Tonight was THE night John takes me dancing every year. A benefit for a local youth organization, it's always great fun. Except this time, I was hit with a smothering case of claustrophobia! Were there only 10 minutes when I said, "Okay with you if we leave?" John was taken totally aback, as we'd both looked forward to it, but one glance at my ashen face was all he needed to high tail it to the cloak room for our coats.
It was a beautiful night, the stars glistening, the moon casting shadows across the rolling golf greens. "How about heading to B&N," John asked as we walked to the car. Some of the most romantic words in our personal lexicon! And we were off to Willow Grove, hoping a stack of magazines, a small pile of books & a cinnamon scone would put some sparkle back in our evening.
Little did I guess! As we made our way to the magazine section, I heard a voice call out, "Didn't I see you this afternoon at Stockton?" Turned around, and there was the very fellow who owns & makes all The Painted Truffles delectables! His shop is in New Jersey, but he lives in Horsham.
Introduced him to Joh - the two guys shared graphic arts stories, while I was intrigued by the BIG Bouchon Bakery book he was lugging around. A recipe from that very book resulted in the beyond-belief delicious quiche Maddie made last week at Be Well! We had a jolly few moments before heading back to our separate destinations (he was there with his wife).
It was about an hour later that I spotted the two of them, deep in reading. As I walked past, he looked up, beamed, and called me over to be introduced to his wife. "This is the person I told you about," he explained to her. He asked about my relationship to the older woman I was with & I explained she's a client. A wonderful look came over his face as he turned to his wife to explain, "She was leery about trying the chocolate." He looked back to me, "You were very patient & tender. And you brought her around in the end, helped her gain the confidence to experiment. Did she like the bar she selected?"
Well, it was my honor & delight to relay to him the response to that little bitty chocolate bar with the GREAT BIG chocolate taste. She tried first just a little taste of the bar, dark chocolate with finely ground coffee beans. The look on her face was rapturous - she'd never had the quality of chocolate used for that small treasure. She broke off a larger piece, carefully tucking the rest of it back into its clear plastic sleeve, closed her eyes & just let it rest for a moment on her tongue. It was the perfect response.
He was happy to hear the chocolate was so appreciated. I was happy to have the opportunity to tell him I plan to use a single shard of his Mayan Chocolate bar on the white on white mini cupcakes I'm making for the Gold Bar fundraising bake sale on 02/10. He agreed the intense chocolate would be a great counterpoint to the softer flavors.
What fun to run into him, to get a chance to find out more about his shop, how special to hear his response to my interaction with a client. My hope is always to expand my client's world, to make it a bigger place to tread safely - that's what he described.
Sweet serendipity!
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