Wedding guest

Hi my name is Sam. You could have knocked me over with a feather when the girl I took on a blind date eight years before (to the day) gave an unsolicited toast at my wedding. She had heard about the wedding from a mutual friend and had unbeknownst to me contacted my future wife who for some strange reason granted her request for an invitation. I didn't find out until after our wedding that she had not actually crashed our nuptials but was in fact on the guest list with even a plus one!

The date was February first and I was early for the blind date my buddy had set up for me. My dating record was pristine up until that point, hundreds of dates but no serious relationships yet and I was planning on keeping it that way as I was only twenty five years young. These were the new days of cell phones and all I had was a text saying I'm here, yellow dress big smile. I texted back, leather jacket at the end of the bar. The next thing I knew I was getting to know Dee at a corner table next to the bar in a posh spot in New York. I soon discovered she was only twenty one but acted in quite the mature manner. She was studying archeology at a community college and had dreams of traveling to the corners of the earth to uncover hidden treasures and fossils. My job in the government paled in comparison but our love of hiking and golf along with a fascination with good music kept the conversation intriguing. I was unexpectedly a bit nervous and when the waiter arrived I asked for the drink menu and my date shared that she rarely drank but on this occasion she would make an exception. I told her it was fine to skip the drinks but she announced she was celebrating finishing a final exam and that she wanted to try something new. After discussing the options I decided to order a lager and she wanted to try a nice glass of wine as she had only ever had beer or vodka the few times she had tried alcohol. I asked her if she thinks she would like white or red wine and after a bit of thought she answered red. So, I asked the waiter to bring her their best glass of Merlot and off he went. The drinks arrived soon after and we placed our order for dinner. After announcing she loved her Merlot we proceeded to discuss her future travel plans. Dee was discussing her love of Egypt when she started turning as red as the Merlot and seemed to have trouble breathing. I'm far from a doctor but you could tell she was having a reaction to the wine and needed medical attention. Dee stated she would call her friend but I insisted on taking her to the emergency room in my car and I'm glad I did because her face was extremely swollen and she was in definite need of emergency assistance when we pulled in. I waited for about an hour and a half in the waiting room and when she emerged she looked so much better. You could tell she was a bit embarrassed and said she would take a taxi home, (uber didn't exist yet) but I insisted on taking her home. She thanked me and was still a bit woozy so I offered to stay and keep her company and she either trusted me or was still scared from the shortness of breath enough that she agreed. She said I could stay until one of her roommates arrived home and I agreed. She profusely apologized after sitting down in her apartment and I told her it was completely my fault and she had nothing at all to apologize for I am just grateful she is fine now. I told her at least now she knows to not drink wine and we had a little laugh but you could tell our date was probably not going anywhere after the first drink and we didn't even get to eat dinner so I offered to go get her something down the street to make her feel better and she immediately agreed. By the time I arrived back with the food two of her roommates had arrived and we all split some amazing Chinese food. I'm glad I thought to get plenty extra as I felt so bad for ordering that Merlot that I wanted her to have leftovers for the next few days. We all finally had a good laugh when she was feeling much better and her two roommates were very nice to me as well. They were even younger that Dee and were joking that I was way too old being twenty five. Joy and Kaley were their names and they were both interested in politics and we talked for hours before I finally had to go. Dee actually graduated the next month and good to her word went traveling around the world and we just lost touch.

I think it was about six months later I got a picture of a pyramid in Egypt with a note saying hope you are well; Kaley was asking about you and she needs a reference letter for an internship in DC can you help? I knew a bunch of my college buddies were well connected in DC so of course I did what I could. Weeks later I got a call from Kaley profusely thanking me as she received her internship with a congressman that my college friend worked for for several years. It made me feel real good to be able to help someone get started in politics and give back. I was doing quite well in New York and just started working in the mayors office which was more prestige and more money so I was excelling professionally but still was hopelessly single and not in my twenties anymore I was looking for something more. Amazingly enough when you look for something more and ask the universe for it without expectation it shows UP! Kaley a year later lands a job back in New York and as fate would have it working in the same building as yours truly. The politician retired and she moved her career in politics back to New York. We met up for drinks and no I didn't order a merlot, but I did begin to fall for her. At this point I was 33 and she was almost 30 and we both just fell hard. As you may have guessed that glass of Merlot so long ago led me to the love of my life! It has been a twisted unexpected overnight romantic whirlwind success that in actuality took over a decade. Lots of unexpected coincidences which some might call miracles that all began with a glass of Merlot and an emergency room visit.

We had lost touch with her friend Dee, but coincidences keep coming and she got a Facebook message months before our wedding. Kaley invited Dee with a plus one not knowing if she would come as she was in Iceland fulfilling her archeological dreams. She didn't tell me about it since she doubted Dee would come. Our wedding matched our wildest dreams and Dee actually arrived late at the reception and boldly grabbed the microphone to make a toast to the new couple she had unknowingly set on a marriage path so many years ago. I smiled gratefully but as the toast flowed from her lips I realized just how significant that silly Merlot was to us all. She shared her full story. Dee went for allergy tests shortly after her Merlot experience and they discovered a misshaped mole on her back when they were doing the allergy screening. It turned out to be an aggressive form of skin cancer but because they found it early she was miraculously able to beat it after a year of chemo and nutrition treatments. The nutritionist she met while battling the skin cancer would be none other than the woman standing next to her as she was making her toast and she introduced Shelly as the love of her life! What a turn of events I thought and what a toast! Two happy couples both who met following circumstances created by what was thought to be an ill conceived glass of Merlot. It turns out that Merlot led myself Dee Kaley and Shelly to this very moment of indescribable bliss and triumph. Cheers.