“Great,” Sean huffs, then readjusts me in his arms. I can’t help but notice how sturdy Sean feels underneath me. It’s the only reassuring thing that’s happened since this fiasco began. It’s a small reassurance, but the sense of safety is enough to start slowing my jellyfish-buzzing adrenaline. “Let’s find some place to dry you off.”

Kavya pulls her keys out of her pocket. “Suri Cruiser to the rescue! I’ve got some towels in her. And I promise you’ll fit in the back. You’d be surprised how spacious the trunk is.”

Flopping in the trunk of Kavya’s PT Cruiser—which is surprisingly spacious—is not how I ever imagined spending a night on land. Literally thousands of people are just around the corner and my fin is out and proud. I’ve got to get dry and fast before someone figures out I’m not some dressed-up actor looking for attention.

“Pass me one of those, would you?” I ask Sean, who instantly starts dabbing my arms and shoulders with a towel as soon as he sets me down in the car. He really does have a protective instinct. He pushed me out of the way when that Trojan truck barreled toward me, with no mind for his own safety. He scooped me up off the ground as soon as he saw me floundering on the sidewalk. He raced back here despite the fact that a fin has got to weigh significantly more than a pair of human legs. His biceps really were bulging when he grabbed me, and now that I have a second to think about it without my life in immediate danger, they were almost as nice as the way his thighs bulge against his shorts, or his stomach against his shirt. I like it, how big he is.

My tail suddenly flushes, going from bright orange to a deeper, more burnt color. It catches me so off guard that I jump, and “No!” bursts from my mouth. How in the flick could I be getting turned on by a human? A human who is now tenderly caressing me with a towel.

Sean snatches his towel away and stares wide-eyed at my color-changing scales. “What did I do?” His forehead crinkles with concern. “Is that supposed to happen? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, no, it’s fine,” I say, flapping the towel out so I can use it to cover as much of my backstabbing fin as possible. I try to make the motion look cool and nonchalant, but the tingle in my tail is throwing me off. My towel whip is way more dramatic than I meant it to be, and I smack my fingers into the hard side of the car.

“Shit!” I shout, cradling my smashed hand in my good one.

Sean grimaces and sucks in a breath. “Ouch. You sure you’re okay?”