When I am very rich, I am going to host the very best charcuterie parties for my friends. Two dozen cheese that everyone has to try, five different kinds of breads and crackers to put them on, tapinades and preserves to contrast and enhance, cured meat and pates for variety, and fruit to cleans the palette. The kind of "board" that is the whole table, endless and generous.
And wine, of course, racks of it; or beer or sparkling tea if you don't partake. The food is the activity, if you are there, it is to indulge. Nothing gets put away, or runs out.
But there's a second board too, for desserts, after. You need chocolate and cream after all that savoury. Dozens more bites, nothing more than a sample, but altogether, another full meal. Dessert wines with it, icewine and honey mead, or apertifs if that's too syrupy. Let people try ouzo and arak, or just your best cognac. You might not get another chance for fernet and sambuca anytime soon. Clutter another table with bottles.
Everyone goes home happy and glowing and groaning, but there's so much left anyway. I will need the help cleaning up. One for the tupperware, one for your mouth. Not enough of this left to save, open up. You were restrained in front of guests, but you know you don't have to be with me. I prefer you are not.
By the last load of dishes, you are struggling to stay on your feet, so I send you to the couch to decompress. And decompress you do, like an inflatable raft, unbuttoning your shirt, stripping down to your boxers, releasing slow breaths as your muscles unknot and you let it all hang out. You are unimaginably full, flushed, and finished.
But when I sit beside you to rub your belly and talk quietly about the night's highlights, everything is right in the world. Friends, food, and now quiet intimacy. We've had the most, tonight. I never want anything less.