Casa Enzo is the restaurant setting for the dinner between Eve Fletcher and Amanda, a meeting that shifts Eve’s view of their evening from uncertain to hopeful. The meal gives them time to talk freely, and Eve leaves considering the date a good one, even as what follows leaves her troubled by her choices.

The Dinner

Eve and Amanda had not planned to eat at Casa Enzo. After finishing their first two glasses of wine in less than an hour, neither wanted a third on an empty stomach. It was only seven o’clock, too early for either to call the evening over, and an available table in the restaurant section offered a reason to stay together.

Over dinner, Amanda praised the potatoes and asked whether they should order another portion. The meal became part of an evening that lasted for hours: the two talked without awkward gaps, drank more wine, laughed, and told each other truths about their lives. By the time they left Casa Enzo, Eve had come back around to thinking of the outing as a date—and a pretty good one.

The Evening’s Aftermath

As Eve walked Amanda to her car, the autumn air was chilly and Eve felt an intensifying flutter in her chest. Amanda thanked her for dinner and said she had enjoyed it. The warm assessment of the date did not settle the question of what had happened between them; the later disappointment Eve recalls belongs to the evening’s aftermath, not to the restaurant meal itself.

Driving home, Eve regretted what she regarded as an irresponsible risk. She worried that her decisions could jeopardize her job, home, and son’s college education, and was disappointed that Amanda had not returned her attempted kiss. In the contrast between a long, candid dinner and the regret that followed, Casa Enzo marks a hopeful interval in an evening Eve would later judge much more harshly.