text: It was a beautiful night. Outside was not too cold nor too hot, but it was one of those nights where you could sleep with your fan off if you wanted to. The night was going well for Lisa as she was using her laptop to browse the internet and read some emails. It was at that moment her phone rang and to her surprise, it was someone she used to talk to, but only recently reconnected with. ‘Hello’, she answered. ‘Goodnight Lisa, Mario here’. She knew it was him because she still had his number saved to her phone. Lisa responded with ‘yes I know, how are you?’ ‘I’m good thank you and you? ‘I’m good too thanks.’ What was asked next was somewhat of the surprise because he asked her out for ice cream on the Friday night. It was Wednesday night, so Lisa had two days before her date with Mario. She was playing it cool, but she told him she would have to check her calendar. You see she already knew she was free on Friday night, but she did not want to accept so quickly. After supposedly checking her calendar, she told him she was free and accepted his invitation. They were both excited because he seemed happy that she was free. They exchanged pleasantries and hung up. That was not the end of the conversation however, because texts followed. He first asked if Lisa had any food allergies and he also told her to bring two jokes for the evening. It was at that moment Lisa was a little nervous, but in a good way. She was mostly trying to figure out what he had planned. In addition, she did not know where she was going because it was a surprise, even though she tried to trick him into asking him what the attire was for the evening, to get an idea of where they may be going. Mario told her what was acceptable, but she still did not know where she was going, so she just gave up and waited until the Friday night came. There was no doubt as Friday drew near, Lisa got excited, but she was trying not to have high expectations because of the brief history she had with him. When she met Mario, she thought they hit it off good, however, he suddenly told her he was unavailable, so she was ‘threading lightly’ in this situation. It was shocking to her that now he was calling and wanting to go out, but what did she have to lose? In the meantime, Lisa looked for the two jokes and even asked a friend if they could think of any jokes. Eventually she found jokes and she decided to take four jokes instead of two, if the first two were not as funny. The Friday evening came, and Lisa was ready for her date. Again, she was excited, just not overly excited as she wanted to see how it would go first. Mario picked her up and so their date began. Mario to her is very caring. He usually asks her how her day was and what she did and things like that. When she got in the car, she said good evening and he said it back and like she suspected, he asked her how she was and how her day was. In return, Lisa asked him the same thing and he told her he was good, and his day was good as well. An anxious Lisa then questioned where they were going, to which he responded, ‘down the hill’. You see, to get to Lisa, you must drive up a hill or walk if you are taking the bus. After failing at trying to know where they were going, as well as being told to just sit back and enjoy the drive, Lisa waited and did just as she was told, but it was a good drive. They arrived at their destination, which happened to be at the beach. Lisa does love the beach and it turns out so does Mario. It is not only the beach they love, but the love for the sunsets and realizing the different colors the sunsets surprise them with, they love. There are as well, the different colors of the water that surprise them. It is safe to say that Lisa was discovering a few things about Mario that she liked so far and is looking for in a guy. Mario had the entire date planned. In Lisa’s mind she was just thinking she was going for ice cream and maybe just talk and get to know each other, but Mario had a board game, an obstacle game and of course the ice cream and to end it he had pieces of his real Christmas tree branches, along with pieces of newspaper in a can to burn to end the night. First to start off the evening was Lisa’s first joke. It was funny and Mario thought that it was also. He took out the first activity for the evening and that was the game of snakes and ladders. Lisa could not remember the last time she played that game. It really brought back childhood memories. She believed that almost every household in Barbados had a game of snakes and ladders, monopoly, dominoes, playing cards and the checkers board game. Those games were almost the staple games growing up in Barbados as a young child. Nonetheless, it was good to say the least that he brought that game and even better, because Lisa won. After the game, they ate the ice cream he brought. Unfortunately, he brought an ice cream that Lisa was somewhat allergic to, so they had to exchange. His flavor ice cream would not have been Lisa’s first choice either, but it was the safer option, I mean, who can go wrong with rum and raison? The other flavor was coconut. That type of ice cream makes Lisa feel sick and only when it is plain coconut ice cream, because Lisa ate coconut ice cream before, but it had bits of shredded coconut in it and it did her nothing. However, Mario was understanding, even though he probably thought to himself that he asked her about food allergies, and she told him she had none. He did not mind exchanging and Lisa was kind enough to still offer him some of her ice cream. Lisa realized something about Mario. She realized he was a planner and that he sticks to the time he allotted for. It was a little surprising to her, mainly because of the way he showed it, but it was also something she came to understand that it was just him. Everyone wants to be accepted for who they are and so Lisa was doing just that; learning about him and accepting this was who he was. Lisa considers herself as a planner too, however, she is still a little spontaneous, somewhat of a balance she likes. After all that was her zodiac sign-a Libra. Time came for the next item on the list which was the obstacle game. They left the bench and started to walk on the sand while Mario explained what Lisa had to do. There were two sticks and Lisa had to try to balance them while walking on the sand. She was to see how many steps she could take by balancing the sticks. She did a couple tries before she finally got it done. In the end, Lisa outdid herself because she got 100 steps and was able to balance the sticks. You could imagine how proud she was of herself. Mario too, was proud of her and said he was impressed. He then explained the moral of the game was to be persistent and be patient. That was impressive to Lisa how he thought about that game and just how much effort he put into the date. He thought of every detail, including having a sweater for her if she got cold. Indeed, she did, and she was able to use his sweater. To end the night, they found a spot on the beach to burn the pieces of his real Christmas tree. There they talked about different things and they even ended up singing. Let’s just say Lisa was so comfortable that she was willing to embarrass herself by singing. That was how Mario made her feel; comfortable and this was the first date since he came back into her life. From that date, Lisa was amazed by him and the same for Mario. He was so amazed that he planned for another date the Sunday. If Lisa could rate the date, she would give it a 10/10 because it was thoughtful and more importantly fun and it was after that night, she got excited because she felt like this was the beginning of something new and she was ready and hopeful. By Jalasheia Harewood