Page 23 of Mermaid For You

Those are the guys he made the bet with. I hurry over and wrap my arms around Sullivan. “There’s my lover!”

All three of them stare. Sullivan allows me to kiss his lips and then whispers with a deep V-shaped frown between his brows. “Lover?”

“Yes, moby!”

Teddy and Ben clear their throats. One of them asks, “I thought your name was Van?”

“It is! But I call him my moby. Can you guess how he got that name? Wink, wink. Like Moby Dick. But it makes him blush. I’m his angelfish. Don’t let the name fool you. I’m anything but an angel. I’d say I’m more of a blowfish.” I reach down and cup Sullivan between the legs.

“I’m sorry, I’m Ben. What is happening?”

“I’m his girlfriend!”

The other one, who must be Teddy, speaks. “You told us you didn’t have a girlfriend?”

“That’s silly! Were you trying to keep me all to yourself, you little mackerel?”

Sullivan whispers into my ear. “What are you doing, my little starfish?”

I think about it and then say loud enough for everyone to hear, “Starfish doesn’t work. I’m attached to angelfish.”

“This is weird,” Ben mumbles.

“I’m uncomfortable,” Teddy agrees.

Sullivan holds his hands up. “The truth is, she knows about the bet. She found out last week. We are together.”

“Teddy, that means I win,” Ben declares.

“Not so fast,” I tell him. “He did succeed. I didn’t know until right up until the time. And he didn’t blow his cover, Rosemary did. He’s done everything, and I am in love with him.”

Ben crosses his arms, but Sullivan speaks. “Angelfish, I don’t care about the bet. If anything, I do feel like I won. Not the money, but you. I gained a better sense of the company, my family’s legacy. A purpose. The love of my life. Yeah, I feel good about how all this turned out.”

“Well, let’s go celebrate!” Teddy cheers as he holds up his fishing pole.

* * *

Sullivan gets a small wooden boat for just the two of us. We float along, enjoying each other’s company. We pass by the mermaid lagoon.

“So you still want to be the next Margie?”

“Absolutely. Spunk and all. I want to be a mermaid for a couple more years. Maybe ten.”

Sullivan laughs. “Ten years isn’t a couple of years. It’s a decade.”

“I guess.” I ask him what his plans are.

“Staying here, if that’s okay with you?”

“More than okay. I really like that idea.”

“And what do you think of the idea of me staying on as a photographer, but also management?”

“Like my boss?” I waggle my eyebrows at him.

“Technically, I’ve always been your boss.”

“Only now I’m going to make sure nobody else ever takes photos of you.”

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