Chapter Five: Beth Dent (A Prequel and a Sequel)

Beth Dent is the descendent of Elizabeth Haddon Dent.   The Dent family has resided and presided in and over their Camden County land holdings for over two centuries.   For all of those years, they have been described as well-grounded, lovely, and just plain nice.  

If they had settled south of the Mason Dixon line, people would genuinely say (and mean): "Bless Their Hearts".

Beth dent has recently "misplaced" her newest Hermes scarf!   For those wondering how one could misplace such a valued accessory: read Chapter Four of the Dentdale Diaries (Joe Joe Austin).

Beth's cousin has always been fascinated by cars.   In fact, it is to him (the oddly named: Ding Dent) that Beth delivered her new SUV to have a slight dent (no relation) repaired.

Ding Dent's shop would accept no payment for the slight dent's repair, and Beth Dent can now be found running up and down the Jersey shore (Cape May to Belmar and then on to Deal) in her bright red, brand new SUV.

Beth Dent likes red cars:  she finds that the color red often camouflages a world of sin!

The above text is the sequel to Chapter Four (Joe Joe Austin), for the prequel: read on...........

 

My friend has a daughter named Beth.   Beth is charming, intelligent and attractive.   One would think that her personal relationships reflect her accomplishments.   Unfortunately, Beth has attracted paramours who have been somewhat less than gentlemanly.   Fortunately, she has suffered little more than a broken heart, and through her disappointments she has gained insights that have served her well.

Beth is now finishing her Master’s Degree and recently agreed to a blind date (set up by her mother).   Her school duties and other obligations postponed the original ‘date’.   Beth’s mother had spoken highly of the blind date (Joseph).   Beth ‘Googled’ Joseph and found Joseph to be highly regarded by his friends and business associates.   Presumably Joseph did similar research on Beth.   In this age of social media, one does not have to actually meet someone to learn of their accomplishments, personal habits, friendships, and associations and Beth’s research heightened her anticipation of the blind date. 

A few days before the date, Joseph called to confirm the place where he and Beth were to meet, and he also confirmed the time.   Both parties seemed excited at the prospect of this new relationship.

Beth arrived at the restaurant at the appointed time.   She waited fifteen minutes in the foyer and Joseph did not arrive.  The hostess suggested that Beth might be more comfortable waiting at the bar, or in the lovely garden.   Beth doesn’t like to sit at the bar, and when she asked, she was promptly seated in a romantic and charming table that Joseph had pre-selected.

Single women are notoriously bad tippers, and rarely attract the attention of the waiters and waitresses in a restaurant.    Beth sat at the table waiting for Joseph’s arrival.  Assuming that Beth might be yet another low-tipping client, the waitress paid her little attention.   Another 45 minutes passed, and finally a waitress offered Beth a glass of water.  Beth then surprised the waitress by ordering a nice bottle of wine. 

Thinking that Joseph may not have seen her, Beth explained her embarrassment at being ‘stood up’, and described Joseph to the waitress.   The waitress responded that Joseph was an investor in the restaurant, and that he was well-known to the waitress.   The waitress then testified that Joseph had arrived in the restaurant earlier, and had become sidetracked by an urgent business matter.    The waitress was lovely, and apologized for Joseph.   She assured Beth that Joseph would be ‘at table’ in just a moment.

Another fifteen minutes of waiting ensued.   Beth went to the Maître d'hôtel of the restaurant, who assured her that Joseph was keen on meeting Beth, and so Beth returned to the table.

A few moments later, a lovely woman joined Beth at the table.   The woman introduced herself as Susan.   Susan explained that Joseph would not be able to meet Beth for dinner that evening.   She then offered to have dinner with Beth.   Beth had already paid $50 for a bottle of wine, and was looking forward to dining with Joseph.    Susan was charming, but Beth’s lesbian experimentations had been a thing of the past.    Beth thought that it might be nice to have dinner with Susan, but realized that the dinner was not going to be paid for by Susan or Joseph.   Beth can well afford her own meal (and had anticipated splitting the dinner receipt) but it seemed silly to be paying for a meal in a restaurant that Joseph had an ownership in.   Had Joseph or Susan offered Beth the restaurants carte blanche hospitality as a good will gesture from the (missing) Joseph, Beth might have ordered a small salad, and stayed for a moment to enjoy Susan’s company.   But no written communication from Joseph was received offering the restaurant’s hospitality or Joseph’s regrets- so Beth politely declined Susan’s invitation to remain at this estrogen filled table.

