Chapter 26
Mateo
“Where’s Blondie?” Jett asks, looking around me for Charlie.
I rub the sleep away, forcing back nausea from the early wake-up and the mild swaying of the boat.
Jett’s camera gear and tripod are set up in front of two deck chairs, the ocean and the first rays of sun acting as a backdrop. Doug riffles through bags, pulling out wires and lights.
“Nice pants,” he comments as he passes.
I was only told I needed to look nice from the waist up. I’m wearing my nicest button-down shirt and a pair of joggers. Business on the top. Comfortability on the bottom.
Jett hands me a mug of coffee, and steam wafts off the top as I watch them methodically set up recording equipment. I will admit, I did not realize how much work Jett put into his videos.
I assumed he turned his phone on and began recording, but based on the detailed schedule he emailed me last night—complete with interview questions to prepare—he’s far more organized than he appears .
“I was not going to wake Charlie up at the ass-crack of dawn for a social media interview,” I answer. He opens his mouth to argue when I add, “No matter how great the lighting is in the morning.”
There’s something special about sharing space with Charlie in the morning. She’s often quiet, requiring a few minutes for her brain to wake up. When she’s alert enough to make sounds, it’s often grunts and groans as she stomps around the cabin.
My girl is not a morning person, but it’s the most beautiful sight in the world when she rolls over in bed and offers me a sleepy smile. I’ve memorized its curve, the barely there tilt of her lips as she wakes and registers my presence.
It’s exceptional—a special one, only for me.
Doug silently guides me to a deck chair and stands behind the camera, adjusting the angles.
“If she says no to these interviews,” I start, “don’t question her.”
Jett attaches a microphone to the lapel of my shirt and gives me a knowing look.
“If I didn’t know any better, I would say you’re falling in love with her.” He winks but adds, “I’ll respect her decision. The video would be so much better with her in it, though. She’s remarkable.”
Remarkable .
It suits her perfectly. Beauty. Brains. Personality. Every part of her is one-of-a-kind.
Right beneath my breastbone, I feel it every time I think of Charlie or see her happy. When she laughs, it flares with delight, demanding to hear the sound over and over.
I know what it is—I heard my abuela talk about it and witnessed it with my parents. It’s a small seed, meant to be nurtured, but it’s present, growing stronger and more apparent by the day.
I’m falling in love with her.
“Mateo.”
“What?”
I return to reality, where Jett is grinning at me like I’m an idiot .
“Are you ready to start?”
“Oh…um, yeah.” I wince, hiding my mild embarrassment behind my coffee mug.
Doug signals he’s started recording, and Jett gives me a thumbs-up.
“Hi, my name is Mateo, and I’m a PhD student at the University of Rhode Island, where I study microbial community assemblages at varying depths and environmental conditions to understand anthropogenic effects on biodiversity.”
“Cut,” Jett yells, a frown pulling the corners of his lips. “Mateo, man, you know I love you…”
“But?”
“Cut it with the scientific mumbo jumbo. You’re going to put my viewers to sleep. And maybe breathe between sentences. What do you do in the lab?”
“Uh…” He’s stunned me a bit, and it’s still early. I’ve practiced my elevator pitch for my research so often I could do it in my sleep, but I wasn’t prepared to go off-script. “Dirt.”
“Dirt?” Jett rubs between his brow. “You went from science nerd to ‘dirt’?”
“It’s early,” I mutter.
He forced me to wake up at the butt crack of dawn, destroyed my pre-planned speech, and now he wants me improvise? He’s lost his—
Oh my god , Charlie’s rubbing off on me.
“Let’s try again.”
Twelve takes later, Jett is satisfied with my introduction. I try to make my escape, but he hauls me back onto the deckchair. His exuberance is overflowing, but I have zero idea why he’s giving it to me. He spent the last hour yelling at me and sighing in disappointment.
“So…you and Blondie?” He waggles his eyebrows, and the top of his beanie falls over his eyes. He shoves it back up. “Your date looked amazeballs .”
