Page 34 of Waves

While I didn’t mind assisting Ishmael this morning due to his lack of thumbs, I was not feeling as well today as I had the last couple of days. After dumping Ishmael’s food into his bowl, I headed straight for the bathroom. My skin itched like a flaking sunburn with the heat of the sun still trapped in the flesh. I wanted to scratch everywhere until I peeled off a whole layer, but even I knew shedding my human skin was a terrible idea.

After I cranked the lever for the shower, I stood under the cold spray coming from the nozzle. I hated cold water more than I hated cold air. I loathed that feeling of being wet and cold, and I always trembled long after. Chilly ocean water didn’t feel so bad when wrapped up in my fur, but I had a significant lack of blubber in this form. Stupid human body and its inability to retain heat.

The freezing water did little to quell my burning flesh. While the persistent tingle when I had the urge to shed my coat bordered on unbearable, this was some kind of fresh hell for me. With a groan, I tried to will the fire under my skin to quench itself. I knew I had to go back. Even if I weren’t suffering right now, I would have to go back sometime.

For now, I would focus on pushing myself for as long as I could stand it. I could do this. I would do this. For him, I’d go through this every time I came back if necessary. I’d train myself to stay ashore longer and longer until I could build a tolerance to living on land. I couldn’t be away from him. Being away from him was not an option anymore.

* * *

EZRA

My phone vibrated on the nightstand, short bursts indicating someone actively sending messages. Great, just great. I didn’t want to move yet. Last night was the most satisfying sexual encounter I ever had... ever, and I slept like the dead soon after with Kai nestled beside me. When I woke and saw he was not here, I felt bummed but still reassured that since Ishmael was not with me either, Kai likely went to let him out.

A long yawn turned into a groan while I rolled across my empty bed. Reaching for my phone, I woke the screen and checked my messages. Not much to see there, but Mary recently tagged me in a status about her party last night. She already had over forty comments.

I clicked on the comments and stopped scrolling when I saw right away why there were so many:

Had a great time until I got thrown into a wall. As if Thom’s comment weren’t enough, he had the audacity to use the injured emoji with a bandaged head.

I scanned the rest of the comments on the post. Plenty more Thom had to say about me, and a few friends were getting involved—not in a good way.

I’m just so worried about him, Thom wrote in response to a particularly harsh comment advising him to press charges. Ezra and I were trying to catch up when the guy he brought flew off the handle. He really should get out of such an abusive relationship.

I growled at my phone and scrunched my eyebrows. Thom said plenty of shit about me before, and I saved screenshots of about ninety percent of those instances. While I got pissed when he played this game with me, I was angry beyond measure now. I’d be damned if I let him go after Kai, especially when he had no way of even responding to these accusations. More than likely, Thom asked Claudia to scour every corner of the internet for any traces of Kai on social media then report her findings back to him. Which meant he knew Kai couldn’t or wouldn’t respond, and he could get away with this. Not happening on my watch.

My thumbs flew across the screen, and I already smashed the post button before I even looked over what I wrote. Just for the record, @Thom wouldn’t have gotten slammed against a wall if he hadn’t tried to send me face-first down a flight of steps. Last night wasn’t the first time, either.

My fingers hovered in the air above my phone while I stared at what I wrote. I never had the balls to post anything like that before. In a small way, I had always been slightly scared of Thom. In the years we were together, I did nothing but worry about what he thought of me. I let him control every aspect of my life and dismissed how insanely jealous he would get over nothing then act as if I were the one who had done something wrong. Thom playing the victim again did not surprise me. Nor did seeing him stir the shit pot. What kept me staring at the screen was that one little word he used.

Now, I was in no way scared of Kai, and I honestly couldn’t imagine him ever acting in a way that would frighten me. Then again, Thom also spent a ridiculous amount of time and patience on me, so by the time we were a couple, I felt I owed him. He had done so much to prove his feelings for me, I should be able to forgive the times when he was hard to love, right? I didn’t doubt his devotion to me back then. It was because he loved me so much that he became so jealous. At least, that was the lie I used to tell myself.

My head still churned with doubts when I turned off the screen and tossed my phone down on my mattress. I didn’t want to think all I was good at was attracting terrible men. I wanted to believe Kai would finally be the exception. He felt different from the start, and I wanted to believe he would continue to surprise me. Because when Thom slapped me for the first time, I wasn’t even surprised that he had hit me. What stunned me was how readily I forgave him and all the excuses I made for him every other time it happened.

Now that I was good and cranky, I climbed out of bed and walked down the hall, where I found Kai curled up on the couch with a blanket around his shoulders and Ishmael in his lap. He muttered something about blubber, but I couldn’t be too sure. Once I got closer, I noticed him shivering from head to toe.

Crossing the living room, I put the back of my hand to his head. He didn’t have a fever like I expected. His skin felt freezing cold to the touch. “What’s the matter with you?”

“Skin was burning. Took a cold shower. Forgot how inefficient human bodies are,” Kai mumbled back.

“How long were you in there?”

“Long enough to drop my core temperature, I suppose.”

I frowned at seeing him so miserable. There wasn’t much I could do other than shut off the air conditioning then crank all the windows open to let in the warm morning air. “Do you want me to bring you to the doctor?”

“And tell them what? That your pet is not feeling so well?” Kai grumbled. “They’ll send you to the veterinarian instead.”

I exhaled and kept that bitch inside me bottled. Oh, Kai must be feeling terrible to be this grouchy with me. After shooing Ishmael from Kai’s lap, I took his place and hugged Kai’s chest to mine. Kai slowly wrapped his arms around me, enfolding me in his blanket cocoon. Adding the blanket made me boiling hot, but his skin against mine chilled me like ice.

“You’re warm,” Kai said in a much more familiar and pleasant tone.

“I know,” I said. “You keep me cool, and I’ll get you warm.”

Kai snorted and shook his head, but a smile threatened to sprout. He leaned his face into my neck and stayed nestled there for most of the morning.

The rest of the day passed so slowly then too quickly. I could see how uncomfortable Kai became with each passing hour, but he would not listen to me. He insisted on maximizing his time out of the water, so I didn’t try to stop him. Even Ishmael sensed Kai wasn’t feeling well and spent all his time by his side. The stinker even growled at me when I tried to pry him off Kai’s lap once the time came for us to leave. Ishmael went to sulk in his dog bed right after, knowing full well he was in deep trouble now.

Though, I did feel bad for leaving Ishmael again since I almost always brought him on the boat with me. On top of that, he’d be upset when I came back without Kai, but I couldn’t take the chance when he’d probably jump overboard after him. Sure, he never did it before and he had his doggy life vest for his boating adventures, but I would prefer avoiding the incident altogether.