Bittersweet Honey

27. The Heat

"I know I can't catch you alone
Doing all that I can for you
To be a woman and man, honey
So I can treat you better."

-Jungle

Toni.

Vietnam's heat hits me like a warm tsunami as soon as we step out of the airport. Me, a Londoner, cannot stand this humidity. Even my Latina genes are not here for it. We can't wait to get to the hotel to cool off.

"I don't have big titties but I'm sweating them off anyways." Ren sighs as we step into our little cab, all crammed with our suitcases.

We ride through the little streets of Hanoi, they're unlike anything I've ever seen, with lots of trees, and little food spots that I will definitely check out later.

"You're awfully quiet Toni, probably still tired from all the sex, right?" Alex comments out of nowhere. I already told them nothing happened last night, but they love to intrude.

"I'm just tired from the flight." And it's no lie. I love to travel, but these constant flights will do something to me eventually.

The driver takes us through a nice part of the city, with big and modern buildings and beautiful luxurious hotels, and a few minutes later we make it to ours. It's pretty generic but I just hope there's air conditioning. 

We immediately check in and it turns out I'll be sharing a room with Ren. Enzo did ask us to make a list of people we could share rooms with from the start, so we all saw this coming at some point of the season. Alex is on another floor with tech guy named Drew, so Ren and I go get settled in.

The room is simple but cute, with two large beds with white linens. I plop down on the bed and enjoy the cold A.C. I have a virtual meeting in a little bit, so I'll shower afterwards and then we'll probably go out and explore the city.

I'm not a cold shower person, but I finish my shower with a cold splash and it actually feels really good, I feel like a new person.

"We should check out that banh mi place we drove by, it looked so good." I tell Ren as I pick out something to wear. I go for a pair of shorts and a delicate silk top with thin straps, something I can stand this heat in.

"You're not seeing your boyfriend tonight?" Ren asks while she puts her laptop away for the night. And I know she's talking about Daniel, but I don't like it when they call him my boyfriend, because he's not. Not yet.

"Daniel's not my boyfriend, and no, we haven't even talked since I left his ranch." Which is weird because I texted him that I landed safely, and I thanked him again for the nice time we spent together, but he didn't text back. I put it in the back of my mind because honestly, yeah, we kiss pretty often now, and we spent a night in the same room, but there's still some inconsistencies like this that mess with my head more than I want to admit.

"Oh, okay, yeah we should totally go out. We'll be working nonstop these couple days so let's go all out tonight." Ren immediately changes in front of me into a little floral dress that looks so cute on her.

"Not sure about going all out, but yeah, let's go get Alex." I say while putting on my sandals.

"Already texted him, we'll meet at the lobby."

"Oh my God, this is so good. It's better than that takeaway on King's Cross." Alex lets out a mix of a sigh and a moan when he tastes his beef pho. It's so true, this is one of the things in life that I enjoy the most, tasting food around the world.