Testcafe select vs exists

I am able to select the element via testcafe automation but i am not able to check if the element exists or not. i am getting error message every time it checks says element is not found in the DOM

this is what i have:

//Selector this.category = this.Selector(".item_link");

async selectCategory(name){
    await this.t.expect(this.category.withExactText(name)).exists.ok(); //fails 
}

async checkCategory(name){
    await this.t.click(this.category.withExactText(name)); // works fine
}

Can someone please help me understand why it is failing? thanks