Page 49 of Sharkbait
“Take you, for example.” He points toward my easel. “You’re a marine biologist who also paints. Yeah, I’m a bartender. But I’m also a diver. Not many opportunities to dive in Philly. This way, I get to swim with these beautiful creatures and help out at the same time.” He holds up the algae scrubber in his hand.
“So why didn’t you say hi when you saw me here Monday?” I ask.
“Well, one reason was you seemed busy.”
I nod. “It was my first day as official staff.”
“But the main reason was that I was under strict orders to never speak to you again.”
I wince. “Right. That.”
He scans my body. Not in a creepy way but more of a curious way. I’m not wearing my official aquarium uniform.
“Today is my day off,” I explain. “And school let out early. Hence the reason I’m—” I gesture to my clothes. “And also why I’m—” I nod toward my easel and paints.
He smiles. “Well, it‘s good to see.”
“Yeah. I’ve always avoided hump day when I can.”
“Excuse me?”
“When I was making my aquarium schedule, I asked for Wednesdays off. I hate that whole ‘Hump day’ thing.”
“You hate the hump?” he says with a smirk.
I cringe. “I certainly hate thatword,James.”
“What? Hump?”
“Yes! Will you stop saying—” I blow out a breath. “I don’t hate theactof—You of all people should know I—” I stop myself from saying anything further and throw up my hands. “I give up.”
“Deep breaths, Louise. Just trying to make you laugh. Break some of the tension between us.”
“There’s no tension between us.”
“Oh, there’s tension, alright.” He laughs. “But listen. I agree. The whole hump day thing is annoying. So is ‘I got a case of the Mondays.’ Though, that’s more of an office and academia thing, yeah? And I try to stay out of those two environments as much as possible.”
My phone dings from the easel with an email notification.
I pressed send on my application for the Florida internship this morning. It’s not possible they already got back to me, is it?
“I need to check that,” I say.
“Sure, sure. I should get back to it, anyway.” He holds up the algae scrubber in his hand.
I tear over to my phone and open my email.
It’s not from Corbin’s team.
It’s from my Mom.
Hi, sweetie! I’m so excited to see you in a few weeks to celebrate Ralphie’s birthday! Shhhh, moms the word about the party! I mean mums! Ha! Get it? I’m just so excited to see my babies and feel like a mom again, so expect to hear a lot more Mom jokes during my visit. I can‘t wait to do ALL the girly things with my Wheezy. Love you!
“You okay?”
I startle. “Oh, you’re still here.”
“Your face just...” James clears his throat. “You okay?”
