Sushi, Music and Merlot!

On a lovely sunny day in Asheville, North Carolina, as I was playing music for people walking up and down the sidewalks of our beautiful downtown, a long-time acquaintance came by and tipped me, but this time he stood by and listened a bit longer than usual. Nick was wearing a fashion mask even though normally he had those typical blue ones on at times in the past when he had come by to listen, but this one mask tonight had art image of a guitar and music notes on it, and I could sense he wanted to ask me something. After I finished my song which happened to be titled, “Something in your eyes” I decided to take a small pause and so he asked if by any chance I wanted to grab some sushi with him after I am done busking. As he glanced into my eyes, he said.

“And it’s totally ok if you don’t feel like it, but it’s such a beautiful day and I happen to be off work, so I was wondering since it’s been so many years now that we had known each other in passing that it’d be cool to do something and swap stories if you felt like it.” Then he added,” I promise I will not make it a habit out of this and always ask you while you are in the middle of work because I realize women get bugged with this kind of stuff all the time and I understand it must get very tiring, yet I know as a guy I would never utterly understand just what it’s like. I just always wanted to jam with you sometimes, just for fun of course and see if our musical styles are at all compatible to play some music on occasion or who knows for you out of all people probably know that you just don’t know until you jam with somebody many, many times before you can tell if there’s some more musical future collaborations in store or not so I figure going out for dinner together could help us. “

In that moment, I felt extremely comfortable and not at all how all my previous crushes have made me feel, and it seemed as if I could say anything that was exactly right on my mind at that point. My flirtatious nature came out as it used to when I used to feel way more like my true self and I said hesitantly,

“Well, are you asking me on a date”?

“Only if you want it to be!” He replied.

And so, I said, “I see” … as I laughed “Well just so you know I don’t hold hands on the first date, believe most exes can stay friends and I guess I don’t mind a date with you.”

“You seem to be just like the date that I had been dreaming about my whole life.” He smiled and spoke.

I smiled back and said, “Well, then I think I should be done playing in about half an hour.” As I had been already playing for at least an hour and a half of live music.

He said, “Great, I’ll be back with flowers by then”.

So, I said, “Aw, that is so sweet! But you had been here longer than I and you know this is a small town….” By his body language you could tell that he agreed, he totally was understanding exactly what I was and yet to say.

“Why don’t we meet right around the corner here and then decide where we want to go to grab sushi?”

And to that he nodded as he was walking away.

Throughout the rest of my set, I just could not stop smiling not because it was a part of my job as a singer to keep on smiling anyways as part of one of the most important singing techniques, but because well this has been a guy that I had wanted to ask me out for literally years. I even contemplated doing it myself, but my upbringing of being what they call a societal idea of being ladylike had always prevented me from doing so first. These beliefs that had been holding me back from asking him out myself finally felt relieved in a way. It is like this sixth sense feeling of knowing that this person possibly wants all the same things out of life and has all so similar dreams. We had so way much more in common than I ever could have imagined.

For the first time ever, I was seeing Nick smile so big as we sat down at our booth. We clicked so much already that both of us just could not stop talking about the most random topics, but of course menus were currently right in front of us as this gorgeous waiter asked us what we would like for our drinks we looked at each other with a warm smirk on our faces and I saw my date wink at me in the most delightful, innocent way! Perhaps our common interest in different types of crystals and rocks had already connected us to believing in human telepathy before we even spoke of it. Looking up at the waiter, I said

“Perhaps we are going to need a few minutes, but I do know I will want green tea…” as I looked over at my date I said, “How about you?”

“We’d like to take a look at your selection of red wines as well because we are celebrating something very special tonight.” He replied as I added,

“That’s a great idea!!! I think that calls for a bottle of something awesome!”

Nick smiled so wide with a look of excitement and I spoke again,

“Of course, one of us will have to cork it and take it home with us because as I told you before I only drink in moderation, just enough of alcohol to enjoy dinner with.”

“Well, we better make sure we get a bottle of something that we will really enjoy then since we both are very set on having just a glass of fine wine for our health.” Nick said.

