A glass of merlot with a king

My beloved father rejected all the men that wanted to put a ring on my finger. He said, “they did not deserve my time so they should not become a part of our family”. As a result, before going on a date with me, the man would have to go through an interview process. The interview will let my father and I decide whether the man is worthy to be a part of our family. In my family, we mainly judge men based on their daily habits. This included the amount of showers they took, their meditation technique, their skin care routine, their weekly or monthly self-evaluation, the amount of books they read in a year, their house cleaning schedule and the way they treated others. We do not, for a second, believe that any man is not worthy as a human being, however, he must be worthy of my time, money, kindness, love, body and spirit. Unfortunately, most people are not. My only thought was that the date was not going to end up in marriage. I went on a date with Spiky Jerry, Boring Pablo, Weird Ali and Annoying Marco. Do not get me wrong, all these dates were not the worst, however, they did stupidly and naively try to catch my heart with the ‘I love black women’ narrative. They all kissed my hand and joyfully declared their love to me before I realized and was forced to tell them that we were not, in fact made for each other.

On one Saturday morning, I met Eze; a name that in the Igbo language means “king”. I knew he was not actually a king by blood but his habits, his beliefs and the way he treated people emulated king-like behavior and I knew it was going to make me feel like a queen. My father agreed that Eze was perfect and deserved a special treatment. I was not going to go on a date with him to a regular place. I met all my previous dates either on zoom or Microsoft Teams during lockdown or in a small five-star restaurant rented when lockdown restrictions were eased. For my date with Eze, I chose the same south Italian villa where my grandparents fell in-love with each other and lived for over 50 years. I had not been there since the first lockdown but I had a clear and distinct memory of it, a memory I wished to share with Eze.

The six acre villa has an endless and enchanting charm about it. There are fields full of olive trees, orange trees, mango trees, aloe vera bushes and cactus plants all spread out throughout the villa. The villa is also characterised by a stone architecture resembling a typical 1600s baroque monument. The villa has five bedrooms and each bedroom has its own ensuite. There is one main kitchen and one main living room, however, there are several smaller rooms where people can also cook and eat in. In fact, there are plenty of dining tables all around the house, both indoor and outdoor. Out of all the rooms, my favourites are the kitchen, the living room, the hexagonal swimming pool and the flat roof from which I can admire the garden from.

To enter the villa, you would need to pass through the short, stone-vaulted corridor that takes you into the living room. The indoor living rooms have been decorated with exaggerated medieval frescoes by an Italian artist who is also a close friend of mine. Whenever I walk in that living room, I keep thinking that it looks exactly like Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale. The main kitchen has an antique stone architecture with elaborate and curvaceous designs created to maximise light. The antique architecture of the villa merges perfectly with the modern five bedrooms that are inspired by Scandinavian architecture and design that revolves around the idea of simplicity. The hexagonal shaped sinks in the bathrooms are a miniature version of the enormous hexagonal swimming pool. Lastly, from the flat roof, you can admire the magical and enchanting garden that allows me to meditate and connect with myself.

I am sure that Eze will love the villa because during his interview, he told me about his daily routine that includes watering the plants and meditating in his greenhouse. As for the date, it will last seven days and we will eat seven different foods from different countries each day. If God took seven days to finish creating the world then it is only right that we do the same through food.

After the first date ended, my dad wanted to know about the seven days. The first day Eze and I spent the morning together. We had breakfast on the roof and drank some fresh orange and mango juice made from the fruit trees in the garden. We talked for hours about cocktails and how much we love going to the sea and watching the waves. We spoke about his job as a wine critic and he told me that it was part of his job to taste every kind of wine. He then told me about the days he got drunk by the beach with his friends while holding a glass of merlot.

During our date, Eze surprised me with a bottle of dark-blue colored wine made out of grapes picked directly from his vineyard. He said he was about to start a business selling his own wine. After years tasting wines, he found the perfect recipe to create the perfect Merlot. He had it ready for me and I was going to be the first one to ever taste it before it was going to be sold and possibly accepted by Bright Cellars, a renowned wine club. We drank a glass of Merlot each and ate traditional Greek food.

What I learned from Eze is that he is a trustworthy human being, someone I can be honest with, and a man from which I can only learn from and be inspired by.

I did not tell my dad about the other six days of the date as I believe both Eze and I are entitled to some privacy. I am, however, confident my father trusts me when I say that the week spent with Eze, was the most magical week of my entire life. I am proud to say that I will happily accept a ring from him and my father will happily accept him into our family.