Chapter 27
This is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. You could say I’m a terrible patriot, but the Empire State Building, the Hollywood Hills, or even the damn Grand Canyon… none of it comes close to this.
We’ve been walking for about thirty minutes through the Chichén Itzá archaeological park, the Mayan city that thrived here during the empire’s golden age, a thousand years ago.
We pass the ruins of what was once the town market and some government buildings, continuing on to the Temple of the Warriors, a colossal structure full of carved columns where the Mayans believed the worlds of the living and the dead came together.
Speaking of the dead, we also pass the Sacred Cenote, where the Mayans probably wouldn’t have minded if Jasper drowned me as a human sacrifice. It would have been just another one of the hundreds of bodies they found down there, in the calm, emerald-colored water.
The air grows milder as late afternoon approaches, but it’s still dry and hot, even along the paths lined with trees and native vegetation. When the trail ends, here it is again: El Castillo.
The Castle. Towering over us in all its austere grandeur. No matter how many photos or videos you’ve seen, standing in front of the pyramid is a completely different experience.
“Happy now?” Jasper asks from behind me when we finally stop to admire it.
Well, when I stop. Jasper is just following me like we’re on a casual stroll in the park.
“Very,” I reply, unable to contain a smile. “Aren’t you?”
“I’m happy if you’re happy,” he says.
I squint, confused.
“I came here before,” he continues. “At my high school graduation, when I was eighteen.”
I add this to my mental list of things I didn’t know about him, but I decide not to ask any more questions for now.
“So you can tell me all the stories! This could be my own episode of Exploring the Pyramids with Jasper Hassmann.”
“I was too hungover to remember much, but let’s see…
” He pauses for a moment, clears his throat, and when he continues, it’s with a voice that sounds straight out of a History Channel documentary, “Kukulcán, the god of wisdom and storms, body of a serpent, head of a bird, symbolizes the union between heaven and earth!”
I laugh lightly but let Jasper continue.
“During the fall and spring equinoxes, the shadow cast by the sun on the stone forms the figure of a serpent descending from the heavens, meeting its head down here.”
He points to the staircase in the center of the pyramid, fingers tracing the path from the top down to the serpent head statue carved at the base.
“And now you ask me: Jasper, how is this possible? Well, the Mayans had exceptional knowledge of astronomy and used their observatory,” he points to the ruins we passed on the other side, where a tower with a rounded dome once stood “to catalog the movements of the stars and track the cycles of the moon and planets. That’s why the pyramid has four perfect sides, ninety-one steps on each, totaling the 365 days of the year. ”
Jasper pauses again, thinks, and looks at me with a mischievous grin.
“So there’s a lot I don’t know because I was puke behind a bush over there…” Still pretending to be a tour guide, he points to a little thatched-roof building with a green door, which is probably the restroom. “I came back when the guide was talking about the cenotes.”
“What about the cenotes?”
“There’s one down below, right in the center of the pyramid, so it’s very likely it was built here on purpose. A ritual for water and abundance, just like the offerings and sacrifices they used to leave inside the cenotes.”
Sacrifices and offerings in the cenotes that supplied the water they wanted in abundance?
“And people still wonder how the Mayan Civilization went extinct? While they were down there, drinking from corpse water that whole time?”
Jasper waves dismissively.
“You’re looking at it the wrong way, Jules.”
I want to ask what’s the right way to look at it, but Jasper is already telling me, “They built a giant pyramid over a limestone hole filled with water, and it’s still standing today.
All done by hand. With no machines, no computers, no Google…
Well, maybe with aliens, but we can’t confirm nor deny that. ”
I add Jasper believes in aliens to my mental list. Does he also believe in ghosts? Is now the right time to ask?
I’m about to do that when I notice an elderly couple struggling to take a selfie in front of the pyramid. They’ve clearly been at it for a while, and nothing seems to have come out right yet.
“Do you want me to take a picture of you two together?” I ask, leaning toward them but waiting for permission so as not to intrude.
“Oh, dear!” the lady says, a look of relief on her face. “Please!”
I walk over, take the phone from her husband, notice it was set to slow-motion with some green filter for some reason, so I adjust the camera and take a few shots of them right there. Not a professional photographer, but after all these years in journalism, I’ve learned to improvise.
Hands on hips! Now happy smiles! Kiss on the cheek! Let me hold your souvenir bag for a second!
