“How’s my Pretty Thing been?” I asked, lingering just a little too long on themy.
“Good. Just waiting on some slackass to get here.”
“That slackass is on time.”
He checked his phone.
“You don’t have to keep checking your phone now that I’m here,” I teased.
He appeared uneasy, then laughed. “What? Were you watching me?”
“As I was walking up, I noticed you. May have stopped to enjoy the view. You have a problem with me watching you?” I sized him up, taking in his form, that body that looked just as good from the front as the back.
“Not if you keep doing it like that,” he replied, which made me roll my eyes.
“Okay, okay. These fish aren’t going to see themselves, right?”
I started past him, and he joined me as we headed through a corridor, following the signage to the exhibits.
“So this means you’re officially retired, I guess?”
“That’s right. Now I’m free to travel around the world, but first I’m gonna visit Eric and Jesse here in Atlanta.”
“Are they the only ones you wanted to see?”
His tone was filled with suspicion as he side-eyed me, and even though I noticed it through my periphery, I didn’t give any indication I’d picked up on it.
“Ty, I’m not one to lie to myself about things. Just because I know better than to play with fire doesn’t mean I have to stay away from it.”
“That’s very true, but you won’t know how hot that fire is until you start to play with it.”
“Ah, you’re a clever guy, Ty.” I decided to redirect the conversation away from his conspicuous interest. “I was gonna ask, if Jesse and Eric wanted to have dinner tomorrow night, if you wanted to join us.”
“That’d be great. Just let me know the time.”
“I will. So I hear they have penguins here. Is that right?”
Ty laughed. “Yeah. I’ll show you where they are. They have these beluga whales too that you have to see. And some cute otters.”
“That all sounds good to me. Why don’t you tell me how your life is going while we make our way to one of those?”
“What do you want to hear about? All the guys I’ve been hooking up with?”
Tension rose within me…a sort of jealousy I wasn’t proud of myself for feeling.
What the hell? I didn’t have a reason to get jealous over any guy, especially one I hardly knew.
“Is that really what you’d be interested in talking about?”
He studied me as if he were trying to read me, pick up on the unreasonable, illogical jealousy I felt, but then he added, “Eh, nothing to note there. Been studying because I have a few more course hours to take for my certification and then I can take the CPA exam. Also been busy with some part-time work. Well, what was supposed to be just training someone to replace me, but apparently I’m irreplaceable.”
He said it like he was trying to be funny, but I was honest:“I don’t doubt that you are. From what Eric says, it sounds like you’ve really settled into what you want to do.”
“I like that I challenged myself, that I made myself do something outside my comfort zone,” Ty said. “I was just sort of coasting in my job before. Not challenging myself. Made some good money and felt good at what I did, but… You ever have this feeling that maybe you’re born to be doing something else with your life, but you’re not quite sure what that is?”
“I’m familiar with the feeling.”
“That’s kind of weighty, and I know getting certified isn’t really the answer. Don’t get me wrong. I plan on finishing—finish what you start and all—but I have this unsettling feeling nagging at me. Just want more out of life, you know? Not exactly sure what that is, but Lord knows I won’t tell Mom because she’ll think I made this huge, horrible decision to ruin my life because I pursued something I wasn’t one hundred percent sure about.”
