The Man with the Purple Beard

Thursday, Friday Eve. One more full day of work until the weekend. Chris is at his office job, dreading it as always. As the clock on his desk slowly ticks around him, he scrolls through his phone, looking at videos online, when he stops and sees an ad for Bushtelly Shiraz. With Chris’ eyes glued to his phone screen, he notices the male actor in the ad and can’t help but think to himself “Man, that guy is so lucky. He’s attractive, successful, and could probably get any girl he wants. I wish I was starring in commercials instead of being in this place.”

Chris then gets lost in his own world, daydreaming about how his life would be if he were an actor. That is until his supervisor drops by his cubicle and says: “Hey Chris, as you know there’s not much work today, so we’re letting you leave an hour early. Thanks for all your hard work, we’ll see you in the morning!”

After Chris packs up his things and ends his work day, he starts heading home, but not before he makes a quick pitstop to the grocery store. He strolls through the aisles, making sure to grab all of the household items he needs. He then makes his way to the wine aisle, when gets caught in a woman’s gaze. Chris nervously smiles at her, and she smiles back and says: “I like your tie.”

Chris responds: “Oh this old thing” as he reaches for his tie and accidentally drops all of the items in his hand. Chris, embarrassed, frantically tries to pick up the items as the woman laughs and bends down to help him. After handing him the cotton swabs he dropped, she says “I’m Jasmine.”

“Chris”, he responds.

Jasmine gives a nervous chuckle. “Nice to meet you Chris, I just moved here from Seattle for work. I know this is kinda forward, but I’m trying to push myself out of my comfort zone sooooo... would you want to join me for dinner tomorrow night?”

Chris, a babbling mess, responds “oh um yeah yeah um of course yeah um that sounds good”

Jasmine, confident she blew him away with her statement, laughs and says “Okay cool (take’s Chris’s phone). Here’s my number” and gives Chris his phone back before she walks away.

The moment Jasmine turned around and walked away, a huge smile lands on Chris’ face as he does a happy dance right there in the wine aisle. Other customers stop and look at Chris dancing, but he was too excited to care. He hadn’t been on a date in nearly 3 years, and he didn’t even have to make the first move! He was so intoxicated by the thought of this extremely confident and attractive new girl Jasmine, that he completely forgets to grab a bottle of wine, but heads to the check out anyway to pay for the rest of his items before he leaves the store.

Still feeling exhilarated by the thought of this girl, Chris gets home, closes the front door and just as he turns around to head into the kitchen, groceries still in hand, he’s stopped by the sound of a knock at the door behind him. Immediately he drops his bags and turns around to open it. He looks around confused, checking the porch and the sides of the house, but no one is there. The only thing in sight, a bottle of Bushtelly Shiraz on the doormat, with a note that reads “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” He thinks for a second that maybe Jasmine was the one who dropped off the bottle of wine, but it’s impossible. Chris never told Jasmine where he lived, so he knows it can’t be her. Not paying it much mind, he accepts the wine and brings it into the kitchen with the rest of the groceries in hand. He puts everything away and prepares to make himself a nice dinner.

Later that night, Chris cleans up the kitchen, takes a shower, and heads into the den to watch some TV before bed. He notices the bottle of Shiraz sitting on the kitchen counter from the corner of his eye, walks over to it, and opens up the bottle to pour himself a glass. Before taking a sip Chris takes a look back at the note from earlier and whispers to himself “I wish to be a movie star.” Chris takes a sip, swishes the wine around in his mouth, looks down at his cat Duke, and says to him “mmm this is delicious, but sadly I don’t think it's gonna make my dream come true.” Duke just stares back at him while Chris chuckles to himself and grabs his phone to text Jasmine for a bit before he dozes off on the couch.

The next morning Chris wakes up, his alarm is blazing. He reaches over to grab his phone, looks at the time, and jumps out of bed. “7:24?!” he shouts. He should’ve been up 24 minutes ago! He rushes to the bathroom to get ready for work, looks in the mirror, and screams.

“AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Chris, caught in the gaze of his own reflection, sees that his beard is purple! He reaches for his clippers, shaves it off, and then immediately his hair grows back. This happened again, and again, and again. Chris feels hopeless and realizes he is going to be even more late for work. He throws on his clothes, brushes his teeth, and zooms to his job as soon as possible.

As soon as Chris gets to work his boss looks at him and screams “CHRIS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! YOU KNOW THAT'S NOT COMPANY POLICY!”

Chris tries to explain, but his boss interrupts.

“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT, I CAN’T KEEP SAVING YOU. GET OUT OF HERE, YOU’RE FIRED” he shouts.

Chris is devastated. He collects all the things on his desk, gets in his car, and drives home. As soon as he walks through the door, he makes his way to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of wine, gets in bed, and can’t help but think to himself “my life is ruined!”

Hours go by as Chris sulks around in bed, finishing the bottle of wine he was gifted, and then he looks down at his phone to see a text from Jasmine.

“Hey, I'm on my way to the restaurant. Can’t wait to see you!”

Chris, still a mess and feeling overwhelmed, springs out of bed and says out loud: “OH SHOOT I FORGOT I HAD A DATE, WHAT DO I DO?!”

He rummages through his closet, looking for something, anything he could wear that can cover his now purple beard. After taking most of his clothes off the hangers and out of the drawers, he finally stumbles across a jacket that he could zip up over his mouth, hidden in the tiniest corner of his closet. Feeling a little more confident and a lot less purple, he makes his way over to the restaurant down the street where Jasmine is waiting for him.

Chris enters the restaurant and sees Jasmine waiting at the table. He approaches her, apologetically, and says “I’m so sorry I’m late! I’m typically not the type to keep someone waiting, but something important came up… Let’s just say it’s been a long day.”

Jasmine, in a soft tone, says: “oh no, don’t worry about it! Stuff happens, the good thing is that you’re here now. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah everything is fine, thanks for being so understanding” Chris says with a slight smile approaching his face. He sits down, trying to relax a bit so he can enjoy his date with Jasmine.

A few minutes later, while they're making small talk, Jasmine notices that Chris keeps playing with the top zipper on his jacket. Realizing his face is partially covered, she says “hey, I don’t know if you have a zit or something you’re hiding, but I hope you know that I don’t mind. This is a judgement free zone when you’re with me.”

Chris nervously laughs, feeling a little less self conscious, and finally reveals his purple beard.

Jasmine gasps.

Chris, still a little nervous, says: “I know I look like a—”

“WOW THAT’S THE COOLEST BEARD I'VE EVER SEEN!” Jasmine interrupts.

All the excitement coming from Jasmine causes a slight disturbance in the restaurant and another woman turns around and says to Chris: “Yeah that’s awesome, I really like your style! I’m a director for a few different TV shows in the area and we are looking for a star with some pizazz. And that’s you kid, you got it!”

Chris was extremely happy, his confidence boosting! The woman across from him gives him her business card and tells him there’s a casting call next weekend and she’d love to see him there. This is exactly the luck that he needed after the day he just had. The beard that he thought ruined his life was actually a blessing in disguise. Chris and Jasmine are ecstatic and the TV director buys them a bottle of wine in celebration. As the waiter brings the bottle to the table, Chris looks down and sees the label when a smile creeps onto his face.“Bushtelly Shiraz” he reads, the same wine that he found on his doorstep just a day earlier. I guess dreams really do come true.