"You sure you want to do this?"

"Yeah, I'm... I'm fine," I tell him, sweat slithering down the back of my neck, only to be absorbed by my swimsuit under my clothes.

"It's okay to admit that you're nervous, you know," he says reassuringly, his thumb gently rubbing against the back of my hand, while the other holds the steering wheel.

"I am," I tell him, "but nervous doesn't mean I'm not ready."

"Fair point."

"I just... I've been waiting to do this for years, but I've been too much of a coward—"

"You weren't a coward, you were grieving," he states.

"Whatever it was, it stopped me."

"And we're going to change that. Today."

"Good."

"Now get out of the car," he says as he puts the car into park. "I'll get the stuff and meet you at reception."

When I reach the front desk, I see the different options. Same as last time:

Dolphin Royal Swim: you get to swim with them, and they use their noses to push you into a standing position in the water. It's awesome.

Dolphin Swim Adventure: You just swim with them.

Encounter: You touch them.

"Two Dolphin Royal Swim—"

Something else catches my eye.

Shark encounter – $99.

Keep in mind that the prices are, for some god almighty reason, in USD, and our dollar is so bad, it's offensive to give someone change in one dollar coins. And I just spent $199 on the dolphins and $69 on the admission. Each.

This is so damn expensive. But I want it so badly. 

"And two Shark Encounters."

"That will be... $734 dollars."

Shit.

"Please put that in Jamaican for me," I ask sweetly. I have never understood how people hear my accent, and still tell me US prices as if I'm a foreigner.

"Okay, give me a sec... $93,663."

Fucking shit. 

I know that I'm going to regret this at a later date, when I want a new phone, or a laptop, and I can't afford it because I spent all of my money at Dolphin Cove — but I go through with it anyway.

David had the brilliant idea to pay in cash, so he withdrew a shit load of $5000 notes from the bank this morning. Said he doesn't want to get scammed. Sometimes, he really is paranoid.

"Five, ten, fifteen, twenty..."

When I'm finally done with that, I sit and wait for David.

"Hey. What took you so long?" I ask as he walks towards my chair in the corner of the room, shirtless.

"This woman started up a conversation about my tattoo."

Remember the mandala that David designed? Well, we got matching tattoos if it, on our chests, right over our hearts.

"Maybe, you should put on a shirt," I suggest with a smirk. He rolls his eyes playfully, and grabs my hand.

We go out to look at all of the activities. We are given the time of our activity with the dolphin, so now, all we have to do is wait.

"You know, I've always been fascinated by sharks," David tells me.

"Really?"

"Yes. They've survived on this earth for millions of years, while so many other animals have perished. How?"

"Because they're bad asses. Do you want to do anything while we wait?"

"Swim with the shark. He's available now, because no one wants to do it."

"Shark week made you brave," he says with a grin.

"I was always brave. Now come."

***

"It's so majestic," I whisper as the large animal swims in the water a few feet away from me.

"Thank you," David says to the handler who has been openly flirting with me the whole time. Of course, David has done nothing to save my ass. He just watched me get flustered over and over again with a sly grin on his face.

"Welcome," the man replies.

"This has been wonderful. Thank you."

"No problem, sexiness," he says with a grin. I don't know what else to do, so I just smile back. David chuckles under his breath, but when I turn to glare at him, he turns it into a cough.

"'S not funny," I growl.

"Yes, it is."

"Well you could have done something about it. You could have—"

"You're a grown woman. You're perfectly capable of standing up to someone all on your own. I'm not doing that for you. I was curious; I wanted to see how far he'd push you before you blew. Used to be a lot easier."

"I guess my bullshit tolerance has grown since I met you. You make me happy."

"That's strangely sweet. Now do you want to play with some dolphins?"

"Shit. I forgot." In my fascination with the shark, I completely forgot about my original aim — swim with dolphins.

"I figured. Now let's go."

***

"I feel like a queen!" I shout as the dolphins drag me around in the water. 

"You're my queen!" David yells.

"You two are adorable," I hear someone yell. When the dolphin brings me back, I move beside him and put my head on my shoulder.

"If I touched you right now—"

"Don't," I say with a groan. "Pay attention to the dolphins."

"Really? You sure?" he asks as his fingers brush against my hip underneath the water.

"He's talking to us. Don't be so rude."

"Fine," he mutters. "But tonight—"

"No holding back."

Of course once we're done with the dolphins, I have to go exploring. We swim with a sting ray take turns holding a snake and cradling an iguana, and observed, touched and petted a bunch of other animals. Once all of that is over, we go to the beach and play in the water. Needles to say, that once we're back home in the night, showered and all...

"I'm so tired," I groan, stifling a yawn.

"Me too. I can hardly mooove."

We took the shower together, but we were too tired to stand up, much less fuck.

"Listen. I know what we said about tonight, but—"

"Tomorrow?" I ask as I look across at him underneath the spray of the water.

"Morning. I promise." Even if we don't do it tomorrow morning, we'll hopefully have tomorrow evening, and the day after that, and the rest of our lives together, so what the hell?

"That's perfect," I say in agreement, my eyelids fluttering close. "Now let's sleep."

"Yes. Sleep," I groan, crawling into the bed. You know when you hear yourself snoring before you fully fall asleep? Yep, that's me. The last thing I register before I sleep takes me, is David wrapping his arms around me. I go out with a smile on my face.

***