There is a word, it describes be perfectly; wan•der•lust /?wänd?r?l?st/ noun, a strong desire to travel. This is the word describes me, Maisy Pratt. I travel all over the world; it’s my passion. I’ve always loved it. Ever since I was in grade school, my family and I would go on trips every year to a new place. My sisters and I would always have the time of our lives because we got to spend a week in a tropical location chilling on the beach, or doing some life-threatening adventure like zip lining! But when I graduated from college to get my biology degree, my parents told my sisters and me that it was time to end these yearly trips. One year and a few months after this news was released, my grandparents passed away, leaving a shockingly large fortune behind. It was split amongst my parents, my oldest sister (Morgane), my next oldest sister (Maryland), and me. So with my new fortune and knowledge, I decided to continue to travel on my own.

This was quite a big decision for me. Everyone had expected me to find a nice guy after college, marry him, have some kids, and live a prosperous life. But that’s too mainstream for me, so I decided to venture off on my own. In order to have some source of income, I used what I remembered learning in college and traveled around the world helping scientists discover unknown plant species. All my trips were paid for – it’s like the best job ever! Of course I get a week to vacation wherever I am after the task is completed.


So far, I’ve been to over 50 different places in my second year out of college (which took up 4 years of my life after high school). So that’s what has happened up until this point. Currently I am on my newest trip to Aruba. It’s a small island about 20 miles off the coast of Venezuela. It’s the “A” of the ABC islands. Aruba’s motto is, “Aruba, one happy island” and it lives up to that!

When I was in high school, my family and I took a trip to Aruba; I loved it so much and had intensions to go back but, that never happened. When I heard this was my next assignment, I was so incredibly ecstatic that I asked for an extra week to vacation!

“Hey boss, I was wondering if I could take and extra week to vacation in Aruba.” I said with confidence…but also with nervousness.

“Well sure, Maisy! But you know that you’ll have to pay for that week yourself, right?” He asked.

“Yes of course! Thank you so much!” I said, cheerily.

That brings us to the present time. I just finished walking around my resort, so I went to a patio area to see if I could make some friends. I sat down at a bar-type table next to a fine looking guy about my age. And when I say fine, I mean fine.
“Hello!” I say to him, happily.
“Oh hey,” He said, “Enjoying your stay so far?”
“Why yes! It’s quite lovely here…actually I’ve only been here for about an hour,” I said, chuckling a little.
“Well I actually own this resort, so if there’s anything you need, just come find me!” He said.
“Oh my goodness that’s amazing!” I said, shocked. Then I thought for a second and said, “Are you? No, no. You couldn’t be. The chances of that happening are like slim to none.”
“Am I…who?!” He said, “Tell me! Who knows, I could be who you think I am…Maisy Pratt.”
“OH MY GOSH JORGE IT IS YOU! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU HAVE YOUR OWN RESORT!” I yelled.
“Woahh calm down now! It’s shocking, I know. Actually to be honest, I thought I’d never see you again…I hope that doesn’t sound mean!” Jorge replied.
“Nah, I thought the same thing. Wow. Jorge Rocha, you turned out to be quite the…attractive gentleman,” I say, with no shame or embarrassment what-so-ever.
“Thanks! I must say that you’re quite beautiful,” Said Jorge, blushing a little.
“Ohh Jorge,” I slipped him a piece of paper with my number on it, “all me, maybe you could show me around the island later.” I said, really, really hoping he would actually call me.
“For sure, hey meet me here at 6:00 and we can go out for dinner first,” He said.
Yep, I thought to myself, he definitely wants me.
“Okay no problem! Should I dress up or something?” I asked.
“Yes, wear a….casually fancy dress. If that even makes sense!” He said, laughing a little.
“Yep, that makes perfect sense to me! I’ll see you here at 6:00?” I said, then winked and strutted away.

Wow, did I really just wink? Really Maisy, you winked. Oh well, I can’t take it back now. I then continued to my room because I only had 3 hours to get ready!
I hurried back to my room to begin preparing. Shower first; once that’s done I have to figure out what to wear. Oh geez, this could take a while! After about fourty-five minutes of trying on clothes, I decided on a short, draped chiffon dress with a sweetheart neckline in a champagne color. It was perfect! As of now I have an hour and a half to do make up, hair, find a purse, and shoes. Make up doesn’t take that long because I don’t wear much. I decided to put half of my long, curly, auburn hair up, and the other half down. Ugh, but that looks too fancy. Just a casual messy side braid should be fine. Okay, now shoes. I found a cute pair of (shockingly) comfy sparkly nude heals. I’m like 5’ 4” so three inch heals should be fine. Jorge is tall anyways. Now for my purse…a nude clutch will be good.


