Page 12 of To Feel Like This Again
“This is exotic,” she gushes, sitting and admiring the greenery between the gazebos. Behind us are sheets of zinc covered with meat, uniformly stacked on top of pimento wood that traps the smoke to slowly cook the food.
Scanning the barcode and looking at the menu, “Um…What’s bammy?” she asks.
“It’s made from cassava… it’s kind of like Yuca… Have you ever had Yuca before?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Okay — you know what… I’ll order a few dishes and sides so you can try a little of everything.”
“Thanks, that would be great.”
“Plus, a Red Stripe beer for me, and a glass of wine for you,” I add cheekily with a grin.
She smiled, I smiled.
I order: ¼ jerk chicken, ¼ pound jerk pork, two servings of fried bammy, two servings of festival, two servings of roast breadfruit… and two Red Stripe beers.
“Cheers.” We clink our bottles, take a sip of beer and then dive into the food.
“This is delicious, Nick,” she mouths, eating the pork and using her free hand to grab another festival.
“Tell me… When do you leave?” I ask.
“On Monday,” she replies while examining the breadfruit.
“Okay, nice… so what are your plans for tomorrow?”
“Well, I plan to have a nice, relaxing day by the pool. You know, so I can soak up the sun for one more day before I get back to the blizzard. The weather is amazing here.”
“Nice. Are you spontaneous?”
“I can be.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Try me.”
“Pick you up at 6:30 in the morning. We’re going on a coffee tour in the Blue Mountains.”
I know from her Instagram posts that she’s into outdoorsy stuff, like hiking. Plus, she had two cups of coffee at our conference. So, this was a safe bet.
She pauses and begins to study me. Then, biting her bottom lip and looking down at the bottle in her hand, she says, “Let’s do it.”
“Great, it’s going to be fun.”
She smiled, I smiled.
We both take a sip of our beer.
“One more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Walk with your swimsuit. I’m going to drive over the mountains to the most beautiful beach you’ve ever seen.”
One that also happens to be better than the one she was looking at in the magazine (of course, it’sreallyfar).
Looking down at the label on the beer bottle while using her fingers to wipe away the frost, she lifts her head and with an indescribable look on her face says, “Sounds good.”
