Patio Wine Date

Scent of sprouting leaves, green ground, mischief of fast and furious backyard buddies squirrels, chirping red bird, sipping a glass of red wine in the lively patio marks’ onset of spring. These are priceless treasures in the world we are living. Today, many factors like virus, climate change upturned same world. I watch flurries of snow on a bright dry sunny day. The scene of crowded morning roads filled with school bus, trains and buses crowded with people racing to their offices, downtown streets having a rally of cars struck in traffic became obsolete. Silence hangs from corner to corner in each business place. Virus world has transformed everyone’s home to office, school, weekend getaway and dream destination.

Two years back, I remember going to the zoo with my friends for ladies’ day out. It was my last trip in pre Covid world. I was thinking about mindset of caged animals. I never expected we will become caged, but it escalated too fast. While we live a socially distanced life, my romantic life can happen only in nowhere land.

The reflection’s ringtone of her iPhone rang, and Christina stopped writing her journal and answered the call. It was from her mom who lives in New York city. Christina lives alone in her one-bedroom house in the burbs of Chicago, away from her family for work. Lockdown and travel restrictions postponed her travel to visit her parents.

Christina’s mom never stops calling her daily morning since the lockdown, and it became a new morning ritual for mom and daughter. It was a normal daily chitchat between the two. Since it was a Tuesday morning and trash day, her mom asked if she placed the bin outside her home. It’s when Christina realized she forgot it. She checked the time, and it was only 9 a.m. She knew the garbage removal truck arrives at 10 a.m. “Thanks to Work from Home,” Christina thought and wheeled the garbage bins outside her home. She closed the garage, locked the door and went inside her home.

A row of empty wine bottle lined up near her dustbin. She grabbed them and went outside again to dump them into the recycling bin. A few bottles slipped from her hand since she carried over twelve bottles in her hand. The bottles rolled to the middle of the road. She dropped the other bottles into the recycling can and yelling at herself went to the middle of the road to pick the bottles.

A passing car braked before her. She rose and thanked the driver for waiting and was about to leave. The car door opened and a good-looking guy in his mid-twenties got down from driver’s seat. Christina didn’t recognize him. She asked him if she knew him. The guy asked whether it was Jetbird Merlot wine? She nodded, and he asked if she got Mojave Rain Red Blend, Meet Cute Colombard, Cabin 5 and Crypsis Primitivo. He told her he bought the same list of wines from Bright Cellars. It thrilled her to meet a guy who matches her taste of wine. She felt something would click between them but didn’t know how to express it. Meanwhile, he waved goodbye to her and left.

The same evening when Christina was feeling lonely, she heard a knock from patio door. When she checked, it was the guy whom she met that morning. He called her out. She came out and got surprised. Two tables and a chair at six feet distance, both tables adorned with red roses and a glass of Merlot, a screen and a projector adorned with lights, and a barrel side table filled with assorted wines. Her cheek flushed pink, and she felt she headed towards Hawaii for vacation, only that a beach was missing.

He waved and introduced himself as Charles. They both talked about their common interests and explored where their compatibility score would get them into. They watched their favorite movie, “The Notebook” on the mini movie screen. Christina described every little piece of detail about her first date with Charles in the pandemic times in her journal. She captioned the journal entry, “Little good things make memorable dream date”. Then onwards Christina and Charles did Patio Wine Dates more often. They found it feel good, enjoyable, and a great way to spend time together.