I got all finished getting ready with 5 minutes to spare! So I start to head on down to the patio area. When I arrive, Jorge is waiting, and smiling! This guy sure is sweet! And he’s good looking too! Yes! A nice, attractive, tall, fashionable, guy; he’s like, perfect!
“Wow, you look amazing!” Jorge comments.
“Thank you! You’re lookin’ fine yourself.” I say.
“So, shall we go? He said.
“Indeed we shall! Where exactly are we going?” I asked.
“We’ll go to the Barefoot Restaurant, it’s one of the nicest bistros I’ve been to. It’s also my favorite one!” He tells me.
“Oh lovely!” I say, “Are we walking there?”
“Nope, I have a vehicle we can take.” He says. Then he leads me out to a side parking lot near the front of the resort. He takes me to a new Jeep Wrangler…and I just about loose it.
“Oh…my…goodness… I LOVE JEEPS! Yours is so shiny and new! Oh and it has all these nice accessories…Jorge I might need to steal this from you,” I said, still trying to calm myself down. At this point he’s crying of laughter.
“Okay, sure Maisy; you can steal it sometime.”
“Neato burrito. Shall we be on our way then? I said, trying to change the subject.
“Oh, oh yes of course.” He said, sensing my slight embarrassment.

With that, we rode off to our destination. When we arrived, I was appalled at how beautiful this place was. It’s like a gem in the ruins. The bistro had a modern style with sharp edges and constructed with large portions of metal and glass. The two story building was built on a hill. The mail level has an open patio area, and the upper level was like a deck. It is located on a beach…I could do some research here…I’ll save that for later! Right now I’m on a date. Focus, Maisy! Focus!

While I was gazing in awe at the beautiful building in front of me, Jorge had opened the door for me to get out of the Jeep.
“Oh!” I said, a little surprised, “Thank you so much!”
“No problem!” said Jorge, smiling.
“Wow, this place it gorgeous. It must be expensive here.”
“It’s not too bad. But eat up now, you’ll need energy for our after dinner activity.” Said Jorge
“…what are we going to do?” I asked, curious.
“Just you wait…” he said with a smirk.

After our super fancy three-course meal of dolmades and saganki (for an appetizer), kokonisto for a main dish, and baklava and gelato for desert…we were ready for the mystery activity. Jorge lead me down a hall to a door, which opened to some stairs and another door. Only this door at the end of the stairs had a bouncer. Jorge said something to the bouncer man in Papiamento (the local language) and we were allowed in. the door opened up to…A CLUB! I love to dance so this was an awesome surprise for me! See, you would think that the music could be heard from the bistro area, but the walls inside the club were sound proofed so no noise could be heard outside the noisy club.
“Is this okay?” Jorge asked, over the loud music.
“Oh yes! I love dancing and going to clubs!” I yelled in return.
“Thank goodness!” he said, “Do you want to dance with me then?”
“Well of course!” I said.

We danced for what seemed like hours, and then around 11:00 we took a walk on the beach just outside the bistro/club, then made our way back to Jorge’s Jeep around 12:00 and drove back to the resort.

When we got back to the resort, Jorge walked me to my room.
“I had so much fun tonight,” He told me.
“Yeah, me too; and thank you so much for everything by the way,” I replied.
“You’re welcome. Thank you for joining me this evening.”
“Oh no problem! It was so much fun! I’m so glad we ran into each other.” I replied, tired from all the dancing.
“Me too; how long will you be here this time?” He asked.
“I’ll be here for three weeks this time!”
“Well then I’ll make sure to see you every day for the next three weeks.” Jorge said, with a cute smile on his cute face.
“For sure; you know my room number and phone number, so when you want to meet up, just call me!” I mustered. “Well thanks again Jorge, goodnight now!”
“Goodnight Maisy, have the sweetest of dreams” Jorge said, giving me a kiss.

Oh. My. Gosh. HE KISSED ME! SCORE! Heh heh heh… I knew he wanted me. And he wants to see me every day?! Wow, this guy is determined, and cute! Oh but what if I catch feelings? I told myself I wouldn’t let that happen. Well, we’ll find out what happens I guess.

The next week was dedicated to my work. I did see Jorge in the evenings. We either hung out on the beach, went out to dinner, or just walked around the towns. One evening we were just walking along Eagle Beach…
“Jorge,” I said, “what’s going to happen when I leave?” I asked him.
“What do you mean?” he confusedly asked.
“Well we obviously like each other quite a bit. And what’s going to happen when I leave? Are we just ‘stay in contact’ or something?” I exclaimed.
“Oh Maisy, just stay here with me. I have enough money to support us for a life time. We could be happy here, the two of us.” Jorge told me, with a meaningful look on his face.
“I would love to…but I have a great job, and traveling has always been my passion. I couldn’t just give that up…and my job…ugh. I don’t know.” I started to get teary eyed. “But I can’t leave you, Jorge.”
“Well you’re here for another two weeks. You have time to think about it. But I still want to see you every day, okay?” He encouraged.
“Okay.” I said, considering his words.
“Now let’s go back, you seem tired.”