That moment our eyes just got glued to our menus for a while and unlike some other dates I had in the past, the silence just felt so soothing and wonderful, there was no awkwardness whatsoever. Then our eyes met again synchronically as I pointed my finger at this pretty bottle and said, “Did you know that the word Merlot means ‘Little Black Bird’ since it originates from a French word. It looks like this one here is called ‘Jet Bird’?”

“Well then we should go to that restaurant around the corner from your favorite spot to busk there called ‘The Blackbird’”. Nick looked at me and replied,

And I said, “That’s a great idea because actually one of my favorite waiters used to work there when I first just moved to the area and he used to come by and tip me and then tell me that I could stop by when they were closing and enjoy a drink so from what I learned from that experience back then is not only their American food delicious, but their choices of wines are also wonderful and very diverse.”

“ I am so glad that you and I have this love for different, exciting healthy cuisines cause honestly whether we are dating or just getting to know each other as friends I had been looking for a partner for dining out on occasion and now I kind of want to ask you how you feel about British cuisine for I know you had been in this area approximately as long as me so I don’t know if you made the time to go to the Biltmore Estate yet, but there’s this very cool tavern there…” Nick spoke as I exclaimed,

“Have you been there? It is called Cedrick’s Tavern I believe because I heard about how good it is from a friend of mine. I love British cuisine! So many of their spectacular dishes feel so much like soul food to me plus I love adding milk into my Black Tea on occasion to add more excitement to my tea drinking ways...”

As the waiter headed back in our direction, we realized that we have not decided on our food just yet, so Nick said, “Yeah, that Jet Bird Bottle of Merlot with bright acidity looks amazing! We are going to get it and also I was thinking ‘Boat for two’ cause that would be like the best choice that has exactly what we’re looking to get out of this Sushi experience.”

“Yeah, and I am going to have a miso soup before our main course too.” I replied.

“Me too! And do you like edamame?”

“Yes!”

“Great, so would you like to share one of those appetizers too then because I always feel like they bring way more edamame than you’d want to eat in one setting.”

“Yep” I said, “I know that edamame is not good for you in large quantities so it’s like you just read my mind!”

As the waiter made his way through the beautiful candlelit dining area, I exclaimed, “We’d like the Love Boat for two!”

“….Two miso soups, one order of edamame to split, and this selection of a bottle of Merlot that you got here!” pointing at the menu Nick continued.

Our waiter Luke finished jotting down our choices, smiled, confirmed what we ordered, thanked us, and headed back to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Nick and I were diving deep into our music conversation. We were now all over the music theory and note intervals to the point that we started singing harmonies at our table and the self-consciousness of being in a public place wore off as we rehearsed one of my songs called “White wine guy”. Nick’s harmonies were just superb and right on the dot. This was turning out to be the best date of my life and we have not even had dinner yet.

Our two miso soups, edamame and two glasses of wine had magically arrived at our table while we were still very lost in our musical conversation. Luke made a few comments about the type of music he listened to the most and we briefly exchanged some words about the street music scene in downtown Asheville and how wonderful it was! He thanked me for being a busker then mentioned that our sushi platter should be here shortly too. Then he said to please let him know if we needed anything else. Before our waiter headed off to the next table, I told him that he is more than welcome to come by and say hello to me if he’s ever downtown on one of his days off and if he happens to see me busking because sometimes, I even play live music as often as six days a week, not to mention how in tough times I would push myself to 14 nights in a row. Nick happened to busk too, but it was not his main day job, so he does not have to do it as often as me, yet he still knows what it is like.

The next part of our talk headed more in a serious direction of co-writing together, so we exchanged emails and talked about doing that through possibly skype, zoom, or drop box. Nick told me that he will send me a recent recording that he just made himself that he would love to have someone write lyrics and sing to and, he thought that the ukulele would be perfect addition in this happy tune he just wrote. Everything about this was perfect! A perfect evening! A perfect date and the most delicious food with my favorite kind of wine. The time we were spending together at this lovely local place just kept on being fantastic! We kept on enjoying each other’s company, conversation wise and energy wise. Amid our music Collab conversation, Nick and I had to make a toast to our newfound friendship with the exquisite, full bodied glass of Merlot that we picked……