She hands it to me, and I toss it straight onto Jasper.
It takes me a while to return the phone, and, when I do, is with enough pictures to flood their family WhatsApp groups for at least a week. The husband thanks me, smiles, shakes my hand, his voice shaky and raspy, reminding me of my grandpa back in Ohio.
The wife retrieves the souvenir bag from Jasper and, to reciprocate, turns to me and asks, “Don’t you want a picture with your fiancé, dear?”
I choke on my saliva.
“Oh no, he’s not…” I start to explain, but I notice her eyes go straight to my hand and the enormous diamond on my finger.
Honestly, it’s easier to say yes.
But it’s Jasper who answers first. His response? A big smile and a phone in hand.
“My fiancée and I would love that, thank you so much!”
“Oh, how lovely!” the lady says, taking the phone from Jasper with enthusiasm. “What a beautiful couple you two make!”
I freeze at her words, but Jasper already moves to stand next to me as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. His arm slides around my waist with automatic intimacy, comfortable to the point of being too much.
It’s his smile that gives him away. To anyone else, he’s the perfect, fiancé in love, playing his part. To me, he’s just Jasper being Jasper, and the expression on his face shows he’s clearly doing it all on purpose to annoy me.
“A little more to the right!” She gestures, and we move. Photo. “Now smile!” Photo. And following the same instructions I gave her and her husband, our photographer adds, “Now a kiss!”
I laugh awkwardly, but Jasper… Jasper’s eyes are locked on me and I already know what he’s thinking way before he does anything.
“Don’t even think about it,” I warn through clenched teeth, narrowing my eyes. He leans in anyway. “Jasper, don’t you dare!”
Of course, he dares.
Before I can pull back or repeat the warning, his hand presses firmly to my waist, the other hand goes straight to my neck, and suddenly I’m almost falling backward like this is the final scene of an old movie.
I don’t trust him to hold me, so I press my hands against his neck to avoid falling. His mouth crashes against mine with unprecedented intensity.
Here we are. Perfect shot!
It’s far more cinematic than romantic, but Jesus! It’s getting harder and harder to treat this as a game.
“See, Harold?” the lady exclaims. “Now that’s romance!”
“If I try a similar move, we’ll need an ambulance to put my hips black in place, dear!”
I feel Jasper’s lips curl against mine at Harold’s comment. Only then he eases the pressure on the kiss and lifts me back up, a victorious smile on his face.
The couple then bids us farewell, full of smiles and compliments, before continuing their walk. And I’m left alone with Jasper, a crooked little smile on his face.
“You can kiss me for real, if you want.”
Excluding the staged photo, we haven’t kissed today. I don’t think we ever kissed without the possibility of sex right after.
Today won’t be the first time.
“You can kiss me for real, if you want,” I shoot back.
“I don’t want to,” he puts up his act as well.
“Problem solved, then,” I mutter, pretending to turn away and continue walking, but Jasper grabs my wrist, spins me toward him, and kisses me without hesitation.
This time there’s no one watching. No play, no acting… and it’s just explosive. My body heats up, the world lights up, and call me a Mayan astronomer because I’m seeing stars!
He holds me with one hand, fingers tangled in my hair, pulling me close with delicious force, his tongue invading my mouth, tasting me, teasing me in that way only he knows. Firm and soft, firm and soft, so I never know what’s coming next.
I never know which Jasper I’ll get, and it’s exactly the unpredictability that sends waves through my belly and makes me wanna do way more than is appropriate for the moment.
The kiss stops suddenly, making me think things escalated too fast for him, too. But we don’t separate just yet. My hands stay around his neck even after the moment passes.
The moment hasn’t passed. It’s still here. His hands tight on my waist, pulling me close. Not madness, or indecency… just a hug.
Nothing more than a simple hug. A lazy, warm, comfy hug, like a soft blanket on a cold night.
Jasper turns his head toward the pyramid.
“It makes you feel so small, doesn’t it?” he asks after a pause.
I turn too, resting my head on the perfect spot under his chin, letting myself take in the view more carefully. It’s enormous and beautiful in so many ways I don’t know where to start, but I think he’s talking about something more.
“Like a grain of sand lost in the universe,” he continues, thoughtful. “Amid everything that’s been and everything that will be long after we’re gone.”
That definitely goes on my list of things about Jasper, believe me.
“I thought you were the type of guy who thinks about the world revolves around you and nothing besides that matters.”