Date Night

Marty and I go out to dinner every Friday night. We call this Date Night. Dates aren’t what they used to be. Date Night includes dinner out, then we come home around 9:00, I put on my jammies, and Marty heads to the man cave. Whatever happened to dates that involved candlelight and heavy petting?  If we are feeling frisky, after dinner we head to our local gourmet grocery store and peruse the coffee aisle, where barrels and barrels of toasty coffee beans are offered. They have an olive bar we like, and sometimes we even buy lunchmeat. Fancy!

Each Friday, we take turns selecting the restaurant. He picks a lot of Mexican; I like Thai. Sometimes we try new places out of town. It’s a nice time to be together and chat without distraction. Many times at the end of our meals, we are asked by servers, “Do you want separate checks, or is this together?” It took me a while to figure out that this doesn’t happen as frequently to other married couples. I suspect that the servers ask us this because we are interracial and therefore assume we are not married.

I understand that it’s human nature to assume that people usually marry partners of (1) the opposite sex (2) the same religion and (3) the same race. But this is not always the case. In fact, it is less and less the case. I understand and accept why these assumptions are made, and make plenty of assumptions of my own. It might even be that some servers ask everyone how many checks they want, but it’s amusing to me.

The next time we are asked if we want separate checks, I think I will respond with, “Yes. Separate but equal.” For now we’ll stick with Marty’s favorite reply: “Just one. She’s paying.”