EPILOGUE
SIX MONTHS LATER…
Haz
The second the door was open, I kicked off my shoes, stripped off my jacket, and tossed my cell (with unlimited minutes!) onto the couch on my way toward the hundred-gallon tank, the centerpiece of our living room.
It didn’t matter that we’d had the tank for several months now. It didn’t matter that I stood in front of it for hours a day. I lit up every time it came into view. It was literally the best thing I’d ever had.
Except Kieran, of course.
The glass was so clear that sometimes it felt like the fish would swim right out and into my hands. The water was pure and bright, always moving with the current the filter provided. The Amazon sword, Anubias nana, and other vibrant green freshwater plants filled up the corners and rose from the substrate beautifully.
The second I was close enough, our angelfish, Jason, swam over, his fins swishing in a way that made me think of a dog wagging its tail.
“Hi, Jason, I missed you. Are you having a good day? The shop is so busy today. Your fins look beautiful. In this light, you even look a little striped.”
The black angelfish turned to the side, looking at me with his amber-colored eye, his gill shining silver when it moved.
“Are you hungry?” I asked as he floated to the top, hoping I was feeding him. “It’s not dinner time. Are you bored?” I asked, seeing an uprooted plant floating near the heater.
Reaching into the custom cabinet Kieran had made for the tank, I pulled out a small ping-pong ball and opened the lid of the tank to drop it on the surface. Jason darted toward it, trying to eat it. It floated away from his movement, and he chased it, making me laugh.
People said angelfish didn’t play with toys, but I say every fish is different, and Jason would chase the ball around for a few minutes before giving up.
It took forever to find a ball suitable for his tank, having settled on one actually made for turtles. I was in the process of having a few different toys made to sell at the Neon Reef, and I was going to package them for fish.
Jason floated off to something on the bottom that caught his eye, and I leaned down to gaze into the cave I’d created out of large rocks. Scop was there, stuck to the ceiling, basically upside down.
“Hey, Scop,” I called. The rock cave was his favorite place to hang out.
I wandered over to the giant chunk of driftwood anchored in the substrate, watching a few of the schooling fish swim around and disappear into some plants. I found Navi on the side of the wood, her mouth working overtime as she ate the algae.
“Clean the place up, Navi. You’re the hardest worker I know.”
Navi’s tail swished, and she moved around to the back of the wood.
I jolted when arms wound around me from behind, towing me away from the tank and into the embrace of a large, warm body. Tingles raced over my scalp when his voice rumbled in my ear.
“I’m offended it wasn’t me you came to see first.”
Wiggling closer, I reached up to cup the back of his neck. “If I came to find you first, I never would have made it to the tank.”
“And?”
“And I won’t have my babies think I don’t love them,” I declared.
“What about me?”
I smiled wide, knowing he was going to say it. Kieran was possessive and greedy, more so the longer we were together. Some might even call it needy, but I’d never tell him that because he’d deny it with every breath in his body.
I liked it. To have someone obsessed with me and my attention. Besides, calling him out would also be like the pot calling the kettle black because I was no better. I mean, here I was, home in the middle of the day because I needed a fix after just a few hours.
“What about you?” I asked innocently.
He growled.
So gullible.
