Page 60 of Broken Ice
Emilio had his lips pursed, obviously pressing down on a smile. “It’s fine. Seriously. Those big aquariums can be a little creepy, anyway. I hear the Miami one has an Orca there all fucked up.”
Beau gaped in horror. “Oh, my God. Are you telling me this was a bad idea from the start?”
For some fucking reason, the teenager put in his two cents. “They’ve been keeping that orca since the 1980s. Have her in a small tank, totally against animal welfare rules.”
Beau turned his head slowly, lasering the kid with his eyes.
Emilio nudged Beau to the next tank, which wasalsofilled with spiders.
By the time they’d gone through all of them, Beau had seen more insects and weird fucking lizards than he’d ever wanted to encounter.
“That was horrific,” Beau whined as they stepped outside to the kid’s, “Thank you for coming to Frankie’s Aquarium Emporium. We hope to have you again soon.”
Emilio shrugged. “I liked it. Those bearded dragons were cool.”
“This was supposed to be a perfect birthday. I called you sister and everything.”
Emilio’s happy expression dropped. “You talked to Anna?”
“Yeah. She told me about how you loved sharks or whatever. I wanted to show you some fucking sharks.”
A wide, toothy grin took over Emilio’s face. “That’s sweet.”
“We can pretend you actually really liked arachnids,” Beau suggested.
“Oh, Ilovearachnids. All those legs? So cool.”
Beau snorted. “Well. I kind of thought we’d spend more time at therealaquarium, but I did find a cool spot to eat.”
“Let’s go, then.”
Ironically, there were more sharks in the food spot than in the aquarium—it was decorated with decals and photographs and paintings of sharks, the walls painted blue,papier mâchésea creatures hanging from the ceiling, spinning slowly in the breeze from the open door.
All the dishes were ocean-themed puns, which was fun, the menus big and laminated and frayed at the edges.
“The fish and chips looks killer,” Beau pointed out. “We can have a cheat day, right?”
“Let’s do it.”
They scarfed the food down and lingered for a while just talking. The surprise party wasn’t until the evening, so Beauconvinced Emilio to go to one of the smaller coves that weren’t as busy, renting an umbrella and chilling under it.
“What was your best birthday growing up?” Beau asked.
Emilio squinted his eyes, thinking. “I dunno. I’ve honestly never been a big birthday person, even when I was little. Don’t like birthday cake, so I wouldn’t even eat my own after blowing out the candles. I got so focused with hockey, I honestly didn’t pay much attention to that stuff.”
“I was obsessed with hockey too and Ilovedmy birthday. It’s in the summer so I get to spend it with my family and stuff. It’s fun!”
Emilio snorted. “Yeah, I’m not surprised you like your birthday.”
“Well, what’s not to like? You get to have all the people you love in one place and show them a good time.”
Emilio hummed. “I guess that’s true. I prefer something low-key like this, though.”
“I mean, it was kind of a disaster…” Beau pouted.
“Nah. At least you didn’t throw me a surprise party. I hate those.”
Beau’s expression froze. He could feel his smile cracking as he stared at Emilio in horror.
