It also had a small gym enclosed with glass walls. I worked out and watched the families in that huge indoor pool. I would have been in the pool, but my girlfriend forgot her bathing suit, as usual. When I got back up to the room, she was watching tv, mad at me because I had left her alone in a small hotel room...
The rum and Coke was delicious. I felt that I should be enjoying myself now, and that made me happy. Other people would certainly think I was enjoying myself, if they bothered to notice me, and that made me happier still.
I could tell she wasn’t too terribly mad at me as she was happily looking at postcards and other knick knacks that she had just purchased from the gift shop immediately next to the lounge, but I still didn’t want to think about her right now. I was on vacation regardless of how she felt.
I had a great view of the fireplace, a two-sided, free-standing number in the center of the building. A large cylindrical copper hood graced it, and the stone ran the length of the flue all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling was vaulted and, directly above the fireplace, very high. In front of this side of the fireplace were a leather sofa and two large leather chairs. And even on a day like today, there was a fire. The lady who had collapsed had collapsed near the fireplace, and I watched as she was now taken away by paramedics, and at the same time, I wished I were sitting over by the fire.
Tonight we were planning on eating at the restaurant here, in this building. It was a fancy place to eat. But now, for lunch, I was going to get a hamburger in the building that housed the cheap food and the cheap touristy stuff, basically a convenience store with an old-fashioned burger place in the middle.
“Do you want to get lunch? I’m starving,” I said.
She said no, not yet. There was one more thing she needed to buy. I could go eat now if I wanted to.
I wanted to. So I headed outside and towards the other buildings, which bordered the parking lot.
I smelled dust, asphalt, and hot pine resin, and I liked it. I would have liked sitting out in the parking lot for a while, but I kept going because I was hungry. I walked past a wooden building that was shaded. The shade was the color of night but, I could still see people playing basketball inside. The sign on the building stated that it was for park workers only. I took a few steps through a large barn-like opening. Those I saw playing were young and happy and wet with perspiration. Behind the basketball court was a bench and some barbells and dumbbells. I wanted to use the equipment, but I told myself that maybe it was better thinking about it than actually doing it. After all, I was on vacation.