, a 242-acre property that dates back to pre-Civil War days, says Navitat CEO Ken Stamps.

White went on the Blue Ridge Experience tour, which offers three side-by-side zip lines, including one that is 3,600 feet long, is 350 feet above the floor at its highest point and offers speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, Stamps says.

“The Navitat campus was so beautiful, the guides were so knowledgeable, caring and entertaining, the zip lining runs were spectacular,” White says “I really felt like I was flying.”

Well-Bred restaurant’s Weaverville location is a great place to stop for lunch after zip lining. (Don’t fill up beforehand!)

Option B: White and her family have annual passes to Biltmore, the Vanderbilt estate, where she often does an eight-mile walk training for an annual three-day breast cancer walk.

Navitat, 242 Poverty Branch Road, Barnardsville, NC 28709, +1 828 626-3700 (Open March 2, 2019 through mid-December this year)

Well-Bred, 26 N. Main Street, Weaverville, NC 28787; +1 828 645-9300

Biltmore, One Lodge Street, Asheville, NC 28803; +1 800 411-3812

Time for a beer

There’s lots of experimentation going on inside Bhramari Brewing Co.

Channon Hodge/CNN

Bhramari Brewing Company isn’t like most other breweries, and that’s saying something in Asheville.

Bhramari is one of White’s favorite places to take people. Co-owner and head brewer Gary Sernack “is just a little nuts, but you gotta love that about him because he kind of takes risks,” she says.

He’ll think, “‘What if I just put a pizza in the beer?’ and, y��all, he really did that,” she says. “It’s kind of crazy. I’m sure sometimes it doesn’t work, but a lot of times it does and he just loves to put it out there.”

One of the beers she really liked was a play on an Arnold Palmer, so “it had tea in there and also lemon, and it was a refreshingly good beer,” she says. “If you put this in a can, I will take it tubing down the French Broad River.”

Option B: Support White Labs’ charitable arm, Beer 4 Boobs, which raises funds for breast cancer, by getting a pint at Catawba Brewing Co. or Hillman Beer. They support a cause “dear to my heart,” she says.

Catawba Brewing Co. (South Slope location), 32 Banks Ave, Asheville, NC 28801; +1 828 552-3934

Hillman Beer, 25 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville, NC 28803; +1 828 505-1312

Dinner by the river

Smoky House Supper Club was constructed from shipping containers.

Diana Diroy/CNN

After a few visits to Asheville, White wanted to take her friend for a great meal that’s a bit off the beaten path. She picked Smoky Park Supper Club, a light-filled river- and farm-to-table restaurant built from the massive containers used to transport goods on container ships and railroads.

“Not only do you get a great meal, but you get a great view, and the river runs right there,” White says. “It’s just outside of downtown, so if you just want to venture a little bit away from the main downtown [with] an easy place to park, that’s a really great place to try.”

Option B: “Cúrate, to me, is the most authentic Spanish tapas you can get stateside,” she says, and she loves the house sangria. Cúrate regularly tops lists of best Asheville restaurants, and “that’s where I like to take people.”

Cúrate, 13 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801; +1 828 239-2946

Time for even more fun

Battery Park Book Exchange has many nooks and crannies where customers can read and drink.

Channon Hodge/CNN

Some bookstores have coffee bars. Battery Park Book Exchange has an actual bar with an extensive menu and lots of little nooks and crannies among the new and used books to drink and read and meet to talk about books and writing. That’s where White and her friend Wenner met to have a glass of champagne and stroll the book aisles.

“It’s a really cool, relaxed place,” she says, “and not your typical bookstore.”

Option B: Orange Peel is just one of Asheville’s hoppin’ music venues. At one show at Orange Peel, “Lauryn Hill was 10 feet away from me,” says White.

Orange Peel, 101 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801, +1 828 398-1837

[healthbolt-blog]

New Post has been published on Health bolt

New Post has been published on http://www.healthbolt.net/cooking/taste-of-home-healthy-cooking-recipes/

Taste Of Home Healthy Cooking Recipes

Contents

Cooking vegetarian recipes 43 healthy brunch

High smoke point

Salt lake county health department

Author lisa leake

Popular hanukkah recipes

Healthy snack options

It’s unsurprising, then, that smoothies have become a regular menu item at fast-food joints across … sugary drinks disguise…

Introducing Taste of Home Healthy Cooking Annual Recipes 2017.This all–new edition is your source for hearty, family approved recipes that are delicious, …

2 days ago · These healthy pizza recipes will tempt you to eat pizza more often. Yes, pizza can be healthy! … This simple snack recipe is the perfect, low-carb way to satisfy your pizza cravings. —Taste of Home Test Kitchen. Get Recipe … CA. A recent graduate of Emerson College, she is passionate about food, travel, beauty and wellness. Reader …

Search recipes for your favorite desserts, appetizers, main dish recipes, and more. Find an array of easy recipes as well as home cooking tips, kitchen design insights and diet and nutrition information at Taste of Home Magazine.

As many of know, a roast chicken is the ultimate comfort food and is healthy to boot when you prepare it with some sautéed ve…

The Taste of Home family of magazines has recipes for everyone’s … Taste of Home Cookbook is packed with over 1,200 classic dishes plus all the cooking… Taste of Home. Taste of Home is a friendly exchange of family-favorite recipes … Check out our collection of over 1000 cooking videos from our Taste of Home Kitchens and around the web. …

Healthy cooking vegetarian recipes 43 healthy brunch Recipes for Happy Mornings Just because you’re indulging in a mid-morning celebration doesn’t mean it has to slow you down all day.

