She whipped open the curtain and gasped. “Oh, this is very dashing on you!”
“You’re sure?” Reed asked, glancing at himself again in the mirror. He could see the pieces did not clash and seemed to make a certain sense together.
“Yes, yes!” cooed the woman, pushing him back into the stall and shutting the curtain again. “Next!”
The merman blinked at his reflection for a moment before removing the clothes and folding them up on the small table in the corner of the space. He reached for a pair of pants in a light, sandy tone—they slid on easily and he even remembered how to work the zipper. As Reed flipped through the other shirts, he found one the shopkeeper had said would be “particularly striking” on him.
It had a lovely coral orange shade to it and a simple seashell pattern in white. It felt right to him, appropriate, for a merman who did not need to hide his fins or scales. As he glanced in the mirror, he saw the way his turquoise ear fins sparkled against the coral color of the top and smiled.
“Ready? Let’s see,” called the woman as she tugged the curtain open again.
She looked him up and down and then back again, and Reed held perfectly still. The smile that crossed her face then could only be described as giddy.
“If you’re going on a date tonight, that’s the one,” the shopkeeper winked. “Most definitely this one.”
“A date?” he asked hesitantly.
“Surely a man as handsome as you has caught the eye of someone in our little town,” she giggled.
“Oh,” Reed nodded as understanding dawned on him. “Yes. Her name is Tempest. I want to see her again tonight.”
The older woman smiled knowingly. “Is that so? She won’t be able to look away with you wearing this eye-catching combination!”
“T-thank you, then,” the merman nodded his head in appreciation.
They spent a while longer trying on other outfits and Reed eventually settled on three pairs of pants and five shirts. The woman truly did have an eye for what colors suited him and made corrections when things didn’t fit properly. She had been incredibly helpful.
By the end of his shopping adventure, he felt fairly confident in his ability to blend in among the locals of Crescent Cove. He paid her with the paper money he had gotten from the jeweler for his pearls and was pleased to see that he still had some money left.
With his bags of new clothing, Reed began the walk back to Tempest’s beachfront home. He hoped she wouldn’t mind him keeping his things there, until he figured out how to acquire a land home of his own. There was still so much about the human world that he needed to figure out, but he hoped that Tempest would be there to guide him along the way.
All That I Know
TEMPEST
B
y the end of her shift, Tempest could think of nothing but dinner. Hunger rumbled through her stomach, noisy and painful. Beside her, Elliot shot her a look—one eyebrow raised, mouth quirked up in a smirk. She punched him in the shoulder and grumbled at him.
“You don’t know how much energy my magic uses up!”
He laughed good-naturedly as they put the boat away for the night. “What are you making for dinner?”
“I don’t know,” Tempest whined. “I just want warm, delicious food to appear.”
“That sounds like a very good plan,” said Elliot.
They said their goodbyes to the marine biologists. She stopped and crouched down long enough to offer the little stingray a couple more shrimp and gave him gentle pats on the head. Then they were heading out the front office and toward the rest of Crescent Cove.
Leaning against a tree and looking entirely too handsome to be real was her merman.Reed. It took Tempest a moment to stop staring, then she blinked in surprise. He wore a new outfit, which he must have bought while she had been at work. The coral tone of his shirt really suited him.
111
“Who’s this, then?” whispered Elliot, jabbing her in the ribs with his elbow and grinning.
“R-Reed! I wasn’t expecting you,” Tempest managed to spit out. “This is Elliot, my partner on the rescue boat. Elliot, this is Reed, a merman from a nearby pod.”
“Is that so? A merman?” the sea lion shifter drawled, crossing his arms.
