We walk to the eels hiding in their holes. Their little heads poke out with sneers to stay away.
“You have no idea how terrible LA can be. There’s this lookout place where you can park and make out while being above the city, if the smog isn’t hiding it, but it was also a hot spot for serial killers in the seventies and eighties.”
“I’m not sure if I’m impressed or concerned you know that fact,” he says.
“Sometimes the true crime junkie in me comes out.” I shrug. “LA was a big place for it. Countless stories of girls who came here for fame and ended up dead.”
Sully tugs me toward his chest. His arms twist around me. “Why do you stay here if it’s all darkness and struggling to survive? For your family?”
“Partly, but this is my home, born and raised in this city. That’s rare if you ask around, most people are implants.” I pause, stopping to look at the octopus in the corner of its tank. “I thought of moving to Florida in the past. I have a few mermaid friends who live there, and we could perform shows together…” My sentence dies as I open the door to the Arctic part of the aquarium.
“Why don’t you?” Sully queries, sitting on the bench in front of the penguins. They wander around the ice and dive into their chilly waters ignoring us.
“It’s something I push off.” I sit on the other side of the bench, leaving enough space for an invisible third person to sit between us. “Always had an excuse to stay here. This past year, I’ve had tunnel vision about my social media, trying to gain traction so I can travel the world. Fill my life with adventure and new places, forget about the past.”
Sully moves closer, capturing my chin in his cupped hand. “Is this about the ex who can’t be named?”
“You don’t want to hear any more about him.”
He gingerly wipes a tear that escaped my hold. “I want to know everything about you.”
The memory of my ex tangled in someone else’s embrace clouds my mind. It was so easy for him to move on, to hook up with one of my so-called friends while he was still with me. It was as if I meant nothing, just a placeholder until it was convenient for them to rip the rug out from under me.
It doesn’t help he sent me that looming text a while back or that I swear I’ve seen him around. Like that suspicious car the other day at my apartment complex. The driver looked so much like him, but why would he come back around? I told him my peace. There’s nothing left for him.
Sully drapes his arm over the top of the bench and stares at the penguins. “After our first record was released, I went home to spoilmeine mutter. I wanted to spend my first check on her. She didn’t answer when I knocked. I had a spare key and walked in, thinking she was taking a nap or out. What I didn’t expect to see was her lying on the couch. I touched her hand. She was cold and stiff.”
A gasp rips from my throat. I dig my fingernails into my thighs to keep from crushing Sully in a hug. He needed to get this off his chest and I needed to remain still until he finished.
“Later, I was told she’d been gone for two days. No one cared to check in on her. Said it would’ve been at least a week before anyone bothered to visit or for the smell to alert anyone.”
“Where was your brother?” My voice is a grave whisper as I place my hand on top of his thigh.
He spits on the ground. “Damn him. He didn’t bother coming to her funeral. Too busy with his new family. Just like ourvater. A rotten seed.” He shoves the heel of his hand into his eye and releases a shaky breath. “When we went on tour, I’d get blasted on our days off. It was only a handful of times, but it was enough to spread rumors I liked to party. That I was like all the classic rock stars before me. A player, a drunk, a man with talent but not a lick of sense.”
“For the record, I never viewed you as a player.”
He smirks, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I wanted afamilietoo. Someone to help me move on, but girls only wanted to be with someone famous. When I tried to connect or to learn anything about them, they’d grow restless and they’d leave for the next band blowing into town.” He cracks his knuckles. “Figured love wasn’t for me. I’d be forced to see it from afar. Write about it, the highs and lows, but never obtain it.”
His honest words chip at my armor and the walls I kept building come crashing down. “My high school boyfriend left me at a dance because I refused to sleep with him. He called me a tease and spread rumors I was a terrible lay. But I got over him in college. That’s where I met…the ex…Teddy.” I flinch saying his name after so many months. It hurts to think about how much I loved that fuckface. “He was a baseball player and swept me off my feet. Thought I’d spend the rest of my life with him, and then…the incident happened. He turned me into a joke, and I buried myself in work, thinking no one could hurt me if I became an ice queen.”
Sully takes my hand in both of his. “Christ, whatarschlöcher.”
“Maybe it’s extreme after only two failed relationships, but I don’t want to waste time kissing a hundred frogs for a prince. I just want someone to love and who loves me. So, I moved in with Alice and she drags me to things so I don’t turn into a hermit crab or run off and try to become a real mermaid.” I laugh, but it’s too hoarse and humorless.
“All I wanted was something real like my parents.” I glance at our combined hands and trace my fingertip over the vein crawling up his wrist. “They met in high school, were crowned king and queen at prom, and the next year they married. Two years later I was born. Sometimes they get on each other’s nerves, but they’re always there no matter what. I’m starting to think people aren’t like that anymore. That they use you until something better comes along.”
Sully stands and pulls me to my feet. “Veronica, I never want you to feel that way. You’re an extraordinary woman, and there’s a fire burning bright inside you. You don’t take shit from anyone and say what’s on your mind. I can’t tell you how amazed I was watching you put Amy in her place the other day at my casita.” He entangles his fingers in my hair, pulling me in close. “I want to show you something.” He kisses my lips and then takes my hand, guiding me into the next room. I’m breathless as my heart beats in my head.
34
Theroomisdim,and the water dark. Above us, the small pinpricks of lights almost look like stars. “This is where the deep-water fish live.” His voice booms around the small space.
I’m puzzled why he wants to bring me here, but when his lips meet mine, the answer scorches my skin. I rip at his shirt and toss it onto the ground. His skin is warm. I sink my fingernails into his back, and he moans my name.
He presses me against the cool glass, and his lips tickle my ear. “I only want to see you happy…and naked.” His hands move underneath my shirt and run along the rim of my pants.
“Aren’t there cameras?” I whisper as between my thighs throb.
