Baby for the Bosshole

The kelp strands are huge, stretching from the ocean floor all the way to the surface fifty feet above. Their leaves spread out and sway to the current, creating a beautiful light show in the sunlit-filtered water.

Bright red, orange and gold schools of fish dart among the towering columns of kelp like they’re playing hide-and-seek. They don’t panic or scatter away from us, seemingly not afraid of people at all.

A turtle glides by, swimming with the cutest and blandest expression on its face, like it’s too cool to care about anything or anybody. I tug at Emmett, who seems to be totally at home in the water, and point.

He turns, gives me the “OK” signal and then points at something to his left. I stare, mesmerized, as seals cut through the water like living bullets, their bodies sleek and streamlined as they playfully twist and turn. They’re stunning. I’ve seen nature documentaries about wild seals, but watching them on TV simply doesn’t compare.

None of the sea creatures swim away as we lazily propel ourselves among them, until I spot a small, lobster-looking thing on a rock. It dances back a little, like it can’t decide if we’re harmless or not, raising its tiny claws in challenge. I wish I could communicate that we?

?re totally harmless.

Jessie floats by, camera in hand, and takes a couple of shots. Emmett swims up and slips an arm around my waist, which has to be difficult under the circumstances. He signals Jessie, and she takes our picture from several angles.

More time goes by, and it’s almost like I’m dreaming. The pressure of the water around me and the regular sound of my own breathing, combined with the green-filtered light, make everything seem surreal. Then something that feels a bit too substantial to be a kelp leaf brushes my leg. I turn a little and see an open mouth full of teeth…and a dorsal fin.

Holy shit! Shark!

My heart races. A shark in open water can be bad news. An article I read about shark attacks flashes through my head while the ominous theme from Jaws plays in the background. Although the shark isn’t really big enough to eat me, it’s big enough to take a good chunk out of my thigh. And it looks hungry.

Now I really wish I could speak shark, so I could tell the thing that I’m not very tasty. Plus, I’m covered in a rubber wet suit, which has to taste bad—even to a shark. I swim away, but it lazily circles back around to follow. Another one moves closer as well.

Can sharks signal their buddies to come join them for feeding? I thought only dolphins could communicate with each other with their clicking sounds.

Feeling a little panicked, I tug on Emmett’s arm.

He looks back, and I point at the sharks.

He waves, not at the shark, but at me. What’s he trying to say?

I shrug helplessly, but he reaches over and squeezes my hand. The simple motion soothes my frayed nerves. Suddenly, my heart is no longer racing. Emmett puts his free hand out as the shark glides by and strokes its flank. The fish doesn’t show any reaction, content to share its domain with us, and the adrenaline spiking in my veins settles down.

I feel safe.

I stare at our linked hands, then at Emmett. And here, in this alien, aquamarine realm, I realize there’s something more between us than just his bossholehood and sex.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Amy

Eventually, we have to surface and swim back to shore. Jessie strips me out of my gear with casual competence and promises to send us our photos in the next day or two.

After changing, we grab lunch at a casual seafood restaurant with a view of the ocean we just emerged from. Emmett teases me about my reaction to the sharks, which, it turns out, are actually harmless.

“Okay, but how could I have known? They didn’t have a we-don’t-eat-humans sign on their backs.”

“Because they were too small?” he says. “They were barely as long as you are.”

“They could’ve eaten my thigh. Or an arm. Taken it off right at the elbow.”

“Amy wings, with barbecue sauce?”

“Right! I mean, a shark will eat anything.”

After lunch, Emmett and I come home, shower and chill. It didn’t seem like much in the way of exercise, going so leisurely through the water, but the dive took it out of me. If I weren’t in San Diego for the first time, I’d probably just get a pizza delivered for dinner later. But I want to see more of this gorgeous city.

So we go a drive. Emmett knows all the beautiful, interesting spots we can hit. We don’t go to SeaWorld or the zoo, because SeaWorld would be anemic after our dive and the zoo is enormous and would take literally an entire day. But we hit Balboa Park and stroll through the gardens and the Botanical Building, with more lush flora than I’ve seen in my entire life. Thankfully, there are no potentially man-eating animal encounters.

Afterward, we take a drive along the coast. I take tons of photos, and we laugh and smile as we take silly selfies and eat ice cream by the beach. The sunset is stunning, gold and orange from the sky bleeding into the restless blue ocean until the Pacific looks like it’s on fire.