by Anders Grey
He gave me a hopeful smile. “Mind if I sit with you?”
“I’m not eating anymore but go ahead. I don’t recommend the eggs, by the way. You could eat cardboard and get more flavor for the same nutritional value.”
Alec snorted, a hint of his usual easygoing grin on his face. I realized that I missed seeing it.
“Thanks for the tip,” he said, pulling up a chair. He dipped a tea bag in his white mug—oolong, which I knew even without asking. I noticed he wasn’t quite meeting my eye. “Say—”
“I’m sorry,” I blurted. “About last night.”
Alec blinked. “I was about to say the same thing.”
“Why? You don’t have anything to apologize for.”
He shrugged. “Even if I thought that way, something still clearly upset you. I didn’t want to let the tension drag unnecessarily.”
This asshole was going to apologize for no reason? Just to clear the air? He was being so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What’s funny?” Alec asked.
“You are.” I smirked. “You didn’t do anything wrong, but you’re saying sorry anyway. It’s silly.”
He let out a hmph sound, but I saw the mischievous glint in his eyes. “I was choking on my pride a little, yes, but it was better than arguing with you. I really prefer it when we get along.”
“Me too.”
Alec brought the steaming mug to his lips, then paused, setting it down. “Can I ask why you were upset?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. I was hoping he wouldn’t ask because I couldn’t give him a good answer.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “It was irrational.”
Alec sipped his tea. “I see.”
I owed him a better explanation than that, so I tried to uncap the bottle on my emotions.
“I think,” I began, fidgeting with my fingers, “maybe—and this is gonna sound stupid—but I feel like I have some kind of claim over you. Not in a possessive or creepy way, but because…” I made sure the coast was clear of any nosy relatives, then leaned in and lowered my voice. “Because of the whole fake boyfriend thing, you know?”
Alec gave a slow, lazy grin. “So, you’re saying you became a method actor.”
“If you wanna put it like that.”
“And hearing about my past made you jealous.”
I flinched. He’d reached straight into my core with that one. “Yes.”
His grin turned smug.
I narrowed my eyes. “Wait a second. Are you enjoying me being jealous over you?”
His expression was downright devilish. “Maybe.”
“Bastard.”
He laughed, and my heart fluttered—for a variety of reasons. I was glad the cloud of tension hanging over us had broken and we were back to normal. I was also strangely pleased to find out that he liked my jealousy.
“So, the aquarium,” I said, shoving my phone forward on the tablecloth to show him the text.
Alec brightened. “Tiffany may not be throwing the most classic wedding events, but they sure are interesting ones.”
“I, for one, appreciate it. I’m glad it’s not giant Jenga or getting drunk and throwing horseshoes while blindfolded or something.” I paused. “Actually, that second one sounds like something she might force us to do, so never mind.”
Alec nodded. “It’s a good opportunity for me to take some good photos, too. Especially without the crowds.”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you read the itinerary? There was a note about Tiffany booking the whole aquarium for a private experience. Your family’s gonna be there, but no one else.”
“Oh. Cool, I guess.”
A private tour of the aquarium meant being with Alec in a moody and dark place, and my mind immediately jumped to the fantasy of us necking somewhere in front of a school of fish.
As our group entered the building, Alec muttered, “By the way, how is Tiffany affording all this?”
“Rich family,” I said simply. “You obviously haven’t spent much time around Rosecreek.”
He raised a brow. “Are you equally loaded?”
“I’m well-off. Tiffany’s parents are loaded.”
“Is that right? Then maybe you should be my sugar daddy,” Alec teased.
My cock twitched at the sexual implication, and I walked faster, passing a column-shaped tank. Thankfully, making eye contact with a particularly ugly fish killed my boner.
“Sorry, Alec, I don’t think you’re enough of a young blonde bimbo for that,” I said, hoping to let him down gently.
“Damn, way to shatter a guy’s dreams.”
