But I’ve touched him for too long, even though only a second or two has passed. He shakes away from my grasp.
“What the hell?” he asks, alarm dotting his tone.
Even I’m not that alarmed at the touch of another. I have Kate after all.
But then a feeling sinks inside my stomach.
I wonder when the last time anyone touched him was?
I move my hand like it’s been scalded. One singular touch has thrown us completely off kilter. I bite my lip.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble. “I just . . . the surprise doesn’t involve sitting on the couch.”
He lets out a big sigh. “What does it involve, then?”
“You really wanna know?” I ask, a little playful sound in my voice. The most flirtatious I’ve sounded in years.
I think he can’t help but smile back because he does just that. His teeth are bright white, nearly luminescent. His tongue is pale blue. But otherwise, perhaps, a normal human tongue . . . I note that down in my brain bank about him.
“Fine, yes. Tell me how you’ve tricked me into coming over again.”
I dig into my purse and then pull out some goggles, a sponge, and a washcloth. “I’m gonna clean your tank for you.” I smile big, holding the items up by my face. “Surprise!”
***
It takes some convincing for Mack to let me into his tank. But my mother was an overbearing bitch, so I know how to be one too, when the occasion calls for it.
“Look at this glass!” I say, pointing like Vanna White at the tank. It spans most of the wall and almost all the way to the ceiling. “There are smudges everywhere! Did you grow up in a barn?”
Mack’s jaw drops. “I’ll have you know I keep things very clean in there. You might even call me fastidious! In fact, lots of people would look at this tank and say Oh Wow, this Mack guy must have a cleaning fetish or something for how fucking clean this tank is.”
I run my finger along the corner of the tank. I have rubber gloves on now, and I mostly just brought them for effect, but I hold out a finger to Mack. “Look at this. Look closely.”
“I’m not looking.” He crosses his arms over his chest.
I lean in and put my fingertip directly in his face. “Look, Mack. Do you see what I see?”
He turns his head away. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m pretty sure you’re just a crazy woman who breaks into my apartment and harasses me sometimes.”
I smile a little. It might not seem like it, but he’s flirting, for sure. Weird flirting, but flirting nonetheless.
“Grime, Mack. This?” I push the finger a little closer to his face. “Is grime. And you know what? I don’t approve of grime in my aquariums. I didn’t spend seventeen months on the Freemont Aquariumaniacs Forum to let grime build up in someone’s tank, did I?”
When he doesn’t answer, I step even closer but drop my finger. He’s much taller than me, almost unnerving in size, and I’m pretty tall.
“Did I?”
We’re face-to-face. Definitely an aggressive posture. Even more so because I’m keeping my gaze on him, something I don’t often do with many people. And he’s keeping his on me. His pale blue eyes travel from my eyes, to my mouth, and back to my eyes. The muscles on his jaw flick ever so slightly, his gills rippling like butterfly wings in the wind, and right next to them, the flittering of his heart beat visible in his neck.
The sponge slips from my hand, landing softly on Mack’s floor. My feet stutter a step backward, an almost imperceptible distance.
His voice is smooth and deep. “You win.”
My knees shake beneath me. My chutzpah has been doused. I’m not sure why though.
Relax, nothing’s happened, Jules. Get it together.
Nervously, I run my hands through my hair. But then I remember why I’m here.
Because I’m becoming obsessed?
No, because I want to help a friend.
Right. I can do this. Hell, I took a bus to get here! With the general public and everything.
I grab the hem of my shirt and pull it up my chest.
“No, stop!” Mack says, alarmed.
I pause midway through undressing. “What?” I ask.
“Why are you taking your shirt off?”
“You didn’t think I was gonna wear my clothes in there, did you?” I raise my eyebrows, like duh.
“You can’t just get naked in front of me . . . Oh . . .”
But it’s too late, and my shirt hits the floor.
