What could go wrong when taking a road trip, alone, across the USA after a break up? Well, I can answer that for you.
Your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. That's what could happen. The universe is really out to get me, these days.
That is...
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May 10, 2022
A loud knock followed by, "Rise and shine. We leave in 20," wakes me up. I groan and roll over to check the time. Ugh it's 6am. It is entirely too early to be awake, but I have to get up and help James because he was kind enough to let me stay here for free. I hop out of bed, pull on a pair of jeans and a light blue tank top before going to the bathroom, brushing my teeth, and throwing my hair up into a ponytail.
When I make it downstairs, James is sitting at the dining room table scrolling through his phone and drinking coffee. He looks up when he hears me walking toward him. "Morning," I greet with all the enthusiasm I can muster at this time of day. "What does today entail," I question while going to the kitchen and making myself a to-go cup of coffee.
James stands and walks into the kitchen where he refills his coffee cup. "Nothing too bad. Just checking on the two pastures of cattle I didn't get to yesterday. Then I can show you around a little more. We could even ride the horses out into some of the empty pastures, if that is something you would like," he looks at me.
"Yeah, I would love that. Let's get to work then," I say as I head outside, with James on my heels.
"So, how was your first night here," he asks while we get into the truck.
"It was pretty great actually. I see the appeal of living here. It's so peaceful and easy to sleep when cars aren't beeping every 5 minutes," I laugh.
When we pull up to the pasture James hops out to open up the gate. I admire him from my spot in the car and quickly look away when he turns around.
At first I don't see any cows but as we drive out further I start to see them. They are huge.
"I just need to check and see if there are any new calves born," he explains while looking out of his now open window. I turn to look at my window and immediately spot a baby.
"Oh, look," I squeal, pointing to the baby cow next to its mom. He looks over to where I'm pointing.
"Good eye," he compliments.
The next 30 minutes we spend counting calves, 31 in total, and we do the same at the next pasture. When we make it back to the house it's 8am and I'm starving. I can tell James is to when his stomach grumbles.
"Do you have stuff to make breakfast in your kitchen," I ask. He gives me a curious looks.
"Yeah..." he finally answers
"Okay, great. You go do whatever you have to outside and I'll make breakfast for us," I smile as I climb down from the truck and march toward the house, not waiting for his response.
I gather the ingredients and in 25 minutes I have breakfast ready and waiting at the dining room table. As I'm setting up the plates, James walk in through the front door. "Mmmm, it smells good in here," he says immediately.
"In here," I call from the dining room. As he rounds the corner I give him a breakdown of the food I prepared, "okay so we have pancakes, bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs," I explain while pointing to each dish. I look over my shoulder as I finish speaking and find James just staring at me, mouth hanging open. I wait for a response and when he says nothing, now staring at the table, I panic. "Sorry, is it too much? I should have asked beforehand-" I rush out, but stop short when he holds up his hand.
He's silent a few minutes before clearing his throat. "No, no it's fine. Great, even," he looks at me, "thank you, Aloura," he says with a smile, still a little shocked.
I blush, "no problem. I figured that I'm not going to be much help around the farm so I could feed you to make up for it," I say, my cheeks still flaming from the look he's giving me.
I move to sit at a chair and he takes the one directly across from me. I pour him a glass of orange juice and then start filling up my plate with food as he does the same. I wait with baited breath as he takes the first bite.
"Oh my god this is good," he groans as he closes his eyes, savoring the taste. I smile, thankful he likes it. "Where did you learn to cook like this," he asks, amazed. I look away, blushing even more than I already was.
"My grandpa. When I stayed with him growing up, he would cook and I learned a lot about it," I explain, looking down at the table. When I finally look back up at him he is looking at me, an odd expression on his face.
"Thank you for breakfast, Aloura," he smiles at me before taking another bite of his food.
"Elle."
"What?"
"You can call me Elle. It's less formal and I'm going to be staying here for a while so we might as well be friendly," I explain.
The corner of his mouth turns up, "Ok then, Elle, I have two horses saddled and ready to go for a ride whenever we finish up here. I figure we can go through some of the empty pastures."
"Sounds good to me," I say through a bite of food.
