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“All right, all right, we'll go in and have a snack.”
“Thai iced tea!”
Arianna loved this about American restaurants and Singaporean food spots. They give you a bit of everything. America didn't have the same street food and hawker culture that Arianna was used to back home, but some of the spirit was the same. Thai iced tea, satay, and Chinese potstickers. Now that was a meal Arianna could take pictures of and post online.
Being with someone else made it perfect. The food was barely enough for Arianna when she was hungry, but now she could share it with Elle, who was aghast when Arianna took a bite of the satay and declared that it needed hot sauce. No, more. More than that. She went up to the counter and asked the proprietress for her hottest sauce. When she didn't immediately get a response, Arianna realized she should switch to asking in Malay, which resulted in a small bottle in her hand before she finished her sentence.
“Good God,” Elle muttered. “You were going on about bread last night?”
Arianna held up some food with a metal fork, her wooden chopsticks clinking against the to-go box they ate from by the window. “Try it! You'll love it.”
“I'm good. I need my tongue for later.”
Arianna was in the middle of her bite when she heard that. “Ooh, you're naughty.”
They carried the box of fusion food around town, the plastic bag dangling from Arianna's hand as she pointed to this mural, that boutique, and the accordion train meandering around a wide corner. Occasionally, she asked Elle why someone lived on the street or who that man was attempting to sell her something on a corner. I've got a feeling he doesn't have a license to do that. She had seen things like that in Los Angeles, but the vibe in Seattle was different. People were more concentrated, more brazen in talking to tourists while locals like Elle kept walking with their chins pointed forward.
Naturally, Elle didn't have a perfect answer.
The dichotomy of what little some people had versus what Elle offered was not lost on Arianna, but it was easy to forget when she was swept up in the world of how the rich and famous lived in Seattle. Elle had secured reservations at one of the most in-demand restaurants Downtown, and there was no lack of buying Arianna whatever she wanted when she saw something that caught her imagination. I don't have a lot of room at my place… The things Arianna allowed her girlfriend to buy her amounted to touristy things, like a North Face pullover and magnets for her fridge. For Kaylinn she acquired a stuffed bear that held a heart saying I LOVE THE RAIN with a pattern of Washington state all over the poor thing's face. Kaylinn will love something like this. Even if Elle expressed surprise at this so-called taste.
Arianna wanted folded-up maps with hand-drawn landmarks. Books in English on the local flora and fauna. A blue coffee mug that said SEATTLE ’24. The first thing to absolutely flummox her was a character that she assumed was Seattle's official mascot: a giant, hairy ape always depicted throwing peace signs, wearing sunglasses, and strutting through the woods.
“That's Bigfoot,” Elle said. “You know… Sasquatch?”
Arianna had no idea who that was, but she wanted three.
“I'm sorry if this is boring for you.” Arianna held a small stuffed Sasquatch, her biggest purchase she'd attempt to stuff in her luggage, as they sat in a Starbucks to catch their breath and rest their feet. This is supposedly the flagship store… The very first Starbucks… dare Arianna believe that she had stepped into a pivotal piece of history? “I like to do silly touristy things in a new place with other people. You should have seen me the first time I ever went to Los Angeles.” She placed Bigfoot in the middle of their table, balancing him between Elle's Americano and the frappe Arianna indulged in because damnit, she was on vacation. “I took pictures of everything. To be fair, those are still some of the most liked pictures on my Instagram. Especially when I got a shot of the Hollywood sign up on the hill. People love LA.”
“So I've noticed. It is a nice enough town. I've thought about moving there.”
Arianna perked up from the looking at the pictures she had taken so far on that trip. “Really? Why?”
“It's where my business is headquartered. Right now, I'm traveling between here and LA and Singapore. It would be a lot easier to simply live in Los Angeles. More expensive, but maybe I could get a little house instead of living in the middle of the city. Anyway, anywhere here is less expensive than Singapore.”
“You could still move to Singapore.” Arianna licked whipped cream off her straw. “You'd have a smaller place for what you pay now, but you'd be… near work?”
“You. You meant to say I'd be near you.”
“Is that so bad?”
Elle offered Arianna her hand. Which was strange to think about, because weren't they in public? Nobody here cares. Already, Arianna had seen more gay couples than she did in Los Angeles, and that was a feat. Seattleites were so colorful, with gregarious hairstyles and an eclectic mix of sweatshirts and riotous clothing that would make anyone stick out on the MRT. Tour guides written in Mandarin had warned Arianna that the Pacific Northwest was one of the most secular, most “progressive" places in all of America. “There is a natural call to rebuke authority in cities like Seattle and Portland,” one book had told her. “That includes the tyranny of basic hygiene.”
She wondered if Sasquatch was a smelly guy.
“Don't think I haven't been thinking about things,” Elle said when she had Arianna's attention again. “Part of the reason I'm considering a move to Los Angeles is because it would make it easier for us to meet. Assuming you're flying the same route a couple of years from now.”
Before meeting Elle, the thought of doing the same route every week for three years would have driven Arianna insane. It would have implied that she didn't move up at all unless she had somehow bagged Esther or – dare she dream it – Rachel's jobs on the route. Even then, it was customary to move around a bit after a promotion. I wanted that upcoming Hawaiian route. But if her girlfriend, whom she was falling in love with, lived in Los Angeles…
It made practical sense to stay the course.
“Being in such a long-distance relationship is tough,” Arianna admitted. “I don't want things to change between us, but also…”
Elle filled in the thought for her. “How long can we go on like this, right?”
Arianna nodded. “Which sounds more dire than it is.”
“I think it's only dire if people find out about us. Which reminds me… there's something I want to tell you later tonight. When we get back to my place.”
