Hudson followed her without any question until they got four blocks beyond the downtown area. Once the vendors and shops gave way to rough alleys and houses, Ty could sense his hesitancy to continue, but she didn't stop. She kept following the familiar route, through the narrow roads lined with houses and small businesses.

She finally stopped when they reached a small food market. Hudson gave it a wary look before following her inside. The space was cramped with food threatening to fall from their shelves. She walked to the back and through a small doorway that led to a patio. Stepping outside, the air was filled with music and the scent and sizzle of food cooking.

The patio was a large concrete slab with a covering. It had a dozen picnic tables and almost all of them were filled. In one corner was a cooking station with heat billowing off the grill, and a line extending across the patio. Ty joined the end of the line as Hudson looked around curiously.

"This probably isn't what you had in mind when you asked for a place to eat," she said as he joined her.

"No," he admitted. "But I trust your judgment."

"As you should. This place serves the best street tacos and fried crickets." She made eye contact with one of the cooks and waved.

"Did you say crickets?" he asked.

She gave him a devilish grin. When she brought friends here, the mention of crickets was usually when they decided they weren't that hungry after all and went back to the ship. "Fried crickets."

He shrugged. "I usually enjoy my crickets in butter with some salt and pepper, but I am willing to try new things."

Her smile widened. "I think you'll like them. Tony, has a secret recipe," she nodded to the man behind the grill flipping food. "Where did you try crickets?"

"Thailand. My family went when Grant and I were younger. We made it our mission to try every strange food they had to offer. I won," he boasted.

It didn't surprise Ty that the brothers had found a way to compete. "And what was the fateful dish that made Grant lose?"

"Mok Huak. Developing Tadpoles," he explained. "Which is exactly what it sounds like. Tadpoles before they turn into frogs. Although, some of them did have legs." Ty grimaced in disgust. She had tried a lot of wild foods, but that was one of the strangest she had heard about. Hudson laughed. "That was Grant's reaction too."

"You ate it?" she asked.

He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "I wanted to win." Ty laughed and shook her head. "It really wasn't that bad," he said coolly. "They were slimy and tasted like a mixture of dirt and soured algae..." he went quiet as he thought about it. "Actually, they were awful. One of the worst things I've ever tasted." He shuddered at the memory.

"But worth the win?"

He scoffed like he hadn't even thought twice about it. "Of course."

She shook her head in disbelief. When they reached the front of the line, Ty ordered a variety of tacos and a large quantity after Hudson said he was extremely hungry. But she didn't order any fried crickets. After all the talk about tadpoles, just the thought of eating a small little critter made her stomach turn over.

As they waited for their food, they found an empty part of a picnic table. "Are fried crickets the weirdest food you've tried?" Hudson asked.

"No. I've tried stranger. Anders loves trying weird food so whenever we eat together I try something new," she said. "I think the soups are always the weirdest. You're never sure exactly what's floating in them and there is something about the liquid I always find hard to stomach. Also weird, anything my cousin Cece cooks."

Hudson laughed in surprise, but Ty nodded seriously. "She once made me an egg souffle with mint and chip ice cream and ground beef." Just thinking of the dish made Ty's stomach seize up. "She said that was all she had to work with. I don't know which one of us was dumber. My cousin for making the food, or me for trying it."

"You. Definitely you," he said without hesitation.

She smiled in agreement. "It has been the only food that's made me throw up."

"I hate to be the one to say it, but it doesn't sound like your cousin was cut out to be a cook."

She laughed. "Oh, she isn't. She's a writer. She just cooks when she has writer's block, which is unfortunate for those who live with her. What about you? Are tadpoles the weirdest things you've tried?"

He thought about it for a moment. "I think the tadpoles were the worst. The taste was so pungent I still get hints of the aftertaste when I think about it ten years later." He grimaced. "Maybe Grant was the real winner that day."

"What was the prize for eating the tadpoles?"

