11. Aida
It’s beena couple of days since Ben and I had lunch with Miriam, and I haven’t seen much of him since. Yesterday morning he was leaving, and I was having coffee on the front deck. We waved to each other, as he rolled down the window of his car and called out, “Miriam wants you to visit her tomorrow!”
I didn’t even question it, and now here I am walking down to Miriam’s cottage to see what she’s up to. What else do I have to do anyway? The Hendersons’ house is too new for anything to go wrong and all I’m doing is watering plants and taking in mail. It does get a little boring, but don’t get me wrong—I love all the downtime.
I knock a couple of times before I hear Miriam call for me to come in. “Hello, dear, come in, come in. How are you?” She has the sweetest grandma voice, and there’s no way her grandkids don’t just absolutely adore her. It seems like Ben actually does, spending a lot of time with her.
“I’m good. How are you?” I ask, sitting down next to her. The doors to her expansive deck are wide open, letting in the ocean breeze and the incredible view.
It’s still early, so the beach isn’t very crowded, but as we near the Fourth of July, it’s getting busier. I can’t even imagine what this place is going to be like then, given it’s a huge holiday for people.
“I’m good. Benji has been out of town for a few days. He’ll be back this evening, so I was wondering…” Miriam stops short of finishing her sentence when I let out a small laugh. This woman is relentless in trying to set us up. It’s not like I don’t like hanging out with Ben, but nothing is going to come of us. I start law school and the idea of having a boyfriend isn’t something I want to contend with while trying to focus on school.
“Did you think I was going to try to set you up again?” Miriam asks, sounding mock-appalled, a hand resting on her chest. “No, no, dear. I was just wondering if you could run me off the island over to Oliver’s. I’m having brunch with some girlfriends today, and I don’t really drive anywhere but on the island.”
“Of course,” I instantly reply, feeling a little guilty that I thought Miriam was up to no good. “Do you need me to pick you up too?”
“No, Ed will be home by then. He can pick me up. Out on the course, you know,” she jokes. “But that’s why we live here full-time now. He loves himself some golf.”
“I’d love to meet Ed,” I tell her, really just trying to make conversation. “Ben says he’s a great guy, that you landed yourself a good one.”
“Oh, I did. He’s wonderful and after my Walter passed away, I never thought I’d date again, but Ed just swept me right off my feet.” Miriam smiles, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath like she’s remembering when she met Ed. “You know what?” she now says. “You should come to dinner with us tonight. As a thank you for taking me off the island.”
“That’s not necessary, Miriam. I really don’t mind helping you out.”
“I won’t take no for an answer, Aida,” Miriam asserts, narrowing her eyes at me. “It’s all-you-can-eat shrimp at Shrimp and Sail. They have the best sunset view from their outdoor patio. Have you been?”
“I haven’t, but you sold me with the sunset view,” I tell her, giving in quite easily. “I haven’t had a chance to check out many of the local restaurants yet, so this will be nice. Thank you for inviting me.”
“Wonderful,” she says, clapping her hands together. “Let me grab my handbag and put on a little lipstick before we head to Oliver’s.”
“I’ll run down and get my car. I’ll be back to pick you up in about ten minutes,” I tell Miriam, and she nods, heading back toward her bedroom.
After I’ve dropped Miriam off with her friends, who all seemed to know who I was, waving at me and asking about Ben, I went and did a little shopping. The town over the bridge, just off the island, had the cutest little downtown area loaded with shops.
I picked up a dress for my dinner with Miriam and Ed tonight, and after I give myself one last look in the mirror, I head over to Shrimp and Sail.
When I arrive, the place is packed. It seems that people around here love their all-you-can-eat shrimp and I’m not one to argue. I’m pretty sure I can eat my weight in it, especially if it’s coconut shrimp.
“Would you like to put your name in for a table?” the hostess asks me when I walk up to the stand. There are tons of people sitting around waiting, most on their phones, looking like they’ve been here a while.
“I’m meeting some friends,” I say, searching the crowd for Miriam. “An older woman and her husband,” I add. And it’s then that I realize I don’t even know Miriam’s last name.
“Oh, you’re here for Miriam and Ed,” she quickly says, beaming. “They told me you were coming. Here, follow me.” She leads me through the crowd out to the patio and Miriam was right, the view is amazing. The sun hasn’t even begun to set yet, but with the view of the ocean and the pier, I imagine it’s going to be stunning.
“They’re always here for shrimp night,” the hostess says. “Standing reservation, same table, but tonight they changed it up.” She looks over her shoulder at me, hitting me with a look that has me questioning what I’m doing here and what the hell is going on.
But as soon as I reach the table, I know exactly what is going on.
It’s Ben sitting at the table and Miriam and Ed are nowhere to be seen.
“Here you go,” the hostess says, motioning to the table, and pulling out the chair for me.
“Thank you,” and as I sit down, I look over at Ben, and say, “Well, this is a surprise.”
Looking up from his phone, his mouth nearly drops open. “What are you doing here?” he asks, and then he wrinkles up his nose and shakes his head. “Sorry, that sounded shitty. I’m supposed to be meeting my grandma and Ed for dinner.”
“I’m supposed to be meeting your grandma and Ed for dinner,” I echo, laughing at what Miriam has done here. I should have seen it coming but I didn’t. She really pulled a fast one on me, on both of us.
“She really wants us together,” Ben mutters, rolling his eyes. “Not that I don’t like spending time with you,” he quickly adds. “I’m the only single grandchild. I think she’s made it her mission to find me someone. I think she thinks I’m lonely.”
