A Fated Meeting

Meet Allie, a 41 year old divorcee. She has been divorced for 10 months now and her friends think it’s time for her to get back out there and have some fun. Allie is a single mom of 3 children and has a great co-parenting relationship with the children’s father, Sam.

Now Allie was a very soft spoken woman, meek also. Some would say she is easy going, others would say she is funny. She is 5ft 3in, 154 pounds and curvy. Allie started going out for Sunday funday with her good friend Gloria. Gloria is more like a sister. When they would go out Gloria always took pics and Allie started taking pictures too. One Sunday Allie said, ”Gloria take a picture of me in front of this number 33 statue.” Gloria said, “No sis, take it in front of those flowers. Allie agrees and they take the photo in front of the flowers. Allie decides to post some of the pictures on her social media account called Connected. Her profile does not show her relationship status. Days after posting her Sunday Funday pictures, Allie gets a DM from a guy named John.

John was a handsome fellow, 5ft 8in, 177 pounds and he had a muscular physique. His profile shows his relationship status as divorced. Allie is a little hesitant to respond. She is contemplating if she should write something or leave him on read. Allie discusses this encounter with her friends and when she mentions the name, Tasha, one of Allie’s friends recognizes it. Tasha told Allie that John was in her brother's poker club and that he had been divorced for almost two years. Allie’s friends encourage her to respond to his messages.

Allie and John began talking to each other online. A few days after they had been talking, Alllie felt more comfortable with him and initiated a phone conversation. The first time they talked on the phone hours had passed and they hadn’t realized it. Each time they were on the phone together, the time just flew by as they laughed and talked. It's Friday and they were discussing their plans for the weekend. Both Allie and John were invited to attend a party. Allie was attending a housewarming party. John said he was going to his sister’s engagement party. Both events were happening at the same time, they were trying to coordinate a time to meet each other officially for the first time this weekend. Between work and their prior engagements it didn’t look like they would actually get to meet in person this weekend. So they would just talk on the phone.

Now Allie and Gloria were out shopping for a gift for this housewarming party. “You can’t go to a housewarming party empty handed,” Gloria says. Allie wasn’t sure what to get for this housewarming party, she didn’t even know who these people are really. She was just going to get out of the house and enjoy life a bit. As they were shopping Allie got a notification on her phone that her case of wine from Bright Cellars had been delivered. She joined their wine club about two months ago. So then Allie had an idea, she really loves the Jetbird Merlot 2019, she enjoys it with almost anything. So even though she would have preferred to keep it for herself, she thought it would be a great housewarming gift. She would just pick up a wine gift box. There, problem solved, so now Allie was thinking about what she would wear while waiting for Gloria to finish shopping for a gift.

It’s Saturday, the day of the party. Allie gets up early so she can make some last minute shipments before the post office closes and get some more work done so she can enjoy the party tonight. She also had to get laundry done and dinner cooked early so the sitter would not have to worry about cooking for the children. In between doing all that she only had a few minutes today to talk to John. They both knew that they couldn’t talk on the phone long or they would lose track of time and end up being late for their parties. Since it’s the spring season, Allie decided she would wear a baby blue dress with flowers on them. She doesn’t know what kind of flowers they are but she loves the dress, plus it contours her body perfectly and it’s not too tight. As Allie dresses for the party, she gets a phone call, it’s John. “Hey, I just wanted to call and tell you to have fun tonight and to be safe, we will chat tomorrow,” John said. Allie replied, “ I sure will and you do the same. I’m glad you called me, we will talk tomorrow.” Allie was excited to be going out but she was even more excited about getting to know John.

