Meet At Joe's

4 Some Enchanted Evening Part 1 You May See a Stranger

POV: 3rd person omniscient (perhaps the ghost of Frank Sinatra a frequent visitor to these parts when he was alive. It makes sense his spirit would hang around.)

John and Julie were seated in a cozy booth next to a window with a spectacular view of Lake Tahoe. They were dinning at Friday's Station the plush restaurant atop Harrah's hotel and Casino.

"Where do I begin?" John began and then paused thoughtfully. Julie had just asked him to tell her more about himself and he is trying to figure out how to change the subject.

"If you quote the opening line of Love Story, I'm leaving now," Julie mockingly scolded her date.

"You know, that is not the first line of the book? It is the first lyric of the song. I learned that from that Wattpad book you recommended Sharing Afflictions by Charles Farley. How did you find that book, anyway?"

"My father had me read it." Julie answered and then seemed to drift into a pleasant memory as she stared out at the lake.

John gave her a moment and then asked, "I'm guessing it brings back some pleasant memories?"

"Some pleasant, some sad, some -, you have no idea. I'll explain when we know each other better. It's complicated," Julie sipped from her wine glass. "Did you enjoy the book?"

John pondered whether he should pursue that mystery further and decided to just answer her question. "I did. He went a bit overboard with the song lyrics."

"Yeah, the music references were a bit dated though. Did you notice how every chapter title was a different song lyric?" Julie buttered a slice of warm bread as she too was warming up.

"I did. It was fun. That and the way he'd mess up some of the lyrics," John laughed.

"What would you title tonight's chapter of our story?" Julie grinned.

John smiled and looking over the top of his wine glass he answered, "That's easy." He stared into her eyes and softly said, "tonight's chapter is Some Enchanted Evening."

"Talk about dated lyrics," she grinned. Without taking her eyes off John, Julie took a sip from her wine and considered how she could segue back to her original question. "What is it with you and opening lines from books?" she took a bite of her bread.

"Plato says, 'the beginning is the most important part of the work' and I agree." He said taking a bite of his own bread.

She smiled and came back with, "Well, Lewis Carroll said, 'begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop' and I think that is what you should do and begin telling me about yourself."