"Gina!" Izabella rose from her seat at the booth, pulling her sister into a hug. "Look at you, getting all dressed up for The Pancake Hut."
Gina laughed. "Oh, stop it." It was true. She was looking like a bombshell in a black satin dress, fully made up, starkly contrasting Izzy's brown sweater and jeans. "I have an appearance to make after this. I've got quite a busy Saturday ahead of me."
The two sat down across from each other, Iz's hips pooching out under her as she scooched into the booth. The two of them were quite a contrast: Iz almost took up the whole booth seat while Gina was practically swallowed up by it. A waitress appeared as soon as the two of them sat down and asked for a drink order.
"Just a water, please." Gina looked at the waitress and smiled.
Izzy shuffled a little on her bench, still clearly not completely comfortable. "Do you have chocolate milk?"
"We sure do!"
"I'll have that then." Izzy looked at Gina and grinned mischievously as the waitress walked away. "I haven't had chocolate milk in so long. I'm feeling adventurous today, sis."
The two of them studied the menu in comfortable, sisterly silence until the server returned with the water and milk, setting the cups down along with the straws. "Are you ladies ready to order, or do you need a few minutes?"
Izabella put down her menu and looked at Gina. "I think I'm ready, are you?"
She was still looking at hers. "I don't know. You order first, I'll make up my mind while you order"
"Alright. I'm gonna get the chocolate chip pancake combo with an extra... sorry, make that two extra pancakes. And substitute the eggs for another side of the sausages. They're just so good." Iz smiled and licked her lips.
The waitress turned her head to Gina. "For you, honey?"
Gina slid her menu across the table. "I'm just going to get the regular pancake combo. Scrambled eggs, please."
The waitress thanked them, took the menus, and walked away. Gina smiled at Izzy. "I think I gained a couple pounds just listening to your order."
"Oh, shush. I saw your face just then. For a moment you wanted to say, 'I'll have what my beautiful, sexy, big sister is having'." Iz took a sip of milk through her bendy straw.
"If you think I'm going to show up looking pregnant to the ribbon-cutting party, I've got some bad news for you, sis."
"We'll just have to keep up appearances then. We can start coming here every morning for nine months."
Gina's little snort of laughter blew bubbles in her water. "Imagine what that would do to us. They'd have to wheel us in and out!"
Iz giggled. "Pancakes though, sis..." She leaned back in her seat. "Is today the ribbon-cutting for the fourth Mama Bianchi's?"
"Oh, no, that won't be for a while. I'm just making an appearance at one of Papa's friends' businesses. It's nothing I'm sticking around for and it doesn't really matter when I get there, so we can hang out here as long as we want."
Izzy smiled warmly. "That's a relief. I was worried you'd leave in the middle of our breakfast!"
Gina shook her head, taking a sip of water. "You know I would never do that. Family always takes precedence. Always."
"You're right about that. Mama's values are deep."
The waitress returned with the food, Gina's plate looking like a desert compared to the mountain of pancakes and meat on Izzy's. Regardless, they both dug in.
"So, how's Benito?" Gina asked as she swallowed a forkful of pancake.
Iz was in the middle of a much bigger forkful as her eyes lit up at the mention of her husband. She spoke with her mouth full. "He's wonderful. Been working a lot lately. I miss him lots." She swallowed, looked around for a moment, and lowered her voice. "You know, we've been together for 3 years and we still fuck like we're on our honeymoon." She chortled and started to cut off another massive chunk of pancake.
"Even with the..." Gina made semi-circle gestures a few inches from her hips, stroking the invisible big butt she did not have.
It was Iz's turn to snort bubbles in her drink. She glanced around once again, bringing her voice even lower. "I can't get into it right now, but... it's even better, sis. That man is a freak. He loves it. You should see him."
Gina giggled. "Maybe he has some ulterior motives then, keeping you well fed."
"Oh," Izzy took in another monolithic chunk of pancake, "I don't care. That man can do what he wants to me. I don't care." She swallowed. "How about you, sis? Having any luck with the guys?"
"Other than the guys who keep DMing me on Instagram asking for feet pics? Hardly. Do you remember Matt?"
"The, uh..." Izzy smacked her forehead a couple times. "The actor?"
"Yeah, him. I saw him the other day."
"How's he?"
"He's alright. Still working side characters and stuff. I told him his sexy restauranteur CEO ex could pull some strings for him, but he didn't budge. Some men are just too principled for this world." Clearly inspired by her sister's tear, Gina started to cut off bigger pieces of pancake.
"I'll say." Izzy finished off her milk, moving the empty cup to the side of the table. "I should get Benny to set you up with one of his co-workers. So many cute guys." She lowered her voice again. "Just between you and me, I wish Benny would get one of them to double-team me. I don't think he would go for that, though." She sassily popped in another hunk of pancake.
"I don't know, sis. Construction workers aren't my type. Maybe as a one night thing, but I'm at the point in my life where I want to go steady. I'm tired of hooking up."
"Mmm." Izzy was almost finished with her pancakes, and hadn't even started on the sausages yet. "You'll find the guy. Just you wait. It'll be in the most unexpected of places."
***
Much sisterly chit-chat and gossip later, the two Bianchi women had both finished off their food. Izabella leaned her head back against the booth wall, languidly unbuckled her belt, unbuttoned her jeans, sat back, and breathed heavily with both hands on her stuffed stomach. On the other side of the table, Gina was wishing she could have eaten enough to end up as satisfied as her sister. Damn ribbon-cutting getting in the way of her Italian appetite.
"Oh, sis..." Iz closed her eyes for a moment. "I feel a food coma coming on. Wake me up for lunch. u-uuuuOOOURP." She turned red, but the embarrassment wasn't enough to wake her up at all. "Oh, excuse me. I'm such a pig, belching like that in public."
"It's okay, sis." Gina smiled and finished her cup of water. "Want me to drive you home? You can nap in the car. I'll give Raymond your keys, he'll drive it to your place."
"Oh, Ginny, that would be divine." She was very clearly having trouble staying awake. "Let's go now, though. If I don't stand up soon I'll be dozing here."
And so, after leaving a crisp hundred dollar bill on the table, Gina drove her sister, who almost immediately began snoring in the back seat, home. The drive gave her time to reflect, something she often didn't have much time to do. She thought about how she was now 25, the age Izzy was when she got married, and she didn't even have a boyfriend. She thought about her sister's relationship, how her husband seemed to like her better bigger. And she thought about the files Fiona had sent her, ways she could cripple the Vandergast competition and become the biggest kitchen empress this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately for her, one of these ruminations was about to blossom.
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