‘I know that,’ Olivia replied spikily, shaking her arm free from Jacob’s grip. ‘I was thinking more about how you speak to people back home.’
‘I email them. There’s an internet cafe every ten metres out here.’
‘But don’t your family mind?’ Olivia asked, suddenly realizing she hadn’t yet rung her own parents.
‘No,’ he replied sharply. ‘They’re fine.’
‘I think my best friend would call out a search party if I didn’t reply to her in a couple of days, let alone weeks.’
‘Who’s your best friend?’
‘Hey, I’m meant to be the one asking the questions, remember?’
‘Oh yeah.’ He slapped his hand against his forehead. ‘How could I forget?’
‘So where do your family live?’
‘Hold on.’ Jacob held up his hand. ‘First we need dessert.’
‘Comeon,’ Olivia whined, ‘that wasn’t part of the deal.’
‘Yes, it was. I said let’s go for a walk and get dessert, andthenyou can ask me a few questions.’
‘A few?’ she scoffed. ‘It’s now been limited to afew.’
‘I can’t give you everything on a plate, Olivia, I need to at least maintain some air of mystery.’ He waved his hands around like a magician mid-conjure. ‘Come on. The longer we stand around here chatting, the less time we have for Q and A.’
‘Are you sure you know where you’re going?’ she groaned.
‘I see bright lights and I smell sugar.’ He pointed towards the end of the street. ‘There’s got to be something sweet down there!’
Olivia squinted just past where Jacob’s finger was pointing. ‘Fine, but let’s hurry up. I have an early train tomorrow morning, so I can’t be out late.’
Jacob
The stark lights of the cafe were blinding. It was noisy and crowded, and the smell of syrup and fried batter laced the air.
‘Do you really think we need all of this?’ Olivia was eyeing the bowls of desserts laid out in front of them.
There were many mantras that Jacob chose to live by, but none more so than ‘there’s always room for pudding’. In hindsight, he may have gone a little over the top, but he wanted to make sure Olivia had a chance to taste all the good ones before they left. He had a feeling she wouldn’t step into a place like this by herself.
‘Why not?’ Jacob picked up a ball of fried dough and popped it into his mouth. ‘You only live once.’
‘And we’ll die much sooner if we eat all this sugar-coated fat.’
‘Aha! I like it when you get all feisty.’
Olivia rolled her eyes, but Jacob couldn’t help but notice the smile that pulled at the corner of her mouth. She prodded suspiciously at another bowl of syrupy dessert.
‘Can I ask you some questions now? Or do I have to wait until after you’ve sent your sugar levels through the roof?’
‘About that …’
‘Here we go,’ she huffed, leaning back in her seat and folding her arms, reminding Jacob simultaneously of a disgruntled old woman and a petulant toddler.
‘You still get to ask me questions, it’s just I thought we could spice it up a bit …’
He cringed at his turn of phrase. Who said ‘spice it up’ these days? The sugar must have gone to his head already.
