This is quite possibly the greatest first encounter/first date story of all time. This story is the beginnings of one of the greatest love story of all time. The words are all brotha Justin Capello’s. I liked the story so much I asked him to write about it and here it is. Enjoy.
Sandbar was the usual spot for me and my friends when it came to meeting up to drink a couple beers, talk about bullshit we dealt with the previous week, and of course we would see what kind of ladies that were out that night. We didn’t take the Sandbar too serious, it quickly became a joke that the oldest lady in the place would get Van’s attention and it didn’t take much to get him on the dance floor. I liked to meet new people and would oblige talking to different groups of people to find out “their story.” During my tours of Sandbar I never took any woman too serious especially when they would approach me and explain how I looked like Drake. I knew they were too drunk at that point. Van, my roommate at the time and best friend, talked me into going out to the Sandbar on one Saturday night. He just recently met a lady friend and since she was going up there with some friends I decided to get dressed and celebrate Van and his new “love” connection and it couldn’t hurt to see what her friends looked like. We pregamed at the pad and headed out. Van quickly found his girl and her two friends. Of course when there is a big group of people at the bar it is only a matter of time before someone wants to take shots. The only shot I wanted was one in the head! I am sure they were very nice chicks but I didn’t have the initial physical attraction to her friends and I quickly wanted to take off my wingman uniform. Van is a pretty easy going dude and he didn’t need me to entertain anyone for him to have fun with his girl. I gave Van the look and he was cool with me going to take a lap around the Sandbar to see what else was out there.
I took a couple laps around the inside of Sandbar. I circled around and spotted a girl who caught my eye immediately and was definitely my type. The girl was sitting at a table with her friend, she had long dark hair and pretty smile. I’ve had a girl catch my eye many times but after a quick evaluation there wasn’t an urge to make something happen immediately since I am not the aggressive type but this time was different. I went to talk to Van and told him I had to talk to this girl and without even asking Van was ready to play wingman better than I was for him earlier in the night, he’s a good dude like that. As I got closer, I kinda had pause because of the fact the head security guard was feeding her and her friend drinks. He was the proto-security guard that you would see at a club or bar, bald headed white guy who liked to stick out his chest and probably enjoyed getting the opportunity to put drunk people in a headlock and high five his team for being able to knock out someone who could barely stand up straight in the first place.
There was an open table next to her so I swooped it up. I would look at the videos on the televisions and steal glances with the mystery woman to my left. I didn’t notice if she glanced back or was even aware that I was there. Maybe she was stuck up, maybe the security guard was her boyfriend and she wasn’t there to do anything other than drink for free. I noticed that she enjoyed drinks that had leaves in them and they kept on coming which made my window small to make a move. The security guard was giving this girl most of his time which made me take the gamble and make my move. It could be my only in to find out more about this girl without seeming blatantly disrespectful to the security guard who was dating this girl or at the least vying for her attention. I commented about her friends “briefcase” that she brought to the bar and tried to break the ice by joking that she was just coming from the courtroom or brought her homework to the bar. This was a gamble that I had to take, maybe the friend thought I was hitting on her and if she thought I was nice she could have called dibs and my hopes of talking to that girl could have ended there. Luckily for me, the friend was attracted to black dudes and politely laughed at my comment but she was definitely not into me but who gives a shit, I just needed to get to the table.
I was nervous, who wouldn’t be? You only get one chance to make your first impression but it was good because we had stuff in common. I made my move and Jimmy “the security guard” Meathead noticed and the free drinks came to a screeching hault! Phase one was complete. There was something about her that wasn’t like most girls. We started to talk and it became clear she rarely went out and it showed because her chief interests were mainly television shows. Her name was Angelene. She loved and treasured the television show “Friends” even in the year 2012. We talked about Entourage and how on most weekend nights she would be at home (living with her mom) on the couch, watching murder mysteries or Dateline.
I went back and forth trying to figure out if this girl was just drunk and talking to me just to pass the time or was this pretty girl actually into me. I ignored my insecurity and tried to press on by talking about her interests. I asked her normal questions when trying to figure out if we actually clicked or if I should chop the night up as a loss. Come to find out she was single and I was single but I don’t recall any specifics that would really lead me to believe that she liked me for sure. Angeline didn’t ask many questions about me which could have been a bad sign, but I remember she said she worked for a skin care company. My uncertainties told me that maybe she was a model or high maintenance and possibly out of my league, but her innocence eventually shined through.
