Zahtila the Fun.

“Oh, Dave. Why does it always have to be this way? Why can’t the convention go on forever?”

“Barbara, please. You do this every year. You know we can’t be together. Can’t we just be thankful for the four days of amazing gadgets and unbridled passion we have?”

SLAP! “How dare you mock my pain!! You know these silly trinkets and gizmos they send us here to shill mean nothing to me. It’s you! It’s always been you that keeps me coming back. And now I have to watch you get on another plane and fly back to your silly wife while I go back to nothing? I can’t take it anymore, Dave! I just can’t!”

“Get a hold of yourself, Babs! You know as well as I do this is all we have and this is all we’ll ever have. What we want deep down in our heart doesn’t change that. Who we are, these creatures of commerce and technology, it’s the only thing we have that’s real. This thing between you and me is just a fairy tale, kid. You gotta see that.”

“Oh, just because I see something doesn’t mean I have to like it, Dave."

“Well then, look here, Babs. Look at this empty bottle of Zahtila 2010 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley Old Vine Zinfandel. We shared this bottle on Day One of this year’s show. Seeing you there in your tight little booth babe outfit… it brought a lot of memories flooding back, just like the flood of aromas in the wine. Sure, it’s all tarragon, clove and cinnamon combined flavors of bright cherry, sweet cranberry cocktail and plum accented by white pepper and toasted oak, but to me, it was like the first night we ever met so many years ago.”

“And here, Dave. This empty bottle of the Zahtila 2009 Old Vine Zin? Remember 2009? That was the year your company dressed you like a giant panda and had you passing out keychains! You were so mortified, but I thought you were the most adorable vendor on the whole floor. I can almost taste the luscious dark currant flavors we shared just two nights ago, can’t you? The memory of the bright cherry aroma against the scent of your cologne is something I’ll be taking back with me to Spokane. That’s a promise.”

“In that case, maybe you should take a little something extra to go with it.”

“You don’t mean…”

“I do, Barbara. This bottle of the Zahtila 2008 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley Old Vine Zin. We haven’t opened it yet, you know. Maybe on those one of those lonely 361 nights until the next convention, your can catch the exceptionally fruity nature of this wine with its lingering finish and think of me.”

“But the full and spicy palate won’t be the same without your arms around me. Perhaps I’ll save it until next year as a kind of promise that you’ll come back to me. It’ll be my way of knowing that no matter how bad sales get, no matter what lack of innovations in technology there seems to be, we’ll always have each other.”

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