either.
But he doesnât look put out. âMost likely plotting something sinister,â he answers. âHow about Alexa and Nat?â
I laugh. âNatâs probably doing the same. Alexa will be shopping, like she told me she would be. There isnât very much thatâs sinister about Alexa.â
âNo,â Seth says. âShe seems like a good friend to you.â
âShe is. The best.â
We pay for our admission, collect a map of the aquarium and head inside. âWhat first, do you think?â Seth asks as we stand to one side and view the map.
âUm â¦â I check out whatâs on offer. The indoor galleries, the outside âedge of the reefâ exhibit, or maybe the monk seal pool (I have to try hard not to snicker, thinking of Alexa here). Just as Iâm about to open my mouth and reply, someone bumps into me, pushing me into Sethâs side. He half grabs me around my waist to steady me.
âHey, are you okay?â
âIâm fine,â I squeak, righting myself. âHow about the indoor galleries first?â
Seth lets me go. âSounds good.â
âRight.â The indoor galleries sound perfect. That way, in the half-dark, Seth wonât be able to see me blushing. And he might not notice that Iâm crawling along the floor. Seriously, after being held by Seth, my knees feel so weak that I might just have to crawl.
âOh, look at this one. Heâs beautiful!â I press my face up to the glass like Iâm a kid again and watch in awe as the neon blue-striped angelfish swims past my nose. âItâs hard to believe anythingâs naturally that colour. Itâs almost as if heâs lit up from inside.â I finally pull back, realising I might have said enough now.
But Seth doesnât seem to notice. He has his own face pressed up to the tank. âAnd look at that yellow one! I mean, how can they be such different colours and come from the same place?â
At first I think heâs making fun of me, but then I lookat his expression. Heâs not. Weâre just as daggy as each other. Suddenly, he turns his head and his eyes read shock, as if heâs just realised he might have said enough as well.
We spot each otherâs expressions and laugh.
âThatâs it. I think we need to pace ourselves,â Seth says, standing upright again. âIn case we get too excited.â
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, itâs reasonably dark inside, which is a blessing, as it seems to make our first-date chatting easier. I think weâre 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 Iâm going to do after I finish school (who knows? Just finishing is enough for me at this point) and how weâre going to have to return to the real world pretty soon (damn).
I donât ask about Sethâs transplant and we donât talkabout our mothers, or our families. We donât 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 Dadâs work, about his fatherâs 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 whoâve never seen tropical fish
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