Chapter 3

If I ever had the chance to meet my new boss at work, I knew I'd walk up to him or her and give them the biggest hug. Spending the day at the abandoned palace of my youth was what I needed to come closer to accepting my species destruction.

I dealt with the reality every day, but accepting the lack of population had taken me until yesterday. I had spent many moons of my life searching for other survivors. This time I gave up when the ocean gave me no reply.

Every year on the anniversary of my loss, I ponder whether to try the Royal Call. Every year I tell myself that I can't attempt such a fear. The day I lost everyone was the day when I should've learnt the Royal Call.

Only one of mer royalty can pick up the enchanted conch, place it to their lips and blow the notes for the Royal Call. I had the royalty, but I had no idea of the notes.

It is said that the Royal Call echoes through the oceans of the world, and all of the mer must answer. Blow the notes wrong, and it can have the opposite effect, it will send the mer into hiding because it warns of a threat. I was the last remaining royal and I feared making a misstep with the conch.

I lived with knowing that I could attempt a Royal Call and fail my species. On the other fin, there may be mer out there waiting to unite under a Royal Call. It was a conundrum I fought with daily.

One of the spots I avoided at the palace was the place where the enchanted conch sat. I feared it as much as I wanted to pick it up and attempt a Royal Call.

Knowing I had searched all of the oceans and homes of the mer for decades made the Royal Call a doubtful proposition. I found every cave, shell and grotto empty. Nothing showed me any sign of a single mer. Nobody had survived. The truth was that I would forever be the last mermaid.

That thought alone used to be enough to send me into despair. Now I knew what I needed to do. My goal from this moment would be about protecting my ocean friends. I would do more than just work at the aquarium. The last thing I wanted was to lose any other species into the human world of extinction. I would become the protector of all underwater species. Having a purpose beyond my grief and isolation helped me immensely.

"Is this a morning tradition of yours?" hearing a familiar, tingle inducing voice startled me.

"By my fins!" I scrambled to make a sane, human conversation when I glanced up and saw Byron.

Today he had one of those strange boards the humans took on the waves under one arm, and the weird wetsuit things that the humans wore. The fact that he had a bared chest due to his wetsuit sitting around his waist hadn't missed my attention. His upper body perfectly resembled a mer with his toffee coloured skin and toned muscular physique.

I wondered what colour his tail would be if he had of been a merman. During my brief time around mermen, I had found deep green tails particularly attractive. How good would he look with a tail of that colour?

I quickly raised my gaze to humorous aquamarine eyes. With a wince, I knew that he had noticed my staring, and I had stared for far too long. I focused my gaze on his blonde hair that sat wet and dark about his head. He slicked it back and for some odd reason that made my body want to swoon.

"Do you sit on the beach every morning?" Byron interrupted my continued ogling with a question.

I forced my brain to function past the obvious attraction I had for him, "yes." I managed a small reply.

"Are you feeling better about everything today?" his sympathy appeared and I appreciated the caring he showed.

"Much, thank you. I have to also thank you for somehow organising my release from work yesterday. I needed to escape."

"I didn't do anything." He tried for innocence and utterly failed, but his expression was as humans say, cute.

"I see." I pondered as I took a sip of my salt water.

"Are you going to be okay for work today?" he sounded overly enthusiastic and a rusty laugh rumbled out of me.

"How did it go with Susie?" I may have snickered.

"I don't think I've ever met anyone so desperate in my life. Isn't she married?" Byron couldn't hide his outrage.

"Yes, but I think you provided a new view for her to look at. She seems to have quite a boring existence."

"She tried to grope me!" his scandalised expression set off something inside of me that made me more concerned.

"Sounds terrible."

"She can be in a lot of trouble for sexual harassment."

"Only humans would have such weird concepts." I shook my head at the weird wording, and Byron frowned at me.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing," I quickly covered over my blurted words. "I did warn you about her."

"Does she do that to every employee?"

"I don't know. She tends to talk to the males a lot." I shrugged.

"People should be able to go to work without having to deal with harassment."

"I agree. What was her response when you told her?"

"She's seeing the boss today."

