Damian by Jessica Wood

few things one of these days,” he said with a suggestive wink.
    “As long as it’s just pottery,” I rolled my eyes.
    He laughed. “You’re no fun.”
    “And you’re all about pure fun,” I threw back at him.
    “Fun’s my middle name.”
    “I thought it was ‘perfect’?” I challenged.
    He chuckled. “I have many middle names.”
    “Of course you do,” I said sarcastically.
    “Oh, by the way, you left this box at the bar when Roger came to unlock your door.” He picked up the Amazon box from beside my front door.
    “Oh! Thanks! I didn’t even see you bring that in.” I took the box from him.
    “What did you get? Pottery stuff?”
    “No, they’re just some books I bought on Amazon recently.”
    “Oh? What do you like reading?”
    “You read?” The second the words came out, I immediately realized how presumptuous and rude that must have sounded.
    To my surprise, Damian laughed. “Well, okay, not really,” he said sheepishly. “So what did you get?” He nodded toward the box.
    “I got some travel books.” I excitedly opened the box.
    “Well, that’s different,” he said in surprise.
    I smiled as I took from the box Lonely Planet guidebooks for Thailand, Peru, and Italy.
    Damian glanced at the books and then gave me a curious look. “Are you about to go on some around-the-world trip?”
    I giggled and realized how different and how far each of these countries were from one another. “No. I actually have no upcoming plans to travel at all. I don’t have enough money for that right now.”
    “You’re not? So…” His voice trailed off as he motioned at the guidebooks.
    “No. I got these travel guides because these are three of the countries I’d like to visit eventually.”
    “Okay…” I could tell he didn’t understand what I was thinking.
    “I have a question for you,” I began. I knew it was unconventional to buy travel guides for places I had no current plans to visit. I knew I owed him some sort of explanation before he thought I was nuts.
    “Shoot.”
    “If you had all the money in the world, what would you do?” I studied him to see how he’d react.
    “I would pay off some debt and buy this building from Roger so I wouldn’t have to pay rent and lease my bar space,” he responded.
    I shook my head. “No, I mean, if money wasn’t an issue, if you could do anything you wanted, what would you do? The question really doesn’t have anything to do with money or finances. I’m asking what you would do that would make you happy—what would you do with all your free time if you didn’t have to worry about money and everything that comes along with money, like working, bills, and responsibilities?”
    “Oh,” he said and paused to think about my question. He then looked at me. “What would you do?”
    “Well, up until a few months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you. But recently I realized that I hadn’t been really living my life the way I wanted. I have read about all these amazing places and pictured them in my head, but I really didn’t know anything about them. I have lived in Iowa almost my entire life, and while I have read so much about the world around me, I’ve never actually experienced any of it for myself. So if I had all the money in the world, I’d travel.”
    “Yeah. I’d love to eventually travel more as well,” he said thoughtfully.
    “Have you traveled anywhere?”
    He shook his head. “Not really, unless you count visiting Vancouver, Canada, which is less than three hours north of Seattle.”
    “Ah. I heard Canada is beautiful. It’s on my bucket list too.”
    “Your bucket list?”
    “Yeah. I made a long bucket list recently of all the things I want to do in my life.”
    “What else is on there?”
    “Well, my main thing on there is that I want to visit all seven continents before I turned thirty, which is why I got the travel guides. I thought they would help motivate me to save money for these trips.”
    “Oh wow.