He wasn't sure he had a favourite novel but he'd enjoyed A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Kite Runner, and The Old Man and the Sea. Perhaps enjoy wasn't quite the right word, but those novels had stayed with him for a long time after he'd put them down. They really were incredible pieces of work, invoking strong feelings inside of him. To this day, they were the only novels that had moved Austin to tears. And as much as he'd loved reading them, picking them up again was a difficult task. Aside from reading, he enjoyed singing in the shower and messing around on the keyboard. Back home, they'd had a piano and he'd learned a few songs. The brunet didn't play in front of others though. Being the centre of attention always made him nervous and anxious.<br/><br/>Austin clearly needed to reassess his opinion of Adrian. There was money and then there was this, renting or perhaps owning an actual house in New York City. Though technically they were in the suburbs, it was still part of the Big Apple, if the drive was any indication. Austin would have have been pressed to figure out exactly where he was though. His knowledge of New York mostly consisted of Manhattan and Brooklyn and all its little niches, nooks and corners. Though Adrian's place looked to be only one floor, that seemed to be the style, with its trendy wood panels and large, modern windows. It was open and spacious, filled with rich, warm tones, and boasting an incredible view from the back, from what Austin could see. It was no sprawling mansion but for a single bachelor, it was perfect, if a little removed from the hubbub of the downtown core. It certainly beat the little two-bedroom shoebox he lived in.<br/><br/>He followed his client to the kitchen. "I remember the recipe," Auz told him with a slight smile. "I make it when I feel particularly homesick." He asked Adrian if he had a few of the less common ingredients like saffron, smoked paprika and chorizo. It wasn't the end of the world if he didn't have any but it was always nice to have the paella as close to traditional as possible.<br/><br/>"My mum, most of my family actually, is back home in Spain, and I don't see them often, so sometimes I get a little homesick. My mum loves to cook. I'm not very good at cooking, I don't think, but I learned a few things from her," he replied, thinking of everyone back home. Pulling out his cellphone, he scrolled through the photos until he found a shot of his mum to show the older man. He'd caught her mid-laugh, her dark hair gleaming in the sunlight. They'd been enjoying the last days of summer before he'd left for America.<br/><br/>"What about you? Do you have any family or friends here?" he asked, genuinely curious, before tucking his phone away. He figured he could treat this like a business transaction, impersonal and professional but Auz found the thought very unsatisfying. Why not have fun and enjoy the evening while he was here? Hopefully Adrian felt the same way. If nothing else, it would feel less like work.<br/><br/>When he'd moved here for school, it had been a little bit of a shock to his system. New York was worlds away from L'Escala, his hometown of under fifteen thousand people.  Adjusting to life in the big city has been an interesting experience. Austin both loved and hated it simultaneously. He loved that there was always something to do, something to see, in the city that never slept. He loved the rich vibrancy of New York, the city always teeming with life and people and colours. He loved the culture and variety and everything just steps away from his apartment. What he hated though, was the noise, the constant rumble of cars outside his room. The air was never quite clean or crisp enough, and the surrounding rivers were always dirty and murky. Some days he missed the cool blue waters of the Balearic sea, the sandy beaches and pebbled-filled inlets with a fierce ache that burned in his chest.