“She’s sweet. I dropped her off to have brunch with her friends today off the island. She said you were out of town.” The conversation flows easily and as much as I was slightly annoyed by Miriam and her matchmaking, it is nice to have someone to talk to.
“There’s no way she would have made it here tonight if she had brunch with her friends,” Ben says, chuckling. “They drink mimosas like water. She’s probably asleep for the night already.”
I laugh out loud, picturing Miriam and her friends drunk in the middle of the day, just like when she invited us for lunch after the beach clean up. That old woman is living her best life. I want to be her when I’m her age.
“So where were you?” I now ask, realizing he didn’t acknowledge my comment earlier about him being out of town.
“I had to take care of something,” he replies, but it comes out in a rush, and I back off asking any more questions about it. “So how about you? What were you up to today besides chauffeuring my grandmother around?”
“I did some shopping off the island. The town is so cute. I got this dress,” I say, standing up a little to show him.
“It’s nice. You look really good, Aida,” Ben says and the way he says it has my cheeks flushing. He’s far sweeter than I originally thought when I called the police on his raging party. I guess first impressions aren’t always right.
“Thank you,” I say, about to return the compliment when our waitress walks up.
“Hi, I’m Katie, I’ll be your server tonight. Will you be ordering off the menu or having the all-you-can-eat shrimp?” she asks, and it’s obvious that she’s annoyed with the crowds and the all-you-can-eat shrimp.
Ben looks over at me, waiting for me to answer. “I’m good with the shrimp if you are.”
“Good with me too,” he replies. “Let’s get some drinks too. I’ll have the paloma. And what do you want, Aida?” he asks me, and I swear the way he says my name makes my heart race. It has this sexy sound to it, something I never thought would happen with my name, but shit he’s good.
“I’ll have the lavender martini.”
“I’ll put those drinks in and come back to get your shrimp order. You can only mix and match up to three types,” she says, her reminder has a harshness to it that tells us not to even ask if we can add more.
“Only three types, Aida, so don’t even try it,” Ben playfully warns as the waitress is walking away. “So what will it be?”
I look over the menu, which has like twelve different types of shrimp and shit, now I do want more than three.
“How about coconut, fried and honey garlic?” I suggest, shocked I was able to narrow down my choices to just three.
“One change,” Ben says, holding up a finger. “Let’s swap the honey garlic for lemon butter. We’ve already got the sweetness from the coconut. We’ll need something to tone that down.”
“Perfect.”
We chat for a bit before the waitress returns with our drinks, setting them down, she asks if we’re ready to order.
Ben places our order and then asks her, “What’s the most shrimp anyone has ever eaten here?” I can tell she wants to roll her eyes at his question, but instead she lets out a hard sigh, answering with, “I don’t know. Probably like a hundred.”
She stands there, waiting for Ben to respond and all he says is, “thanks,” which sends her on her way. “Wow, she’s really unpleasant, huh?” he says. “I mean, I just wanted to know so we could beat the record tonight.”
“I’m not sure she was very accurate on that response either. One hundred shrimp doesn’t really seem like that many,” I respond, laughing. “I bet you and I could take down that many.”
“Or we could see who can eat more,” Ben says, a sly look on his face. “I need to catch up. According to your math, I’m losing right now.”
“My math? You mean the correct math? I won the yoga and the embarrassing story. All you have is the trash.”
“And I guess you could say we tied on the volleyball,” Ben adds, and I pretend to argue before I agree with him. “So, let’s see if I can tie it up and out-shrimp you.”
“You’re on!”
By the time we finish, I’m six lavender martinis deep and Ben has drunk his weight in palomas, but it’s the shrimp that does us in.
“Fifty-one,” Ben groans, holding his stomach, and I let out a drunk giggle. “That puts me one more than you, so guess what? I won!” He thrusts a fist into the air as we walk out of the restaurant.
I sling an arm around his waist, mostly to hold myself up, but also to give him a congratulatory hug. “You are the champion, my friend,” I sing, off-key and loud, letting out a hiccup as I take in a breath.
“All tied up!” Ben shouts, wrapping his arms around my waist, he lifts me off the ground, spinning us both around.
I’m laughing wildly as Ben flings me around in the parking lot, having way more fun than I would have thought, and needing to thank Miriam for setting us up again.
“What’s next?” I ask through giggles. “A race home to see who wins?” The ground feels like it’s moving and with my belly full of shrimp and gin, I’m not sure I could run if I tried.
I look over at Ben, his face a little blurry, so I close one eye and that’s when he pukes all over the gravel parking lot.
“Oh my god, Ben!” I shriek. “Are you okay?” I rush over to him, but he yacks again, making me recoil, but laugh. “You know what this means?” I ask, shouting with far too much enthusiasm. It’s the damn martinis.
“No,” he says, swiping his hand over his mouth, but he starts laughing and adds, “I think I could eat some more. Maybe we should go back.”
“It means I win. You just puked up all your damn shrimp!” I start skipping around, clapping my hands and laughing.
Ben grabs me as I skip by him, hooking an arm around my waist. “You are too much, you know that?” he says, looking down at me.
His gorgeous eyes have me stopping to stare at him. I wet my lips, taking in his face, and I lean closer to him. Something passes between us, this crackling electricity as his body is pressed against mine, the warmth of his skin touching mine.
“I want to kiss you, Aida, but I just puked in the parking lot,” Ben says, and both of us burst out laughing.