Is your nasty natural?" I heard myself asking. "Or did you get it implanted?
Melissa JensenI'll tell you this,though, Frankie makes me happy. So does Sadie. I don't want to canoodle with either of them, but I love them to death."
"Must you use those words in my presence?"
"Sorry.But.Truth:You are dead as the spat."
Edward sighed. "You're right.You're absolutely right. So I suppose you'd best go to sleep, darling Ella. It's late. And,as was famously said, 'tomorrow-'"
"-is another day? Thank you, Scarlett O'Hara."
"Actually-" -he scowled at me- "I was going to say, 'Tomorrow comes. Tomorrow brings, tomorrow brings love, in the shape of things.'"
"Shakespeare?" I asked.
"Queen," he shot back. "Not nearly as good as 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Fat Bottomed Girls,' but certainly poetic."
"Good night, Edward."
"Good night, lovely girl."
I turned off the light and climbed into bed. "Oh.By the way."
"Yes?"
"I think I figured out why you called Diana all those nicknames. 'Spring,' 'Cab,' 'Post'..."
"Yes?"
"They're all things you wait for. I think Diana was making you wait, and it was making you crazy. Am I right?"
"Oh,Ella. You know I can't tell you that. I will,however, leave you with one more lovely old chestnut-"
"'All good things are worth waiting for?'"
"I really wish you would let me finish a thought tonight. I was going to say, 'Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby.'"
"Marvin Gaye," I said.
"The one and only.
How recently have the sharks been fed?" the guy next to me asked.
Alex and I were in a small room with a dry-erase board, a perky blonde aquarium emplyee, and three guys from Rutgers who'd won their fraternity Christmas prize. True to Alex's promise, no one had seen me in my miniscule jungle print. Another perky girl had handed me a wet suit and pointed me into a changing room. So as I listened to the basics of shark tank etiquette, I was fully encased in blue neoprene from ankle to jaw. The frat boys kept sneaking looks at me when they thought I-and Alex-wasn't looking. It made me feel just a little bit better. Alex's promise that I didn't have to get into the water if I really didn't want to helped, too. It had gotten me out of the car and into the aquarium.
"You can do it," he'd coaxed.
"Yes," I'd answered, thinking of the skateboarder a little and "fake it til you make it" more. "I can do it."
"Yesterday." Perky Girl answered the feeding question. "Believe me. They're not hungry."
I wanted to know exactly how she knew that.Did she ask the sharks?
"Okay," she chirped. "Let's get snorkeling.
The cuddler and its buddies were all on the other side. That didn't make me feel much better. I watch Animal Planet. Sharks move fast.
"Tell why I'm doing this again," I whispered.
"Because you want to," Alex whispered back. "Face your fears, Grasshopper, and you will be free.Now,in you go.
The five of us followed her to a shallow pool. A few feet away was the shark tank. It looked a lot smaller than it did from the vantage points I'd had on previous visits to the aquarium. And the sharks looked a lot bigger. In fact, they made Jaws look like a pond koi. "That's a nurse shark." Yet another aquarium employee, this time a buoyant guy,pointed out a smaller (yeah,right) one that was lurking near the edge of the tank. "They're cuddlers. They like snuggling up to each other and even us sometimes."
I edged closer to Alex.He grinned and wrapped an arm around my waist. That got me into the practice pool.
I started to feel calm,almost, almost convinced that I was really the kind of girl who could swim with sharks.And then a trio swam directly toward us.
Melissa JensenHe recognizes a sea goddess when he sees one," Alex said, nudging me with his arm.
"It's a ray," I retorted. "Its brain is the size of a peanut." But I was secretly very, very pleased. I was genuinely sorry to climb out of the pool. The sharks...well, the sharks I could do without. But Ferdinand had charmed me.
Nearby,one of the overexcited frat boys started wildly windmilling his arms. He had overbalanced and now tipped himself right over the wall.In a second, the diver with us had grabbed his ankle and hauled him back.The sharks, instead of being attracted by the flailing, like they are in every single scary underwater movie, took one sideways look and promptly turned tail,heading for the other side of the tank. They stayed there and didn't come back.
The culprit's buddies pounded him when we climbed out of the water. "Smooth move, Ex-Lax," one muttered. "Way to be a buzzkill."
"hey" was the red-faced retort, "at least I can say I scared off a shark.
Frankie was making me work for my forgiveness. It had taken several days, a thousand phone messages, and a seriously overpriced Vogue Hommes International shoved through his mail slot to get him even to speak to me. He was sitting across the table from me now, arms crossed over his chest (to be fair, he did that a lot when wearing that particular cashmere sweater; it covered the repaired moth hole at the point of the V-neck), glowering a little. I nudged the cannoli another millimeter toward him. It was chocolate chip,his fave.
"So I screwed up twice." I was wrapping up my tale of guilt and woe. "Edward I don't mind so much now. We just were too different for it to work out in the end..." I chanced a glance at Frankie's sulky face to see if he found that at all humorous. Apparently not.,. I sighed and went for honesty. "Alex...That one has walloped me."
Frankie darted out a finger and scooped a little of the filling from the cannoly. I resisted the urge to fling myself across the table and hug him until he squeaked. "The sharks were good," he acknowledged, and not even too reluctantly. "Insane but good."
"Yeah.And Ferdinand. I'll introduce you sometime."
Frankie wrinkled his perfect nose. "I'll take my stingray as a shagreen wallet, thank you."
I laughed.Not that I appreciated the thought of Ferdinand as an accessory,but I was just so happy to have my Frankie back.
He read my mind and waved a cannoli-tipped finger at me. "Ah.You are not forgiven yet, madam."
I subsided in my chair. "I'm sorry," I told him quietly. "I'm really really sorry. If I could go back and do any of it differently, the very first thing would be to tell you everything as it was happening."
"Hmph." Frankie took a bite of cannoli, delicately wiped his mouth, had a sip of espresso,wiped his mouth. And examined the painted til ceiling.
You know when I said I didn't need you?" I asked. He lifted one brow. "I was so wrong.I can't find words to express quite how wrong I was."
"Try."
"Dramatically wrong," I said. "Terribly."
"Please."
"Okay,terrifically. Horrifically. Catastrophically." I gave him my best meek smile. "Forgivably?"
He rolled his eyes. "I should have bought you a thesaurus for Christmas."
I had his present in my bag (a bow tie that may or may not have once belong to Dean Martin, courtesy of eBay) and had a vague suspicion that the big lump in his coat pocket was a multicolored scarf I'd drooled over at Urban Outfitters.
"I still think Bainbridge is an ass," he added. "I've been there,y'know. On the edge of where they live, wanting in."
"I know."
"You're better than that."
"I know that,too." Kinda,anyway. I thought Frankie was pretty amazingly brave in about a hundred ways.
He leaned forward them, and pancaked my hands between his. "I am here for youse, Marino.Forevah and evah."
"No matter how stupidly I behave?"
"Don't push it. And don't lie to me again.Now,what are you going to do about the Edward stuff?
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