The minutes ticked by and still no one came to request her services. Whereas a lazier host would have welcomed the slow moments, it wasn’t Nikki’s style. Just knowing the type of festivities happening on the other side of the doors was enough to make her feel even more left out. And then there was Sara. Nikki felt bad for her. If no VIPs had yet requested special attention, then that meant the other servers were attending to the large group - meaning that Sara was even busier by herself in that tiny kitchen. The silence and isolation in the VIP room made Nikki regret being chosen as the VIP hostess.
But then a thought struck her – where was the other company’s VIP host? She hadn’t seen anything to indicate that the other company even had one. As Nikki waited in the room minute after minute, she figured that something must have happened to that person. It didn’t really matter, though, since apparently her services weren’t even needed.
So, she waited. And she waited – for what must have been a half an hour or more. She stared at a marble column nestled in the corner of the room, carved into the hand-chiseled bust of probably one of the rich ancestors who must have owned the building at one point.
But then her attention was directed to the painting on the wall next to it. It was a large painting and stood out from the rest of the room for its poignant provocation of emotion from within her. Whereas the rest of the room was adorned with memorabilia of prior rich owners, this painting was starkly different. It was actually a work of art – and a magnificent one.
She stepped closer to it, studying the detail of the painting even more. And then the artist’s signature in the bottom right corner caught her attention. It was in cursive, but she was still able to make out “Ethan Cooley.” She instantly recognized the name as being the exact same artist whose painting had caught her attention on her date with Ryan a couple of weeks ago. Though this was a very different painting than the one they’d seen in the art gallery, she was struck by how it seemed to evoke a wide palette of emotions inside of her. Love. Yearning. Appreciation. Beauty. Hope. And Excitement.
After several minutes passed by staring at the painting, Nikki focused on the excitement which the painting had somehow summoned from within her. She turned and looked back at the door to the wedding hall. It’d been only about a half-hour, but no one had yet come to use her VIP services. So, she was going to take a risk.
Her newfound well of excitement was now her driving force. She opened the door with the keycard and stepped out into the hall. She was going to take a chance. A leap. Something she had never done before, and something she never thought she’d ever do. With her form-fitting black dress on instead of an apron, she walked straight out onto the dance floor. She was going to pretend to be a wedding guest and enjoy the night, tossing her duties aside on a whim.
The eclectic big-band music surrounded her like a warm blanket, allowing her to instantly transport herself into the illusion of being at a fancy dance in the 1950’s. The big-band brass sound. The fancy attire. The formal dancing. All ingredients were necessary for the recipe of enjoying the evening. Except she knew one thing was missing: a guy to dance with.
She turned and found the nearest available male to dance with – a boy who was probably a teenager. This didn’t sway Nikki. She wasn’t looking to dance to find romance. She was looking to have fun. Besides, the large grin which the nerdy-looking teenager instantly adorned made Nikki chuckle that she had made the boy think he hit the jackpot. The dance was quick and upbeat, allowing Nikki to get lost in the fun of dancing with a stranger, regardless of who it was she was dancing with.
Soon, that song ended. She winked at the boy before turning to find someone else as her partner for the next song. But what she saw made her heart instantly skip a beat.
Luke.
He stood across the room several feet away, but it was obvious he was staring at her. Nothing else was between their line of sight. There he was - standing motionless, as if mesmerized by the sight of her dancing.
The moment Nikki’s eyes met Luke’s, she noticed him about to turn away, like he’d been caught indulging in something he shouldn’t have been. In this split second, Nikki reacted. And what she did surprised even herself. She reacted with her strong instinctual confidence that she’d built from months and months of dating strangers. She winked and simultaneously nodded her head for him to come over.
Her instinctual response was surprising to her only because of how frequently he had consumed her thoughts. Ever since their short date, Nikki had replayed their abrupt encounter over and over, trying to rationalize or understand what had actually happened. Whereas she always moved on from dates with ease, something about Luke had stuck with her, leaving her with questions to which she was unable to figure out answers.
And now, here he was. Luke had actually taken her invitation up, and he began strolling over to her. During this brief moment, Nikki started to overthink how she should play things next. She’d played this moment out already in her head, anticipating how she should react in case she saw him again since the rehearsal dinner. But she never made her mind up, leaving her needing to wing it now. Being so used to having a script for her dates, Nikki’s anticipation grew as Luke approached where she stood on the edge of the dance floor.
Nikki’s heart pounded so loud that she wondered if Luke would hear it as he came near. But instead, he cracked a boyish smile which instantly, and surprisingly, reassured her.
“You,” Luke said through his smile. The way his eyes seemed to also be smiling signaled to Nikki that he was genuinely happy to have run into her.
“Hey, I know you …” Was the only thing Nikki could think to say on the whim, as they stood face to face right by all the other dancing couples. Nikki’s nervousness took over by saying the next thing that popped into her head, as a way of avoiding talking yet about how they knew each other. “Do you want to dance?” She asked, her hopes so elevated and fragile that anything other than a ‘yes’ would fracture her.
“I can’t,” he said. Luke glanced around him, staring at others from his company.
His look gave away that he was nervous even being on the dance floor while at his job. Even though Nikki certainly knew it was risky for him, her offer had still been turned down. This, indeed, did fracture Nikki’s hope that maybe this would be the moment - the exact moment when fate would intervene in her life.
Luke saw the hope fade from Nikki’s beautiful eyes, so he stepped forward to her. He placed his left hand on her waist while his right hand went up to cup around her ear. He then whispered to her just five words before turning and leaving: “Do you believe in fate?”
The feeling of his breath into her ear sent a tingle down her spine. But the meaning behind those five words turned that tingle into a chill. She felt it deep within her, and saw the honest look he gave before reluctantly turning to go back to his job.
He knew. What he’d whispered into her ear signaled to her that he remembered their date. But there was something else about the way he’d said it – as if signaling to her that he believed in fate, and that it was happening. She felt the magic of the night radiate through her core as she watched him walk back through the event hall for his hosting job.
And what he did next completely shocked her. She watched as he took out a keycard from his pocket, open a door and then disappear behind it. But it wasn’t the door back to a kitchen or server area. Luke was now in the VIP host waiting-room.