Mark snorted softly as he flipped a page on the clipboard. “From who? The jellies?”
“From your weird billionaire friend.”
That got a laugh out of him.
Not a surprised one, either. More like the kind someone lets out when a conversation circles back to a topic they’ve already discussed a dozen times.
“What I’d do to have a billionaire friend,” he sighed dramatically, grinning at me. “What’d Mr. Tobias Kelly do this time?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “That’s kind of the problem.”
Mark raised an eyebrow.
“He just… stands there. Every time he comes in. Like a statue.” I made a vague gesture toward the front galleries. “Staring at the tanks, or the people working on them.”
“Yeah,” Mark said easily. “That’s kind of his thing.”
“That’s a weird thing.”
“He’s a weird bloke.”
I huffed.
Mark chuckled again and moved down the row of tanks, scanning the salinity readings I’d written down.
“You’re not the first person he’s spooked,” he said after a moment. “A couple of the volunteers get twitchy around him, too, but he’s harmless.”
“That’s what Emma said.”
“Because it’s true.”
I watched him check the temperature gauge on the jellyfish system, his movements calm and practiced.
“He’s just… intense,” Mark continued. “Quiet type. Thinks more than he talks. Tech founder, yeah? Probably spent half his life staring at computer code instead of people.”
“Still doesn’t explain the suits,” I muttered.
Mark glanced back at me. “Mate, if I had his money, I’d wear whatever the hell I liked too.”
Fair point.
He finished checking the tanks and set the clipboard down.
“So,” he said, leaning against the counter beside me, arms folding loosely across his chest. “How’re you settling in, anyway?”
The sudden change of topic caught me off guard.
“What?”
“Coming up on four months in,” he said. “Thought I should check. See if the American’s surviving.”
“Oh.” I pushed a loose strand of hair back from my face and shrugged. “Yeah. I’m good. Really good, actually.”
Mark tilted his head, studying me. “No homesickness yet?”
“Little bit.”
That part was unavoidable.
