Jass

Part 15 - Change

When they finished the meal in the café, they went to see the Notre Dame Cathedral. 

When they got closer, Steve took more photos of Jasmine with the Cathedral in the background. Jasmine was in a very good mood; she took some photos of Steve also. 

This was their last evening in Paris, tomorrow they would start their journey back to Denmark.

When they got back to the Airbnb, they were tired mainly because of the heat, but also because of the amount of walking they had done. But they felt satisfied: 

All of their plans had gone smoothly, and they had had perfect weather the whole time so far. 

In their room with the windows fully open, listening to the pigeons outside and to the sounds of the street below, they fell asleep very easily. 

The following day they woke up quite early and got ready for their trip. They had breakfast and packed everything and took it all down to the car. 

Steve had the last of his rides in that small elevator. 

A few solitary rides with luggage, and the last ride with Jasmine. 

'Probably this will be the last time I am able to stand so close to Jasmine' 

They thanked their hosts, Pierre and Karen, for their hospitality and were on their way to the car. They were supposed to go to see the German castle "Eltz Castle" today, but Jasmine changed their plans. She said that the weather was so hot that was better that they go straight to Denmark and omit the castle. 

Steve agreed, it was a lot of driving anyway, and they had to get to their Airbnb in Germany, close to Bremen, today. 

This would take them more than 8 hours as Steve would be driving slowly and carefully. Adding stops for petrol and for comfort breaks, it would probably be more like 10 or 11 hours. 

Steve was the only driver as Jasmine did not have a driving licence and had never driven a car. Steve told her that if they were together, he would help her get her driving licence and he would also buy her a car. 

In Jasmine's family nobody had a car; her brothers had only small motorbikes. Those small motorbikes and scooters were very popular in the Philippines, and not only there but also in the whole of East Asia. 

One detail in particular amazed Steve when they took breaks to go to the bathroom, and it was that on the way to Bremen he had to go to the bathroom many times, but Jasmine went only once, and it was not a long time before the end of trip. 

He had noticed that earlier; she could often last the whole journey in the car without needing to stop for the bathroom, or a drink, or a snack. 

'I am old, she is very young, that's why.' 

He thought. 

They reached their new Airbnb in the evening, and Steve was pretty tired then. They did not talk much during the journey. 

Steve had assumed before the whole trip that they would have so much time together to talk and discuss things, during hours spent in the car. But to his surprise they had talked so little, mainly because of Jasmine not wanting to talk or carry discussions on different topics. 

Most of the time she was either doing something on her phone or dozing. 

This new Airbnb was very clean and modern. After taking showers and eating some snacks they went to sleep. Tomorrow was the last day of the whole journey, and Steve was taking Jasmine back to her home. 

Steve could not believe what transpired on that last day of their trip. 

Jasmine woke up seemingly a different person. She was talking a lot, she had a good sense of humour, and she engaged in conversation with him from early in the morning. 

This day was so vastly different that Steve couldnot believe that it was the same Jasmine. 

He felt so good, he was very happy, and he suddenly had so much energy. He could not believe that his friend Pierre predicted it correctly, 

'how can he know things like that? I don't know, this is black magic to me!.' 

Steve was thinking. During the drive they talked a lot about the Philippines, about Jasmine's school, about her family, about her first job, and about Denmark. 

About her experiences so far in Denmark, and about her former travels which she did around Denmark, and other her trips. She told him that she had already visited Sweden, Norway and that she had also been to Germany, in a few places. 

But she said that this trip was the longest one and the biggest one; 

she thanked Steve for taking her to Paris. 

On the way to Jasmine place's they stopped a few times, to use the bathroom and to refuel the car. On their first stop, when they get out of the car and were going to sit on the wooden bench on parking lot, Steve was very shy but gently put his arm around her and hugged her, and she accepted it. 

Then he walked with her and hugged her a few more times, and she was okay with that. Not only that, but when they got back to car she allowed Steve to put his hand on her knee, even on her thigh when he was driving. He could touch her hair, and gently caress it. Steven was in his "seventh heaven"; he really wanted to turn around and go back to Paris again. 

And to repeat the trip, with Jasmine's new attitude. 

'This is how the trip should have been, in the first instance.' 

They both had a very good time, and a lot of laughs. Steve start calling Jasmine, Jass, for short. Because they had had such a good time together, the journey from Bremen to Jasmine's place went very fast, it took only 3 hours to drive. 

The time simply flew by very fast. Jasmine asked Steve if they could stop in a grocery shop before they got to her house. But it was not an ordinary grocery shop, it was an East Asian food shop owned by one of her Filipino friends. 

When they got there, and while they were inside the shop, he saw Jasmine talking to an Asian lady, and they were both laughing. The Asian lady was looking at Steve and smiling at him. Steve smiled back. He learned later that it was the owner of the shop. 

They spent some time in this shop, Jasmine talked to that lady and to other Asian ladies.  Jasmine did quite big shopping; she bought many things. 

Steve also bought a few things, but it was difficult for him because almost all the writing on the packagings was not in English but in Tagalog or Chinese or another Asian language. He bought some jars of jam made with tropical fruits, some sweets and some biscuits. 

He had no clue about what to expect of these products. He helped Jasmine with her shopping to get to the car, as she had a big pile of different things.