They actually sound pretty cute together, but I’m only half listening. My lips still tingle from kissing Sean’s cheek. And according to Sean’s shot list, coming up very soon will be a real kiss, lips to lips, which suddenly doesn’t seem that awkward.

Maybe this Journey won’t be so bad after all.

     Sean     

After their first taste of a movie, Ross wants to watch as many as possible. Which is fine by me. The week goes by in a blur, alternating between Ross’s place and mine, between bonding just the two of us and having to deal with Mom and Raul’s puppy-dog eyes that say Awwww, they’re so cute. We’ve focused mostly on rom-coms so far: The Perfect Date, Crazy Rich Asians, Just Wright. I think it’s giving Ross a whole new perspective on humans, because they don’t make as many snide comments about us as they did in their first couple days.

Tonight we’re in the bungalow, watching Splash. It’s one of those movies from the eighties with a few moments that didn’t exactly age well. John Candy keeps dropping quarters to look under ladies’ skirts and it makes me cringe every time.

“Wait, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Ross says, smacking a hand to their forehead, their freshly purple-painted nails catching the light. “First of all, merfolk know every language out there. This mer not being able to speak isn’t accurate at all. Second of all, humans seriously think the first thing a merperson wants to do when they get on land is have sex with a stranger? You’re all such pervs!”

So much for giving Ross a better view of mankind.

“We’re not all bad, I swear,” I say.

Ross shrugs, but gives me that playful tilt to their mouth. “Yeah, I’m still not so sure about that.” Then they put their hand on top of mine. They do this from time to time when we’re watching movies, but it’s never gone further than that. I haven’t said anything about it the past few days, because the contact has been nice. Ross’s fingers are long and thin, longer than mine, and they absentmindedly curl the tips of their fingers over my thicker, shorter ones. It reminds me of the way Dominic was so handsy. And it would hopefully only be a matter of time until we got to that point again.