Engaged

Chapter 8: Pina Colada

"This intro is too long," I complained just as Nailah came in with our drinks. I swear, Good Will Hunting has a chapter just for the introduction. 

"Tell me about it," she said, placing the cups down in front of us. I looked into the red Solo cup with delight as I saw a white slushie. Pina Colada. Yes. Knowing Nailah, it most likely has 90% alcohol. She loves drinking, claiming it takes her mind off things. Yet she's afraid of becoming an alcoholic, so she just socially drinks with us. 

Habib ignored the cup, as he was already making his second plate of food. I'm on my last crab. I think I ate four. 

"Matt Damon was cute in a white boy kind of way. And his friend. What's his name in real life?" 

"Ben Affleck?" 

"Yeah, him." We laughed as Habib groaned with a stuffed mouth, and about two pieces sweet plantain hanging out of his mouth. I honestly don't know if he's groaning over the food, or our girly banter.

Back to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, was is the key word. They're not so attractive to me now. The only ones with timeless beauty to me seem to be Zac Efron (because honestly, he looks better every time he gets on camera), and Leonardo Decaprio.

Obviously, I'm not much of a fan of the fair skinned, straight hair type, but I've never been honesty attracted to them. They seem overrated. And yes, I know those are American films, so their definition of beauty is different. Applonia though, is the country full of beautiful people with all types of skin colors and hair types.

So we don't really have a standard beautiful here. Since we can't say anyone is ugy, it's kind of easy to judge each other based on personality. It's the tourists that we have to look out for. They come here and are starstruck and bedazzled by the people, no matter what their preference is.

For the young guys, they make easy targets. And for others, it's really annoying. 

Tourists actually aren't allowed past certain borders, and we have patrol to make sure they don't pass them. There are some places here that have high levels of ability activity, and we have to keep that from them.

Ironically, our TP (Toursist Patrol) use their ability to safey guide away tourists. We kind of need them because some of or citizens are a little ill-tempered. We all know if someone's a citizen (per ability), but it'd be unsafe to have our people escort them off of the premises.

"Don't think I'm letting you get away with that racist statement," Habib said, after swallowing down his plantains and picking up a scoop of rice and peas.

"But I-"

"I know you didn't mean it that way, but what if I introduced you to one of my ugly, white foreign clients? Or even my cute white clients?" he cut me off.

"The few to none?" I stated about the cute client part. I was turning on my irresistible gamine charm.

"Yes," Nailah cut in. "How would you feel if I said you were cute in a light skin kind of way?"

"I'd be flattered and respond with, 'You're not too bad yourself miss Chocolate," I retorted, smiling.

She couldn't help but smile back, as we both sipped on our drinks. My cup was already empty. Luckily, she brought in the blender, so I was able to refill my cup. The drink is strong though. I actually prefer it today. Nailah put her cup out and rolled her eyes. I obliged and refilled it for her.

"Not everyone's as thick skinned as you though. And if you're even in a mood other than your usual mood or better, a simple Hello would but you on attack mode." She's pleading, trying to get me to understand. How cute.