Orange You Sorry? - The Coconut Chronicles: Two Guys, One Caribbean Dream House - page 71

This was the island's only resort (later to become the W Hotel)—expensive and defin-
itely not our thing.
“Actually,” I began, milking the moment for all it was worth, “we're staying at the
Puerto Real Inn .”
This was a lovely mid-island hostelry—with a truly excellent restaurant attached—that
we'd discovered during our second visit to the island.
“Oh my gosh!” he replied, giggling nervously as though I'd told him we were staying
in a yurt.
“Anyway,” I said, “thanks for picking us up. Let's meet later this week to go over next
steps.”
He seemed taken aback.
“Hmm, I'm not sure that's going to work. Frankly I've got a lot going on right now,”
he replied, stalling as if I'd asked him to the prom.
But I wasn't about to let him off the hook.
“We're free anytime—morning, noon, or night. I'm sure you can fit us in.”
He stared at his Blackberry for what seemed like an eternity before answering.
“I'll do my best!” he announced through clenched teeth, fronted by a stunningly insin-
cere smile.
With that, he waddled out to his truck, climbed in and sped away.
☼ ☼ ☼
I left a couple of messages for Daniel that week. Eventually he called back, sounding thor-
oughly peeved.
I reeled off a list of things we wanted done before our return in April, including having
the upstairs interior painted.
“I'm going to paint a swatch on the wall and leave the can right below it so there won't
be any confusion. Also, I'll register the color at Nales. ”
This was the biggest hardware store on the island, which—I had learned to my de-
light—kept a registry of paint colors categorized by customer name.
I wasn't about to leave anything to chance with this lightweight.
“Fine,” he said. “I'll get it done.”
I could almost picture him stamping his cloven hoof.
“Also, we're stopping in San Juan on our way home to buy more furniture. We'll send
you a list of what we've bought so you'll know what to expect.”
I could almost feel his disdain rolling towards me in giant waves.
“ Fabulous . Enjoy your stay.”
☼ ☼ ☼
Actually, we did.