“I know,” she said, “it should be a good time. I thought your plane would never get here! I checked the gates while we were waiting so I know where we have to go. Want to get something to eat? I’m starving!”
“Definitely, but I need to brush my teeth first. I can taste the death swarming around in there,” I replied making a face at her.
We both laughed as she led the way to the restrooms and I pulled out my toothbrush. I listened as she told me about her flight from JFK and how she swore that the pilot “had to be on something” with all the turbulence they encountered. As I brushed I had to stop at points and giggle because Cassidy was very comedic when she explained scary or strange situations. Once I was satisfied that the bacteria in my mouth had died, I spit out the paste into the sink and swished some water around in my mouth while I cleaned my toothbrush. After I was done, I checked to make sure I hadn’t left anything in the sink. That was one of my pet peeves; old paste in the sink. That was right up there with a man shaving and not cleaning the sink.
I put my toothbrush back into the travel kit and picked up my bags as Cassidy and I looked around for a place to eat. We settled on La Pausa, mostly because we thought the name was fitting. We sat there looking at menus and then kind of stared at each other.
“So, you’re gonna tell me what this says right?” I asked quietly.
“I was hoping you would,” she replied.
“Okay, I’ll do my best, but if I wind up ordering us moose ass, I don’t want to hear any complaints,” I replied with a shrug.
She started to laugh and told me to flip the menu over.
“Oh.”
Now that I could read the menu without second guessing myself because it was in English I felt more confident in knowing what I could and couldn’t eat. I ordered a Coke and she ordered water like she usually did and we sat there quietly for a moment as we watched the people walking by in the terminal.
“Hey, who’s that?” Cassidy suddenly asked.
“Who?” I asked following her gaze.
She was looking at a guy that for some reason seemed familiar. He was standing at the front of the restaurant smiling at us while he chatted with the host. When he saw me looking he waved with a big grin. I raised an eyebrow and waved back quickly.
“I have no idea,” I replied.
“He’s been staring at us since he walked in,” she said before she turned her attention to the waiter who had just arrived with our food. We both started to unwrap our napkins when he suddenly appearing by our table.
“Mind if I sit down?” he asked.
I looked at Cassidy who looked up at him with a priceless look on her face.
“Sure,” she said giving me a quick wide-eyed look.
I remember that Europeans were very friendly, but this was a little friendlier than either of us were expecting.
Grinning, he pulled out a chair and turned backward so that he was sitting on it with his arms crossed across the backrest and looked at me.
“Wide awake now, eh?”
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“You’re wide awake now. It took me almost ten minutes to shake you awake on the plane,” he said with a laugh.
“Oh. OH! That was you? Thanks,” I said relaxing a bit.
He nodded and smiled at us, “What are your names?”
“I’m Olivia, and that’s Cassidy.”
“Nice to meet you both, I’m Alejandro,” he said with a friendly smile.
I snuck a glance at Cassidy who seemed to be thinking what I was; typical.
“I did not see you on the plane,” he said curiously to Cassidy.
“Oh, yeah, that’s because I met Liv here. I flew in from New York,” she explained politely.