What Is A Healthy Cooking Oil For Deep Frying Sports dietician Leslie Bonci says that “the trick is to use small amounts of fat” to get a healthy quantity in your diet. “D… Additionally, high oleic sunflower oil is a good choice for deep frying due to its high smoke point and high levels of heart-healthy fats. Other Frying Tips. Don’t reuse frying oil or keep it at high temperatures for prolonged periods — it will form unhealthy free radicals and trans fats. Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine and Town Chief Fire Marshal Chris Mehrman were joined by Councilmen Dan Panico and Michael Loguercio to demonstrate the "explosive fire danger" associated with im… Health. Annoying … Don’t think about nutrients or essential oils. Because I’ll tell you what: I’ve never found any oil esse… Indian Regional Classics Fast Fresh And Healthy Home Cooking Taste Of Home Healthy Cooking Magazine Healthy Holiday Sides From stuffing and green beans to mashed potatoes and salad, holiday sides recipes are just as important … Healthy Recipes For People Who Can T Cook There are two types of people in this world: the ones who hate potlucks because that means they have to cook … can’t partak… Even those with the best of intentions can’t resist Grandma … Association: “The Healthy Carb Diabetes Cookbook” and the bes… “I love when people are happy, in the kitchen, listening to music and just cooking healthy food. For me, that’s just so rewar… Healthy Salt For Cooking However, Jeff Oaks, food protection bureau manager with the salt lake county health department, said the public would know if … Best Way To Cook Fish Healthy The foods that do well this way are vegetables, which retain their color along with their nutrients, and fish and chicken, which plump up well compared to beef and pork." Wise uses a 750-watt Panasonic model with a carousel that turns food, helping to cook it more evenly. The same candidates for broiling work well in grilling. To cook fish directly on the grill, lightly brush the fillet with extra-virgin olive oil so it doesn’t stick. To infuse the fish with a smoky flavor, grill it on a wooden plank — cedar, maple or hickory — for approximately 20 minutes. salmon is a succulent, firm, meaty fish with a mild but … Several traditional salmon-cooking methods are diet-friendly, incorporating few, if any, additional calories. In addition to being one of th… Healthy cooking magazine free 5-star (real) reviews: ***** great articles and Recipes!!! I so appreciate knowing not only why something is good for you, but how to cook with it or use it. I love the pros and cons on some of the to… Find quick and healthy recipes, nutrition tips, entertaining menus, and fitness guides to help you make smart choices for a healthy lifestyle from Cooking Light magazine. Unfortunately, many of us aren’t getting nearly enough, but with this list of high fiber recipes, there are plenty … provid… How To Cook healthy food 10 Breakfast Ideas Let There Be

Healthy Holiday Sides From stuffing and green beans to mashed potatoes and salad, holiday sides recipes are just as important …

Celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Chrissy Teigen love cooking … making is a healthy portion of time (that’s time as in dur…

Healthy Meals To Cook In College College may be the first time you’re moving away from home, not to mention an entirely different state.When most of us leave for college, we’re pretty inexperienced when it comes to cooking and cleaning for ourselves. Wife, mother, foodie, blogger and cookbook author lisa leake has turned a simple pledge to cook better meals for her family into a lifestyle recipe for success, and now she’s sharing how to eat better … I cook once or twice per week in the community kitchen, but other than that, I’ve figured out quite a few simple dorm room meals. Since I originally published this post, I’ve actually written several more posts about how I cook in college: Healthy Dorm Meal Prepping Tips for Cooking for One Taste Of Home Healthy Cooking Magazine Healthy Holiday Sides From stuffing and green beans to mashed potatoes and salad, holiday sides recipes are just as important … Healthy Recipes For People Who Can T Cook There are two types of people in this world: the ones who hate potlucks because that means they have to cook … can’t partak… Even those with the best of intentions can’t resist Grandma … Association: “The healthy carb diabetes Cookbook” and the bes… “I love when people are happy, in the kitchen, listening to music and just cooking healthy food. For me, that’s just so rewar… Healthy Salt For Cooking However, Jeff Oaks, food protection bureau manager with the salt lake county health Department, said the public would know if … Best Way To Cook Fish Healthy The foods that do well this way are vegetables, which retain their color along with their nutrients, and fish and chicken, which plump up well compared to beef and pork." Wise uses a 750-watt Panasonic model with a carousel that turns food, helping to cook it more evenly. The same candidates for broiling work well in grilling. To cook fish directly on the grill, lightly brush the fillet with extra-virgin olive oil so it doesn’t stick. To infuse the fish with a smoky flavor, grill it on a wooden plank — cedar, maple or hickory — for approximately 20 minutes. salmon is a succulent, firm, meaty fish with a mild but … Several traditional salmon-cooking methods are diet-friendly, incorporating few, if any, additional calories. In addition to being one of th… Healthy cooking magazine free 5-star (real) reviews: ***** great Articles and Recipes!!! I so appreciate knowing not only why something is good for you, but how to cook with it or use it. I love the pros and cons on some of the to… Find quick and healthy recipes, nutrition tips, entertaining menus, and fitness guides to help you make smart choices for a healthy lifestyle from Cooking Light magazine. Unfortunately, many of us aren’t getting nearly enough, but with this list of high fiber recipes, there are plenty … provid… How To Cook healthy food 10 Breakfast Ideas Let There Be Latkes: These Are The Most popular hanukkah recipes … It

Cook up a healthy and satisfying dinner without all the extra leftovers. These healthy recipes for two are perfect for the job! Cooking up a healthy and satisfying dinner without all the extra leftovers doesn’t have to be hard.

