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With no excuses remaining, Sylvie wiped her palms on her leggings and exhaled hard. “Okay. Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”
“Wow, Syl. Try and contain your enthusiasm. It’s kind of embarrassing that you’re so excited about this.”
Sylvie grumbled as she slid between two tables and out of the booth.
Their first stop was a booth called Optical Illusion.
“How adventurous are you feeling?” Lauren asked as she glanced at the unusual offerings.
With her hands on her thin hips, Sylvie reviewed the menu. “None of this is food,” she muttered.
“Okay, I’ll pick,” Lauren decided before stepping up to order. “Pork belly cotton candy.”
Sylvie sighed. “Dios mío. An abomination.”
“And two bottles of water please,” Lauren added as she laughed.
While they waited, Lauren watched the young man in the booth. At a flat top grill, he seared a thick square of pork belly.
“This is going to be gross, you know that right?” Sylvie said, watching in horror as the guy skewered the meat and swirled it around a machine to cover it in wispy, hot pink, cotton candy.
“How do you know if you haven’t tried it?”
“Because pork candy is not a thing for a reason,” she said with complete confidence.
“We’ll see.”
Lauren watched Sylvie accept the paper stick from the man with grief-stricken dismay.
“You try it first,” Sylvie said, shoving the whimsical meat stick in Lauren’s face.
“It’s not radioactive, you big baby.”
Lauren bit off half the pork belly. The moment the fluffy, maple flavored spun sugar touched her tongue, it melted into the hot, crunchy pork belly skin, creating a tangy sweet glaze on the crackling coating. The meat was so tender that it all but disappeared in her mouth like a delicious fever dream.
“Oh my God, that’s incredible,” Lauren decided, opening the eyes she hadn’t realized she’d closed.
Sylvie was still obviously suspicious.
“If you don’t want it, I’ll eat it. It might be the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.” Lauren started to finish the second bite, but Sylvie took it out from under her.
Without a word, Sylvie shoved the pork belly in her mouth like knocking back the most vile cough medicine. As soon as she tasted it, Sylvie’s shoulders dropped and her eyes closed.
Lauren guessed she was having the same euphoric experience. She needed to close off all her other senses and lose herself exclusively to taste.
When she’d finished, Sylvie opened her eyes. “That texture,” she searched for the words. “It’s so complex. You don’t even have to chew. It’s like buttery and not overly sweet. I can’t even describe it.”
Lauren nodded. “I know!”
Sylvie turned on her heels. “Two more of those magic little meat pops,” she called to the guy at the grill.
Rain kicked them out of the row of booths prematurely and sent them into the main, packed tent along with everyone else.
“Too early in the afternoon for a drink?” Lauren asked as she dried her face with the bottom of her t-shirt.
Sylvie’s eyes snapped up from Lauren’s body and to her face. “I guess not.”
Biting back a grin, Lauren started for a corner of the massive space. There, a square of the tent had been transformed into a garden. Plants of all shapes and sizes created a living green cave. At the back, a live-wood bar was covered in enormous glass jars holding various fruit and flower infusions.