Beth thanked Susan for her attentiveness.   Susan escorted Beth to maître d and another reservation was made for Beth and Joseph to dine.

Beth regaled her family and friends with this dining-date-gone-wrong story.     I personally think that the way relationships begin, is the way that they will end, so I cautioned Beth to proceed cautiously in her dating of Joseph.

Beth’s life is very active, and just because she had a date with Joseph, did not mean her life’s activities were reduced or put on hold.  Events both good and bad transpired in the time between the first date and the second date and those events did overshadow the next date, but Beth was determined to put the past in the past, and begin anew with this mysteriously evasive Joseph.

Beth was pleased when Joseph’s secretary called to confirm their next date.   The secretary assured Beth that Joseph would be there, and all seemed well!

The evening of the next date, Beth again arrived at the restaurant in a timely fashion.    As the hostess was ushering Beth to her table, Beth glanced at the reservation book.   Joseph had booked two tables for the same evening at the same time!!

Being no dummy:   Beth surmised that Joseph was going to do a meet and greet with her, and then dump her for a more favorable ‘back-up’ date.      Beth waited 35 minutes for Joseph to arrive.    The waitress that Beth had previously met came to the table.   Beth politely asked the waitress why she had told Beth that Joseph was in the restaurant the last time, but he really wasn’t at all in the restaurant?   The waitress stumbled with her answer and offered Beth a glass of water…

Just prior to her arrival for this second date, Beth had received a text telling her that a close friend was in a distressed situation.   Beth is not one to be publicly histrionic, and felt composed enough to continue with the wait for Joseph.

During this wait, Beth was texted with information about her distressed friend.    Unfortunately, Beth’s friend had suddenly, and unexpectedly passed away.

The shock of this information would be distressing to anyone.   Beth immediately leapt from the table so that she would not be seen in tears.    There really was no time to consider the late arriving Joseph’s feelings or interpretation of her actions.   Beth explained to the waitress that there had been a calamity and that she was leaving.

 

Joseph had been made aware of Beth’s quick and dramatic exit from the restaurant.   Whether his back-up-date consumed too much time – we’ll never know.    Joseph had someone (not Susan) contact Beth about his concerns over Beth’s distress.  Beth graciously thanked the caller for their concern, and unfortunately, erupted into tears over her deceased friend.

 

The caller wanted to know if Beth wanted to arrange for another date!    Beth still (maybe foolishly) wanted to meet Joseph, but she knew that the loss of her friend would require some healing time.    Her appointment with Joseph (at the restaurant) was inextricably linked to the event of her friend’s passing and those events led Beth to understandable bouts of tears. 

 

Beth was surprised by this stranger’s outreach, and received the phone call with the graciousness that she is well known for.   Unfortunately, the grief over her friend’s demise welled-up and Beth erupted into tears.   The caller had presented themselves as someone who was concerned about Beth’s well-being and Beth quickly apologized for her tears with an explanation of her friend’s death.   However, the caller treated Beth’s tears like a hot -potato and quickly ended the conversation (never to be heard from again).

 

Beth readily understood that Joseph would not understand her emotions about being ‘stood-up’ the first time, and about her discovery of being one of Joseph’s double-booked dates the second time.   She feared that she would suffer an unexpected bout of tears over her friend’s death, and that to do so in front of Joseph would be cause for Joseph to justify his ungentlemanly behavior. Beth knew that she needed time to compose herself before venturing out to meet him (Joseph) again and so she has made no attempts to arrange for a third meeting.

 

Beth was clearly not at fault on either date.  She arrived promptly, and acted treated the waitresses and other service staff with elegance and humor.   But, she has yet to meet Joseph and fears that he holds her in some type of contempt.

 

 

END OF STORY