This post was contributed by a community member. Hoping everyone is off to a fresh and great start this new year of 2013. Although January has almost come to an end there is always still time to get i…

Cooking Light Healthy Recipes Taste Of Home Healthy Cooking Magazine Healthy Holiday Sides From stuffing and green beans to mashed potatoes and salad, holiday sides recipes are just as important … Healthy Recipes For People Who Can T Cook There are two types of people in this world: the ones who hate potlucks because that means they have to cook … can’t partak… Even those with the best of intentions can’t resist Grandma … Association: “The Healthy Carb Diabetes Cookbook” and the bes… “I love when people are happy, in the kitchen, listening to music and just cooking healthy food. For me, that’s just so rewar… Healthy Salt For Cooking However, Jeff Oaks, food protection bureau manager with the salt lake county health Department, said the public would know if … Best Way To Cook Fish Healthy The foods that do well this way are vegetables, which retain their color along with their nutrients, and fish and chicken, which plump up well compared to beef and pork." Wise uses a 750-watt Panasonic model with a carousel that turns food, helping to cook it more evenly. The same candidates for broiling work well in grilling. To cook fish directly on the grill, lightly brush the fillet with extra-virgin olive oil so it doesn’t stick. To infuse the fish with a smoky flavor, grill it on a wooden plank — cedar, maple or hickory — for approximately 20 minutes. salmon is a succulent, firm, meaty fish with a mild but … Several traditional salmon-cooking methods are diet-friendly, incorporating few, if any, additional calories. In addition to being one of th… Healthy cooking magazine free 5-star (real) reviews: ***** great Articles and Recipes!!! I so appreciate knowing not only why something is good for you, but how to cook with it or use it. I love the pros and cons on some of the to… Find quick and healthy recipes, nutrition tips, entertaining menus, and fitness guides to help you make smart choices for a healthy lifestyle from Cooking Light magazine. 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For me, that’s just so rewar… Healthy Salt For Cooking However, Jeff Oaks, food protection bureau manager with the salt lake county health Department, said the public would know if … Best Way To Cook Fish Healthy The foods that do well this way are vegetables, which retain their color along with their nutrients, and fish and chicken, which plump up well compared to beef and pork." Wise uses a 750-watt Panasonic model with a carousel that turns food, helping to cook it more evenly. The same candidates for broiling work well in grilling. To cook fish directly on the grill, lightly brush the fillet with extra-virgin olive oil so it doesn’t stick. To infuse the fish with a smoky flavor, grill it on a wooden plank — cedar, maple or hickory — for approximately 20 minutes. salmon is a succulent, firm, meaty fish with a mild but … Several traditional salmon-cooking methods are diet-friendly, incorporating few, if any, additional calories. In addition to being one of th… Healthy cooking magazine free 5-star (real) reviews: ***** great Articles and Recipes!!! I so appreciate knowing not only why something is good for you, but how to cook with it or use it. I love the pros and cons on some of the to… Find quick and healthy recipes, nutrition tips, entertaining menus, and fitness guides to help you make smart choices for a healthy lifestyle from Cooking Light magazine. Unfortunately, many of us aren’t getting nearly enough, but with this list of high fiber recipes, there are plenty … provid… How To Cook healthy food 10 Breakfast Ideas Let There Be Latkes: These Are The Most Popular Hanukkah Recipes … It can be intimidating to host a Hanukkah gathering. Your Jewish friends might compare traditional dishes to the ones their grandmo… There’s also no need to limit these healthy breakfast recipes to the morning hours, friends. Expand your horizons and try these 39 healthy snack options to satisfy those breakfast food cravings … Healthy Cooked Breakfast Healthy fats can improve the ratio of macronutrients and micronutrients in your breakfast, so

[meganlclickfl]

Walking At Night In Santa Monica

Contents

Airport (lax). los angeles

Santa monica takashi murakami. born

Roads school santa monica

Downtown santa

Cemetery. 6000 santa

Directors santa monica

Army And Navy Stores Santa Monica Software Training Santa Monica Santa Ana / ˌ s æ n t ə ˈ æ n ə / (Spanish for "Saint Anne") is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California.The United States Census Bureau estimated its 2011 population at 329,427, making Santa Ana the 57th most-populous city in the United Funeral Homes And Directors Santa Monica 2101 Pier Avenue, Santa Monica, Ca 90405 Directions To Santa Monica The closest international airport to Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows is Los Angeles International airport (lax). los angeles International Airport (LAX) is located approximately 9 miles (14km) from the hotel. Download the Connecting luxury fairmont miramar Hotel & Bungalows App from the App Store

237 reviews of Santa Monica State Beach "If you stay away from the really crowded pier area with all the attractions, the beach is nice and right off the freeway. There are parking lots right up on the sand, get there early and it’ll be no…

Salvation Army Santa Monica Technicolor santa monica takashi murakami. born in Tokyo, Japan, 1962. Education BFA, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Department of Traditional Japanese Painting (Nihon-ga), Tokyo, Japan Kate Atkinson New roads school santa monica We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. American singer-songwriter. includes biography, tour Health Food Stores Santa Monica Santa Monica shopping is a destination because of the atmosphere and offerings of its neighborhoods – to people-watch, see what’s new, to find inspiration from the local style and the ease of walking between shops and destinations. The city offers many shopping options from the Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place in downtown santa Software Training Santa Monica Santa Ana / ˌ s æ n t ə ˈ æ n ə / (Spanish for "Saint Anne") is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California.The United States Census Bureau estimated its 2011 population at 329,427, making Santa Ana the 57th most-populous city in the United States.. Santa Ana is

