As she did with Ken, she opened up the cloche.

Seeing what Ken had, he was prepared to witness something incredible. In fact, his taste buds couldn't wait either.

And then.. it was opened, revealing a very neatly organised trail of smoked ribs.

Julianne: Côtes levées, Monsieur. That means, spare ribs in English.

She didn't say anything about the spare ribs in particular, but any normal human who'd seen ribs before could tell that these ribs were on a league of their own. The scent, the sight... Even on a look one could tell how tender the ribs were.

Rose: Woooooow. They look so good.

Luke: These ribs...

Julianne: Uh huh. They were made in a special farm where the cows were lovingly looked after all their lives. And as for the meat, it had air blown over it for at a very cold temperature for a very long time.

Rose: Oh. How long?

Julianne: About 13 years.

Luke and Rose: Thirteen years!?

Tiffany and Ken were equally shocked.

Julianne: Uh huh.

She patted Luke's shoulder.

Julianne: What you're feasting your eyes on now is "aged" meat. From what I've heard, it's pretty tasty.

Luke: I....

He didn't know what to say. Sure, anyone would have expected something exceptional in terms of food that day. But as for what she said... it felt like something straight out of a fairy tale.

Luke: Err..

Julianne: Hmm?

Luke: Umm.. thank you, ma'am.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Julianne: Oh, no worries, Luke. It was no trouble at all, really.

As for Luke, who had been working to make ends meet since his parents died, this was something of an angel appearing in his darkest hour.

Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined he'd get such good-looking food.

It was beyond his own imagination.

And then, as though to commemorate this wondrous occasion, his belly growled.

Luke blushed, as Julianne and Rose started giggling. Max only raised his eye up for a moment, and then lowered his gaze again.

Tiffany and Ken simply remained silent.

Julianne: Sorry Luke, but you're gonna have to wait till I'm done with the other three, ok?

Luke: Ok.

That was almost needlessly embarrassing.

Julianne: Moving on... Mademoiselle Tiffany.

She pulled her seat up just as she did with the others.

Tiffany walked to her seat just as the first two did. She was right next to Luke, and as for who she would be facing, that would be Julianne Hunter herself.

Speaking of, Julianne put her hand on the cloche and gave Tiffany a smile, one she could not return, but also, one that made her wonder.

And then... she opened it.

Julianne: Presenting... galettes de poisson. Or... fish cakes.

And fish cakes they were. Although, like the others, they had never seen anything quite like it before. Tiffany herself, who had seen all the manner of fish cake recipes in her life, had never seen something like it before.

For one thing...

Rose: (gasp) They smell so goooood.

And indeed they did. For one thing, they had a faint scent of pork to them. A very delicious scent at that. One that blended well with the already incredible aroma of the fish.

Even Max was momentarily shocked by the dish. Momentarily.

Julianne: Mmm hmmm. These bad boys were made from a cocktail of fish species.

Rose: Really?

Julianne: Mmm hmm. It's something of a cocktail of tuna, lobster, prawn, and other species.

Rose: Woah! (to Tiffany) Tiff, your dish sounds amazing!

Tiffany: Yeah...

She was quite nervous. After all, she'd expected Julianne to get something expensive, but this, this was far above anything she could have expected.

Rose: Oh, and does it have pork, too?

Julianne: Uh huh. It comes from a breed of pigs that only feed on only acorns. So, it's pretty unique.

Rose: Wow.

Julianne: I know, right. Oh.. I almost forgot... It also has a little caviar inside. The most expensive kind, of course.

That only served to make Tiffany more upset. As if she needed more reasons to feel bad. The dish was expensive. Just how much money did this woman put into this meal?

And even then, how could she reject it?

This kind of effort could not go unappreciated. That would go against every honour law this teenager held.

And so.. in a last ditch effort to stop the madness...

Tiffany: Mrs Hunter...

Julianne: No need to worry, Tiffany. It was no trouble at all, really.

And that was it. Any other objections would break social contagion.

And that, she could not afford to do. Not for herself or for the situation.

And then that all three before suspicious teens were seated, they shared glances with one another. However, Tiffany could only look up hesitantly, as she was, in her mind, battling with an enormous amount of guilt.