I had a dreadful blind date that ended in serendipity. For any good Hollywood girl, it would have been the chance of a lifetime: a date at Four Seasons Bar in Beverly Hills with a millionaire doctor. For me, however, it was fairly gruelling and I couldn’t wait for the date to end. I’m silly that way.
Not realising that it was Oscars Night and the bar of the Four Seasons had turned into an Acadamy Awards viewing party with people dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns, crowding around a large television watching the awards, we were lucky to find an empty table out of the way. Presumably it was only empty because there was no view of the television.
After a couple of hours of small talk with my date, having realised early on that he was much older than he said and that all he could talk about was the back surgery that he had pioneered (not yet of interest to me at this point), I couldn’t wait for the date to end. When he decided to call it a night, I walked out with him as though I was leaving, too, but really I just went to my car to get my copy of Pride and Prejudice. Returning to the now empty hotel bar, I found a table in the deserted back room, ordered a glass of red wine and a chocolate soufflé, and immersed myself into Jane Austen’s England.
After about 30 minutes of reading, completely oblivious to the stars returning to the hotel from the Oscars and filling up the other areas of the bar, I looked up to find Stevie Wonder and his entourage entering the back room of the bar which was still empty of anyone else but me. Someone escorted Stevie to the piano and he sat down and played music for an hour. Leaving my soufflé half-eaten, I couldn’t help but stand and listen with tears running down my face at the serendipity of it all.
To this day, red wine and dark chocolate bring me right back to that magical hour that would never have happened if not for an unfortunate blind date.
