How to Date a Millionaire by Allison Rushby

either.
    But he doesn’t look put out. ‘Most likely plotting something sinister,’ he answers. ‘How about Alexa and Nat?’
    I laugh. ‘Nat’s probably doing the same. Alexa will be shopping, like she told me she would be. There isn’t very much that’s sinister about Alexa.’
    â€˜No,’ Seth says. ‘She seems like a good friend to you.’
    â€˜She is. The best.’
    We pay for our admission, collect a map of the aquarium and head inside. ‘What first, do you think?’ Seth asks as we stand to one side and view the map.
    â€˜Um …’ I check out what’s on offer. The indoor galleries, the outside ‘edge of the reef’ exhibit, or maybe the monk seal pool (I have to try hard not to snicker, thinking of Alexa here). Just as I’m about to open my mouth and reply, someone bumps into me, pushing me into Seth’s side. He half grabs me around my waist to steady me.
    â€˜Hey, are you okay?’
    â€˜I’m fine,’ I squeak, righting myself. ‘How about the indoor galleries first?’
    Seth lets me go. ‘Sounds good.’
    â€˜Right.’ The indoor galleries sound perfect. That way, in the half-dark, Seth won’t be able to see me blushing. And he might not notice that I’m crawling along the floor. Seriously, after being held by Seth, my knees feel so weak that I might just have to crawl.

    â€˜Oh, look at this one. He’s beautiful!’ I press my face up to the glass like I’m a kid again and watch in awe as the neon blue-striped angelfish swims past my nose. ‘It’s hard to believe anything’s naturally that colour. It’s almost as if he’s lit up from inside.’ I finally pull back, realising I might have said enough now.
    But Seth doesn’t seem to notice. He has his own face pressed up to the tank. ‘And look at that yellow one! I mean, how can they be such different colours and come from the same place?’
    At first I think he’s making fun of me, but then I lookat his expression. He’s not. We’re just as daggy as each other. Suddenly, he turns his head and his eyes read shock, as if he’s just realised he might have said enough as well.
    We spot each other’s expressions and laugh.
    â€˜That’s it. I think we need to pace ourselves,’ Seth says, standing upright again. ‘In case we get too excited.’
    Too right, I think. I might be calling Dr Reid after this jaunt to the aquarium to have my own blood pressure tested.
    Slowly, we make our way along the gallery, stopping to look at the things that catch our eyes as we go. Just as I thought, it’s reasonably dark inside, which is a blessing, as it seems to make our first-date chatting easier. I think we’re still both finding that what happened yesterday keeps popping up in our minds from time to time. We talk about LA and NYC (where Seth actually grew up and his father still lives, which is kind of handy if this is going to go anywhere beyond Waikiki), about film school, about what I’m going to do after I finish school (who knows? Just finishing is enough for me at this point) and how we’re going to have to return to the real world pretty soon (damn).
    I don’t ask about Seth’s transplant and we don’t talkabout our mothers, or our families. We don’t talk about Jason and Connor, or Alexa and Nat, either. Instead, we focus on talking about us.
    After we finish looking at all the indoor galleries we head outside for some lunch and keep right on chatting. About our childhoods, about how I moved around so much because of Dad’s work, about his father’s endless stream of too-young girlfriends, about how much we both love NYC, but can hate things about it at the same time.
    We talk and talk and talk.
    Without a doubt, it is the best date I have ever been on.
    We ooh and aah at fish like people who’ve never seen tropical fish