In March of 1995 I was sitting at the bar of Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens reading James Crumley’s The Last Good Kiss when in walked Jack.
I had just broken up with a guy and was telling myself I wanted to be alone for at least two years before I even thought about dating again.
Michael Jordan had just had a 55-point game against the Knicks, and there were two commercials I liked at the time: one had Louis Armstrong singing “A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” and the other was a Jaguar spot that used Etta James singing “At Last.”
“I like that song,” I said one day a few weeks later, sitting on my couch watching a Lakers game with Jack. The next night he came into the bookstore where I worked and handed me a CD.
“See ya ’round campus,” he said, and walked off.
The bookstore had a café attached, and in the afternoons Jack would come there with his friend Dave after they got off work. They were building a house on Bath Street and would sit at a table on the sidewalk, their t-shirts and shorts and boots covered in sawdust, drinking Heineken.
My manager, Leslee, and I peeked out the front window at him. “Nice legs,” she said.
A few weeks later Jack and I slow danced to “A Sunday Kind of Love” at Jimmy’s while Willy closed up the bar and Dave sat slumped in a booth watching us. “I need a girlfriend,” he sighed.
Dave has a wife and three kids now.
Happy the Day After Valentine’s Day, when all hidden meanings are revealed.
But….but…what happened between him walking into Jimmy’s and sitting on your couch watching a Lakers game?
I was wondering the same thing! Do tell.
I am still reeling from your extreme youthfulness, evidenced by the fact that it was 1995 and he said “See ya ’round campus.”
But also? So nice to see a post that is all about being happy about someone.
I love a good romantic story.
This post is redeaming Jack for me since the whole post of yesterday. I have still not gotten that image erased from my memory.
It will be there forever….. You’re welcome, and happy belated Valentines Day
Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens. Etta James. Willy. The nostalgia is killing me. Tell me you were working at the Earthling and this will make the perfect SB romance.
I was working at the Earthling!
You rule.
*sob* I miss that bookstore.
Just before I graduated and left town in 1993 my wife and I went around town and shot pictures of a bunch of landmarks we thought we might never see again (little did we know we’d be back in less than 10 years). Earthling was worthy of a picture.
A lot of romances started at Jimmy’s, but your memory for detail is amazing. Now if we sat Jack down, would have tell the same story? Yeah, now that I think about it, he probably would, but it would sound more like Humphrey Bogarts voice, “I walked into a smoky bar and there she was…” Ah, love.
This is belatedly replying to your belatedly, but …. You guys are living proof that my mom never knew what she was talking about. She told me: “Never get married to a guy you met in a bar.”
Happy marriage, you.
I’ve been assuming Jack is fabulous because otherwise how could he get you? The dude obviously had serious game.
That’s a good meeting and falling for story. Cinematic!
How many children have been birthed as a direct result of Jimmy’s? Damn, I can think of three right off the bat..