the date that changed my life

It started online. iPhone app to be exact.

If there’s one word to describe her it was

Crazy.

Are you scared?

After asking me to pick her up in South Los Angeles. Between 67th and 70th St. At midnight.

Someone’s the money conscious type.

After I glanced at our hundred-dollar check. It was our second date. We went out for a drink.

I’m a Southern belle.

After she demanded that her passenger door be opened and closed each time. Before eating at restaurants, between drinking at bars, and after shopping at supermarkets. She was Southern alright. Southern Korean American.

But, on our first date. She changed me.

Tell me what you think.

I sipped a glass from the Sonoma Malbec. A rare grape in California.

It comes in smooth then fizzes out with a bitter after-taste, I said.

Come on. You can do better than that.

I was floored. Then contemplative.
I wanted to overcome. Then I wanted to live.

It’s like diving from a cliff into a bottomless lake. At first, the water is light and warm–circulating the blood in my face. Then I descend into an abyss. A rush of bubbles escapes an underwater vent. Pricking the skin. Like a bitter tonic.

She smiles,

Exactly.