Cinespia at Hollywood Forever cemetery. 6000 santa Monica Blvd . 6000 Santa Monica Blvd . Los Angeles, CA 90038 . View Map View Map

Beach Bums Realty has houses, condos, apartments for rent & lease in Venice, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey & LA beach areas. Fine real estate agents for rentals

Best Brunch In Santa Monica Lago’s farm to table menu highlights traditional recipes from Northern Italy, utilizing the best of Southern California’s seasonal produce from the Santa Monica’s Farmers’ Market in … Funeral Homes And directors santa monica 2101 Pier Avenue, Santa Monica, Ca 90405 Directions To Santa Monica The closest international airport to Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows is

source https://santamonicaday.com/walking-at-night-in-santa-monica-2/ from Santa Monica Day https://santamonicaday.blogspot.com/2018/10/walking-at-night-in-santa-monica.html

[santamonicaday]

Software Training Santa Monica

Contents

Santa ana river

Japanese painting (nihon-ga)

. american singer-songwriter. includes

Santa trained individuals

Santa Ana / ˌ s æ n t ə ˈ æ n ə / (Spanish for "Saint Anne") is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California.The United States Census Bureau estimated its 2011 population at 329,427, making Santa Ana the 57th most-populous city in the United States.. Santa Ana is located in Southern California, adjacent to the santa ana river, about 10 miles (16 km) away …

Equipment Rental Software and Inventory Tracking for AV, Party Rental from Unique Business Systems.

Microsoft Office 2016 Pro Plus with AntiVirus Bundle (Student Download)

Schwimer Weinstein, LLP, is a boutique civil litigation law firm in Los Angeles that is distinguished by the experience, quality and dedication of our attorneys in the aggressive pursuit of our clients’ goals.

Excel training classes, Excel class, 100% Hands-on, Microsoft Excel training, serving Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Torrance, Long Beach, Orange county, Anaheim …

Funeral Homes And Directors Santa Monica 2101 Pier Avenue, Santa Monica, Ca 90405 Directions To Santa Monica The closest international airport to Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is located approximately 9 miles (14km) from the hotel. Download the Connecting luxury fairmont miramar Hotel & Bungalows App from the App Store Best Brunch In Santa Monica Lago’s farm to table menu highlights traditional recipes from Northern Italy, utilizing the best of Southern California’s seasonal produce from the Santa Monica’s Farmers’ Market in … Funeral Homes And Directors Santa Monica 2101 Pier Avenue, Santa Monica, Ca 90405 Directions To Santa Monica The closest international airport to Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows is Health Food Stores Santa Monica Santa Monica shopping is a destination because of the atmosphere and offerings of its neighborhoods – to people-watch, see what’s new, to find inspiration from the local style and the ease of walking between shops and destinations. The city offers many shopping options from the Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place in Downtown Santa Salvation Army Santa Monica Technicolor Santa Monica Takashi Murakami. Born in Tokyo, Japan, 1962. Education BFA, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Department of Traditional japanese painting (nihon-ga), Tokyo, Japan Kate Atkinson New Roads School Santa Monica We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. american singer-songwriter. includes biography, tour

Santa Monica Software specializes in working with start up company ventures. Santa Monica Software specializes in efficiency, using best of class, industry standard design tools for a high quality design that's extraordinary and affordably achieved – Mobile, Desktop, or Web.

I Am Santa Monica is an interactive program designed to empower Santa Monica businesses & employees to become better informed about santa trained individuals become "Official information Ambassadors" and are armed with a database of facts, figures, and "Did You Know" anecdotes about…

Silicon Valley (sometimes abbreviated as SV) is a region in the southern San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California which serves as a global center for high technology, innovation and social media.It corresponds roughly to the geographical Santa Clara Valley. San Jose is the Valley’s largest city, the third largest in California, and the tenth largest in the United States.

Well, now for the first time, you can get expert personal training for just $29/hr. It's available at VERT Fitness' innovative, state-of-the-art gym, located in Santa Monica and within easy reach of residents of West Los Angeles, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. How are we able to offer training at that price?

from In Monica Walking Night At Santa https://santamonicaday.com/software-training-santa-monica/

[carlasdolphaz]

Walking At Night In Santa Monica

Contents

Airport (lax). los angeles

Santa monica takashi murakami. born

Roads school santa monica

Downtown santa

Cemetery. 6000 santa

Directors santa monica

Army And Navy Stores Santa Monica Software Training Santa Monica Santa Ana / ˌ s æ n t ə ˈ æ n ə / (Spanish for "Saint Anne") is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California.The United States Census Bureau estimated its 2011 population at 329,427, making Santa Ana the 57th most-populous city in the United Funeral Homes And Directors Santa Monica 2101 Pier Avenue, Santa Monica, Ca 90405 Directions To Santa Monica The closest international airport to Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows is Los Angeles International airport (lax). los angeles International Airport (LAX) is located approximately 9 miles (14km) from the hotel. Download the Connecting luxury fairmont miramar Hotel & Bungalows App from the App Store

237 reviews of Santa Monica State Beach "If you stay away from the really crowded pier area with all the attractions, the beach is nice and right off the freeway. There are parking lots right up on the sand, get there early and it’ll be no…

