“I take it that you come here all the time.”
“Often enough.”
“Everyone seems to know you by name. Almost everyone in this place has greeted you, from the hostess to the servers to the bartenders, and I thought I even saw a few patrons wave at you.”
“I mean, it comes with the territory. You’ll find the same thing happening to you when you walk in certain businesses around here. A lot of the people that you see come to my shop to get serviced, and they’ll do the same thing when your doors open.”
“I like that.”
“It’s called community.”
We were seated, and Harlem sat the gift bags on the table in the middle of us. I couldn’t see his face because the bags were so large.
“Do you want to put those under the table or grab another chair so that we can place them on?” I asked, leaning around one of the bags.
He had a mischievous look on his face, and he winked at me. “I’ll let you decide what to do with them after you open them.”
“I don’t understand—these are for me?” I asked in surprise.
He bobbed his head. “Yes, they are.”
“Harlem, you don’t have to buy me gifts.”
“What if I told you that I wanted to? You deserve them.”
“How can you say that? You haven’t been around me long enough to make that determination.”
“I can say that because I’ve seen the hard work you’re putting in. You could have chosen any location, but you came straight to the hood to do business. So how could you not deserve it? Besides, you deserve the recognition; it’s not easy starting a business. I know that from firsthand experience. Now go ahead and open them.”
I opened the first bag and gasped when I saw the beautiful set of rolling pins with my name engraved on them. “Harlem,” I declared breathlessly.
“Do you like them?”
“I love them.” I hugged them to myself and then placed them back into the bag before I moved on to the next one. Tears filled my eyes when I saw the personalized toque and apron in my favorite colors, both with my name stitched on them.
“How did you know these were my favorite colors?”
“I notice that you wear them both a lot. I wasn’t sure which you preferred more than the other, so when I saw that they had them with both colors, I decided to get them.”
“Thank you, Harlem. I really appreciate this.”
“You’re welcome, beautiful.”
“You’re a very observant man. That’s rare.”
“No, it’s not. A man who cares about and appreciates a woman notices even the smallest things about her.”
We placed our orders and made small talk while we waited to be served. We shared our birthdays and zodiac signs. He learned that I was a Cancer, and he was an Aries. He was all too happy to show me a website where it discussed how compatible we were and why.
He said that learning my zodiac sign clued him in on some of my personality traits and why I behaved the way that I did.
“What do you enjoy most about life? Besides family.”
“I love the outdoors, people living in harmony, and sharing my gifts and blessings with others.”
“Tell me what you don’t like.”
“Violence. Which is why I immediately lifted an eyebrow at you when you pulled the inspector to the side, and he came back all humble and agreeable. I also don’t like conforming to the status quo and people’s expectations. I love to live life on my own terms, and I hate loud mouths.”
