Finally, after driving around and a lot of window-gazing, my anticipation reaches a boiling point. “Where are we going, seriously?”
The mention of our itinerary seems to bring Tyler right back on track. “First, I figured you’d want to get something to eat.” He licks his lips, igniting a fresh wave of chills up my spine.
The mere mention of food has my stomach rumbling, even though it hasn’t been long since I finished my cereal. “Sounds great.” Emotional whiplash can do that to a person, I guess. “What’d you have in mind?”
Hetsksand takes his eyes off the road to point a finger at me accusingly. “Nope, I’m not telling you. It’s going to be a surprise.”
“Oh god.” I slump in my seat and roll my head toward him. “Why can’t you just tell me?”
Now it’s Tyler’s turn to look surprised, and a little indignant. “You don’t trust me?”
My answer comes easily. “Of course I trust you. I’m just not a fan of the anticipation.”
Tyler clicks his tongue at me again and shakes his head in mock disappointment, humming for a second as he thinks.“Well, I’m still not going to tell you where we’re going, because I’m not ruining the surprise. But I can give you a hint.” His eyes sparkle with mischief. “We’re going to try a true local delicacy.”
Horror overtakes me at the first thing that comes to mind. “Oh god, please don’t say you’re taking me to eat Spam.” Just the thought of the canned, salty meat is making any notions of hunger dissipate into thin air. It’s some people’s jam, but not mine, even though Hawai?i is all over it.
Tyler throws his head back and laughs, a full, deep belly laugh that I haven’t heard from him since we were together. “First of all, that’s offensive—Spam is delicious and you are a hater. But second of all, no, I’m not making you eat Spam for lunch. I definitely wouldn’t live to see the end of the day if I tried that with you.”
I nod in agreement. “You’re right. You wouldn’t.” I rack my brain for other popular local dishes that I know but come up empty. So I let myself sit back and enjoy the rest of the trip while Tyler queues up some indie music—some things never change—and we coast down the tropical highway toward our secret destination.
After what feels like forever (but was probably only twenty minutes tops; hunger has a way of making seconds feel like hours), Tyler pulls the Jeep off the road into a concrete parking lot littered with cars and a small building. The giant neon sign on the building front stretching up toward the sky illuminates two words: Rainbow Drive-In. The face of the building is painted in a wide array of colors to match the name, and I immediately find it charming.
I peek my head out the window and study the line of peoplesnaking from the ordering counter into the parking lot, which Tyler tries to avoid as he navigates to find us a spot. It’s surprising how urban Honolulu feels—how much like home. Especially with the boy sitting next to me. Even though I’m in a brand-new place, so many things still feel familiar.
“Okay,” he says as he puts the car in park and we hop down, shaking out our car-cramped limbs. “This is the Rainbow Drive-In.”
I study the tables of happy, sun-kissed people enjoying their lunches and chatting. Everyone here already seems so much more smiley and pleasant than they do back at home—but it’s hard to make out what’s on their trays from this far away. “What do they have here that’s supposedly a local delicacy?”
Tyler’s practically vibrating with excitement. “Loco moco.”
“Locowhat?” I’d think he was kidding about the name if he didn’t look so excited about it. Not deterred by my skepticism, Tyler locks the car and we weave through the crowd. He waves me over toward the end of the line and we perch there in the sun, waiting for our turn to order. While we do, he fills me in on what we’re about to eat.
“It’s a classic lunch—or breakfast, or anything, really—combo of white rice, a hamburger patty, a fried egg, and brown gravy. It’s all served stacked on top of each other, and I know it sounds a bit heavy, but it’s truly thebestblend of flavors.” He licks his lips as if he’s already drooling and we take another step toward the counter, closer to our turn. “I was pretty suspicious when Lucas took me here for the first time last year, but I’m telling you, once I tried it, I was a convert.” He makes a motion with his hands next to his ears as if his mind is blown by the conception of this mishmash of food items.
I’m still trying to make sense of it all, distracted by the heavenly smells of grilling meat and sunshine wafting around us. “And this is something that people just…eat often? And it’s supposed to be good?” I screw my nose up in confusion, puzzling it out in my head.
Tyler looks scandalized by my distaste, and so do the people in the line around us eavesdropping on our conversation. Already, there are almost ten more people in line behind us—this place is clearly popular. “Don’t you like hamburgers, Olive?”
“You know I do.” Our million midnight McDonald’s runs when we were dating can attest to that.
“And fried eggs?”
“There’s no other acceptable way that you can put them on a bacon egg and cheese, so yes.”
“And rice?”
“Who doesn’t like rice?” Honestly, why would he even ask that question?
“And brown gravy?”
“Obviously.” I’m not above admitting that now my mouth is starting to water a little bit, both excited by the descriptions and by the fact that it’s been a very, very long time since I’ve eaten at an actual food stand—something Tyler and I haven’t done since we were together and would drive to check out new food trucks in town.
Tyler levels me with a stare. “So then, by that logic, you like all of the ingredients in a loco moco.”
“Okay, but”—I wave my hand around the long line of people standing in front of the drive-in’s window—“putting a hamburger patty on a bed of rice and topping it with a fried egg and gravy sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen.” All of thestarch and meat and grease and…Mmm. That actually sounds delicious.Who am I to question what Hawai?i has declared a delicacy?
Tyler simply shrugs as the line moves forward, unperturbed by that prospect. “Then it’s a great way to go.”
