Page 49 of Vitamin Sea
Their talk soon turned to their families.
“My mom was a single parent, so we were pretty poor growing up,” Jack said offhandedly. “She did the best she could, but we had to rely on foodbanks and charities to get by. It’s something I’ve never forgotten. We were lucky there were people and places we could go to when things were tough, and money was tight.” He shrugged. “So, I give back now by donating a few hours of legal work every month at a community clinic.”
“I love that!” Chloe said with genuine admiration.
She really did. Jack was handsome and intelligent, he had a great sense of humor, he had saved Chloe’s life, and he wasalsokind?
There was no way any man could be so perfect. What was he hiding? Were all of his exes ‘crazy’? Did he leave toenail clippings all over the floor? Did he cry over dish soap commercials? The man seemed almost too good to be true. Or maybe, she thought, she had found one of those proverbial diamonds in the rough; a pearl in the sand, as the scenery would have it.
By noon, there was a marked feeling of intimacy between the two of them. It was funny how that sometimes happened. You meet someone new and unexpectedly hit it off; the next thing you know, it feels like you’ve known them your entire life. That was how it felt with Jack.
Not that she was fooling herself thinking that it might turn into anything. If there was one thing she had learned from her relationship and subsequent breakup with Liam, it was not to daydream and posit about the future. It was more important to appreciate things for what they are and not for what they could be.
And appreciate Jack and the time they were spending together, she did. If his attentiveness and happy demeanor was anything to go by, it seemed he was having just as much fun as she was.
Their lunch reservations were for Costa Morpho’s American restaurant, Oak. To outsiders it might have seemed like an odd type of cuisine to be offering, but when one took in the proximity of North America to Costa Rica, it made a lot of sense. Especially given most people Chloe had spoken to or heard talking seemed to be American or Canadian, which had even included a few French-Canadians.
“What’s the protocol?” Jack whispered conspiratorially as they walked inside. “Surely they don’t allow people to eat in the nude?”
Chloe smirked in reply. Allow people to eat in the nude Costa Morpho did, as Jack was about to find out.
After they were seated, she looked across the table at Jack
and was pleased that he seemed to be taking it in stride. She had a chicken salad with a side of fries, while Jack had a burger. The food was just as good as their conversation, which was to say—it was great.
The waiter cleared away their plates and Jack leaned back in his chair.
“That hit the spot,” he said appreciatively. “What’s on the agenda now?”
“Well,” Chloe said mischievously, “I hope you’re ready to work off that burger.”
“Aerobics?” Jack grimaced.
“Aerobics,” she grinned and nodded.
The group workout session was held on the cement pad near the pool where Chloe had seen guests taking salsa lessons earlier in the week. There were five other people aside from her and Jack as well as an instructor who was wearing black shorts and a resort-branded t-shirt.
“I have to warn you,” Jack whispered as the instructor turned on some dance music, “I’m coordinated when it comes to sports, but I’m hopeless when it comes to choreography.”
“Two left feet?” Chloe teased. She couldn’t wait to see him in action.
“Two rights,” he shot back. “And they’re both wrong.”
The instructor introduced herself as Maria and started barking instructions while moving her body. The handful of participants followed Maria’s movements which amounted to some warm-up stretches.
“Arms way up high,” Maria commanded. The seven people did as they were told.
As expected, everyone aside from Jack, Chloe, and the instructor were not wearing clothes. She glanced over at Jack as Maria barked at them to lunge and saw a twinkle of humour in his eyes.
He hadn’t been joking when he said he was uncoordinated
Not that aerobics was exactly dancing, but the movements did require you to pay attention to choreography. It wasn’t so much that Jack lacked rhythm—he seemed to have that in spades. It seemed more like he lacked the ability to follow the sequence of steps.
Chloe giggled to herself as she followed Maria’s movements and tried to keep her eyes off the other participants. If her mind had been boggled at the way salsa dancing caused a naked body to move, her mind was blown by the movement induced by aerobics. Despite her horror at the nudity earlier in the week, which she was now putting down to a serious case of culture shock, she was starting to have a new appreciation for the folks who went to these kinds of resorts. With the constant bombardment of impossible beauty standards, weight-loss adverts, and flawless bodies, there was something refreshing about being surrounded by people who were, literally, comfortable in their own skin.
Which was also ironic given where she worked.Struttended to deal in curated perfection and tall, nary-an-ounce-of-fat-on-them types of models. It might be something, she reflected, she could touch on in her article. While she had been seriously gobsmacked for the first twenty-four hours at the resort, Costa Morpho would be getting a glowing review.
“Gracias, señoritas and señor!” Maria thanked the participants who were now all hot and sweaty. Jack suggested a dip in the pool to cool down and, in spite of Chloe’s earlierreservations about sharing the same water as a bunch of skinny dippers, she happily agreed.