"I get to boast that I won for the rest of our lives."

She gave him a pitying smile. "Yeah, I think Grant was the real winner."

"But....but..." he stuttered dramatically, like losing that title meant losing all that he was.

She laughed and gave his shoulder a consoling pat.

When they got their tacos, they forgot all the talk about strange and wild foods and focused on what was in front of them. The tacos were small but Ty could never eat as many as she wanted to. She was full after three, even though half the contents had spilled on her hands and plate. She reached for a stack of napkins and watched as Hudson ate half a taco in one bite.

She wasn't sure of the exact number of tacos she had ordered, but Hudson had been right about being hungry. What had been two full plates of tacos ten minutes ago, was now a single taco plus pieces of meat that had escaped. Hudson offered her the last taco, but she declined and he happily ate it.

"I'm. So. Full," he said as they gathered their trash and threw it away. "Those tacos were delicious!"

"You're welcome," she said. She led the way out of the back entrance of the patio and they ended up in an open lot. A group of men had gathered in the only shady spot, and there was a group of kids kicking around a ball. As Ty and Hudson walked along the edge of the lot, the kids noticed them and the game stopped as they hurried over, calling out Ty's name.

"Holá chicos," she said as the kid's crowded around them. All the kids spoke at once making it hard to understand what they were saying, but Ty knew what they wanted. She reached into her backpack and pulled out some colorful paper. The kids spoke excitedly.

"What's that for?" Hudson asked.

She crouched down and began to fold the paper at different angles. "The first time Anders and I found this place the kids were fascinated by Anders' very blonde hair. They wouldn't stop following us so we made some paper airplanes for them. Now, whenever I come back they always want more." She finished folding the paper plane, then sent it sailing through the air. The kids cheered and chased after it.

"Can I have a piece?" Hudson asked as she began to fold a second one. He crouched down next to her and began to fold. She was finished after a few folds and sent the second plane flying, but Hudson kept folding. She watched curiously until he finished and held his plane up. It looked like a fighter jet. The kids got excited as he held it up and bounced it around him until he threw it. Then they were off, chasing his plane as it zoomed through the air, looped, and landed across the lot.

"I'm impressed," Ty said.

"I'm something of an amateur paper airplane folder," he boasted. He grabbed another piece of paper and began to fold it in a flourish.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not that impressed," she corrected herself. They made two more planes for the kids before she ran out of paper.

On their way back to the ship, Ty took them on a different route. On the outskirts of the port, she stopped at a small food cart. The front was covered in colorful pictures of fruit and ice cream. "Dos Horchata," she told the man behind the cart.

"I don't know if I can eat anything else," Hudson said, rubbing his still very full stomach.

"You can't miss this," she said. "It's so good." The man handed her two cups filled with a milky white drink with brown specks in it. She smiled with delight and handed one to Hudson as she paid the guy.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Heaven in a cup." She took her first sip and sighed happily at the sweet milky taste mixed with spices. She watched Hudson's reaction as he took his first sip and his eyes went big.

"You're right," he nodded. "It is Heaven."

She grinned and kept walking. Even though the area around the port wasn't Ty's favorite, she couldn't deny it was an experience to wander among the shops and vendors. Color spilled out of every door and stall. You could find anything from cheesy touristy shirts to authentic woven goods.

"How did you end up working on the cruise ship?" Hudson asked, as they wandered vaguely in the direction of the ship and drank their horchata.

"After school I was looking for a job," she said. "I like people. I like to travel. It seemed like a good fit."

"Was that after high school? Or college?"

"High school. Structured education has never been my thing. I only made it through high school because I love my mom and I knew she really wanted me to graduate."

"And she didn't mind when you didn't go to college?"

Ty became distracted as her eyes landed on something further down an aisle and she quickened her pace, dragging Hudson along by the arm. "You can't miss these!" She pulled him into a small shop where the walls were covered in sombreros. The shop had classical straw Mexican-style hats in every color imaginable and every pattern. They had every size, ranging from small enough to fit a mouse to ones so wide they would barely fit through the door.