As we walked back to the resort, he casually put his arm around me. When we returned to my room, Jorge and I watched a movie then…actually I fell asleep during the movie so I don’t know when he left. But I woke up in my bed with a note on the bedside table that read,
“Maisy,
Please consider what I said last night. Today I have a special thing planned for us. Be at our meeting spot around 11:30. I’ll be there waiting for you.”
-Jorge”

Since I woke up at 10:00, I had time to get up and look presentable. When I got to our meeting place (the patio area where we were reunited), Jorge was there waiting, just as he said he’d be.
“Hey, good morning beautiful.” He said, giving me a kiss.
“Oh good morning!” I drearily murmured, attempting to smile.
“You ready for today?”
“I guess so! There’s no going back.” I said, thinking of the song “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry.
“Okay Maisy. Let’s get going then!” Jorge told me, chuckling as we began to make our way to his jeep.

Our location appeard to be a house… it must be his. And boy was it pretty! The house was built on the coast of the island, with a short path leading to the gorgeous turquoise waters and a warm, private, sandy beach. His house was a modern style, very open. The house had huge windows and a nice back deck that overlooked to Caribbean Sea, which appeared to go on forever. When we got out, Jorge said,
“Yep, this is my home.”
“Oh my, this is gorgeous! And you live here by yourself? Alone?” I asked him.
“Yeah, well unless you move in with me.” Jorge said, with hope and longing in his voice.
“I…I could…but there’s so much to think about…”
“I know, I know. You have plenty of time to think about it. I surely won’t rush you!
“Ohh Jorge, words cannot describe you.” I thought out loud.
“Maisy, there’s something I have to tell you…but first let’s go inside.”

We went inside and sad down on the back deck.
“So, what did you want to tell me?” I curiously asked.
“Yeah…I wanted to say that…I love you, Maisy Pratt.”
I smiled, “Jorge, I love you too!”
“Wow! That’s good! I got so nervous because I was worried you wouldn’t say it in return!” he exclaimed with excitement.
“I try” I said, shrugging.
“Let’s go swimming!” Jorge said quickly, picking me up and carrying me to the beach. “I hope you brought your suit!”
“Psh, I always wear my swimming suit.” I say, confident in myself.

We swam for a while longer, then Jorge went inside and he made us lunch. We talked for a long time that afternoon.
“Jorge, I…I have an idea.”
“And what would that be?”
“What if you came with me?”
“What? Could we do that?”
“Well it’s plausible. See you could give the resort to Felipe, like you talked about doing. You could sell or rent out your home – trust me, with its location you could get anyone to rent/buy it. But you would come travel with me.” I say to him, hoping he’d agree.
“Maisy…all this would take time and money…and what would I do while you work? Just sit at our room and do nothing?” He argued, with a little anger in his voice.
“Oh goodness no! you could help me, I’ll train you while we work, I could talk to my and maybe he would even pay you.”
“Well…if that’s what you want…”
“Think about it, we have some time. This would be a big decision and…”
“I’ll do it.” Jorge quickly exclaimed.
“…and you would...wait, what?! Oh my gosh really?” I said, shocked.
“Yes, Maisy I love you, and if that means changing my home to be with you, I’ll do it.” Jorge told me.

I was speechless. I can’t believe he’d travel with me! There’s so much to do now, and what about his business…
“So, you’ll give the resort to Felipe? I asked, excitedly.
“Yep, it’s actually 20% his already.” Jorge proudly said.
“Well, how long would this take? And your house…I think you should rent it out…I’ll have to call my boss because…you….so much to do…”
“Maisy dear, calm down! We’ll take care of that tomorrow. For now let’s just relax, watch a movie, eat dinner, and go to bed. We’ll worry about the details of things tomorrow.”
“Okay, okay,” I told both Jorge and myself, “relax for now.”

Well I ended up falling asleep while watching a movie after dinner. I don’t know what Jorge did, but I woke up in his bed with one of his t-shirts on. I mean, I’m not complaining! When I wandered into the kitchen, he was making breakfast.
“Good morning beautiful!” he said.
“Good morning! What are you cooking?” I asked, still tired.
“Cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit smoothies. Is that alright?”
“OH DEAR GOD THAT IS PERFECT!” I blurted.
“Well that’s good!” he said, while laughing.
“Oh Jorge, we have a long, complicated journey ahead of us.” I told him.
“Yes we do, but we’ll get through it together.” He replied, smiling and pulling me in for a kiss.