The BF

April is rolling out the heat in Laura's new apartment. Her muted beige walls practically bronze in the loud summer light. I have so much sweat rolling down my spine that it feels like I could be swimming. Good thing Tim's brought the booze and a rather large pitcher of ice cubes. It's sangrias all around as the day dims.

We're laughing and chatting and, as wine induced evenings usually go, I've failed to notice a rather good-looking...Chilean?...not sure, occasionally brushing up against my shoulder as our love-seat reaches max capacity and spills over to people perched on the armrests. I've also failed to notice a full wrapper of Oreos. The two seem like a good mix, and to have an excuse to indulge on the one (the Oreos) I offer them to the other (the hot guy).

The wine has loosened my tongue and I'm steaming along in Spanish, questioning and laughing and offering more and more Oreos until topics are wasted away. "Eres chileno?" I finally ask, and with an unbelieving and kind smile he says, "Definitivamente no. Soy peruano." "Ah, eso es por que puedo entenderte," I laugh.

The party moves into the still warm night. We, wobbly, seek out a bar not all that far away and continue coupling our conversations with empanadas and schop. Erik wears intelligence casually, like a favorite shirt. Our conversation skips from language learning to geology to physics and I'm captivated, intoxicated, and perfectly pleased.

Laura is making eggs in the kitchen a few days later as Erik prepares to head off to the mountains to work. "Este es para ti, si necesitas cualquiera cosa, me avisas, okay?" he notes, handing her his email information. Giggly Laura smiles and laughs over her inherited new big brother.

Erik turns to the door, but hesitates and grows red. "Oh, y...tengo un poquito verguenza en preguntarte pero...si querrias compartir esta informacion con tu amiga con el cabello corto....seria muy bueno...." He smiles cutely and walks off.

Three minutes later I have a Facebook message in my inbox. "YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED," Laura spills. "soooo....guess who wants your info? My Cutie McCute roommate, Erik!!!! He was so freckin cute!!! Ima tell you all about it later but it was so cute!!!! okay, well his whole name is erik chavez and his email is (blah), and he'd like yours as well, so get on that! I can't wait till you do the walk of shame out of my apartment, it's gonna be great! LOVE YOU!"

And so I emailed him, and so he charmed the pants off of me, and so now I'm staying in Chile for a little while longer than I had expected. Funny how life changes over wine and Oreos and sticky summer evenings.