It Started With Drinks

Jess sends a text to her best friend Dawn from inside Elements restaurant and bar: I’m here. Wish me luck.

She checks her silk pressed hair with her phone’s camera then slips her phone into the crimson red clutch she always pairs with her little black dress. An unexpected baritone voice startles her,

“What are you having?”

She looks up to see the bartender in front of her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” the bartender apologizes.

“It’s ok, I’m a little on edge, tonight. I’m here to meet someone and it’s my first time on a date with someone from a dating app so it’s a lot for me,” explains Jess.

“Well, let me make you something to take the edge off. Are you a martini fan?”

“I am. I’ll take it with extra olives please.”

“You got it. Oh, and in case you were wondering, you look amazing.”

“Thank you,” Jess takes a moment to read his name tag, “Terry.”

“No problem.” Terry turns around to make her drink and Jess notices his dreads. She daydreams about trying locs as she looks out the floor to ceiling windows that frame the city sky-line. Jess gets lost in her thoughts when her phone buzzes. She pulls the phone out of her clutch and spins into the martini glass Terry placed on the counter while her back was turned. The drink splashes on her phone. Jess panics, reaches for a napkin, and almost places her clutch in the small puddle of alcohol, but Terry places his hand underneath the bag before it contacts the sur-face.

“Don’t worry about it,” Terry assures her while tossing the glass aside, wiping the counter with his left hand, and holding the clutch with his right.

Jess wipes off her phone.

“Here’s your clutch,” says Terry. it. I’m a complete mess right now,” Jess takes the clutch from Terry’s hand.

“First date jitters happen all the time. Remember to breathe,” says Terry.

Jess takes in a huge inhale.

“The guy looking around at the hostess counter, is that him,” asks Terry as he gestures over her shoulder.

“Yes, that’s Paul, thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome. Enjoy your night.”

Jess’s eyes linger on Terry’s smile until he walks away to take another guest’s order. She turns around and looks at her date Paul tower over the petite hostess in a tailored navy suit, em-phasizing his muscular frame.

“I think I am going to enjoy this,” she thinks as she waves to him. Paul sees her, gives a slight nod, and makes his way to her side. He hugs her and she takes in the woodsy scent of his cologne. His left hand rests on the small of her back, and Jess melts into his firm yet gentle touch. The spell cast by his physique, style, and aroma breaks when Paul snaps his fingers at Terry, “Drinks!”

Terry looks over his shoulder in disgust, but remembers he’s on the clock and fixes his face. Jess maintains her look of disgust as Paul turns back to her.

“Yeah, I’m finding people don’t want to work hard anymore,” says Paul, assuming Jess’s face was for the bartender. He snaps again and Jess places her hand on his forearm.

“You just snapped your fingers at another human.”

“He’s our servant tonight, he should be serving us,” states Paul.

“You mean server,” says Jess.

The two look at each other confused as the waiter comes over and lets them know their table is ready. Jess looks back at Terry to mouth an apology, but his back is turned. She trails Paul to the table and stands next to her chair as Paul sits, adjusts, and places his napkin on his lap. He looks at Jess and points his hand out toward her chair. “You can sit,” advises Paul

Jess takes her seat in disbelief.

Paul opens the menu and begins talking as he reads, “Your profile said you’re an engi-neer, so you’re smart. And I like that you’re tall. I want my kids to be tall. Do you workout or are you naturally thin?”

“I’m sorry, what,” says Jess, still processing the finger snap.

Paul puts the menu down and looks directly into her eyes, “I’ll be honest with you; based on your looks and your background you’re in my top four. Depending on how the date goes you could be in my top two.”

Jess’s mouth opens, but her brain has so many curse words rushing to get out first she’s unable to speak. She gets up and walks away. Paul shrugs and whistles for the waiter.

Two weeks later, Jess walks back into the restaurant wearing a teal dress and yellow pumps. Terry sees her approach the bar and recognizes her immediately.

“Good to see you again.”

“If I didn’t like this place so much, I would have never shown my face again,” explains Jess,

“Well I’m glad you came back. And I must say you handled the situation well,” says Ter-ry.

Terry begins to mix a martini for her while she talks.

“I don’t get it. I mean I understand why women go for that sort of guy. I fell for it. He was gorgeous and tall and he smelled amazing, but if he’s out here acting reckless in public, I can’t imagine how he’d treat me in private.”

“Exactly,” Terry places the glass in front of her, “here you go miss. With extra olives.”

“Wow, you remembered. And I’m Jess by the way.”

“It’s good to see you again Jess. So is this another date night?”

work, and I thought the best way to evaluate the different dates is to meet them at the same place. It’s my engineer brain trying to make everything more efficient.”

“Let me guess, you’re an electrical engineer.”

“Mechanical actually.”

“I studied electrical engineering for three years, but had to drop out because of family is-sues. I started bartending to make money, I fell in love with it and decided, why not keep doing the thing I love.”

“It’s sad you had to drop out, but it’s great you get to do what you love.”

“Everything happens for a reason. Anyways, who’s the lucky guy tonight?”

“Ja’shawn,” says Jess.

“I’m sorry, could you say that again,” asks Terry.

“Ja’shawn. He was named after his mom’s grandfather Jay and his uncle Shawn.”

Terry bites his lip trying not to laugh.

