The Night I Met Kim

I was working at a brew pub in Victoria when a group of guys came in. After serving them a couple of rounds, one of them (was it Kim? I can't remember but he was definitely in on it) took me aside and said they wanted to play a joke on one of their buddies (again, my memory fails me but I think his name was Josh.) It seems Josh was feeling sorry for himself, having recently been dumped, and liked to complain about how his buddies were always getting the ladies while he was overlooked. So they wanted me to bring over a pitcher of beer and tell Josh that a woman had bought it for him.

Happy to join in on some fun, I brought that beer over and the look on Josh's face was one of doubt. He kept looking at Kim and the gang, not quite sure what to make of this situation. I could tell that he was having doubts that it actually came from a woman but Kim and his friends just kept shrugging and saying "what?".

I got the signal to bring another pitcher and this time I thought I needed to be more convincing. As I plopped the pitcher in front of Josh, I said, "wow... she must really like you" and the boys whooped it up while Josh looked embarrassed (and still incredulous). Josh started asking me questions, "okay, who is she?" and I would answer "she asked me not to tell you. I think she's a bit shy."

The signals for more beer kept coming and each time I brought that "free" beer, Kim and his friends would give a loud whoop, teasing Josh and and playing up the joke even more by standing up and looking around to figure out who this woman was. More questions came my way about this woman (not just from Josh but also his buddies who were in on the joke) and each time I'd give them a tidbit about this woman ("she's got blonde hair...but I can't tell you anymore because I don't want her to think that I told you who she was....). As the night went on, Josh looked less and less skeptical, and more and more flattered.

As the night was coming to end for the guys, Josh begged me to tell him who this woman was ("that was a lot of beer.... I just want to tell her thank you"). I decided to take this joke up another notch, use my intuition, and "find" this mysterious woman. There was a table of three nearby, a couple and a woman who looked pretty bored. She fit the description of the woman I'd been talking about all night so I thought what the heck. I approached her, told her about the joke Kim and his friends were playing, and asked her if she would come over to their table and pretend to be this woman. My intution must have been at a peak that night, because not only did she say yes, but she said it with a lot of enthusiasm (I guess I was right about her being bored). Now I can't remember her name, but for the sake of this story, I'll call her Sue.

I still remember the look on the guys' faces when I brought over Sue to introduce her to Josh. Their jaws literally dropped (all except Josh of course, because to him, this was all real). As Josh and Sue engaged in conversation ("thank you so much for the beer, that was so generous of you" "oh, you're welcome, you just seem like a nice guy, out having a good time with his friends..."), Kim, his buddies, and I were almost on the floor laughing our guts out. At one point, Kim took me aside and asked "who is she?" and I explained I didn't know her, chose her randomly, and am just as shocked as he was at the love connection happening.

So how did the night end? Well, Josh and Sue ended up going to Sue's place, and I got off early and joined Kim and his friends for a night of partying. All night long, we laughed and talked about how the joke ended up, and fantasized about "wouldn't it be funny if Josh and Sue ended up going out...." As it turned out, Josh and Sue's relationship only lasted that one night but I heard Josh had a good time.

Months later, at a nightclub, I bumped into Kim. We recognized each other right away, reminisced about that hilarious night, and that was the beginning of our relationship.