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An hour later we decide to stop and grab a bite to eat We find a restaurant just off the h, a fa the warm summer weather Alex orders two plates of fish and chips, both of us starving After polishing off the most delicious, freshest fish and crispy chips, Alex picks up the desert menu

“Do you fancy so broadly, after our plates have been cleared away

“Excuseon my water I must have misunderstood Spotted dick?? I’m afraid to ask

“Spotted dick,” he says with a straight face

“What, exactly, is… spotted dick?” I can barely contain hter

“Oh, you’ve never tried spotted dick?”

“Um, no This must be some kind of weird British food I’s called spotted dick”

“That’s a sharins

I can feel the heat rising in h

“It’s a desert and it’s delicious,” he says, chuckling

And he was right The na, but spotted dick is oodness Everyone should try a little spotted dick deliciousness

Alex and I leave the restaurant soon afterwards and continue our journey, still heading northwest We’re silent for a stretch of the road, both enjoying the co able to be quiet in one another’s presence Eventually, Alex breaks the silence, telling ha down, the road beco back road and finally coate, at least fifteen feet high Alex gets out, punches a code into the keypad The gate slowly begins to open, heavy under its oeight Alex drives through the entrance, stopping to ate closes securely behind us

We drive along a paved one-way road, a white wooden fence on each side Beyond that is nothing but sweeping ereen pastures as far as the eye can see We drive past a pond with beautiful white swans gliding peacefully along the water’s surface I see horses grazing lazily in the surandeur takes my breath away

And then the house colish countryside home Alex drives around the circular driveway, a water fountain of a nude woman in the center, and parks the car

“Is this yours?” I ask in awe, eyes wide, stunned by the beauty of the estate I’d only seen hoazines or coffee table books