7. Chapter 7 #2
“No.” Daren hated for him to think that. “You are perfect. If things could be different—”
“Lilo love Daren!” Lilo said, reaching for him once more, a hand toward his face, and a tentacle twining up to curl around Daren’s arm like when they’d first met, pulling him forward.
As Lilo’s palm cupped Daren’s cheek, he couldn’t deny this beautiful creature a kiss.
“Lilo love Daren,” Lilo said again when they parted, and then he kissed Daren briefly one last time. “Lilo promise.”
Without saying more, he leapt back from the boat and vanished under the water.
“Lilo!” Daren called, wondering what he was up to, but no answer came.
Minutes passed and kept on passing, with Daren looking around to see if Lilo would return to explain or to take him somewhere.
He never came back.
Even after an hour, Lilo never resurfaced.
Hoping it was a fluke or misunderstanding, Daren went back the next day like always, but again, Lilo didn’t show, not all day, and warmer ocean water or not, Daren had no idea how to get to the hot spring caverns without Lilo, not unless he rented scuba gear.
If he had to go that far, well, didn’t that mean Lilo really didn’t want to see him?
His last words had been ones of love, but clearly, Daren had broken his heart.
He couldn’t bring himself to go the next day, or the next, or the next, and given it was literally his job to go out on the water, it wouldn’t go unnoticed, especially by Curtis.
Day after day, Daren did everything he could to avoid his friend, but even if he wasn’t dropping off any fish, he still had to get groceries.
He did his best to only go to the store during the few times a day when Curtis might be on break and someone else was manning the counter.
He had succeeded in that so far, but today, just as he was about to round the corner of the cereal aisle, there was Curtis, blocking his path.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
Shit. “What’s fancy about it?” Daren deflected, trying to sidestep past him. “I’m here every day.”
“Are you?” Curtis moved with him, thwarting any way out of the aisle unless Daren turned around. “Funny that I keep missing you then. I know you haven’t brought in fish for days.”
“So?” Daren snapped. “Did we run out of my record-breaking catches from the rest of this year?”
Curtis looked understandably taken aback.
Daren never talked to him like that, snippy and defensive.
He never talked to anyone like that. “Are you seriously being a dick to me when I am just trying to help? I did not mean to imply the other day that you and your Glooscap can’t make things work.
I was venting my own insecurities. I never wanted to ruin that for you. ”
Daren knew that of course.
He also felt like a colossal dick right now.
“Sorry, Curtis,” one of his employees interrupted them, approaching with a good-sized, heavy-looking box. “This shipment just came in. Did you want me to leave it in back—”
“I’ll take it, Jerry.” Curtis took the box from him to set it at his feet, blocking even more of Daren’s potential escape routes. “I was waiting on this. They’re going right on these shelves I emptied.”
“You got it, boss. Daren.” Jerry nodded in greeting.
The benefits—and pitfalls—of a small town were that everyone knew everyone and loved to stick their noses in each other’s business. With Curtis, Daren knew he wasn’t trying to be a busybody. He was just trying to be a good friend.
He stared at Daren expectantly once Jerry left.
“Curtis—”
“A little help?” Curtis gestured at the box.
Daren sighed. He was a fisherman after all. He almost always had a knife on him.
Dropping to a crouch, Daren flicked out his blade and sliced the box open along the seams of its packing tape.
Curtis crouched with him and started to unload what appeared to be an order of touristy books.
Some were the usual guidebooks, some by local authors, others legends of the sea as picture book fairy tales.
While Curtis began to organize them to display by genre on the nearby empty endcap, Daren put his knife away, set his basket of groceries aside, and flopped down cross-legged right there to the side of the aisle.
“It’s not Glooscap.”
“Obviously,” Curtis said with a snort. “But whoever mystery man really is, people from different worlds can make it work. Just because I’m letting myself doubt with Bradley doesn’t mean it’s the right thing. My parents made it work. Yours did.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
He couldn’t very well say because my parents were from two different cultures, not two different species.
“Take these.” Curtis dropped a pile of storybooks into Daren’s lap. “I want those on the top shelf, please and thank you.”
Sighing again, Daren scrambled back to his feet.
Curtis remained on the lower shelf working his way up, while Daren situated the ones he’d been given on the top shelf.
There were five of any single title, all the fairy tale kind for the folklore section.
The first from his pile had watercolor artwork of a beautiful woman draped in a silver cloak.
She stood at the water’s edge with the distant image of a seal behind her.
The horrible sinking feeling Daren had thought was anxiety over making things work with Lilo had grown a thousand times worse since being away from him. Better to have loved and lost? No. Better to love and keep on loving despite letting your fears get the best of you.
“Fuck,” Daren cursed, being definitely too harsh with the books, since one of them dropped to the floor. “Sorry. Sorry! But I messed everything up, didn’t I? I broke things off, and he just… vanished.”
“Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen when you break up with someone?” Curtis commiserated, gently reclaiming the book Daren had dropped and standing to face him.
“I know, but it was a mistake. I miss him so much, and it’s barely been over a week.
” Daren had never connected with another person as deeply and easily as he had Lilo.
Part of the reason he had agreed to come back to this tiny fishing village when his father needed him was because of how at home he’d always felt on the water.
It made a strange poetic sense that he would only find love in the ocean’s depths. “I love him, Curtis. I love him.”
“Then why did you end things?”
“To get ahead of things ending on their own.” Daren squeezed his eyes shut to stay the wetness in them when Curtis offered an all too pitying smile. “I know, okay? What an idiot! I just—”
“Hi, Curtis! Daren!”
Bradley. Right on time as usual.
Golden retriever personality or not, his smile immediately dropped when he saw Daren’s very likely stricken expression with tears in his eyes. “Oh shit. You’re not sick again, are you? Is it something else? Is there anything I can—”
“I’m fine, Bradley,” Daren cut off his albeit helpful tirade. “Just kind of something personal.”
“Oh! Totally!” Bradley dutifully backed off to give them space. He really was a wonderful young man and definitely someone Curtis should take a chance on. Someone in this mess should end up happy.
“Take your own advice, okay?” Daren said once Bradley was out of earshot. “I would give anything for a chance at fixing what I lost. Don’t miss out on even trying to have it.”