Either way, WTF CLARA! Can you please text me when you land? I just checked the weather for Tulum and there’s a storm coming??
All right looks like there were no plane crashes today. But I also checked to see if anyone was abducted or murdered in Cancun and its surrounding areas and looks like no. So that means you’re alive. I guess I’m relieved.
Today:
Uh. Have you seen your mom’s IG? Who is that guy in the tight shorts?
I almost dropped my phone. Last night came back to me in quick flashes.Ugggghhhhh social media influencers!I wanted to respond to Rose and Hamlet, but I needed to shower. To clear my head.
An hour later, I managed to make it to the hotel café, essentially a long balcony filled with tables lined alongside the beach. My mom was already there, wearing a large straw hat and sunglasses, nursing a giant cup of coffee. I sat down between her and Kendra, who was drinking aBloody Maryof all things. I held back a gag.
“Morning, filha,” Mãe said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Want some coffee?”
I took her mug gratefully. “Yes, please.”
Kendra clinked my mug with her Bloody Mary. “You were a total star last night. My DMs arecrazythis morning. Everyone wants to know who you are!”
That made me cringe. “Oh God.”
“Oh, yes. I got an earful from Adrian this morning,” my mom said with an eye roll. “Thanks for getting me in trouble, friends.”
Kendra laughed. “You’re always welcome. Anyway, Clara, you have to join us for theactivitiestoday,” she said, her round, mirrored sunglasses showing my grimacing expression reflected back at me.
I looked at my mom, who grinned and dug into a plate of eggs. “Oh yeah. You’re coming.”
“What are theseactivities?”
Kendra answered, “First, we’re going shopping. There are a few sponsored posts we have to do with local boutiques. Then we’re hitting up a spa. Lunch at a resort later. Then back here for a yoga class and chill before dinner.”
I shrugged. “Cool, I’m in.”
Mãe squealed. “I’m so glad you’re here!”
With my headache subsiding and the sun shining, I couldn’t help but smile and agree.
CHAPTER 30
Tulum has one long main street, and it’s where you can find a lot of the boutiques, cafés, and restaurants. It was a very sleepy town that had somehow, in the past few years, become wildly popular.
Riding a sleek new beach cruiser, I glanced at the squad I was with. Jeremy and Kendra had joined us, along with a few others: a photographer who traveled the world taking photos of fancy hotels, a stylist for celebs, someone who ate a lot of fancy food, and an interior designer. My mom and Kendra were both fashion influencers—meaning they wore free designer clothes and took lots of photos and collaborated with designers sometimes. Jeremy was an architect who also happened to be a model.
The day was sunny, but there were dark clouds on the horizon. Apparently, it was the rainy season, so the weather was temperamental. We had already hit up a few boutiques where everyone had gotten free stuff (including me! A pair of insanely overpriced leather sandals and a straw hat—both of which I decided to wear immediately) and taken a thousand and one photos.
We were on our way to the spa at yet another eco resort. I found a lot of this stuff really over-the-top, but at the same time I couldn’t deny that it was a pretty sweet deal. Getting paid to shop and relax? To eat fancy food and stay at posh boutique hotels? Okay!
“That hat looks fab, Clara Shin!” Kendra shouted to me from her bike, snapping a photo and making her bike teeter precariously for a few seconds while doing so. I couldn’t believe none of them had eaten it while filming and riding. It was bound to happen, right? Bonus points if caught on camera. I was almost willing to do it for them.
While everyone else had been glued to their phones all afternoon, I decided to leave mine back in my room. One, international roaming charges were no joke. Two, avoiding Hamlet and Rose.
I popped a wheelie, making someone behind me scream with fear. My mom called out, “You better not hurt yourself on this trip, or Adrian will kill me!” He would, but it was my dad who taught me all the tricks on my eighth birthday. I felt another wave of homesickness, but the kind where I wished my dad could behere to experience this with me. I couldn’t remember the last time he traveled anywhere by plane. He would have foodie-fainted over the ceviche we’d had at the party last night.
A couple of spa staff were waiting for us at the entrance that was shaded by tall palms. They took our bikes (bikevalet?), and we entered the white adobe-style building. After getting signed in and bundled up in plush robes, we got our various treatments—everything was planned out for us: first, a dip in the various pools. I stayed in the cold one, sweaty from the bike ride. Then we got hot stone massages in individual huts outside. I made sure to stick close to my mom. I didn’t want to be rubbed down while naked next to a stranger. Then it was time for a facial. My face was glowing afterward, and I felt like an angel. When everyone was in the saunas and steam rooms, I went poolside and took a nap. Throughout everything, we were served bottled water with slices of lemon and various fruits. My mom took a Story of me with an orange slice covering my teeth as she asked me a bunch of questions, cracking up the entire time. I also let her take photos of me with cucumbers on my eyes, even though apparently that was a spa clichéand no one really did that anymore.
By the time we got back to the hotel, I was pooped from pampering. Everyone seemed to feel the same and went off to their villas to relax until the yoga class.
My mom and I lay back in lounge chairs facing the Caribbean Sea, each with a coconut in hand. People actually did that here. I was hoping for a sunset, but Mãe told me we were facing east. She said we could have dinner on the jungle side tomorrowto watch it to the west. As a warm breeze drifted lazily over us, I glanced at my mom and smiled. “Today was fun.”
She rolled over onto her side to look at me. “Right? I’m so glad you made it, meu bem.” When my mom wasn’t around her posse, she used Portuguese mom-expressions like “meu bem.”
