CHAPTER 30
Stella had gotten an idea. She hoped that it was a good one. In a way, it would take them back in time, and she wasn’t sure if she should be focused on them starting over or moving forward instead, but she hoped that it could be a combination of the two.
According to Jen, she’d gone overboard, but she hadn’t ever had a date like this before.
It felt important. After falling asleep next to Violet that night, she’d woken up the following morning feeling like she’d wanted Violet to know how much this thing between them mattered.
Violet had been busy all week, and Stella hadn’t exactly been bored with work and planning for their date, so it had taken until the weekend for them to be able to have a night together.
She’d asked Violet to come to her place to pick her up, citing the fact that she preferred not to drive, and Violet hadn’t had a problem with that, but Stella wasn’t planning on them driving anywhere.
She just needed an excuse to get Violet over to her place.
She took one final look around, agreed with Jen that it might be too much, but when the doorbell rang, there was no going back.
She took a big deep breath, walked to the door, and smiled as she pulled it open because Violet looked absolutely beautiful in her little black dress with a white cardigan over it.
She also had her hair pulled back, which exposed her neck that Stella loved to kiss.
“Hi,” Violet said, smiling back at her. “Are you ready?” She looked down at Stella. “Why are you dressed like a–”
“Bartender in a certain Amsterdam hotspot where students from our program used to go?”
“I was going to say like you’re in The Great Gatsby,” Violet said as she pointed to Stella’s head. “You’re wearing a hat.”
“I am, yes.” She tipped her pageboy hat. “I was going for a vibe tonight.”
“Is that vibe hot? Because you look hot, Stella,” Violet noted and walked inside.
Stella looked down at her vintage ensemble that she’d ordered online.
It came in a set that included a vest waistcoat, a hat, an evening cravat, which was, apparently, what they called a necktie back then, a plastic pocket watch, and suspenders that she had on under the vest. It had come in gray, brown, or black.
She’d chosen the gray set and wore it with jeans.
She thought she looked pretty good, but hearing Violet tell her that she thought she looked hot meant that at least one of her goals for the night had been accomplished.
“Thank you,” she replied and took Violet’s hand after she closed the door behind them. “So, do you remember that bar that they made like an old American speakeasy just outside of one of the red-light districts?”
“Still can’t believe they have more than one of those.”
“Vi… focus, babe.” Stella motioned around her living room with her hand. “I tried to recreate it.”
Violet looked around, and Stella stood there, waiting nervously, hoping that she’d done something fun, spontaneous, and nice, and not something that would scare her date away.
She couldn’t do much to make her place look like an actual bar without remodeling her house, but she had pushed the sofa back against the wall and had hidden it with a burgundy drape that she’d hung from the ceiling in front of it.
She’d also bought two cheap wooden stools online and a tall table that was skinny and looked enough like a bar after she draped one of those fake backgrounds people used for their Zoom meetings that she’d got online as well.
It looked like wood, or at least, was close enough to looking like wood.
She’d changed the colors of her smart light bulbs in the ceiling fan to make the room look dimmer and a little on the red-ish side, which was how their old bar had looked.
Well, it hadn’t been their old bar. It was a place that most of the students had gone to on the weekends, and she’d seen Violet there a few times, but they’d never sat down next to each other and shared a drink.
To complete the look, Stella had set her phone to slow music from the twenties, had looked up recipes for some old, easy-to-make drinks, and had a few bottles sitting on a shelf where she used to have some books that would go back up there later.
She hoped the effort she’d put in was enough and not too much.
“Oh, my God! Stella,” Violet said and took her hand.
“I know it’s silly. We didn’t even go to this bar together.
But I was thinking about how if things had been different back then, maybe we would have, and we could’ve had a good time ordering the fun drinks with their weird names and actually getting to know each other instead of making assumptions and pissing each other off all the time.
Is it too much? Should I have gone for a reservation at some casual eatery and kept things focused on the here and now instead of–”
“Stella, this is… You did all of this for me?”
“For us, technically, but yes. Look.” Stella walked over to her fake bar and went behind it. “What can I get for you, my lady?”
She leaned over the plastic table, which was a mistake because it wasn’t very sturdy, so she nearly toppled it over. Violet laughed and hurried over to help keep it upright.