"You have to try some on," she insisted, handing him a large, bright purple one. "But be quick. I have to be back at the ship soon." She left him in search of the small sombreros. She found a table filled with tiny ones that could fit in her hand and quickly looked at all the different patterns.

"Who wears these sombreros?" Hudson asked, coming up behind her.

She grinned at the large sombrero with a bright orange rim on his head. It sank low over his face, so he had to lift his chin in order to make eye contact with her. "That really suits you," she said, tapping the hat. "And these are for hamsters," she turned back to the small hats. "They take their sombrero wearing very seriously here."

"In that case, my hamster has to have one," he joked. He removed the sombrero from his head, much to Ty's disappointment, and looked through the small ones with her. "Do you have a hamster too?" he asked when she selected a blue one with yellow stripes.

"No. My brother collects small sombreros. Well, I get him a small sombrero every couple of months and he reluctantly keeps them. Which one are you getting?" Hudson held up a classic one of straw with a green rim and she nodded approvingly.

They moved to pay for the hats but before Ty could take a step, Hudson snatched hers out of her hand and held both out to the vendor. "How much for these two?" he asked.

Ty wandered outside as he paid and a moment later Hudson appeared, handing over her sombrero. "How much did he charge you?" she asked.

He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "Don't worry about it. And here," he tried to hand her some money, "for lunch."

She swatted his bills away. "Don't worry about it," she mimicked him. "Lunch was only a couple of bucks. The hats couldn't have been more than six or seven. Call it even."

He drew back a bit and she grinned at his forced casualness. "How much did he charge you for the hats?" she asked. "Ten?" He didn't look at her. "Fifteen?" He glanced at her and she laughed. "He got a lot of money out of you."

He frowned at her indignantly. "Why are you laughing? I talked him down from twenty." This only made Ty laugh harder. "What is so funny?" he demanded. "They haggle over prices all the time here."

"I know. But I usually pay three dollars for those small hats," she informed him. He looked back at the hat stall and took a step in that direction like he was going to go back and get his money. But Ty grabbed his arm and swung him back in the direction of the ship. "It's just a thing they do."

"What? Rip off their customers?"

She laughed at his western thinking. "They raise the prices for people who speak English. You should have let me done the talking."

"But..." he started to say.

"But..." she teased. "We're in Mexico. That's how it works."

"Is that Hudson?" someone called out. They both turned and saw a big contingency of the Hamilton Party trying on ponchos.

"Hudson, where have you been?" Grant called out. He had a poncho wrapped around him like a scarf and a big sombrero on his head.

"We bought you a sombrero!" Kate added, holding up a large blue one for him.

"How much do you think they paid for that one?" Ty asked quietly. Hudson couldn't help but give in and smile.

"Hudson, come try this on," Kate called out, holding up a poncho. "Everyone is getting one."

"Okay," Hudson called back. He turned to Ty who had already taken a few steps in the direction of the cruise ship.

"¿Cuanto cuesta?" she said as she continued to walk away. "It means how much is it?"

"Thanks," Hudson said.

She felt him watching her until she turned a corner. When she poked her head back around the corner, she noticed as he turned back to the group and braced himself as he joined them.

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Flappin flippers! 🐬🐳

If you feel like leaving your thoughts on the chapter then so do here. 🐠💬🗯💭

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I am now going to talk about something else completely.

Growing up in California, where my family lived we were only a couple hours away from the Mexico board. So one day my older siblings took me and four other siblings down to Mexico for the day.

I'm telling you! It's been years and still those street tortas we had were one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted! 🥰

That's it. That's what I wanted to share.

Also my brother was embarrassed by how American we all were, especially since he could easily speak Spanish and blend in pretty well. Ah, siblings.

Vote, comment, follow! But only if you want! No pressure here. ☺️

Yup! I want one!!