Real regulars at a place like ours had their habits, their usual bottle, their little particularities.

These two ordered lavishly and generically, the way you order when the point is not the food but the cover story the food provides.

They did not glance at a single price.

They ordered appetizers to start, then steaks, then an expensive bottle of wine that I had to go check the cellar list to confirm we even carried, and cocktails on top of that, the whole lavish architecture of a dinner built without any reference at all to what it cost.

I did my job the way I always did, attentive and warm and efficient, refilling water, timing the courses, being the smooth invisible machinery that makes an expensive evening feel effortless.