“I don’t have a real bar. This is fake.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured that out already.” Violet looked down. “I think I saw this background in a meeting once.”
Stella laughed a little and said, “I know; it’s ridiculous.
I learned how to make a few drinks and…” She reached behind the curtain she’d hung and found what she wanted on the couch.
“I printed some menus. So, as long as you order something from this thing, I can make it.” Stella set a small menu on the bar that she’d printed at work and had cut out while sitting at her desk, not paying attention to the meeting she was in.
“I have all the alcohol and stuff that goes in these, but if you want something else with any of those ingredients, I can do that, too. I just might need to look up a recipe first. I have beer, but you don’t really drink that.
Sorry, I finished the wine you left here when you…
well, left that night, but I have the cheaper wine that I already had if you want that instead. ”
Violet sat down on one of the stools and said, “You are being really cute right now. I can’t believe you did all of this.
My last first date forgot we were even going out that night.
She thought it was the night after, so when I texted her that she was thirty minutes late, she said we might as well go out the next night instead.
I was already at the restaurant, waiting for her.
I looked like an idiot. Then, she texted me the next day to cancel the whole thing altogether. ”
“Well, she’s the idiot. How do you forget about a date with you?
” Stella replied and turned back around, wishing she had thought to put a smaller table under this taller one to hold stuff instead of setting things on the couch or on the shelf on the other wall.
She then picked up two small bowls, turned, set them on the bar, and added, “Snacks. Do you remember those sesame pretzels they served there? I always loved those things. These aren’t the exact same ones, but they taste pretty close. ”
“Stella, I love this. Thank you. I’ve had such a long week at work, and I hated that we could only really text and have one phone call.”
“Me too,” she admitted.
Violet looked over Stella’s shoulder then.
“Looking for something?”
“Yeah, your manager. I was kind of hoping that they’d let you take a break and come around here to have a drink with me.”
“Oh, did I not tell you? I’m the owner of this fine establishment.” When Stella tipped her hat again, the curtain behind her promptly disconnected at a corner, and the thing barely hung on. “Shit.”
She turned to hang it back up, but Violet placed a hand over Stella’s, stopping her.
“Stella, I don’t need the facade. I just… need you tonight.”
“So, I shouldn’t stay in costume?”
Violet looked her up and down, and Stella thought she might try to climb over the table to get to her.
“No, you should definitely stay in costume.”
“Yeah? You like this look?”
“I love this look. Do you like it, though?” Violet asked and pulled on Stella’s hand until Stella made her way around the bar and sat on the other stool, facing her.
“I do. It makes me feel dapper or something. Look; I even have a fake pocket watch.” She pulled it out of the vest pocket. “It’s always ten-ten.”
She held it up to Violet, who laughed a little.
“You’re very cute with your little fake pocket watch, adorable vest, hat, and tie.”
Violet pulled the tie out of the vest, and Stella looked down at Violet’s hands.
“There are suspenders under the vest, too.”
“There are what now?” Violet asked, immediately moving her hands to the buttons. She undid them and parted the vest until she revealed the gray suspenders and said, “Oh.”
“Oh, good? Or, oh, bad?”
“Oh,” Violet repeated as she ran her hands over the suspenders and then, inside them, giving them a little tug. “I like this a lot.”
“Yeah?”
“You should wear this again soon.”
“I should? Why?”
“Because we’re not having sex tonight, but I really want to take all of this off you piece by piece and very slowly sometime.”
“Oh,” she said this time.
“Oh, good? Or, oh, bad?” Violet teased.
“Oh, definitely good. Are you sure we can’t…”
“We’re on a date now, aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
“Because we’re trying to see if we’re compatible outside of the bedroom.” Violet let go of the suspenders, tucked the tie back in, and buttoned up the vest. “We already know how good we are in the bedroom.”
“So, that’s a no?”
Violet chuckled and said, “I know you’re on break right now, but any chance I can convince you to make me a drink?”
“It won’t be for free. I’d need some form of payment, or I’ll get in trouble with the boss.
Stella tapped her lips with her index finger.
“Oh, I thought you were the owner. I feel like there’s a continuity issue in your fake bar.”