“J, I found one.” In the middle of the sea, I can hear his voice loud and clear like it’s only meant for me to hear.
I turn to see him with his hand out to me and fuck if I don’t want to pull him to me and lose myself despite the audience. He seems to sense my thoughts and gives me a saccharine smile. I grab his hand and let him pull me under all to come face to face with a beautiful sea turtle. Our guide swims over, but we don’t disconnect our hands until Dani and Micah find their way over to us. Evie, Arnold, Ri, and Christian join us in the water and when the guide pulls out a container of food, more sea turtles surround us.
One of them looks like it’s trying to bite our guide, but he simply grabs it by its front fin and pushes it upward. The little guy completely changes its trajectory and moves on somewhere else.
I forget all about my trouble with snorkeling and am the last one to swim to the surface for a break. Eventually, the others grow tired of snorkeling and opt to stay on the boat, whereas Rome and I continue to go under and soak it all in. These marvelous creatures have allowed us into their space, and I want to make the most of it while I can. This is absolutely breathtaking.
After the tour, I am so worn out I can barely keep my head up on the boat ride back. It’s something I’ll never forget though and it makes me glad I didn’t leave like I threatened to last night.
When we get back to shore, the group takes off for the beach and I step back to give myself one more moment to admire the water. A shadow falls over me and I tilt my head back to see Micah smiling down at me. “Did you have fun?” he asks.
“I had the time of my life. Sea turtles are my favorite favorite.”
Micah hangs his head as if I’ve just told the funniest joke in the world. “That makes sense then.”
“What does?”
“Nothing, my fault. I’m all over the place.”
It’s obvious he’s lying but I just don’t know why. Maybe I’m not the only one in this wedding party with secrets.
“Well, did you have fun?” I return the question back to him.
“Oh yeah, it was dope. I liked that it was just us too. Rome did his thing.”
My head seemingly detaches from my body with how fast it flies back to look at Micah. “Rome?”
My question seems to spark a few of his own and he cycles through them internally before a look of peace takes over his face, and I know whatever decision he’s made is about to punch me in the gut.
“Yeah, Rome’s the one who set this whole tour up, said he heard about it from a local and thought everyone would enjoy it. He wouldn’t even hear it when Arnold told him we didn’t have time to make it happen. He said he was booking it and whoever could make time was welcome to come.”
“Is that right?”
“Yep. Seemed really important to him.”
This whole time I thought that because Ri was the one who texted me about it that she was the one who set it up and that she did it for me when really Rome was once again proving that he gives a fuck.
I have a theory on why Micah decided to share all of this with me, but his answer to my next statement will confirm or deny. “I’m not surprised. Rome’s a good guy.”
“He is. Probably one of the best. There’s one thing you should probably know about him.”
“What’s that?”
“Once he’s decided he wants something? He works relentlessly to get it. And keep it.”
And there it is. He knows.
I should be furious at Rome because I was very clear about not wanting our friends to know, but I can’t knock him for needing a sounding board for our whole situation. I’ve wanted to share with Evie since day one, but I let my desire to keep us in the safe bubble away from bullshit outweigh my desire to gush about a man to my friend.
It does feel good to know that Micah approves, if him keeping his mouth shut is any indication. “I’m actually starting to understand that, Micah.”
He offers me his arm when my foot sinks too far into the sand and walks with me back to the group. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, Micah, that Ri showed me the painting you made for her and Arnold for their wedding before we left. It’s gorgeous.” The painting he created of the two of them is so well done it could be mistaken for a photograph. It’s the finer details of the painting that set it apart though. Woven into the minor details of their clothing are things that represent them. There are small footballs, basketballs, baseballs, etc. for Arnold. For Ri, there are needles, thread, and sketchpads. But in the center where their hands meet are the things that represent them as a couple. The car from their first road trip together, the plate of spaghetti from their first date, the spot in Patterson Park where he proposed. He captured their journey to each other in the painting, but you would only notice it if you knew where to look.
“Thank you. I’m proud of that one.”
“As you should be. I wanted to ask you if you do murals by any chance.”
“I definitely could. Why? You got something going on?”
