DAY 7 PART 1

I wish I could sit here and write about how fabulous the amenities are at the Riu Montego Bay and how much fun I had jet skiing
or hanging out at the swim up bar but I can’t. My last day in Jamaica is spent restless and I feel as if I shouldn’t be wasting what
time I have left stuck behind these gates granted it’s a beautiful property but I’m finding it very hard to “relax” and wind down.
I’ve traveled to many AI resorts on different islands and this is no different from that and what I once might have considered a
fabulous time has now changed for me. This is not what I want. The bed is huge and there are no boards stuck in my back but
I miss those boards. The food is in abundance but nothing compares to the box food on the hill I’ve become accustomed to each night.
The alcohol is free and flowing but it doesn’t taste the same. I try and promise myself that although my trip is coming to an end and
tomorrow I will be back on a plane I will not let my last day in Jamaica be solemn. Embrace the moments left but I can’t help but wish
I could enter a state of timelessness like Einstein suggests if traveling at the speed of light, time would cease completely if only Andre
and I could exist trapped in timelessness but whether there are transitions between present past and future or not the reality is that
no matter how much I wish for time to cease I will have to leave and my time here will come to an end.

We spend the day walking along the boardwalk sitting by the pool and we’ve found the sports bar which has a pool table so we’ve c
ontinued our battle for which I have successfully lost every game that day.

On the way back to the room Andre decides he’s going to get his hair done so I spend about an hour on my own just laying there in the room.
I could be out tanning I could be swimming or doing something productive but really I just want to lay there. I go through my whole week
each day going through it mentally. I catch myself smiling to myself or giggling out loud and I wipe away a tear on my cheek and I’m not
even sure why it’s there or how it got there because I’m so wrapped up in the wonderful memories of the last 7 days that have changed
me in many ways and has certainly changed the way I will travel for the rest of my life.

Andre bangs on the door as if he’s the police and it breaks me out of my reminiscing.

“Hey that was quick!”

“Ya she was fast, what do you think?”

“It looks good!! Really good you look hot!’

”Really??’

“Always.’

Hahaha nah babes but thank you.’

Andre’s bouncing around the room he’s excited about his hair and he’s taking pictures he’s smiling and I can’t help but laugh at him.
He’s like a little kid.

”Come here Manda”

And I lay down on the bed next to Andre and it gets quiet. There just seems to be this elephant in the room that neither one of us
wants to notice nor acknowledge.

“I can’t believe you have to go home tomorrow.”

“I know what a week it has been.”

Honestly it’s been the best week I’ve had in a very long time.

You know when I invited you down I didn’t think you’d take me up on the offer. A part of me still believed I would never see you again.”

“Andre you should know that when I say I’m going to do something I do it.”

I know you are a woman of your word Manda but for whatever reason I couldn’t believe you were actually coming
until I called out your name outside the Airport.”

“I know really sucks I have to go but lets not dwell on that right now come on the sun is going to set soon come
to the beach with me please.’

I never said anything to Andre but in that moment there was a heaviness that settled over me and I thought to myself,
what if I never see him again?

We walk and sit and walk and talk and sit and the sunset is beautiful. I’ve been here 7 days and I’ve seen sunsets from 3 different
locations and each one has been different and equally as beautiful as the last. The cliffs was breath taking and it felt as if I may have
been on the edge of the world and I might be the last person to see the sun before it disappeared. The mountain view from Jacko’s
was breath taking because it felt as if if I could reach out and touch the sun from what felt like the top of the world and this sunset
here on the beach with silhouettes of palm trees and sun chair and couples walking hand in hand is like a postcard or a perfect travel
advertisement for Paradise.

Its walking with Andre while watching this last sunset that I realize that whether I’m here at this huge property or on a mountain
somewhere regardless of my preference I’m happy because I can share it with him. I don’t need to be zooming up and down the
mountain, I don’t need to be jet skiing, I don’t need to be doing anything.

I just needed to be here doing nothing with him and I was happy.