A Travel Romance - Part 1 of 3
DANIEL
I met him at karaoke night in Roatan
For those of you who know me.. need I go any further?
I cannot quite pin point what I initially liked about Daniel. It wasn't a specific thing. Not the way he looked, the things he said, where he was from, what he did for a living. It was just, him.
No other explanation.
and that's my favorite part.
When you meet someone and you just click for some odd, intangible, inexplicable reason.
It's rare.
It's exciting.
It's unexpected.
It's Daniel.
Daniel is an Alabama boy. A good 'ol southern gent. He's got a southern drawl, too many tattoos, and more stories that I could ever count. He has 10 years on me, pulled out every chair I ever sat on, opened every door, and could talk endlessly about the dreams and ideas that keep him up at night. Having lived a dozen prior lives, he currently finds himself in Roatan to earn his divemasters and scuba instructor license.
He has no phone, no social media (sorry friends, you cannot stalk him), only an ancient iPad that he 'checks twice a week to read the news'
He's the most simple yet intricate, the most direct yet mysterious person I've ever met.
And I ate him right up.
I was introduced to him at karaoke night, pretty briefly, as one of the Coconut Tree dive shop boys, where I would be starting my scuba course in a few days.
We chatted for a bit, my mind was hazy from god only knows how many Salva Vida's I had, and I honestly didn't think much of it. All I remember is thinking it's going to be nice to walk into the dive shop and see a familiar face.
The Dive Shop
Skip ahead a few days and there he was as I walked up for my first day. 'Hey, that's the guy from karaoke' I thought to myself as he said ..
"Morning sunshine, you excited?"
In the afternoon I saw him again, just after I had rubbed a thousand pounds of sunscreen on my face. As I began talking to him he very casually, without warning, set his hand to my face and wiped the excess sunscreen off my eyebrow with his thumb.
That touch was all it took I didn't take my eyes off of him after that
The second day I showed up to the shop.
"Morning sunshine, you ready for day 2?"
Every free moment he had I noticed he would find a way to work his way over to me. The banter was easy, the conversation was effortless.
Weird Daniel, aka Alabama Dan
I went home that evening and said to my friend Meg, who dives at the same shop..
“I think I have a crush on weird Daniel”
“...Alabama Dan? From the dive shop?” - Meg
“Ya, him”
“Oh yeah, he is really cool I like him, wait wait.. ‘weird’ Daniel, he’s not weird, why is he weird??” - Meg
“No, he’s not weird, I don’t know why I said that”
(Blank stare from Meg)
“I just strangely, weirdly, really like him..it's weird. He's weird Daniel”
To this day, Meg and I have yet to have a conversation about him where he is not referenced to as ‘Weird Daniel’ or ‘Alabama Dan’ (AD for short)
It's day 3, the final day of my certification.
“Morning sunshine, last day, you ready?” - Weird Daniel
My course lasted longer than it should have that afternoon and he was gone by the time I got done, not giving me a chance to see if he would yet again be at karaoke that night.
I got home that evening ..
“Did you tell Weird Daniel to come to karaoke tonight?” - Meg
“No, he left before I could ask”
“He’ll be there, we are finding him” - Meg
Karaoke round 2, A Thursday
We walked into Blue Marlin, the Karaoke bar, and I immediately ran into Shane from my diving course. I was chatting with him as Meg disappeared, only to appear literally 2 minutes later with Alabama Dan in tow.
Oh Meg
Aside from celebratory tequila shots with my dive instructor Rudy, Weird Daniel and I spent the entire night glued to each others side.
Until I got called up to sing my karaoke song... of course. I could see Daniel and Meg cheering me on from the middle of the crowd, chatting about something..
Bar close time, Daniel and his buddies were walking my friends and I to a cab, when out of no where my scuba instructor Rudy pulls up in a huge van.
“Want a ride?”
We all pile in. I take the front seat. Daniel is behind me. A couple of minutes in I feel a grip on my right hand, it's Daniel.
Hmmm, maybe I didn’t make this up, maybe he does like me...
Us girls pile out of the car, I hug Alabama Dan goodbye as he says “Hope to see you soon sunshine, maybe a dive tomorrow?”
"Only if you let me use your underwater GoPro case" I reply
...
While getting ready for bed that night, Meg lets me in on her and Alabama Dan’s karaoke chat.
“How are things going with Colleen?” - Meg
“She’s a really cool girl, I like her, I don’t think she feels the same, how do I get her attention?” - AD
“Daniel.. she has been talking to you all night, we basically came here to find you” - Meg
…
Guys are stupid
MEG!!!
A Friday
We show up to the dive shop. I find myself nervous to see him.
why and I so nervous??
We dive, he lets me use his GoPro case, it's great, he's great. Underwater I feel a slight graze of my ear only to look up and see his fins scurrying away.
Gosh he's cute
OMG Colleen, get a grip
The dive ends, we mention we'll be out and about that night, wave goodbye, and we leave.
Like I mentioned, Alabama Dan has no phone. We have no way to contact each other. Meg was friends with a few of the dive shop guys on Facebook messenger. That night one of them messages her. “Daniel keeps bugging me to see where you guys are, pretty sure he wants to see Colleen"
It's a small island, it was a Friday night, everyone goes to the same bar. Us girls show up there, it is pretty loud. I see Daniel right away, he walks right up to me, asks about my day, buys me a beer and says “I’m old, it’s too loud in here, do you want to take a walk to the dock?”
Don't have to ask me twice..
A few beers and 4 hours later we are still out on that dock, getting along famously, chatting about everything under the stars. When we finally make our way back to the main road, he flags down a cab, negotiates a price for me, gives me a long hug goodbye, opens the door for me and off I go.
My thoughts as this cab door closes..
Wait what??
How has he not kissed me yet??
Did we say when we will see each other next??
No we didn’t..
How am I ever supposed to get a hold of him??
Who the fuck doesn’t have a god damn phone??
What.Just.Happened.
Where is Alabama Dan?
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
Saturday goes by, Sunday goes by, Monday goes by. I knew he had Saturday and Sunday off of work, a rare occurrence. I wondered why he had not tried to contact me through his friend and Meg. We had such a wonderful night, did I make that up? I was disappointed, 'ugh this is why catching feelings for someone sucks, it always ends in disappointment’ - my thoughts
Wednesday
I get up early to head to West End, where the dive shop is. To spend the morning at the coffee shop writing for the blog followed by an afternoon dive. I popped in to sign up for the afternoon dive on my way to the coffee shop.
He's there
Daniel gives me a huge hug and before I can even open my mouth to say hello he immediately says
“It feels like 6 years since I have seen you, I had no way to contact you, I wanted to invite you to a BBQ Sunday night...
I should never have let you get in that cab...”
TO BE CONTINUED...
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