Salvation Army Santa Monica Technicolor santa monica takashi murakami. born in Tokyo, Japan, 1962. Education BFA, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Department of Traditional Japanese Painting (Nihon-ga), Tokyo, Japan Kate Atkinson New roads school santa monica We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. American singer-songwriter. includes biography, tour Health Food Stores Santa Monica Santa Monica shopping is a destination because of the atmosphere and offerings of its neighborhoods – to people-watch, see what’s new, to find inspiration from the local style and the ease of walking between shops and destinations. The city offers many shopping options from the Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place in downtown santa Software Training Santa Monica Santa Ana / ˌ s æ n t ə ˈ æ n ə / (Spanish for "Saint Anne") is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California.The United States Census Bureau estimated its 2011 population at 329,427, making Santa Ana the 57th most-populous city in the United States.. Santa Ana is

Cinespia at Hollywood Forever cemetery. 6000 santa Monica Blvd . 6000 Santa Monica Blvd . Los Angeles, CA 90038 . View Map View Map

Beach Bums Realty has houses, condos, apartments for rent & lease in Venice, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey & LA beach areas. Fine real estate agents for rentals

Best Brunch In Santa Monica Lago’s farm to table menu highlights traditional recipes from Northern Italy, utilizing the best of Southern California’s seasonal produce from the Santa Monica’s Farmers’ Market in … Funeral Homes And directors santa monica 2101 Pier Avenue, Santa Monica, Ca 90405 Directions To Santa Monica The closest international airport to Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows is

from SantaMonicaDay via Santa Monica Day on Inoreader https://santamonicaday.com/walking-at-night-in-santa-monica-2/

[scottishfoodreview]

GATEWAY FOR FOODIES SET FOR MARYHILL LOCKS - BOARDING 12th SEPTEMBER

Top restauranteur believes launch of The Botany will spark a flood of openings in North Glasgow. 

Alan Tomkins, one of Glasgow’s leading hospitality entrepreneurs, has chosen Maryhill as the location for his latest venture, The Botany.

The man behind a whole host of the city’s best-loved institutions, including Urban Bar & Brasserie, Vroni’s Wine Bar and Blue Dog, will open the Maryhill Road venue on Wednesday 12th September, alongside business partner Calum Lawson, who’ll be the owner on site.

The new bar and restaurant born from its previous incarnation, The Strathmore, which opened in 1877, will cater to Glaswegians on the hunt for the very best food and drink in a beautiful glasshouse setting, free from the pretence of fine dining.

The name pays homage to the tale of prisoners starting their journey to Botany Bay on the nearby Forth and Clyde Canal. 

Alan, a former board director of the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, believes this move could encourage more bars and restaurants to think outside the box and break free from the shackles of the West End. 

"This is a very exciting time for Glasgow. Having worked in hospitality for as long as I can remember, I’ve seen the city change and develop its attitudes towards food and drink. Options used to be very limited. Now, Glasgow’s a haven for foodies. The transformation of Finnieston came because of a few anchor venues offering spectacular food and drink. Calum and I both believe we can lead a similar sea-change in Maryhill and North Kelvinside. Our aim is to not only to maintain a local institution, but to attract customers from the West End, Bearsden and Milngavie. The delicious food, seasonal cocktails and fantastic atmosphere will add a lot to what’s already an up and coming area."  -- Alan Tomkins - Top Restauranteur

The menu’s inspired by cuisines across the globe, while the look and feel of The Botany, which is just a stone’s throw from the Maryhill locks, elicits comparison to restaurants on the canals of Amsterdam.

Chef John Paul Lappin’s CV is a feast for the eyes with experience in some of Glasgow’s top restaurants, including Gamba and Urban Bar & Brasserie.

The menu will deliver comfort food at a high level using locally-sourced ingredients. Highlights include a venison loin smoked in-house and a Sri-Lankan-style monkfish curry. There will also be brunch specials served on Sundays, a multitude of botanical cocktails, extensive wine list, rotating bottle selection, quality gins and whisky. 

After months of redesign to the restaurant, glasshouse conservatory, outdoor terrace, menu and interiors, and £200,00 of investment, doors will open to The Botany on Wednesday 12 September at 7.30pm

The Botany 795 Maryhill Rd, Glasgow G20 7TL

[realestate2paul]

Santa Barbara House Cleaning Team Offers Easter Special

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter from Rosie and the entire team at Rosie’s Cleaning!  Do you need help with home and office cleaning in Santa Barbara?  We’re offering a 24 hour cleaning special:

We’re offering a 24 hour sale.

Get 20% OFF DELUXE CLEANING

Call 1-805-698-3132

Get 20% off deluxe cleaning when you schedule your appointment before 4/15/17

Rosie’s Cleaning Service is flexible, budget-friendly, and has been in business since 1990. We have a proven track record of helping clients and, as a family-owned business, we will take care of your home as if it were ours.

Contact us at 805-698-3132 to schedule your cleaning before we book up!

-Rosie

p.s. As a resource to you, we will recommend local area partners that we feel may be of value to you.  If you are moving in or out of Santa Barbara and need the help of a moving team, contact Casey at http://HazelwoodAllied.com – The Careful Movers.  If you recently had one of your home appliances stop working, give our trusted appliance repair partner Burt Yost a call.

Why Choose Rosie’s House Cleaning Service?

Honesty and trust are vital in the home cleaning business. Rosie’s is proud to be known as an honest and trustworthy cleaning service. We have a perfect track record with our clients, so you can rest assured knowing you are getting the best Santa Barbara maid service from a group of honest, hardworking employees. You can also trust us with your office cleaning in Santa Barbara.