“Uh…”
“Have you kissed her?” His voice jumps a few octaves, and my heartbeat skips, I’m so startled. “You have to tell me everything. Love is super dope.”
Doug gives me a knowing look as he passes, packing up the recording equipment. He reaches down to pull the microphone off my shirt while he whispers, “Jett can’t stop talking about how you two are falling in love.”
I cough, hacking up half a lung at his casual words.
Is that what Charlie and I are doing? Is she falling in love?
He squeezes my shoulder, and Jett waits with anticipation. I sigh.
“You have to swear on the Brotherhood of Catan not to say anything to Charlie,” I say, and Jett nods emphatically. “We kissed.”
He leaps from his chair, throwing a fist into the air in celebration. “Have you told her you love her?”
“Slow your roll, man.”
“You’re right. I’ll be more chill.”
He bounces up and down. Nothing about him screams chill , but I drain the last of my coffee, rising from the deck chair. “I gotta go make Charlie a coffee before she wakes up.”
Jett’s goofy grin mirrors my own.
“She’s beautifully grumpy in the morning.”
I’m nearly out of sight when he screams, “Go get your girl!”
Vivian adjusts the trajectory of the ROV, shifting it to the right to scan the seafloor. It’s been a quiet morning, only having reached two thousand meters a half hour ago. Charlie sits in the corner with Sofía, sipping on her iced coffee, the both of them focused on their laptops.
The camera jerks back to the right, and Vivian starts jamming buttons, increasing the zoom. A sharp inhale is the only sound in the control room, and then her hand flies up in the air, waving around frantically.
She hits me in the abdomen. Hard.
“Mateo,” Vivian hisses. “Is Charlie paying attention?”
“What? No,” I cough out, pain spidering out from where her punch landed.
Charlie bops her head to her music, none the wiser I’m being beat up by Vivian.
God, she’s adorable as she mouths the words to her song.
“Get over here,” Vivian whispers, and I step closer to the screen. The air is ripped from my lungs. No fucking way. Wild excitement blooms on her face as her head jerks to Charlie.
A haze of disbelief settles over us both, a momentary silence followed by surprised laughter.
“She’s going to fly off the handle,” I warn.
“Go get her!”
I take a few deep breaths to cool the enthusiasm thrumming in my veins, and only when I’m confident I won’t blurt out the news do I tap Charlie on the shoulder.
She rips out an earbud, One Direction blasting from the small speaker.
“Hi.”
She peruses my body, and I suppress a shiver.
“Could you help me identify something?” I ask, trying to hide a manic smile .
“Oh, sure.” She pops up from the table, pausing to drag a hand along my bicep. She follows me to the monitor, and I step aside for her to view the screen. “I’m glad you’ve realized my intellect is far superior…” Charlie trails off.
Her head jerks over her shoulder, disbelief contorting her face, before she steps closer to the screen.
I plug my ears, prepared for the scream about to escape her lungs. This is her holy grail, one of the top five on her scientific bucket list tacked to the wall by her desk.
A glass-shattering squeal fills the room as Charlie leaps and cheers, her fists punching the air. She performs the world’s most adorable wiggle. God, I hope someone is recording this moment so I can experience her joy over and over.
She groans, her face pinching before it returns to pure joy. Then she launches, wrapping her arms around my neck and smashing her lips to mine.
I’m so stunned that I don’t move. So surprised she’s kissing me in front of all these people that I don’t kiss her back.
She pulls away, horror creeping over her features. “Oh my god. I didn’t…do you not want—”
I cut off her rambling with a sloppy kiss of my own. People cheer in the room, either for Charlie and me, or for the once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
“This is the greatest day of my life,” she screams, kissing my cheek.
Her laughter is deep and joyous as I twirl her around, basking in the happiness she radiates. I would spend every day of the rest of my life chasing her laughter, even if she’s laughing at me.
“We kissed,” Charlie says, her fingers touching her lips like she’s in a daze.
“We did.”
