The one about the romance of a trip with a stranger

I was working behind the bar of the Green Man in Soho, London. Having come from Spain just a few months earlier, as well as having just turned 18, had put me on this forever lasting state of self discovery and adventure hunger. I wanted to experience everything that life had to offer in all its forms and I wasn’t afraid of anything. 

So when this fifty year old local who would come to the bar often, offered me to spend Christmas with him, I accepted.

He even helped me talk to my boss about it, who was very protective of his favourite member of staff. Not for what I could have meant for him professionally, but rather the fact that he had offered me a job the day after I arrived from Spain after I had practically begged him to hire me. Having just run away from home, and with no bar experience, he seemed to really want to care for me in a way that was overwhelming sweet.



-Lucia just to make sure we’re clear, you’re happy going to Scotland with Mike, who you have just practically just met? - He asked me when we were alone in the office the morning after Mike had helped me ask for the time off. 

I laughed and nodded. I mean what could be any more exciting than visiting a new country with someone who seemed so sweet?



That afternoon, Mike, who was working as a builder on Tottenham Court Road tube station, came with his mac to buy my flight. We wouldn’t fly together as I was only given 12 days holiday and he was going for 3 weeks. Needless to say, he paid for the flight and for every single expense on the trip that followed. 



I arrived in Aberdeen airport on the 20th of December at 09:00. Mike was waiting outside with two cups of coffee from Pret A Manger and his beautiful Labrador, Donut, sticking his head through the car’s window. 



We drove to his countryside cottage in Aberdeenshire. He was fierce behind the wheel, and he would joke around the fact that he couldn’t take his eyes off me so we were going to crash.

He was a very sexy man. He was around my height, 1,70cm, and had brown and white hair tied back. He had some sort of a beard and dressed like a skateboarder. I would learn months what Peter Pan syndrome is and came to the conclusion that he was sort of a classical example.



-Mike, you do know that you’re over 30 years older than me and nothing is going to happen, right? Besides, I have never had sex and I can already tell you that you’re not going to be the one. - I must admit I loved being a heartbreaker. 



The first night at his cottage I sent him to the sofa and he didn’t seem to mind. Donut slept with me on the bed of a beautiful attic room with wooden ceiling. Through the window I could see the mountains covered in snow. At my 18 years of experience on this earth, it was the first time I had a white Christmas. Having been born and raised by the sea in Southern Spain, this sort of festive scenarios only happened in the Hollywood films we would watch at home.



Mike came into the room the next morning with a cup of tea and some butter toast. The full British experience I would think to myself. I smiled at him and a cheeky eye look, I asked him what we had planned for the day. 



-The loch ness - he said with an incredibly hot Scottish accent. 



-Shut the front door - I replied with a classy south London slang and a big fat laugh.



In the car journey to Inverness, I asked Mike about his heartbreaks, my usual ice breaker. He told me about his ex-fiance, and how after she was raped by three men on a girls weekend away in Paris, they had to break their marriage off after a painful year of trying to make it work.

He shed a tear while I was holding his hand, in a moment where I felt sad for him, as well as fear for my life if he was to crash the car. 



We sat down by the shore of the lake waiting to see Nessy for over two hours, with Donut on my lap just as excited of where we were as I was. I stopped feeling my hands and feet after three minutes of sitting down on a cold rock, but my excitement was way bigger than any physiological needs I might have had.

When Mike finally convinced me to give up on the lake’s monster and the immensity of the notorious lake, we went for a Fish and Chips on a lakeside restaurant. 

We checked into an a local bed and breakfast and spent the night drinking and wine and sharing stories by the fire. We really had nothing in common but our interest on each other and a wicked sense of humour. Everyone we would encounter would stare at us with an uncertainty of what was going on. They would probably be battling between me being her sugar baby, which I might have well been, or a lost Spanish daughter that was visiting her dad in Scotland after a lifetime apart. For those thinking the latter, I would make an extra effort to confuse them by touching Mike’s leg and biting my lip. How was that for gossip?



The days to follow were the sweetest dream I never wanted to wake up from. We drove through the beautiful roads of Scotland stopping in different places to spend the night. We would talk about life and dreams in the car while eating cookies and drinking coffees. Donut would eventually let us know that he was also in the car by tapping my shoulder asking for attention.



On Christmas Eve we ate a five star restaurant in a little town which name I won’t ever remember, or be able to pronounce fo that matter. I had a glass of champagne for the first time of my life and I knew it would be my last. What a horribly sophisticated taste. I had rum and coke for the remaining of the holiday. We then went through a night stroll through the forest until we reached a little bridge that held a beautiful river underneath. The sky was completely clear and the moonlight was bright enough to not need a torch. We sat down and looked up. I held Mike’s hand and I cried.



-I am just so happy. I have never seen so much beauty. This is the most romantic feeling I’ve ever felt. - I whispered.



He laughed.



-Wait to see what life has in store for you and your extra special soul. So much more romance to come! 



Mike was a beautiful human being, but he was also incredibly lonely. I could feel that aching on his voice when he spoke of life, lovers and dreams. He was longing for someone to hold at night and someone to touch him with the burning passion of sex. He wasn’t talking about it, but he wished that person would be me, and I felt sad to the thought that I would have ever wanted to break his heart. 

I turned just enough to face him and kissed him. It was a long, nurturing kiss where we both held each other and let the romance grow exponentially, even if we both knew it wouldn’t be more than what it was at that moment. I did not know I could have such a romantic feeling for someone I had not romantic feelings for. 



The next morning he woke me up with a kiss on my cheek after I had drooled all over my side of the pillow.



-Do you always have to be so sweet? - I genuinely wondered. 



-Oh shut up. Today I am teaching you to drive. 



Being in front of the wheel was so thrilling I couldn’t believe my luck. How could I ever explain to my mum that I was learning to drive on the mountain roads of Scotland?

I, of course, never did.

To my surprise, my clumsiness didn’t get in the way of me being a fast learner and after almost two hours, I was really driving us around while signing along to Cypress hill. I was really the queen of the world until we were faced with a car coming our way on a one lane road. I broke so hard that even Mike shouted, and I instantly released my seat belt and jumped to the back seat with Donut. I would then explain to Mike about my fabulous stop and run coping mechanisms, to which he could only say that he was nothing but more in love with me. It was sweet to be loved so fiercely. It allowed me to be myself and really let go of the notion of having to be liked by someone. I wondered in that moment if my future romantic relationships would feel the same.



We spent New Years Eve watching the fireworks in Edingbruh together with 50,000 thousand people. It was one of the most spectacular shows I had seen, and of course my eye make up was completely destroyed by my constant free fall of tears. We spent the following few hours sitting on a bench cuddling each-other and watching people walk by. 



Mike drove me to Aberdeen airport two days later and took us to a coffee shop where we sat down to say our fair wells. He had a cappuccino and a lot on his mind. I had a chai latte and a terrible fear of separation. 

Before he could start saying what had been eating up inside, I told him that I was so incredibly grateful for the adventure he had brought me in, and that I would never forget it. 



-Lucia these past few weeks have been the happiest I have been in years, and if it wasn’t for how much you have ahead of you, I’d ask you to marry me. - He said the last part with a smile to hide the fact that he really meant it. 



-Don’t worry Mike, I swear I will still be talking about you in ten years. 



And here, at 28, I can say that I meant it.