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“Where’s Hurley?” he asks.
“About fifteen minutes from here.”
“In that case, I’d love to try Mexican food.”
“You’ve never had Mexican food before?” I ask in disbelief.
“I’m afraid not. I’ve eaten a large variety of different cuisines in my life, but Mexican has not been one of them.”
“I’ll fix that,” I say with a smile as I type the restaurant’s name, El Tarasco, into the car’s GPS. “I could just give you directions, but this might be easier for you.”
We talk about all of the different types of food that we’ve both tried as Jeff drives us to the restaurant. Once we arrive, I look at the menu before recommending a few of my favorite items for him to try. “We could try the Molcajete Stone Bowl Special together. I’ve had it before with my friends, and it’s fantastic. It has Ribeye, al pastor meat, grilled chorizo, and even cactus.”
“Cactus?! Isn’t that a little—prickly?” Jeff asks with a raised eyebrow.
“It has great flavor, you’ll love it.”
“If you say so, I’m up to try anything.”
The waiter comes to take our order, and once we’ve made our selections, Jeff and I resume our conversation. “So, do you travel a lot, Sarah?”
I let out a short laugh. “I wish! I have a whole list of places that I’d like to visit someday, but most of them I’ll probably only ever dream of. What about you?”
“I’ve traveled quite a bit actually. Some for pleasure, some for business.”
“What type of business?”
He hesitates for a moment. “Let’s just say that I’m following in my father’s footsteps in the family business. One day I’ll take over for him, and I need to be prepared. A lot of the business travel that I do is to attend—meetings and to learn how he handles certain situations.”
“I see. That’s great that you want to follow in his footsteps though, right? I mean, it’s not some shady business is it?”
Jeff laughs. “No, it’s not shady, I promise. But—”
“But,” I prompt.
“But sometimes I wish that I didn’t have to take on all of the responsibilities that he has. There are incredibly high expectations, and sometimes it’s a lot to handle. Like I said this morning, that’s part of the reason that I came on this vacation—to get away from it all for a while.”
“Well, even so, I’m sure that you’ll be great when you take over. You seem like an intelligent, reliable man who’s capable of handling responsibilities.”
Jeff chuckles again. “You got all of that from knowing me for less than a day?”
I grin. “I’ve been told that I’m an excellent judge of character.”
“Well, not to sound arrogant, but I’d like to think that you’re right.”
We pause our conversation when our food arrives so that we can dig into the delicious Molcajete. I watch Jeff’s face as he takes his first bite of cactus. He closes his eyes as he chews. “This is so good,” he says as he scoops up another bite along with some ribeye.
I smile. “Good. I’m glad that you like it.”
“I think Mexican is my new favorite cuisine. But it sure is spicier than I expected,” he says with a sniff.
“Uh-oh. I might have created a monster,” I tease. “Since this is the first time that you’ve eaten it, I’m guessing there aren’t any Mexican restaurants where you live. What will you do?”
“I guess I’ll just have to have my chef find some recipes.”
My eyes widen. “You have a chef?”
“Oh—um—yeah. Comes with the family business,” he says with a shrug.