“In front of people. We kissed in front of other people.” Her skin pales, and the slight tremor in her voice frightens me. “Is that okay?”
“Okay?” I laugh in disbelief. “Bruja, I would kiss you in front of a million people just so they know you’re mine.”
Her smile gradually blooms into something magnificent. I get lost in her before she jerks.
“The whale fall!” She grabs my hand, dragging me over to the screen. “Do you think there will be tissue left?” she asks, bouncing on her toes.
Jett pounds a fist against my shoulder, his focus darting to Charlie.
“How’s it feel?”
“She’s fucking incredible.”
Jett laughs, moving to stand beside her, both of them watching the monitor with rapt attention. Vivian is locked into her work, guiding the ROV closer, and Lucas is scrambling to get clear video for the documentary.
The bottom of the ocean is vast, and stumbling upon a whale fall is rare, even in areas with large whale populations. Hell, the first one wasn’t recorded until 1977.
“What is that?” Jett asks, awe and disgust creeping into his voice.
Charlie’s hand flies backward, slamming against the center of my chest.
“Tell him, Mateo. I’m too excited to speak!”
Her fingers linger between my pectoral muscles, and I clear my throat. Her hand flies back to her side, a small blush creeping up her cheeks when she peers over her shoulder.
“It’s a whale fall,” I explain, choking down my lust. “They’re pop-up ecosystems. When a whale dies, they fall through the water column, and organisms feed on the carcass. At the surface, sharks, birds, and other large pelagic species will scavenge the flesh.”
“Sick,” Jett mutters .
“It’s insane,” Charlie cheers. “Get closer. Get closer!”
“When the whale falls to the seafloor, scavengers descend on whatever remains. Sevengill sharks, octopi, crabs, and other deep-sea organisms eat the remaining tissue.”
“Then the bone-eating worms appear…” Charlie says ominously, never looking away from the screen.
“Bone-eating worms?” Jett asks, and for the first time on this trip, he looks slightly uncomfortable.
“They secrete an acid that dissolves the whalebone. They don’t even have a stomach,” Charlie exclaims, failing to read the room. “Or a mouth!”
Confusion flickers over half the faces in the room. I can hear the silent questions.
How do they eat the bones if they don’t have stomachs or mouths?
The simplest explanation is that the natural world is fucking insane, and everyone should hold a healthy amount of fear for the wild shit that’s evolved.
“A symbiotic bacteria digests the organic material, and that’s how the worm gets energy,” I explain, but it’s futile. It’s only creating more confusion. “It’s wack,” I amend.
Doug and Jett nod, and I drop the topic. Most people don’t find bone-eating worms as exciting or appealing as Charlie.
I stand back, content to watch her excitement as she chirps in Vivian’s ear, asking her to circle the whale remains so she can count the number of octopus and rattail fish.
There’s little flesh left, but organisms pick at what remains between the rib cage. The vertebrae are void of flesh, covered by a layer of orange-pink fuzz. Bristle stars are scattered along the seafloor, surrounded by a bed of worms, feeding on the nutrients released into the sediment.
While Vivian communicates with the captain to circle the boat so the ROV can hover over the whale, Charlie appears at my side .
“This is on my scientific bucket list,” she whispers, snaking her arm around mine to hold my bicep.
“Why are you whispering, bruja?”
I have to fight my laughter as her shoulders press up to her ears and she bounces on her toes.
“I think I might faint from excitement.” She presses the back of her hand to her forehead. “Catch me, Mateo.”
Her body goes limp, crashing into my side as I stumble to catch her. The smell of cinnamon and menthol fills my nostrils, and I take a deeper breath. My hands dig into her waist, holding her steady as she completes her dramatics.
“Charlie, get over here,” Vivian yells. “There are worms!”
“Shut the fuck up!”
She darts out of my grip, and all I can do is watch her. The way she beams and laughs. How she chatters with Jett, pointing out things on the screen. The blood rushes to my brain when she peers over her shoulder and points excitedly at the decaying flesh remaining on the bones.
Fucking remarkable.