I came to a crossroads when the last call lights came on and her and her friend talked about getting home where I was just going to concede to having a fun night talking to a nice girl. Angelene being either the nice girl, or the master manipulator made sure to say thank you to the security guard for inviting her out and buying her drinks. I took this as a sign that maybe the night wasn’t what I thought and we would go our separate ways as the security guard shuffled Angelene and her friend into a cab. I started to walk towards our ride but then I decided to go all in and jumped into the cab and put my dignity on the line. It was like a Nora Ephron moment. She gave me her number but seemed unsure about the whole thing. I dialed her number to wait for her phone to light up but NOPE, she gave me a wrong number. It was like a Michael Scott moment. My sober self probably would have retreated in defeat, but I pushed forward and swallowed my pride to listen to her lame excuse to why she gave out a wrong number. I had to call my phone from hers to get her real number and I would have never used it if she didn’t text me when she and her friend got home. The night was a success.
The texts through the week were short and sweet. She didn’t like her job and I was working dumb hours, but we kept in touch. Getting to know Angelene was great and I was intrigued by her innocence and beauty but just couldn’t figure out how the two went together.
Call me old fashion, but I believed in the age of text messages and Facebook messenger a phone call is the least a guy could do to ask someone out on a date. I called Angelene early in the week to ask her out but the notion seemed foreign to her. She answered the phone as if she hasn’t ever used her Iphone to communicate and asked if “I butt dialed her.” This caught me off guard and threw off my scripted and practiced invitation. I made sure to ask her out on a date in the middle of the week to up the odds of her not having plans. To me that date was set in stone so when the day came I figured I would pick Angelene up from her house. I didn’t really want to pick up Angelene from her parents’ house because she seemed so angelic and nice. I just imagined having to meet her whole family and getting the stink eye from her dad and brothers but I was a gentlemen and asked for her address. Again I was caught off guard when she seemed timid to give me her address and was surprised that someone would pick her up from her house. I’m just trying to be a good dude. So I’m like ok, you ready and she explained that she needed more time because she had to do her nails and get ready still. I figured the sushi spot closed late and I didn’t have any reservations so I wasn’t going to let it deter me. I picked Angelene up from her mother’s house and when she came out of the house I automatically knew she was out of my league. With a fresh coat of paint on her nails, I figured she just threw something together in order to get a free dinner because she still seemed shocked that this “date” was happening. The night went on in the sushi restaurant and Angelene opened up a little more and talked about some of her family members whom she didn’t like. It wasn’t what I expected to hear the first date but I was glad to hear about real people and not the cast of Friends. The date may have taken a step back when it came time to order. Angelene told me that she ate a cheese crisp because she didn’t really think I was actually going to follow through on the date. Angelene didn’t eat much sushi because she was full from that damn cheese crisp. After sushi, we went to see Finding Nemo because for some reason it was being re-released. Angelene was to full to eat sushi, but insisted that we get plenty of popcorn while at the movie. I don’t know how much of the movie that Angelene saw because she hid her sleepy eyes behind the 3D glasses that came with the expensive ass movie tickets I bought. It was late, so I figured I would just take her right home to her mother’s house. We lingered around like there should have been the first kiss. I resisted because I thought that this was going to be our first and last date. I couldn’t help to think otherwise based on the not eating my food and not watching my movie. I played it cool and did the gentlemen thing by walking her to her door and telling her I had fun even though I spent a good amount of money and was already starving again. I was on my way home getting ready to downplay my interest in Angelene so I could tell Van why I wasn’t going to put her on my team and then Angelene text me that she had a really good time, despite her actions, and that’s when I knew she couldn’t get enough of me!
Justin and Angelene are real life #RelationshipGoals. They’re proof positive that love exist and you gotta shoot your shot if you want it. 4 years later, they’re still goin strong, living together and she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to my boy ever. They even went to Fiji! That’s true love. You don’t go to Fiji if you just kinda like a person.
First dates are usually awkward and kinda weird but you know if you actually dig the person even after having a few hurdles to jump over throughout the night. Justin’s story is proof positive that you just gotta go for it. She didn’t eat the sushi and didn’t watch Finding Nemo but she enjoyed herself because she connected with Justin. We all are looking for that someone to love and for someone to love us back. We want to have that best friend to share our time, efforts and life with. Justin lucked up and found that in spades!