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It seemed I was fumbling too much. “Do you want to go back to the hotel?”
“How close are we?”
“About three minutes.”
She shrugged. “Might as well go.”
Drab wasn’t a good look for her. Those sunflower eyes appeared more like dull drops of mustard at the bottom of a water glass. She cast her gaze elsewhere, seeming lost in the passing buildings and people. I pulled into an underground parking garage, took the turns instructed to me by the tour people, and squeezed the car into a tight spot.
After we got out, I led her to a secret entrance located behind one of the cement columns. Darkness swelled around us briefly until we walked into a tarnished hallway that led to a metal gate. A minotaur requested our passes. I flashed them along with a grin and took Sadie’s hand when we were ushered through the gate.
Foreign shrubs sprouted around us as well as perfectly lit tanks. Creatures of various sizes and shapes occupied the aquarium section, some of them looking more like crocodiles mixed with deer than actual fish. But they were interdimensional creatures, so I couldn’t judge their appearance.
Sadie listlessly wandered through the gaping glass tunnels and paused at a makeshift farm area where children of various species were petting a giant boar-like creature with tusks and multiple horns.
I pulled a coin from my pocket—a silver coin for the circuit as that was their most used currency. “Want to feed him?”
“I feel gross just staring at him.”
“I’m sure he bathes.”
She cringed. “No, it’s not that. It’s…” She looked away and hugged herself. “These things are trapped here.”
“I did my research, sweet Sadie. This particular group is trained in interdimensional creature care. These animals were rescued from certain death. Now they get to live the rest of their lives in—”
“Captivity.”
I stared at her. “If you want to leave, just say so.”
“You probably spent a lot for us to get down here, right?”
“That’s not really my concern.” I tugged her away from a gaggle of children with triple horns. “What’s gotten into you today? Did I do something wrong?”
She yanked her arm away from me. “Stop treating me like a child.”
“Was the zoo a bad idea?”
“Everything is a bad idea.”
Rotten sentiments like that were usually mine to ponder, and only when I was alone. I could be a grump, and sometimes, I could be a jerk, but I wasn’t one to drag everybody else down with me when things weren’t going my way. Assertion typically led the way out of my muddy moods.
But right now, it seemed nothing would do for Sadie. Physical comfort wasn’t cutting it, and the tour was hardly entertaining her. She just looked sad. And I didn’t like that one bit.
Once we’d gotten past a small group of elves, I pulled her toward the exit and back through the underground parking lot to the car. I quietly climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. She kept her arms crossed firmly over her chest like she was afraid her heart would bust out of her chest.
What was going on today?
“We can head back home,” I told her. Her head swiveled in my direction. I didn’t allow her to get a word in. “No, I think it’s best we go home. I think we’ve run out on our fun meter.”
I left it at that. For what else did I have to say to someone who didn’t appreciate anything I did?
***
At the house, Sadie didn’t want to eat. She didn’t want to leave the room to be by herself, but she also didn’t want to talk. I found it difficult to accommodate her strangely silent company while trying to unwind from our irksome vacation.
What kind of honeymoon caused muscle knots instead of relieving them? Other than the romp in the tub, I couldn’t think of one thing that made it worth sacrificing a night that could have been spent at home. Shit, we could have just worked through the last day instead of wasting all that time.
We had a wedding to plan. Rather, she had a wedding to plan. She didn’t seem to want my hand in any of it.