I snorted. “How about we compromise and I buy you a souvenir?”
He laughed. “Deal.”
The group lazily split up the same way it did at the butterfly conservatory. Mom was with Aunt Rose, who was laughing her head off at a blobfish and saying it looked like her husband in the mornings. As I scanned the crowd, I realized I didn’t see Tiffany anywhere I frowned.
Wherever she is, I hope she’s with Mark so we don’t have to track him down like bloodhounds again.
“Rowan. Look at this.”
Alec’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. I found him crouched by a tank that no one else seemed interested in. The rest of my family were on the other side of the hall, ogling at a school of flashy tropical fish.
But the tank in front of us looked empty.
“What am I looking at, exactly?” I asked.
Alec chuckled and pointed at a lumpy brown thing on another lumpy brown thing that might have been a ledge. I had no clue what I was supposed to be seeing.
“You ate too many hotel scrambled eggs, didn’t you?” I said, then fake gasped. “Oh god, they gave you brain poisoning.”
With a groan of exasperation, Alec grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me down so I was kneeling next to him. I blushed and was about to ask him what he was doing when the scene in the tank in front of me suddenly shifted. But nothing had changed in reality—it was only my perception that changed.
Instead of a lump on a lump, I saw an alien creature with shimmering skin, and one narrowed eye glaring at me. When I realized I was staring at a football-sized octopus just inches from my face and separated only by a wall of clear acrylic, I nearly stumbled back.
“Whoa.”
“See it now?” Alec said.
I nodded.
“Keep watching,” he urged.
As if annoyed by my presence, the octopus moved. Its eight legs—which I’d previously thought were part of the landscape—all crawled forward, changing color and shape as it moved. My eyes widened and I stared in awe as it skittered to the other side of the enclosure, morphing through a hundred shades of blue and green and brown until it settled on a perfect camouflage and disappeared right before my eyes again.
“Holy shit,” I murmured. “That was really cool.”
Alec smiled. His eyes were lit up and full of contagious joy. I grinned back at him.
I noticed he hadn’t pulled out his camera. “Too bad you missed taking some photos of it.”
“Oh. You’re right. I totally forgot.” He didn’t seem too bothered. “I guess I was too busy living in the moment with you.”
My heart beat a little faster when he added with you. I tried not to notice how bright the green of his eyes glittered among all this turquoise water surrounding us.
“We should catch up with the group before they leave us behind,” Alec suggested, standing upright.
I shrugged. “That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?”
Alec paused, shooting me a curious look over his shoulder.
“I mean,” I said quickly, “because it’s nice and quiet back here.”
Not because I want to be alone with you or anything.
“Good call.” He got out his camera. “Maybe I’ll snap a few shots of the clownfish for the magazine. People go crazy for those things.”
“Right. Clownfish.”
&nbs
p; With the way I couldn’t shake Alec off my mind, I was starting to feel like a clownfish myself.
After a few minutes, we moved on, following the long dark halls. Even with the muffled noise of the crowd ahead, it was eerily quiet. We entered a tunnel created by the tank arching overhead, giving us a panoramic view of the fish swimming lazily above us.
“Have you talked to Tiffany yet?” Alec asked softly.
I didn’t need to clarify what he meant. “No. I haven’t seen her all day.”
“Weird. She should be here since it’s her event.”
“Maybe she’s clearing out the souvenir shop,” I suggested. I was only half-joking.
Alec smirked. “I hope not. I’m still holding you to your word. If I don’t get at least one aquarium-themed gift, I’m rioting.”
“Hold your seahorses. You’ll get a souvenir, cowboy.”
“I think the metaphor is falling apart.”
The voices coming from ahead were getting louder. We stopped at the end of the tunnel at the same moment that my family broke out into cheers. I winced against the sudden noise.
Tiffany and Mark were caught in an embrace against one of the wall-to-wall tanks, sharing a kiss that elicited more cheering. A disgruntled employee by one of the staff doors sighed. I grimaced on her behalf, wishing my family would quiet down. But I was glad to see Tiffany and Mark together. At least he hadn’t been late this time.