“I’m gonna need you to stop judging people’s names. He was super sweet when we chat-ted so I figured why not give it try. What’s the worst that can happen,” explains Jess. Ja’shawn approaches Jess, leans in, and wraps his arms around her. Her nose is filled with the scent of a Black & Mild.

“I knew it was you soon as I walked in. Some of these chicks be lyin’ on their profile pic-tures, but you-” he takes a step back and scans Jess from head to toe.

“Ja’shawn I take it,” interjects Terry, “Jess was telling me how excited she was about her date with you tonight. What can I get you to drink?”

Ja’shawn holds his oversized, faded black jeans up with his left hand as he extends his right hand to Terry.

“You can call me Shawn.”

Shawn looks at Terry’s name tag and his eyes linger for a few seconds while the two of them shake hands, “T-er, Terry? Yeah, let me get a Jack and coke.”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you Shawn,” says Jess with a forced smile, “I’ve really en-joyed our chats.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” he grabs Jess’s hand, kisses it, and leaves a bit of saliva on her knuckle. Jess discreetly rubs her hand against the side of the stool.

“This place is dope! You gotta brother expanding his horizons. I ain’t gonna lie I’m feeling a little underdressed.”

“No, you’re fine, but I need to run to the restroom real quick, I’ll be back.” Jess rushes away and pulls her phone out as soon as she’s out of Shawn’s sight. She sends Dawn a text:

911!

Call me in five minutes.

Oh no!

I got you, but I gotta hear about this as soon as you leave. Lol

Jess drops her phone back into her purse. She makes her way back to the bar. Shawn is in deep conversation with Terry.

“So those plateaus are actually the stumps of ancient trees the Nephilim cut down,” ex-plains Shawn, “How’s lava or rain gonna make a flat top like that?”

Shawn downs half the glass as Jess walks up. He puts the glass down and explains to her, “I was telling Terry about the book of Enoch and how that led me to the mountain tree theo-ry.”

“Terry was asking what I was reading these days,” says Shawn.

He continues to ramble on as Jess gives a side eye to Terry. Terry shrugs and walks away. Shawn explains how ancient giants used to harvest giant trees while Jess counts the sec-onds until Dawn’s call. Her phone rings and she scrambles to answer.

“Sorry, I have to take this,” she turns away from Shawn and answers the call, “hello?”

“Get out of there,” Dawn whispers into the phone.

“Oh my god! I’ll be right there,” Jess hangs up, tosses a twenty on the counter, and turns back to Shawn.

“I am so sorry. I need to go. There’s an emergency.”

“No worries. I’ll hit you up later.”

Jess gives Shawn a pat on the back before jogging to the exit. Jess makes it to the street, requests a ride, and calls Dawn.

Dawn answers on the first ring, “it was that bad?”

“It was that bad,” Jess looks back over her shoulder to make sure Shawn didn’t follow her out, “I was over it when he came in smelling like an ashtray, but when he started talking about mountain trees I was completely done.”

“Mountain trees? Like trees on mountains?”

“No, like mountains used to be trees.” Dawn laughs as Jess continues to vent, “I’m trying this dating thing, but I don’t have the energy to deal with this mess. My life is fine the way it is.”

Dawn’s laughter fades and she responds to her friend, “I hear you. Yes, your life is fine, but it’s not a life you love. You’d love to have a guy with a sense of humor, who’s kind and smart, who you can grow with. You’ve wanted that since we were in high school. Right now the desire feels small compared to the disappointment, but the desire is still there.”

“Please tell me where I can find this man so I can bypass this foolishness.”

“He could be somewhere waiting in the future or he could be staring you in the face and you haven’t noticed. Please don’t give up hope.” Jess’s ride arrives and she gets in, “My ride's here. I’ll text you when I get home.” Jess hangs up, gets in the car, and reflects on Dawn’s words. After staring out the window motionless for two blocks, she jerks forward.

“Did you forget something?” the driver asks.

“No, I actually figured something out,” says Jess.

Jess walks into Elements the next Saturday with coffee brown boots, mustard jeans and a navy blazer over a white blouse. Her faux locs rest on her shoulders. She walks to the bar and sits. Terry finishes serving another customer, looks up, and his eyes widen when he sees her. Jess takes in his dark chocolate skin, bright white smile, and his midnight black dreads and con-firms her idea that Dawn was right: what she was looking for was right in front of her.

“Good to see you again Jess. Another date night?”

“Sort of. I’m actually setting a guy up on a date, but he doesn’t know he’s being set up. He’s actually at work, but I really want to be around him and talk whenever he has time and see if he’d be willing to go on a real date someday.”

Terry’s smile broadens, then switches to a serious stare, “What if this guy isn’t into dating a gorgeous, smart woman with questionable judgement in men?”

Jess does a poor job of covering up a grin and responds, “Then he’s an idiot who can get me a martini.”

“Lucky for you there aren’t any idiots around here,” says Terry as he mixes her drink.

Jess smiles.

Terrell Arts DC is a family business led by husbandand-wife team, James and Zsudayka Terrell. The Terrell’s are fine artists who use their work to create unique Afrocentric designs and textiles for home décor and fashion. Our premium throw pillows come in 3 sizes and change designs every year to add glorious pops of color to any home. The textiles reflect the richness of Black American culture and art and are a statement piece for Afro bohemian styled households. TerrellArtsDC.com IG @zsudayka