Destiny

She danced with a few men, but they immediately started to try and get their hands on her. Destiny pushed them away and said, ‘If you want to dance with me you may, but I do not allow you to touch me. Is that understood?”

“Fine,” said one of the men walking away from her, “Crazy bi*ch.”

Destiny shook it off, and when Chantal started walking up to her to ask what had happened she shook her head, smiled and started dancing again. Chantal looked relieved and continued to dance with three guys at the same time.

Destiny was having quite a good time. Guys kept trying to come up to her and dance with her but she did not dance with them. She did not want to, she was having a good time on her own. She found it quite hilarious that she had found a way to be introverted at a nightclub of all places.

Eventually, the men that kept coming up to her and trying to get close to her started to get annoying. She walked up to Chantal and said in her ear, “I am going to go and rest for a bit. I just need to gather my thoughts. You have fun okay I will be right off the dance floor.”

“Alright,” said Chantal screaming in her best friend’s ear so that she would be able to hear her over the loud music, “Keep your phone close in case I call you.”

Destiny nodded and went off the dance floor. She walked around the perimeter of the place, trying to find the quietest spot. She found a spot that was far away from all of the dancing and thus far away from the noisy music as well. It was a dark corner, so she did not realize that someone was already sitting on the sofa there until she got very close.

“Oh!” said Destiny, startled when she suddenly noticed the man. “I am so sorry, I did not mean to walk up to you like that. I thought that this booth was empty.”

“No matter,” said the man in perfect English that was exquisitely and subtly accented with French undertones. “You can sit if you like, I really do not mind. Were you looking for the quietest spot in the club?”

“I was,” said Destiny.

“Such an odd thing,” he said. “You have come to a club, yet you seek the quiet. Why would you do such a thing? Why come here at all?”

“You tell me,” said Destiny, “you are here in this corner just like me, something tells me that you were looking for solitude just like I was.”

The man smiled at her and said, “Indeed I was, that is very clever of you.”

He extended his hand and said, “My name is Jourdan, Jourdan DuPont. Why don’t you join me? I am having this lovely wine, I can share it with you if you like.”

Destiny decided to sit down. This man intrigued her. There was something about him that she could not quite pinpoint, something that made it clear that he was no ordinary man. He was strikingly handsome, with features that seemed pointed and clever. He looked like he could cheat a king out of his kingdom and have the poor fellow believe that he had been done a favor. She liked that about him already. She liked that he looked sly and cunning. Besides, she was here to have fun, and in Jourdan she felt like she had finally found a way to have fun at this club.

“So,” said Jourdan, “are you a fan of wine?”

“I am,” said Destiny. “I love wine.”

“Do you know how to taste wine?” asked Jourdan.

“No,” said Destiny. “I mean… I know how to drink wine, is tasting wine any different from that?”

Jourdan let out a laugh and said, “No, I suppose it is not. I suppose that if you drink wine the right way, you are going to taste wine the right way as well. There is a way to drink wine, a way to taste it and appreciate it fully. Would you like me to show you how to do that?”

“Yes,” said Destiny, getting more and more intrigued by the second.

Jourdan poured a small measure of wine into a glass and handed it to her.

“Now,” said Jourdan, “the first thing that you need to do in order to taste wine the proper way is to smell it. Half of taste is smell, so if you smell a wine properly before drinking it you will be able to define the various aspects of it beforehand.”

Destiny sniffed at the wine. Her nose was filled with the smell of it, and it was truly an intriguing experience. She felt the wine on her tongue, almost, felt it as if she was tasting it in this moment. She had never experienced wine like this, she had only ever drank wine because she had never thought that there was any other way to consume it.

She sniffed it again and her nose was immersed in the olfactory wonder of the wine that she held in her hand.

“Now,” said Jourdan, “sip the wine, but do it ever so gently. Take just enough that the taste fills up your mouth, but not so much that you have to swallow it and cannot keep it in your mouth.

Destiny did as she was told. She took a small sip of the wine and kept it in her mouth.

“Run your tongue across it,” said Jourdan, “let it wash over your tongue. Take it to every part of your tongue so that you can see every aspect of the wine, taste all of the accents.”

Destiny once again did as she was told, and she was amazed by how many different flavors she was unlocking. By taking her time with the wine, she was experiencing it in an entirely different way. She was drinking it with relish, and she felt like she could enjoy wine a great deal more if she drank it like this.

“You can swallow now,” said Jourdan, and Destiny obliged.

“That was absolutely wonderful!” she said. “How did you make that happen? It was like I was drinking a completely different wine!”

“That is what happens when you take your time with wine and you experience it properly. Now, tell me what you experienced in the wine. What various aspects of the wine were you able to taste?”

“I was able to taste a lot of things,” said Destiny. “I guess one of these things was the fruity accent to the wine. It was almost tangy, like a citrus aftertaste except it did not come after but during the sip.”

“Exactly!” said Jourdan. “That is exactly what this wine is about! What else did you taste?”

“Even though it was fruity,” said Destiny, “the wine was not sweet. In fact, it was fairly tart, and that seemed to elevate the fruitiness of it. I felt like the tartness of the wine seemed to… improve it somehow. I do not know how this is possible, maybe I do not have any idea what I am talking about.”