Beside me, Alec bristled. I felt another instinctive flash of jealousy—why did he need to get all worked up from seeing his ex?—but then a wave of guilt hit me. I didn’t know that was how he felt. I was just assuming things.
“Are you okay?” I asked him.
He gave a stiff nod. “Yeah.” He glanced at me. “I’m not upset at seeing him kiss Tiffany, if that’s what were you’re thinking.”
“No,” I said. “Okay, maybe a tiny part of me was thinking that.”
He gave me a half-hearted smile, but it fell quickly. “It’s not that. I’m worried about her.”
“Why?”
I looked at them again, still hugging. Tiffany was laughing. She looked much happier today than she did yesterday at the conservatory.
“Isn’t this a good thing?” I asked. “It means he’s actually here for her.”
“Is he really, though?” Alec challenged, a bitter edge to his voice. “Or is he just acting?”
My hope dimmed. I hadn’t thought about that. I hadn’t wanted to think about that.
“I’ll talk to her,” I promised.
Without thinking, I reached out and took Alec’s hand. He went still for a second before relaxing. We were still within sight of my family, so it was perfectly acceptable to hold my fake boyfriend’s hand. If Alec had any objections, he didn’t voice them, so I selfishly indulged in the pleasure of physical contact with him.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s skip this section and go straight to the souvenirs.”
Alec chuckled. He laced his fingers tighter in mine, sending sparks up my spine. “Okay, sugar daddy.”
I blushed deeply, and I was intensely grateful for the darkness of the aquarium. “Don’t call me that in front of my family.”
“Sorry. I’ll only say it in private from now on.”
That’s even worse. “How about you don’t say it at all?”
“I swear once you buy me a souvenir, I’m done.”
I hurried to the gift shop.
14
Alec
As much as I wanted the giant stuffed shark, I didn’t think it would fit in my luggage, so I asked Rowan to surprise me with something small instead. He mumbled something about me not even choosing my own souvenir and skulked off to poke through the shelves.
I waited outside the gift shop door before drifting over to the last-minute exhibit nearby. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a shallow touch-tank pool with horseshoe crabs and shrimp. Touching them was permitted under employee supervision, but I didn’t feel like getting my hands all wet and crustaceany, so instead simply I watched the critters scurry around with a smile. They didn’t have a care in the world apart from redecorating their sand houses. I sighed contentedly. Part of me wished I was a shrimp sometimes, too. Shrimp didn’t have to deal with running into their cheating exes. Or maybe they did. Hell, I didn’t know anything about shrimp family drama.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The voice sent a chill down my spine. My muscles froze up before I spun around to face Mark. Tiffany wasn’t with him.
Seeing him face-to-face wasn’t any easier than it was yesterday. I still felt angry and betrayed, like the months of healing after our split meant nothing. It all came crashing down as soon as he glared at me.
Relax, Alec. He doesn’t have any power over you except the power you give him.
I inhaled slowly and composed myself. “I’m here with someone.”
Mark raised a brow. “Who?”
None of your goddamn business. “Rowan.”
“Rowan,” Mark mumbled. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
I couldn’t help but scoff. “You’re marrying Tiffany and you don’t even know who Rowan is?”
That pissed him off. I saw the telltale twitch of his brow and the stiff corner of his lip that indicated he was about to raise his voice at me. But I knew he also didn’t want to make a scene.
“Enlighten me,” he said coldly.
Defiance flared up in my chest. “Sorry, but that’s not my job. Maybe you should ask your wife-to-be and find out yourself. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
I began to move away from the shallow pool, but Mark grabbed my arm with enough force to make me wince. It was a swift, subtle action, not flashy enough for the aquarium employee at the head of the exhibit to notice.
“Unless you have something important to say, let go of me,” I said calmly.
