Valentine’s Day in the year 2026 was a different one for Matty and me. We had decided instead of gifts and cards we would just do a nice dinner and maybe a movie afterwards.
I was tasked with finding a restaurant.
Unfortunately, I waited until the Monday before to start looking, and almost every restaurant in Atlanta had no reservations available for dinner — so lunch it was! This allowed for an early movie and for us to get home in time to watch AEW Collision!
We left the house early for our 1:30 p.m. South African lunch at Yebo Beach Haus — Matty’s pick — and as fate would have it, Atlanta construction workers do not celebrate V-Day. Once traffic began to clear, she drove through downtown, weaving in and out of lanes as if we were being followed. But we still missed that reservation.
I quickly made a new one at Eclipse di Luna - Buckhead. We actually arrived a few minutes early for the new lunchtime and were seated immediately. While deciding on the food, I noticed that her R’s rolled like wheels on an Aston Martin while mine clunked as if falling off a flatbed trailer. Tapas of churrasco steak, lamb chops, scallops, calamari, and ribs filled the table alongside sangria, lychee martinis, and a couple of orders of bread. Each small plate was just as good as, or better than, the next. After finishing off a flan, we wobbled out the door to our car.
Matty had chosen Wuthering Heights as our movie for the afternoon. I assumed she and the sons and daughters of diplomats had read it while attending the American School in South Africa. I, being the English scholar that I am, had never heard of it, but I was willing to give it a go.
The theatre? AMC Buckhead at Phipps Plaza.
What is Phipps Plaza?
A “mall” where instead of Sears you have Nordstrom Rack, instead of Kay Jewelers you have Tiffany & Co., and a place where the Louis Vuitton section in Saks Fifth Avenue has its own security and entrance.
There was not a massage chair in sight.
We did a little shopping at Nordstrom Rack and she left with a pair of shoes that were definitely too small and too feminine for me. We exited to the plaza and made our way toward the third level where the theatre was. Something off to the side caught my eye — a K-9 unit that seemed pretty excited. I had seen a couple of other dogs around; maybe it was barking at one of them. We continued up the stairs to the second level.
Guard: Excuse me, can I ask you guys some questions?
Us: Ummm… sure.
Guard: Do you have any firearms at home?
Us: Ummm… no (definitely lying to protect our Second Amendment). What’s going on?
Guard: The K-9 alerted on you, and we’re just doing a quick check. Do you take high blood pressure medicine?
Us: One of us does.
Guard: Are either of you in demolition construction?
Us: One of us sits behind a desk as a manager — but no demolition.
Guard: Okay, you guys have a great night.
We made our way up to the third level, scanned our tickets, and entered the theatre early for the movie. I grabbed us a table and a couple of drinks from the bar, and we began to talk about what had just happened — she was so frustrated I heard some Afrikaans slip out. I started to wonder what blood pressure, guns, and dynamite (not AEW) had in common.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
They all had chemical smells that could be traced to explosives.
Sometimes you don’t need the last piece to see what the puzzle will look like. It was becoming very clear to me what was happening.
There across from me, in a black leather jacket, was my beautiful wife, who recently started wearing glasses more, already spoke multiple languages (even easily picking up Italian before our honeymoon), had recently developed an interest in Korean dramas (where she read the English captions as they spoke in Korean), and now faintly smelled of explosives.
I had married a spy.
