It was the New Year’s Eve 2014 going into 2015, my mom asked me to help out at the restaurant she was working at. I didn’t have anything to do and could use a couple extra bucks so I agreed.

When we got to the restaurant I was sent to the dish pit, which had more resembled a dish castle at this point in the night. After an hour of moving, grooving and sweating I see the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. She’s wearing an equally ridiculous outfit. Her kind eyes met mine and she spoke to me like an angel- “DO..YOU..HAVE..ANYMORE..OF..THESE..CUPS!?” She enunciated loudly and slowly. “Yeah I just cleaned some” I said back to her in perfect English. Much to her surprise that sweaty tan boy knew English and to both of our surprise, our lives forever became entangled after that night.

I was the hostess at an upscale Turkish restaurant called Aspendos. Everything was very meticulously planned out, we would have a live piano player, belly dancers, and every night the restaurant would light up with plates of the best saganaki youve ever had going up in flames. The uniform I was required to wear was what can best be described as a red turkish kaftan with red şalvar pants underneath and a long red and gold cloak, topped off with a bright red fez. It was quite the sight, and not something I felt cute in....particularly the fez.
My boss was a Turkish immigrant, so many of the people he hired were Turkish immigrants as well. It was common to not find anyone in the kitchen who could communicate in English, but we managed.
It was New Years Eve of 2014 and we were getting our butt kicked- the restaurant was totally slammed, the dish washer had broken, and we were short a dish guy. At one portion in the night I ran back to the kitchen to grab a set of Turkish tea cups (called ince belli) for a table. Every dish in the restaurant was towered above this very handsome, very sweaty tan boy with beautiful brown eyes and a clever smile to match. I didnt recognize him, and thought he mustve been new. I asked him very slowly, trying to be considerate of the fact that he probably does not speak much English, if he has any clean cups available. He looked confused, then a little amused once he realized, and answered me back Yeah, I just cleaned some and pointed to a shelf with perfect clarity. Once I realized my mistake, my face turned the same color of my fez. Fortunately, he was gracious enough to laugh with me about it later, and he has been talking my ear off ever since.