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Esplanade
"Can I sit here?"
The man writing in a leather-bound journal at the other end of the table looked up at me. He was wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses.
"Yes, of course," he said with a light accent. It sounded Italian to me. I settled into the opposite side of the table, as far away from him as I could get. As I got out my laptop, I realized that there were bird droppings or something in front of me, but they were purple. I scooched over to get a cleaner spot.
I opened up my laptop and starting reviewing my task list. Immediately, I felt an ant crawl on my arm. Gross! I squished it and flicked the dead body away from me.
Then a second one crawled on my laptop. It was different and had green markings. I squished it, too. Poisonous everything tended to be marked with bright colors. Here in Australia, everything wanted to kill you. I hoped that the ant's poison hadn't been released all over my laptop when I killed it. I wasn't squeamish normally, but having poisonous ants crawl on me wasn't really my idea of fun.
I dug in my backpack for the bug spray that I'd bought for my trip to the Daintree Rainforest, not far from Cairns. I sprayed it on my bare arms and on the wood around my laptop.
It had almost zero effect. An ant immediately crawled on the bug sprayed area. I resolved to just ignore the ants, because the number was just too high. My heart rate was a little higher than usual.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Italian doing the same thing, quietly crushing ants as they crawled on him and his notebook. I could see that he had an iPod and red Beats headphones laid out in front of him. A half-full bottle of water and apple sat on his right side.
"Do you want to use my bug spray?" I asked.
He looked at me and flashed a very white grin.
"No, I'm good, thanks."
"Okay," I said, stowing my spray. It wasn't a brand that existed back home, but I thought that the composition was somewhat similar to Deep Woods OFF.
He was watching me put the spray in my backpack. "Where are you from?"
"Italy." When he smiled, dimples formed on each side of his tan face.
"Where in Italy?" I fought the urge to fan myself. Cairns was really warm, even during the Australian winter. It was easily 82 degrees Fahrenheit out here with high humidity. The weather was definitely the reason why I was feeling so hot.
"Milan, but my parents are from Calabria."
I nodded as if I knew where Calabria was. I had a vague sense that Cantabria was in Spain, but they were obviously different places in different countries. I cursed the American education system for never teaching me very much about Italy and its geography.
"And you?" he asked me.
"The United States. Florida." My shoulders tensed up a little bit. I had dark hair and dark eyes, which meant that I didn't seem American at first glance. My accent was what clued people in.
"Ah, Florida! I have never been, but I heard that it's beautiful."
"It's a nice place to be." I nod. "It's very similar to here. Cairns is a tourist town. So is the city where I live."
"Where do you live?"
"Siesta Key." I squirmed a little. I doubted that the average guy from Milan would have heard of Siesta Key.
"Is it nice?"
"It's where people from Florida go on vacation, so I guess so."
"Oh, that sounds perfect."
"It's a gorgeous place," I said. I rubbed the back of my neck. "What are you doing in Australia?"
"A little business," he said. "You?"
"I'm here for the reef, but I stayed because it reminded me of home. The humidity feels familiar." I smiled weakly at him and pantomimed wiping off my forehead. I might have been joking about it, but every inch of my skin was sticky.
