Clearing his throat he tried again, “It’s such a beautiful day. Hear the gulls my sweet, aren’t they lovely!” He shook his head and took another sip from his wine glass. This wasn’t working out like he’d hoped.
He’d planned this day for weeks; the perfect music had been dialed up on the radio and playing softly in the background but then the announcer kept ruining it by speaking between songs and even during songs. This just wasn’t working. He’d dug through his CD’s and then his older cassettes and finally had resorted to looking through the old albums collecting dust in the attic. But he’d found the perfect music and it now sat quietly spinning on the turn table as it had finished playing minutes ago and he hadn’t even realized that no music issued from the speakers.
The glass of wine gripped loosely in his hand sloshed a bit and he’d refilled it a few more times than he knew. His walk wasn’t quite as steady as he thought. His speech wasn’t quite as clear as he thought. But in his mind, aside from the music problem, all was going well. Of course, the girl of his dreams still hadn’t shown up, but that was alright, she usually worked late and should be coming home soon.
He tried practicing his line again; he’d worked for days on the perfect thing to say and the perfect moment to say them. He cleared his throat, and thought aristocrat, yeah, that would impress her. “You look lovely tonight my dear, let me pour you a glass of wine.” He shook his head and red wine slipped over the rim of the glass and onto the hard wood flooring.
He began to pace from the fireplace to the small wine tub he’d had delivered and the baskets of grapes that now sat waiting in expectation. He’d borrowed books on wine making and although he didn’t have all the ingredients he needed to make wine, he felt confident that it would be fun for her to stomp on grapes and pretend to make a bottle of wine. The night would be perfect. He was sure of it.
Candles glowed around the room; the record player softly serenaded him… “Huh?” He moved over to the record player he’d dug out of the closet in the extra bedroom and saw the vinyl album spinning slowly while the needle lay trapped in a groove. He lifted the arm and placed it back at the edge of the album and waited for the music to resume. He hummed softly to himself as the speakers came to life with the sound of the music. “ahhhhh, nice.” He moved unsteadily back to the center of the room and looked over the room with a critical eye.
A single wine glass sat on the table near the vase of purple blooms, the wine bottle missing, and he scanned the room trying to remember where he had left it. He raised his hand and the bottle popped into his view. “Oh, whoops.” He moved to the table and put the now empty bottle down. Hearing the hollow sound it made as it made contact with the table he went to the refrigerator and removed one of the red wines he had left there to chill. He placed it on the table and threw out the empty bottle, then went to find the corkscrew and remove the cork on the new bottle.
Cork removed he poured just a bit of the wine into his glass and moved to the fireplace. He leaned against the mantle and stared at the large clock that decorated the space. He watched the second hand make several trips around the numbers before he heard a sound in the hallway. He stumbled to the door and threw it open just in time to see her. She’d already unlocked her apartment door and was partially through it when he called her name. She turned, surprise clearly showing on her face and then he saw her smile, the smile reaching up to her eyes. He stepped back and made a sweeping gesture in the open doorway, the gesture clearly inviting her inside. She hesitated only a moment and then closing her own apartment door, she moved into his apartment. “It wasn’t every day that the cutest guy in the building invited you to his place.” She thought. She also noticed the soft glow of the candles and fireplace and the soft music playing in the background.
The door thudded closed behind her and she turned in time to see him stumble away from it. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good night to accept an invitation from him, cute or not, this didn’t look good.” She thought as he took a few stumbling steps her way and mumbled something.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
He cleared his throat, “I said, you look lovely tonight and I’d love to pour you a beautiful wine.” He shook his head, “I’m sorry, you look beautiful tonight and I’d love to pour you a lovely glass of wine. Argh!”
She laughed and looking just a little bit nervous she moved over to the table and picked up the opened wine and the glass and poured a small amount in and took a tentative sip. “Nice. Thank you.” She eyed the doorway, and feeling like the night was going to be a disaster, he moved close to her and swooping her up he stumbled into the wine tub and began dancing around on the grapes, they splashed up as he came down on them with her wrapped in his arms.
“What are you doing?” She demanded.
“We’re making wine, see the grapes!” Suddenly his foot slipped and he tumbled out of the tub and onto the hardwood floor. Looking up, his head spinning, he saw the most beautiful pair of blue eyes staring frostily at him. This definitely wasn’t working out the way he’d planned.