Do you love our service? Well don’t keep us a secret! Visit our page on Yelp and leave your testimonial if we exceed your expectations. You can also like us on Facebook to be notified of deals and specials. For a free estimate, call us at 805-698-3132 or drop an email to rosie@cleaningbyrosie.com.

Q: What does your deluxe cleaning plan include? Our Deluxe cleaning service covers all areas of the house and provides a thorough clean, including oven cleaning, grout scrubbing, fireplace cleaning and polishing. You can see the full list of what is included in our Deluxe cleaning plan here.

Q: I’m worried about home safety, is Rosie’s service insured? Yes, Rosie’s Cleaning Service is fully licensed, bonded and insured with liability and workers comp, as well as an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Rosie’s has an impeccable reputation for providing quality service and we have hundreds of positive reviews from satisfied customers.

Q: How much is your cleaning service? Get a quick quote for your cleaning needs by filling in this form on our website or emailing us at: rosie@cleaningbyrosie.com; we’ll get back to you within 24 hours. You can also call us on (805)-698-3132 for a quote. Call 805-698-3132 or email rosie@cleaningbyrosie.com

Top Easter Activities in Santa Barbara Here are activities you and your family can enjoy in Santa Barbara this Easter:

The Great Egg Hunt: Saturday, April 15 from 10:00a.m.-12:00noon at Elings Park. The softball fields will be transformed into a colorful sea of 15,000 candy filled eggs. There will also be activities including a bounce house, face painting, music and complimentary Starbucks coffee.

EGGstravaganza Egg Hunt: Saturday, April 15 at 10:00 a.m. The City of Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department presents a fun search for candy and prize-filled eggs in the park. EGGstravaganza will take place in two park locations: Chase Palm Park and Bohnett Park. Attendance is free, open to children up to and including age eight.

Vineyard Easter Egg Hunt: Saturday, April 15 from 11:00am-4:00pm at Riverbench Vineyard & Winery. Over 2,000 eggs are hidden in the garden surrounding this vineyard tasting room. Eggs are filled with candy for the kids and some special prizes for their parents. Secure your tickets early.

Santa Barbara’s Easter Service: At the Courthouse Sunken Gardens, Sunday, April 16 at 9:00a.m. Service features live music, children’s area, refreshments, and a message of hope. Guest speaker is best-selling author, Nick Vujicic.

Celebrate Easter with Bubbles: Sunday, April 16 from 12:00noon-7:00 p.m. at Santa Barbara Wine Collective. Celebrate Easter with a flight ‘Fesstivity’ of sparkling wines including Fess Parker’s Blanc de Blancs, Brut Cuvée, and Blanc de Noirs.

Chef Weston Presents Easter Brunch: Sunday, April 16 from 11:00a.m.-3:00p.m. at Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchant. “Spring renewal” is the theme of this brunch menu featuring local ingredients and hand-crafted breads.

Celebrate Easter at The Lark: Sunday, April 16 from 5-10 p.m. Executive Chef Jason Paluska presents spring market specials, in addition to The Lark’s dinner menu.

Easter Champagne Brunch: Sunday, April 16 from 10am-3pm at The Fess Parker: A Doubletree by Hilton Resort. This culinary celebration features serving stations including made-to-order omelets, a carving station, local seafood, pasta, salads, and decadent desserts.

Call 805-698-3132 or email rosie@cleaningbyrosie.com

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @Cleaningbyrosie

About Rosie’s Cleaning Service: Rosie’s Cleaning Service has been the Santa Barbara cleaning experts since 1990. Services include residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, after party cleaning, post-construction clean-up service, and vacation rental clean-up service. Visit the website at www.cleaningbyrosie.com to download a complimentary copy of the PDF, “The Top 10 Reasons Customers Choose Rosie’s Cleaning.” “Like” the Facebook page to receive Santa Barbara cleaning tips. Call 805-698-3132 for a quick quote on Santa Barbara maid service.

[wiremagazine]

PUBLISHER'S CORNER: TIME FOR DELICIOUS DINING MIAMI SPICE STYLE

"My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order." - Dolly Parton

It is that time of the year again for foodies in the South Florida community to emerge, engage, research and indulge. Miami Spice, the selective local diner's favorite time of the year, is in full force and we bring you our annual special Dining Delicious in Miami and Miami Beach issue to celebrate it. We visited 20 fine dining restaurants to publish this year's special issue as a reference guide to help you enjoy some delicious dining during Miami Spice 2017. Bon Appétit!

The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) is marking the 16th anniversary of its very popular Miami Spice Restaurant Program. Since its inception in 2001, an estimated one million Miami Spice meals have been served. The two-month long promotion, which started August 1 and continues through September 30, 2017, showcases Greater Miami and The Beaches' diverse and ever-evolving culinary scene. This year's sponsors include Citibank, Lyft, Chandon California, Fiji Water, Stella Artois, Terrazas de los Andes, Ketel One Vodka, Don Julio Tequila, Bulleit Bourbon and Zacapa Rum.

The season of Spice heats up with an exciting new addition to this year's line-up – for the first time, select restaurants will offer irresistible weekend brunch menus for $23 per person. During August and September, visitors and residents alike can please their palates at 250 participating restaurants with reduced prices ($23 per person for lunch and brunch / $39 per person for dinner) in some of the hottest neighborhoods in town – Miami Beach, Brickell, Downtown, Coral Gables, South Miami, Wynwood, Sunny Isles and Bal Harbour. Prices include an appetizer, entrée and dessert; alcohol, tax, tip and service charges are excluded. 

