Hello Adventure

Chapter 20

A few nights later, there was a knock on my hotel room door. I opened it and found Dale standing there.

"I told you that you owe me, Valens," he told me, crossing his arms. I hadn't seen him for a few days since Nils unexpectedly showed up to work on the Doux Marrakesh menu with Dale.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other cautiously, "Well, what is it you want?"

He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my room and down the hotel's corridor.

"Hey, where are we going?" I asked though I didn't pull my hand away from his.

When we got onto the streets, he looked back me, a wicked light in his eyes. "On a little adventure."

My breath caught on the word. "Okay, but where?"

The night air overhead was chilly and refreshing, the street vendors were still lively and the whole night whirred with life and activity.

"I pretended to be Cairo's lover for you," he told me, "the least you can is come exploring with me."

I smirked at the memory and let him lead me deep into the souks. All the while he kept a hold of my hand in a way that made me feel really warm and lovely inside. (Note: I'd never admit that to another human being like, ever.)

The honeycomb of covered walkways and alleyways gradually widen and soon we were spat out in the main square, Jamâa El Fna, where I had been earlier in the week. But the night had transformed it into an open-air bazaar of restaurants.

"This is so cool!" I said, inhaling the smoky scents as I watched open flames lick and dance behind the food stalls. I cross my arms to stay warm, but a shiver passed down my body.

Blue smoke twirled heaven-bound, moths attacked the light, and Dale said, "Isn't it?"

Before I could object, he took off his coat and flung it over my shoulders like a cape.

"It's okay," I told him, trying to shrug off the coat that smelled so much of him that I went lightheaded. He stopped walking and lifted my arm, the goosebumps finding the light. The way he gently clasped my wrist and stared at my bare skin felt intimate, overly familiar. I pulled away.

He pushed his mouth to one side, curious and interested. "Sloane, you're cold. I'm not. Take the coat." He told me, pulling me forward again, like he hadn't just felt what I felt.

Soon were whirling back into the spiraling passages of the souk and eventually, we arrived at a little candlelit restaurant under an archway covered in decorative flourishes. The place wasn't fancy, but it was just what I wanted. I would have needed a breadcrumb trail if I were to ever find my way back home. (In order words, I never would.)

"This place is amazing. Where did you even find out about it?"

"Cai told me about it. Take a look around, all locals. I love places like this—places that whisper. That you just come-upon one day and have life-changing meals, you know?"

"I've never really experienced that, but I want to," I confessed. "That's one of the reasons why I've always wanted to travel so badly. To have all these new experiences," I told Dale then. I thought about The Life I've Wanted—I was kind of living it right now, right here, wasn't I?

"Well, something I've learned from traveling is good food is good food, whether it's a $300 tasting menu or $3 street meat on a stick. In fact, sometimes I prefer the cheap stuff. The Michelin meals—Hélène Darroze in London or Jean-Georges in New York City are staggeringly good, but I expect them to be. I expect my mind to be blown, you know? But I love when it's less obvious. I once had a baguette in Arles from an unmarked bakery that was so good I nearly had a religious experience. And I can still remember the taste of this milky white peach from Pike Place Market in Seattle; or the sudsy citrus flavor of a local Cornish ale, drank by the sea in this old sailors' bar; I could go on and on..."