Page 38 of What Happens in Paradise

‘I am determined to get a promotion, that is true, and I have always believed that it is important to enjoy life, but these two years I… Having fun has not been my focus.’

‘I thought that whenever you weren’t working, you’d be partying!’

‘No. Tell me what you think of the chicken.’ He picked up a piece of the chargrilled jerk chicken. The blend of spices flooded my nostrils and took me back to those days when Grandma used to season a big tray of chicken and Grandad would barbecue everything outside inside a red steel oil barrel drum.

It hadn’t escaped my attention that Alejandro had avoided responding to my partying comment. Probably because he didn’t want to make me feel bad about my non-existent social life.

Anyway, he didn’t have to tell me about what he did in his spare time. We were colleagues and now that I thought about it, I’d probably overstepped by sharing stuff about my background too.

Note to self to be more professional.

I blamed that glass of potent rum punch for my loose tongue. The next drink I ordered would definitely be water. If I wanted to get through the rest of this dinner, I needed a clear head.

The last thing I needed was to say something stupid and embarrass myself.

And given my slip-ups so far, there was a higher probability of that happening than I would like.

14

ALEJANDRO

‘No problem!’ Bob slapped my hand enthusiastically and I smiled.

We were at reception waiting for Jasmine and I had just asked if he would be free to take us to see Jasmine’s grandad.

During dinner last night, she had looked up the name of the town in her phone and I’d written it down in my notes app. Although she had not explained why her mum no longer kept in contact with him, I could tell from how often she spoke about him that he meant a lot to her, so I wanted to help.

One thing I was not expecting was for her to tell me more about her personal life. I had not realised that she was married. Her ex-husband sounded like a fool. Any man who had a woman like Jasmine and did not appreciate her did not deserve to keep her.

I could not believe that he had cheated. If Jasmine was my wife, I would treat her like a queen. His loss.

‘Sorry!’ Jasmine said as she walked towards us.

Actually, that was not an accurate description. Jasmine did notwalk. Sheglided. Shesashayed. As she got closer, I tried not to look at the way her beautiful hips swayed and the way her skin glistened.

‘Tranquila,’ I said, letting her know that it was not a problem. I had finished in the kitchen early and saw that Bob was already here, so I decided to go and chat.

‘Yuh luk criss, gyal,’Bob nodded approvingly. I guessed thatcrisswas patois for something likebeautiful.

He was right. Jasmine did lookcriss.

She was wearing a long, pink, sleeveless, summer dress which showed off her great shoulders.

I was trying very hard, but the more time I spent with Jasmine, the more attractive I found her.

‘How are you?’ I asked, steering my thoughts back from the danger zone.

‘Fine, thanks. I’m glad I didn’t have another glass of that rum punch, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to go on this excursion.’

Last night, after finishing her punch, Jasmine drank water for the rest of the evening and I noticed that she was much less talkative. We still had a good time though, mostly talking about how much we were enjoying Jamaica so far and what we were looking forward to seeing.

During the car journey, Bob chatted about his kids and before we knew it, we were back at the hotel and went back to our rooms.

Now here we were again in Bob’s car. We put on our seat belts and he set off. Today, we were doing some sort of river trip on a raft. I had not asked too many questions. I did not care where we were going. I was just happy to see more of Jamaica. And of course, spending time with Jasmine was a bonus.

‘Bob has said that he knows how to get to your grandad’s house,’ I said.

Jasmine’s eyes widened.

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