Among the exciting new participating restaurants are Artisan Beach House, Bazaar Mar by José Andres, Big Easy Winebar & Grill, Dashi, El Tucán, Estefan Kitchen, Fi'lia by Michael Schwartz at SLS Brickell, Lightkeepers, Lobster Bar Sea Grille Miami Beach, Mignonette Uptown, Phuc Yea, Pubbelly Noodle Bar, Sugar Factory Ocean Drive, Tacology, TATEL and Upland.

Of the 250 restaurants participating in this year's program, 51 are joining for the first time. Miami Spice is part of the Miami Temptations programs developed by the GMCVB to allow everyone to enjoy the best that Miami and The Beaches has to offer throughout the year at attractive prices. Miami Spice sister programs include Miami Cruise Month, Miami Romance Month, Shop Miami Month, Miami Sports & Wellness Month, Miami Museum Month, Miami Film Month, Miami Spa Month, Miami Attractions Month, Miami Live Arts Month and Miami Heritage Month. For more information on the Miami Temptations programs, you can visit MiamiTemptations.com.

iLoveMiamiSpice.com is the special website providing the specifics about the Miami Spice program, including participating restaurants, menus, special offers, etc. Remember that the restaurants' menu selections are subject to change, so I recommend visiting iLoveMiamiSpice.com before going to lunch, dinner or brunch to double check the menu offerings by a particular restaurant. You can also contact the restaurant and ask for their current Miami Spice menu.

I personally visited 20 fine dining restaurants to publish this year's special issue as a reference guide to help you enjoy some delicious dining during Miami Spice 2017.  Bon Appétit! 

Cheers,

Rafa Carvajal Publisher & Editor in Chief rafa@wiremag.com

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 35.2017

[touristguidebuzz]

10 Things No One Tells You About… Melbourne

Mention Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, and you’ll typically hear about two things: the nearby Great Ocean Road and how it’s home to great cafés. But while the coastal road trip along the cliffs to the 12 Apostles is a must-do and the café scene is an experience in itself, there’s still so much more hiding behind and beneath its lovely laneways. Here are 10 tips and tricks for making the most of a stay in Melbourne, starting with one of the most crucial: where to properly get your caffeine fix.

1. It’s Australia’s Coffee Capital

You’ll still come across chains like Starbucks, but when it comes to coffee, the Melbourne’s cafés regard the drink as something sacred, with baristas working in similar style to sommeliers, happy to explain the beans and brewing method to match. Ask which café is best and everyone will give you a different answer. A few of the top spots are Cup of Truth, a subway-based stand with baristas trained at Vue de Monde, one of the city’s best fine dining establishments; chemist-inspired Sensory Lab, with a stand at department store David Jones; and small-batch roaster Padre, with four cafés around town, including one at Queen Victoria Market.

Coffee culture is strong in Melbourne, with specially-trained baristas whipping up craft coffee. Image courtesy of Sensory Lab’s Facebook page.

2. Brunch is Epic Almost Everywhere You Go

As an American, I’ve had my fair share of epic brunches in foodie cities like New York and New Orleans, but brunch in Melbourne is an entirely different experience. This city places serious importance on the quality of its brunch fare, with cafés drawing cult followings for staples like avocado on toast and açai bowls topped with caramelized buckinis (buckwheat) and edible flowers. How to decide? Each neighborhood has top-notch picks, from South Melbourne’s The Kettle Black, set in an old Victorian terrace house, to South Yarra’s SOS Cafe with its Instagram-favorite tiramisu pancakes — and Sensory Lab brew.

Take a seat and linger over the brunch spread at The Kettle Black in South Melbourne. Image courtesy of Tim Grey.

3. Public Transportation Here is Hit or Miss

The Economist Intelligence Unit may have rated Melbourne the World’s Most Livable City for the past six years because of its first-rate universities, quality healthcare and gorgeous botanic gardens, but its public transportation isn’t as reliable as you’d expect — the traffic here even rivals that of Los Angeles from time to time — it can take up to an hour to get across town during peak traffic hours, so locals mostly stick around their neighborhood. The Central Business District, or CBD, is based on a grid system and is as simple to navigate as New York City, so if you’re staying here, you’re better off saving yourself the headache and walking. It’s also easy to explore the beachside suburb of St. Kilda by foot, strolling around the shops, restaurants and seafront, where you might even come across a penguin colony along the St Kilda Breakwater. Trains run from the city’s suburbs into the CBD’s Flinders Street Station and can be accessed using a rechargeable Myki card, Melbourne’s version of London’s Oyster card, which can be picked up at 7-Eleven stores around town. If you’re trying to get from one suburb to the next, skip the hassle of navigating trains and trams and hop in an Uber instead. One type of transport worth the trek, however, is the Arthurs Seat Eagle gondola in Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, which shows off some of the best views over the bay.

One of the best views of the city can be seen from the Arthurs Seat Eagle gondola in Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula. Image courtesy of Visit Victoria’s Facebook page.

4. Rooftop Bars are a Year-Round Hangout

It doesn’t have to be summer (note: their summer happens during our winter) for the rooftop bar scene to be in full swing, but when the weather starts warming up, these spots are definitely the place to be. Options range from the whimsical, garden party-inspired Madame Brussels in the CBD (named after a 19th century brothel owner) with its faux grass and wrought iron furniture to the pop-up Rooftop Bar sitting seven stories high on top of Curtin House (which doubles as an al fresco cinema come summertime). A newcomer on the scene that’s already a hit with the locals sits on the rooftop of the recently opened QT Melbourne in the heart of downtown. One of the largest rooftop bars in the CBD, the Rooftop at QT shows off perfectly framed views of downtown and serves a menu of craft cocktails that makes the massive line out front well worth the wait. The cocktail list features a well-curated collection of wine and spirits from around the globe, but the local selections are even more impressive — go for one of the specialties like the Yarra Valley Sour, a beautiful blend of Four Pillars Gin (from the small-batch Yarra Valley distiller), orange blossom, egg whites, Pinot Noir and edible flowers.

