The Aftermath of Callie and Arizona

The Calm Before the Storm Part IV

Callie's POV:

We had just left the hotel bar in the attic and traveled a few floors down to our room. As the elevator doors were getting ready to open, we broke up our passionate kissing and embrace, just in time for the bell to chime. I guess that would be something we would need to come back to later on, but I already knew we would.

It surprised us when we walked into our room to see not one, but three staff members from the restaurant waiting for us. Turned out one was the sommelier for the hotel, one person was our server and the chef was waiting to personally introduce the menu selections we'd be having for the evening.

Once the introductions were made around the room, Arizona and I took our seats at the dining room table in the great room. Our servers already had set-up our table and our first course place settings. There was romantic dinner music softly playing over the rooms speakers and they had lit candles all around the space.

After we made our wine selections for the night, we proceeded to listen to the chef talk about the four-course meal we were about to eat. Turns out we were having soup, an appetizer, the main entree and dessert.

The soup was French onion and was made with onions from the hotel's gardens, topped with Gruyère cheese and puffed pastry. The soup was a perfect start on such a cold, rainy and stormy day.

Our second dish was our appetizers. Apparently the chef couldn't make up his mind after his conversation with Arizona and decided to make two appetizers for us to share. One dish was a lobster risotto that was perfectly cooked, the other was a selection of a dozen oysters on the half shell. The oysters were all locally sourced from Washington and were unbelievably fresh. He had them paired with a collection of his own mignonette sauces.

For our main entree, the chef pulled out all the stops and made us Beef Wellington that was to die for. The beef was served alongside asparagus with hollandaise and roasted garlic root vegetables from the hotel gardens as well.

Finally, for dessert, we were sharing two items again and having a chocolate torte with homemade espresso ice cream. The other dessert was a buttermilk, honey pie that had a caramel and crushed, candied pecan topping. 

The second dessert highlighted the honey the hotel collected from its hives. The bees not only helped pollinate their gardens, but the hotel also collected the honey from the hives on the grounds. It was a cool symbiotic relationship between the hotel and bees and I was thrilled to reap the benefits in the form of dessert.

Once the chef finished telling us about the meal, he disappeared back to the kitchen but let us know he was available if we needed anything else. As for our Sommelier, she disappeared for the most part, but every time we'd try a new wine, she'd be right there to introduce us to the varietal.

The one person we saw the most of was our server, but he was respectful of our privacy and only appeared as needed. He must have had some kind of sixth sense regarding our eating habits, because he timed his interruptions very carefully. We never felt bombarded and were far from neglected, it was perfect.

As we started with our first course, I spoke up. 

"Arizona Robbins, I know we are just starting dinner, but I want to tell you thank you and how much I love you. This was an amazingly thoughtful idea to orchestrate for our stay. This trip was already special, but this just pushed it over the top." I picked up her hand that was resting on the table and kissed the back of it.

"Callie, it was no big deal, but I'm glad to see you are excited about this. I was hoping you'd enjoy having a fabulous meal in the comfort of our room."

"Again, I could easily get used to the life we've been living here this weekend, Arizona."

"No joke, Callie. Too bad it comes with a price tag we can't continue to afford beyond this weekend!"