We chose this life

Chapter 5 - Meeting at the wine bar

Saturday came faster than I thought, and I was already preparing myself to meet Michael in front of the wine bar he chose. It was practically the end of the summer, and I've decided to put on my favourite dress and show my shoulders. I wasn't particularly looking to flirt that evening, and I just thought that, since I was almost celebrating my fifth year of celibacy, I could try and see if I still have it in me. I put on just a bit of mascara, the light pink lipstick, and put on my blue 3/4 sleeve jacket. And with that, I was ready to go out.

The bar was close to my place, so I figured that it would be best if I walked instead of taking public transport. It was only twenty minutes by foot, which meant that for someone like me, trained for years to walk in three-inch heels while practising ballroom and Latin dances, it was a piece of cake for the one-inch heels I had at that moment. While walking down the streets, I was thinking about my meeting with CEO Thomas Van Denkx. I couldn't help but feel a knot forming in my stomach. My whole life depended on that meeting. And it was very much unsettling to know I already had my bags packed in case I should move elsewhere. My mother and father would tell me how I always have the option of coming back home, but to me, that was out of the question. Not because I didn't want to, but because the whole political and economic situation was unstable and more than sixty per cent of people were unemployed. It was not even that that scared me so much. It was more how to ensure a comfortable life for my future family if I am lucky to have one. So moving again to another foreign country and starting from scratch was more plausible. The only reason why I felt uneasy thinking about the latter was simply the fact I was already twenty-seven, going twenty-eight. In the best-case scenario, I would meet someone a bit before I am thirty. We would then have to wait before finally deciding whether we want to get married or not, and at last, we would end up trying to find all sorts of excuses not to have children for another two, three years. These days, having children when you are as late as you can be in your thirties was becoming even a normal thing, but to me, it seemed like forget a dream of having more than one child. Or we could have twins if we get lucky. 

Suddenly, these thoughts sounded horrific in my mind. Before I knew it, I arrived at the corner where I would have to turn left and walk a few more steps uphill before arriving at the bar. I glanced at my watch and saw that I was right on time. So I've decided to pause before turning around the corner. I had a tendency to always be on time. However, when I would meet boys or men, I would always try to come five minutes late. And I would never send a text to say that I am late. I did this on purpose. Arriving on time and having to wait for my date who is late would stress me and make him lose all the credit. I was that strict when it came to time. Arriving too late would show, on the contrary, that I didn't respect his time. But arriving precisely five minutes late was enough to give him a few extra minutes in case he was justifiably late, and not make him wait for me too long.

I turned around and looked at the window of a book shop that was on my left. There were a few interesting classics that I've always wanted to have in my library but refused to buy knowing that I might have to move to another country. However, I saw Mishima'sThe Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and I knew that I would have to buy that one. Before I could look for the price of the book, I casually looked at my watch. It was time to go.

Once I turned around the corner, I saw Michael standing in front of the bar. He was leaning on the fence of the bar's garden with one leg lifted, just like in movies. This gave him a very classy look. As I approached him, he stood up to greet me. It was only at that moment that I realized he was shorter than me. Sure, I had heels, but even without them, he was still shorter than me. 

"Hi!" he gave me a kiss on my cheek, which was a widespread thing to do in this country.

"Hi," I replied while at the same time trying to synchronize me kissing him on his cheek.

"How was your trip back?"

"Oh, very nice, although I miss the seaside. I could stay there forever, but reality called..." I shrugged. "There are now many people I have to see. Do you have any news from Nathan or Marc by any chance?"

"You don't know?" Michael looked at me with a hint of a surprise on his face.

"Know what?" At this point, I was really puzzled. I haven't had any news from the two since I went on my holiday trip and Michael's question gave me the feeling that something bad was going on.

"Oh, you're about to hear a lot of recent gossips then." Michael's surprise was exchanged for a smirk on his face. He lifted his right hand as a sign of letting me walk in front of him. "Shall we then?"

"Alright..." I said smilingly while still being intrigued by what Michael had to reveal.

The bar looked like a very fancy place. There was nice lounge music playing in the background, people were chatting, and along all the walls there were wine bottles, all turned upside down, some more emptied than others. There must have been hundreds of different wines, from white and rosé to red ones. Michael took care of some things at the reception while I was busy observing the place, and soon the waiter showed us to our table. We sat and were given the menu with different refections to accompany our wine degustation.

"I'll give you a moment to look at the menu." the waiter left us while keeping a smile on his face.

"Anything, in particular, you'd like to eat this evening?" Michael looked at me.

"To be honest, I am not really a wine connoisseur, so I'll let you decide for us. But to make it a little easier for you, I don't have any food allergies, and I am not picky with tastes." I winked at Michael and closed my menu.

"Alright, I know what we will have then. You'll see." He winked back, closed his menu and made a small gesture to the waiter signalling him that we are ready to order.

"Before I start with the gossips, here is how this bar works. See all the bottles along the walls? When you want to taste one, you put in this card in the machine that operates the specific bottle, and you choose the amount of wine you would like to drink. The waiter will take care you always have a new and clean glass. Normally we start with white wine, then we should move on with the rosé, and in the end, we drink the red wine." Michael thoroughly gave me explanations.

"Wonderful. How does the card work?" I looked at the golden card that I've never seen before. It had the log of the bar and a small chip like the regular bank cards.

"Oh that... When we entered the bar, I got the card at the reception, and they asked me how much I would like to deposit on the card so we can use a certain amount of money. Each time you choose a wine you'd like to taste or drink, depending on the amount you chose, the money on the card will be reduced. Pretty simple..."

"Are you planning on getting me drunk so I can forget the gossips? Because that would be an awful idea." I smirked.

"I can't say it didn't cross my mind." Michael laughed.

If until that moment, I didn't think of this as a date, now was the moment I started changing my perspective. But I didn't want to get involved with Michael.