Take a seat staring out at Melbourne’s skyline at the newly opened Rooftop at QT. Image courtesy of QT Melbourne.

5. Glamping Includes Surf Beaches and Champagne 

An hour and a half outside of Melbourne near the spa town of Daylesford (known for its natural mineral waters and farm-to-table cafés), you can go glamping in the hills of Yandoit where Cosy Tents offers decked-out yurts stocked with the same kinds of amenities you’d find at a luxury hotel — think bottles of Moët & Chandon, handmade raw chocolates and a “brekkie” (Aussie speak for breakfast) box stuffed with T2 Tea and croissants delivered in the morning. Over on the Mornington Peninsula, meanwhile, you can take your pick of Happy Glamper’s 168 campsites, from surf beaches to calmer bays with camp kitchens and herb gardens nearby. The hardest decision you’ll have to make is where you’d like to sleep, opting between a 1950s vintage caravan, a 1966 Airstream dubbed “Peggy Sue” and a yurt-style tent surrounded by fairy lights.

Pop a bottle of Champagne in the countryside glamping near Daylesford. Image courtesy of Cosy Tents’ Facebook page.

6. Poké Bowls are Having a Moment 

The traditional Hawaiian raw fish dish that’s sometimes served in bowl form over a bed of rice (in deconstructed sushi style) was a hit last year in US cities like Miami and LA, and it’s just now making its way Down Under as one of the hottest summer staples. Dedicated poké bowl shops have recently opened around town, catering to this new health-focused trend. One of the first to open was Pokéd in the CBD, with build-your-own bowls and custom-crafted options like Holy Shrimp!, sous-vide prawns with wasabi mayo and mix-ins like edamame and seaweed salad. Another favorite that just recently opened is the perpetually packed Poké Me in South Yarra, where you can choose from bases like pink rice and green tea soba noodles with sashimi-grade kingfish and slightly spicy tofu. Toppings here aren’t boring, either, with everything from charcoal salt to crushed wasabi peas and Togarashi (a blend of seven Japanese spices).

Join the locals hopping on the poké bowl bandwagon at one of the city’s first shops, Pokéd. Image courtesy of Pokéd’s Facebook page.

7. You Don’t Have to Go to the Barossa Valley to Find Good Wine

You’ll find five wine regions sitting just outside the city, including one of the most well-known. Just an hour from Melbourne, the Yarra Valley is home to more than 70 wineries scattered around Healesville, Marysville and the hill country of Nillumbik, Hurstbridge and Kangaroo Ground — an easy day trip that can even be arranged with a tour operator like Wine Tours Victoria. Taste your way through a collection of sparkling wines at Chandon, whose technique is derived from the infamous Champagne house Moët & Chandon. Sit on the countryside-facing terrace for a wine pairing with Australian oysters and house-made terrine.

Set off on wine tours in the Yarra Valley, a quick day trip from Melbourne. Image courtesy of Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges’ Facebook page.

8. Shop Like a Local in Fitzroy

Chapel Street was once seen as the city’s shopping hotspot, but this main drag is now more devoted to chains like Topshop and West Elm. If you’re looking for more local boutiques, head to the edgier suburb of Fitzroy and take a stroll down Gertrude Street for design shops, antique stores and fashion boutiques like The Signet Bureau, whose owners would rather call it a gallery space than a shop.

Shop local designers like Booker and Co in Fitzroy at The Signet Bureau. Image courtesy of The Signet Bureau’s Facebook page.

9. Pop-Ups Here Refer to More Than Just Restaurants

Locals love their pop-ups, gravitating from one trend to the next, whether it’s a pop-up devoted to Nutella, vintage furniture or Japanese homewares. During the summer months (December to February), pop-ups tend to take on festival form, with Birrarung Marr park transforming into a hawker food hall for the Night Noodle Markets and a croquet court and concert venue when the Royal Croquet Club takes over. In the city, the tiny, urban-inspired espresso stand Tom Thumb was meant to last just a year but became a more permanent fixture in the CBD, serving up a different single-origin coffee daily alongside English-fueled fare like crumpets.

Play a round of croquet while catching live music at the summer pop-up Royal Croquet Club in Birrarung Marr park. Image courtesy of Royal Croquet Club.

10. Island Hopping is Easy

From the port in Melbourne, you can hop a ferry to the rugged island state of Tasmania (a nine- to 11-hour ride) or cruise between the Bellarine and Mornington Peninsulas on a 40-minute trip across Port Phillip Bay, which can take up to three hours by car. A favorite, especially in summer, is Phillip Island, a holiday hotspot 90 minutes from Melbourne. A bridge connects the island to the fishing village of San Remo, but if you don’t want to hire a car, you can take the V-Line train from the city instead. Once you’re here, the highlight is the coastline full of surf-worthy beaches, native penguin colonies and gorgeous coastal walks along rugged cliffs and sea caves.

Get out of town for the weekend and explore the beaches along Phillip Island. Image courtesy of the Friends of Phillip Island’s Facebook page.

What are some of your favorite things to do in Melbourne? Tell us about them, below.

Feature image courtesy of Visit Victoria’s Facebook page.

[santamonicaday]

Walking At Night In Santa Monica

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