THAT CHEEKY GLASS OF MERLOT.

THAT CHEEKY GLASS OF MERLOT

The elegant restaurant's aura made Vanessa feel right at home after that horrible lockdown the world went through.“Ahh” she thought. She walked straight into the sparkling restaurant and perched herself on one of the many stools surrounding the bar and ordered a large glass of champagne.(Moet & Chandon to be exact).There was a beautiful light song being played on the piano that she had heard before but couldn't put a name to it so it went straight to the back of her mind for that night.

Vanessa was meeting her date tonight. A blind date. Her first-ever blind date at that. Vanessa’s friends had set this up, she wasn't sure how she felt at that moment.She was meant to meet him there at half-past six that evening but she arrived a little earlier than expected so she wasn't too bothered about waiting for the mystery man. When she thought it was getting a bit too late she checked her new Swarovski crystal watch she had bought especially for the occasion and saw that the time was,in fact, six fifty-three, she glanced to the waiting room and saw a man looking around irresolute, Vanessa stood up from the barstool and gave a gentle quick wave beckoning him to come over.

He jauntily walked over and hugged her with one arm and in the other held a gift bag and a bouquet of peonies. The obviously happy and relieved man said: “Hello, My name is Mateo'' he then followed on by saying “I’m never this late, I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to start off the date on the wrong foot by coming empty-handed, but I suppose, by being late, I have already.” Vanessa grinned at him and replied chuckling “I’ll let it slide for now as you have showered me in gifts.” Smiling, he sat down and ordered an old fashioned and turned towards her and gave Vanessa the gifts ,when she opened it she found a bottle of champagne. She thanked him and said that she felt quite bad as she didn't think of bringing a gift for him . The waiter came over and said that there was a table awaiting them ,if they were ready to sit down he would be happy to bring the drink over.They did.

Mateo and Vanessa conversed on how their week has been and asked each other what they had on the schedule for next week .The waiter had already then brought the drink to the table and placed some menus on the table but before he left Vanessa grabbed his harm and asked if she could order an Aperol and limoncello cocktail, vanessa scanned through and couldn't make her mind up , when she asked her date what he was going to have he answered: ‘Hake fillet with golden beet and radish salad ’ She smiled and said “i'll have that too then”.Mateo called for a waitress and placed their orders ,Vanessa slightly leaned back into the chair and gave a little smile, she was so happy at this point in time ,things were going great; she wasn't in lockdown anymore, she found someone that she gets on well with, to her things are really coming together. An hour later, the food was delivered to the table, alongside the cocktail which Vanessa thought was weird because of how long does it take to make a cocktail. They were both beaming at their plate, they tucked in and 20 mins later Vanessa was finished, she apologised and said “Sorry you must think I am so greedy, I'm a fast eater and a real big foodie, I hope you don't mind.” and Mateo responded by saying “Me too. But I was trying to slow down, so I did not look ‘rude’.” and with that his true self finished the plate in an instant too. They were both in tears,laughing at how similar they were.

Vanessa excused herself and went to the restroom to check how she looked. She thought ‘I am so glad that I wore these faux leather jeans because my bum looks fab.’ she reapplied her mahogany red lipstick and sprayed her perfume to keep her smelling lovely, she fixed her white blazer and blouse and headed back to their table when she got there she realised that he had dessert menus on the table, Vannessa sat down and Mateo said: “We don't have to stay here,we can go to the diner for some wholesome desserts if you would like .” Vanessa smiling looked at the menu and replied “Let’s go.” Thinking: ‘After all, the desserts gave a vibe of being pompous and undeserving.’

They left the restaurant and then realised they had no umbrella when they were in the lobby, but it was absolutely pouring it down and Mateo’s offer of giving up his jacket was declined by Vannessa, so he too took it off to be fair to her, he did not want Vanessa to be the only one that was cold and they both ran to the diner, laughing and joking they stood in the entrance to this diner and facing each other stared staring in each other's eyes, they began to lean in,when a large vehicle was recklessly approaching them, more than likely it was a black Jeep, Mateo and Vanessa were to busy staring at each other that they didn't notice, until Vanessa was knocked straight down onto the pavement hitting the curb so hard you could hear the impact. Mateo tried to wake her up, he was shouting and crying “Vanessa, Vanessa, please wake up, please.” For about 5 minutes this went on and then it turned into a kind of alarm-type shout, she gained consciousness again but was quite surprised when she opened her eyes, she looked around the room and realised she was back in her bedroom!?!, she looked on her bedside table and turned off that ringing alarm that usually went off at 7 AM . The next thing that Vanessa had seen was that there was an empty bottle of Mcguigan black label merlot stood up on her bedside table and a wine glass on its side with the wine spilling on her cream carpet she firstly thought “Oh for **** sake, that’s another £100 on the carpet to get cleaned” with her palm on her forehead she then came to a realization that the date was all a dream and she fell asleep after drinking the merlot and watching Netflix. Her phone then gave her an alert,she had work in forty-five minutes,she turned over and screamed into her pillow.