Mark’s lip curled in annoyance, but he released me. I wondered if seeing me here jarred him the same way it did to me. Was he afraid I’d spill his dark past to Tiffany?
“Where is Tiffany, by the way?” I asked. My initial shock at running into Mark had passed, and now I was running on snark and irritation alone. “Shouldn’t you be with her instead of harassing me?”
His eye twitched at the implication. “I’m not harassing you. Just wondering why you’re following me. Are you trying to start trouble?”
I bit back a laugh. “Is that what you think? Sorry, but I have better things to do. I’m just here with—” I almost said a friend but then I remembered the situation. “My boyfriend, who just happens to be Tiffany’s cousin.”
“Boyfriend?” Mark spat the word in shock.
“That’s right,” I said, feeling bolder since the news clearly took him off guard. “I’m dating Rowan.”
Mark apparently didn’t know how to handle this information because he stepped back, his face shadowed, and disappeared into the crowd. I didn’t care. I was just glad to see him leave. I exhaled, feeling the last remnants of tension leave my body.
I went back to looking at shrimp until Rowan’s chipper voice sounded behind me.
“Hey. Sorry I took so long, but I think I finally found something you’ll like,” he said.
Immediately my mood lightened. I smiled at his enthusiasm. “It took you that long to find a souvenir?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah? I had to find the perfect gift.”
I smiled. During the time I’d dated Mark he didn’t even give me a single gift, much less a perfect one.
“Here.” Rowan handed me a small bag with a cartoon shark on it.
I smiled. “Thanks.” I prepared to pinch the bag open but then hesitated. “Would it be too cheesy if I saved it for later?”
Rowan huffed, looking a bit embarrassed. “Don’t get your hopes up, it’s not much. It’s not worth saving for Christmas morning or anything.”
It’s still a gift from you, and that makes it special, I thought before realizing how corny I was being. But I couldn’t help that
Rowan brought those feelings out in me.
Thankfully we were interrupted before Rowan could pin me down and force me to open it—although that was a mental image I saved and filed away for later. Tiffany ran up to us with a miniature stuffed shark in her arms.
“Did you guys have fun?” she asked, grinning. Her mood was definitely an improvement over yesterday, and I couldn’t help but be happy for her.
“Lots of it,” Rowan said. “The octopus was especially interesting.”
I smiled, secretly beyond pleased that he’d enjoyed our private moment.
“Aww, did you buy your boyfriend a gift?” Tiffany teased. “You guys are so cute, I can’t stand it.”
Something about the way she said that clued me in to what was going on. I forced myself not to raise a suspicious eyebrow. “Wait, Tiff, did Mark not buy you that?”
Tiffany’s shoulders slumped and she hugged the shark tighter. “No. I got it for myself because, um, look at it? I had to have it.” With a note of annoyance, she added, “Besides, Mark ran off again. I don’t know where he is.”
“Maybe he ate a bad hot dog and had to run to the bathroom,” Rowan said. I knew from the evil twinkle in his eyes that it was more of a hopeful suggestion than anything else. I held back a snort of laughter.
“Ew,” Tiffany said. “Anyways, I hope not, because our allotted time is up and we’re leaving soon. I’m gonna go ask Mom and Aunt Kaitlyn if they’ve seen him.”
When Tiffany ran off, Rowan turned to me.
“Why is it that you’re my fake boyfriend and you’re buying me souvenirs, and yet Mark can’t buy his fiancée a single gift?” I said quietly.
“I was thinking the same thing. First, he’s late to the party, and now he’s running off again and leaving my cousin to fend for herself in the gift shop,” Rowan mumbled. He sighed and rubbed his temples. “I didn’t want to believe it, but maybe you were right, Alec. What if it’s all an act? I don’t want him to hurt Tiffany the way he hurt you.”
“Me neither.” I paused, wanting to tell Rowan what happened but finding it hard to string the words together. “You know, Mark talked to me just before you showed up.”
