Chapter 4
4
ALEJANDRO
Madre mía.
I could not believe that in just one hour, I would be meeting Jasmine at Heathrow Airport in London to catch a flight to Jamaica.
When Hazel had called me to her office earlier this week to tell me, I was surprised. Especially when she told me that I would be going with Jasmine.
We would be travelling together, living together and working together.
This was going to be very difficult. But I could do it. I had no choice. This was an opportunity of a lifetime. I was not an adolescent boy. I could control myself.
When a woman makes it clear that she is not interested, it is important to listen. And Jasmine had shown me that she did not want to pursue anything with me, so I would respect that.
We were going to Jamaica to do important work and help the team finish setting up the new hotel. Hazel and the management were relying on me and I would not let them down. If I did well, there was a chance that when I returned, I would be given the head chef position.
Hazel said that she could not promise, but Marco had not been performing well and I knew the management were not happy. They valued professionalism and reliability, two qualities that I excelled in. And if he continued to not take his position seriously, I could be next in line.
I wheeled my suitcase out of Lola’s house where I had slept last night.
There were no direct flights from Malaga to Jamaica. As the hotel had arranged for us to fly from London, I had left Spain yesterday afternoon so that I would get a chance to spend a few hours with Lola and her husband, John, before meeting Jasmine this morning.
When I arrived at the check-in desk, Jasmine was already standing in the queue and as I took in the sight of her, I swallowed hard.
The woman was a vision. She was dressed in an elegant, long, yellow dress with a smart white, linen jacket.
‘ Hola! ’ I smiled.
‘Hi,’ she said softly.
‘You look very…’ I paused. I was about to say she looked beautiful, but then stopped myself.
At the team meeting a few days ago, Jasmine gave a speech about the importance of professionalism in the workplace and warned against inappropriate comments and behaviour towards our colleagues.
One of the waiters had heard it was because Miguel, the creepy head of housekeeping was caught fucking the new lady.
Jasmine’s message was clear. Getting involved with co-workers was not a good idea. So calling her beautiful was not a smart thing to do either.
‘You look very… summery ,’ I corrected myself.
‘Thanks,’ she smiled. ‘It’s always hard to know what to wear for a long flight.’
‘Right,’ I said, thinking I had not given much thought to my clothes. I was a shorts and T-shirt guy.
I had barely stood next to her for two minutes, but her beautiful scent already filled the air. She always smelt so good.
‘So this was a surprise,’ I said to break the silence. We had not spoken since Hazel told us we would be travelling together, so it was a good time to mention it.
‘It certainly was,’ she replied.
‘But a good opportunity. For us both.’
‘It will be. If we meet their objectives.’
‘We will,’ I said confidently. ‘You are excellent at your job. And so am I.’
‘You’re very modest.’ She laughed softly.
‘Is it not the truth? Are you not excellent at what you do?’
‘I like to think so.’
‘And am I not excellent at my job?’
‘Your food is very nice.’
‘ Very nice? ’ I gasped and clutched my chest as if I had been wounded. ‘A burger is very nice . A glass of water on a hot day is very nice . Nice is just ordinary. It is boring. Do you think I am boring?’ I raised my eyebrow as I shuffled along in the queue.
‘No, well, I don’t really know you.’
‘That will change. We will be spending a lot of time together…’ My voice trailed off and Jasmine’s eyes dropped to the floor. ‘You may not know me well yet, but you have tasted my food, no?’
‘Of course, many times.’
‘And how did it make you feel?’
‘It’s always been delicious. Surprising. Somehow everything you make tastes different – better than I’m expecting.’
‘There, that is better. I prefer delicious and unexpectedly superior to just very nice. Gracias .’
‘You’re very confident.’ She smiled.
‘I believe in myself. I cannot expect others to clap for me if I do not clap for myself first.’
‘That’s true. So have you been to Jamaica before?’ Jasmine asked.
‘Never, but I have heard many great things. You?’
‘Once. My parents are Jamaican. They both moved to London when they were very young and they took me over when I was a child. I don’t remember much.’
‘You have family there?’
‘My grandad. Probably other relatives too, but he’s the only one I’ve met.’
‘You will visit him when we are there?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘Why?’
‘Long story. Do you travel a lot?’ she said, changing the subject. ‘I’m assuming you’ve been spent time in an English-speaking country as your English is very good.’
‘ Gracias . You are right. I lived in London for three years.’ My chest tightened as I thought about what led me there. ‘And my sister, she is married to an Englishman,’ I added quickly.
‘Ah, now it makes sense.’
‘I still make many mistakes, but I try.’
‘Well, your English is a lot better than my Spanish!’ She laughed again and I smiled.
I liked the sound of Jasmine’s laugh. It was soft and infectious. She was always so serious at work, so I liked seeing this other side of her. I wondered what else I would discover about her in the next two weeks.
My eyes dropped to her full lips and I thought about how much I would like to discover how they tasted.
As we arrived at the front of the queue, I came back to my senses. Thinking about Jasmine in that way was not appropriate.
The only thing that we would discover about each other during this trip would be work-related.
She would spend the day working on guest-related tasks and I would be busy in the kitchen. At the end of the day, we would both be too tired to socialise.
Now that I thought about it, there would be no need for us to spend a lot of time together, which was good news. That meant that controlling my attraction towards her would be much easier than I thought.