Allie hopped in her car to meet Gloria and head to the party. When they arrived at the house, it was in a nice middle class neighborhood. It was in a gated housing community with a community pool and playground. Allie was a little nervous but she was ready to mingle and have some fun. As they entered the home it was very welcoming, you could feel the joy and happiness in the atmosphere. There was music playing, laughter throughout the room and people dancing and having fun. Allie loves to dance so she already had it on her list of things to do at this party. It wouldn’t take long because she loves music in general. Dancing helps her feel better and relieves any anxiety she may experience being around lots of people. They walked through the house and eventually ran into Tasha who introduced them to the Host and Hostess who had just gotten this new home. They were also a couple who also just got engaged. So it was an engagement and housewarming party in one. Allie thought this was so exciting, she was thinking how she hadn’t had the opportunity to have a housewarming party or engagement party. Her first marriage happened so fast. So Tasha introduced Allie and Gloria to Janine who is the woman of the house. Janine says, “ Let me introduce you all to my brother,” as she is scanning the room with her eyes. Then she yells. “ Jay come over here! I want to introduce you to some people.” Allie stood there holding the wine she brought as a housewarming gift and thinking about John and what he was doing while waiting to meet Janine’s brother. Allie notices a very handsome man walking towards them. Janine says," oh here he comes now." As Allie looks closer she is thinking to herself, he looks a little familiar. As the young man walks up Janine says, “Jay I want you to meet Gloria and Tasha, Gloria and Tasha this is my brother John but we call him Jay.” Allie looks back and she realizes that it is John and that he needs to update his profile picture. Allie’s heart is racing, she is excited, nervous and caught off guard. She definitely did not expect this to happen! John is delighted to see Allie and even more delighted that she is wearing a flower printed dress. He has on a flower printed shirt. So John shakes hands with both of the ladies and then he and Allie excuse themselves. Allie hands the bottle of wine to John and tells him she brought it for his sister and her fiance as a housewarming gift. He looked at the wine box and the label on the wine bottle. "Wait this is Jetbird Merlot 2019", he said, “Where do you get this wine from, it can’t be purchased in any store?” Allie replied,” I’m in a wine club with Bright Cellars and I get a case of wine every month and this is one of my favorites so I decided to share it. John says, “Get out of here, I love this wine. Ever since a friend of mine let me try some, I have been looking for it but it’s hard to find. I’m going to have to get that information from you.” John proceeds to open the wine box and to open the bottle. Allie says, “wait I bought that for your sister.” John says, “ Binky and her dude don’t drink wine, I’ll just give them cash instead and you and I can drink this wine. Allie shrugged her shoulders and responded, “ If you say so.”

While John was getting glasses out, Allie said to him,” I thought you said you were going to an engagement party?” John said,” Yes, and the last time I talked to my sister it was just that, an engagement party. My sister had been trying to get a house for months now and this one became available right in time for their engagement party. They figured it would be smarter to save the money and do the party in the new home instead of renting a venue. "A party is a party to me as long as they have a little alcohol and music", John said. They both laughed and drank their wine. John said this wine is really good, it has a sweet aroma and the taste is the right amount of sweet and bitter. Allie added, right like when it first hits the front of your tongue it’s sweet but when it hits the back of your tongue it’s a little bitter. They both laughed again and John jokingly said,” Allie you a wineologist or something. Allie says, “ In my own world.”

Allie and John pretty much hung out the rest of the night, they sat next to each other during dinner. As the night was closing, John said to Allie, “ There is one thing that I have to do, you just can’t go to a party and not do this one thing.” So Allie is all curious like what is that one thing? John grabs Allie’s hand and says, “ dancing.” As he leads her to the dance floor in the living room. Allie giggles and says,” Well now you talking, I love to dance! So they danced a few songs and then it was time to call it a night. As they walked to their cars John says to Allie,” I have never had a first date like this before, especially one that wasn’t planned. They stop at a rose bush and John pics one of the orange roses off the bush and hands it to Allie. He said, " I wasn't expecting to see you this weekend and I wanted our first date to include flowers so here you are. Something beautiful for someeone beautiful. It’s almost like it was fated to happen. Who knew we would end up in the same party. Here we were thinking we wouldn’t be able to meet this weekend due to our schedules and we end up spending a whole evening together.” Allie looked at John and said,” You're right this whole thing has been different and I feel like I have known you forever. I must admit I was just thinking about what you were doing when your sister called you to introduce us. John said,” You need to stay out my head because I was thinking about you too and they laughed. “So where do we go from here,” John asked. He proceeded to say that he definitely wanted to spend more time with Allie. Allie said,” Well it’s getting late, how about we talk about it tomorrow, in the meantime you can kiss me goodnight.” John responded,” I wouldn’t have it any other way,” and he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead first and then on the cheek, then he opened her car door for her. Boy was Allie melting on the inside. So they hugged each other for the longest time, the embrace was so magnetic within itself. On the drive home Allie was telling Gloria about the events that had taken place and how she and John had been trying to schedule to meet for the first time in person but they had conflicting schedules. Gloria was in awe of the whole story. When Allie got home she texted John to let him know she had made it home. Then she took a shower and had one more glass of wine before bed. As she sat sipping on her wine all she could think about was this unexpected first date that she just experienced. She was anticipating what would happen next. Allie went to bed excited and thinking about John.