The Story: The Friday night of Easter weekend, I went out to dinner with Christina and we had fantastic sushi at Mint. A bunch of our friends met us after dinner and the bar was packed so we went next door to the dirty, dive, karaoke bar, McGarvey’s.
The group of us sat at a table across from the bar. At some point, I caught sight of a tall guy with a great smile bopping around among a group of people at the bar. One of the women in his group was sidled up to the bar wearing a sexy backless top and this guy appeared to be trying to take pictures of her from behind without her knowing. He did it a couple times: take a picture, delete, back up, snap another, delete, back up again, snap, check the image.
When he backed up far enough to be in my orbit, I mouthed off to him: “did you get it yet, creepy?”
Him, startled: “what?”
Me: “the picture of that girl in the backless shirt. Get a good one yet?”
Him: “Nonononono.” Laughing. “It’s ok… She’s my boss.”
Me. Laughing: “Yeah, that actually doesn’t make it any better.”
And that’s how it started.
We started chatting. He introduced himself. I introduced myself. He was amusing. I was in a sassy mood so I was a little mouthy. He told me I had “a lot of personality,” but he said it like it was a good thing.
He sat down next to me on the banquette. At some point he asked me for my number and I literally said to him “what are you going to do with that?” He said he was going to call me and take me out. I gave it to him and we kept chatting.
One of the guys he was with that night saw him sitting at a table of women and came over, ostensibly to get in on the action. He walked up, put on his best suave, and said to me, “excuse me miss, is this guy bothering you?” Again, I was feeling sassy that night so I responded with, “no, but you are,” and he skulked off. Patrick loved that one.
Most of our friends had peeled off at that point and Christina wanted to go dancing so we went down the block to The Black Brimmer. I asked him if we wanted to come along. He said yes. We went in and he earned a few points when he got right on the dance floor with Christina and I. No hesitation, none of that “I don’t dance” crap that a lot of guys pull.
After the Brimmer, we went to Shaskeen for last call. We were hanging around at the bar and, improbably, “The Glory of Love” by Peter Cetera from The Karate Kid II soundtrack came on the sound system. This is where Pat really started to shine. He was downright performing the song right there at the bar. He’d take breaks to instruct us on the finer points of performing “air microphone,” showing us the proper body posture and rhythmic movements and all. I was in hysterics – like cheeks hurt, stomach hurts, can’t catch my breath hysterics. And that’s when I realized that this guy was worth remembering.
Two nights later, on Easter night, we met for drinks downtown. Christina was still in town so our first unsupervised date didn’t take place until later that week. Again, cheeks-hurt hysterics. He’s got a hell of a personality himself and that, most certainly, is a good thing.
We started dating and the rest, as they say, is history.
He is The One. He is my One True Love. He is everything I have ever wished for and dreamed of. He was so worth the wait. He makes me laugh every day. He makes me happy every day and I look forward to waking up to his smile every day for a very, very long time.
The Drink: Patrick is the only person of the 40 Drinks that I didn’t have a pre-existing relationship with so we needed to be a little more topical about our drink choice. The location was easy, though. We clearly needed to return to the scene of the crime.
Pat is a redhead. I didn’t realize it that first night; his hair looked sandy blonde in the dingy, boozy dim of McGarvey’s. Brainstorming for an appropriate drink to share, of course we went down the red-hair road but a “red headed slut” just didn’t seem appropriate, delicious as that drink may be.
We told the bartender about the project. She thought about it for a couple minutes and suggested Red Stag, the black cherry whiskey from Jack Daniels. We both loved it – him because of the studly connotations and me because it’s delicious. We added ginger to tone it down a little and ended up with a Red Stag and Ginger, which is exactly what I have ended up with.