That made me frown. I knew Susie had a habit of acting flamboyant and chatty to the male humans, but I didn't think she needed to see the boss about the situation.

"I guess she didn't stop when you asked her." I dared to enquire.

"No, and I warned her more than once. I left after the fifth attempt."

From how awkward I had felt being near Susie yesterday when she spoke with Byron, I could understand his discomfort. Susie was not a subtle human. She had an over the top personality of a lion fish, always pretty and just as deadly.

"I'm sorry, Byron. You don't deserve that kind of treatment." I stated

"Thank you for acknowledging that," he nodded his head at me. "Do you think you'll be alright at work today?" his concern melted something inside of me.

"Sure." I admitted with a smile.

"Good, so I'll see you there."

"You certainly shall." I tipped my bottle of salt water at him and he returned my smile.

"Until then." He stood and headed off down the beach.

I couldn't stop watching him as he began to jog. He managed to look breathtaking and a sheer perfection that no human had ever appeared to me before. Realising that I sat here ogling him, and that I was no better than Susie, I forced my eyes away. He didn't deserve anymore of the so called harassment than he'd already endured.

Before I could stop myself, I had swung my head back around to look at him. He went to disappear behind a sand dune, but he turned back around to wave at me.

Whale poop, he caught me! Now it would turn into an embarrassing morning when I had to see him later.

I swam to work with a strange sense of both reluctance and excitement. Seeing Byron always gave me such a thrill. After this mornings mortification, I wasn't sure if I wanted to face him. Who was I trying to fool? Of course I wanted to see him. He always managed to fascinate me, and I'd only known him for a day.

It didn't stop my swim to work becoming a nervous, flighty, ungraceful blur of movement. I'd never been this uncoordinated in my life.

It bothered me that I had formed such an attachment to him within one short day. When he appeared at my house this morning, it left me thrilled and anticipating seeing him more. Sure, our topic hadn't been easy, but just seeing him had set my heart to racing with joy. I knew I had to stifle my attachment because it would go nowhere, but I couldn't help myself.

When I arrived at my booth to find it absent of a certain male human, you can imagine my sheer disappointment. I gritted my teeth and repacked the small fridge with my daily amounts of salt water. Deciding to treat this as any other day was my best way of coping with the shocking despair that gripped me.

The crowd today had grown to enormous and I knew that would distract me. With the human children on holidays from their education, it was always a busy time. That meant the aquarium stayed open longer and more humans could learn about protecting my ocean friends.

I heard voices in the corridor behind me, once I'd managed to sell tickets to most of the crowd. Turning as the door to my booth opened, I spotted a harassed Byron and a shocked but simpering Susie.

"Please, Byron, it was only a joke." Susie begged.

"Which I asked you to stop more than once," Byron didn't sound impressed. "Go and talk to your supervisor. After that, I expect an apology."

To my ultra sensitive hearing, Byron sounded nothing like the relaxed human who enjoyed the ocean. I frowned at the authority in his voice that he used on Susie. There was an underlying coldness that I had never expected from such a laid back human.

"Good morning, Coral. Sorry you had to see that." Byron said as he shut the door on a pleading Susie, and dropped a devastating smile my way.

"Uh, good day to you." I managed to mutter a greeting and not gush at his feet.

Thankfully, I noticed the grumbling crowd outside of my window. That provided me the distraction I needed. Tickets flowed through my fingers out to the grateful people. I could sense Byron behind me, but he didn't speak until the crowd dispersed.

"You sold those tickets in a record amount of time." Byron sounded proud of my efforts.

"That's what I'm here for."

I faced him, but had to take a quick slug of my salt water, so nothing else blurted out of my mouth. When I saw how good he looked, it was hard not to stare.

Today he wore the aquamarine coloured shirt that all the employees had to wear. The way the colour popped against the beauty of his eyes staggered me. He left me as stunned and speechless as what he had done this morning when he stood in front of me half naked. I could see that my bond with him continued to grow, and that worried me.

I could never be with a human. No human could understand me, and I could never mention that I was a mermaid. My attraction to him had a sense of doom surrounding it, but I couldn't stop myself.

"What do you do once this crowd dies down?" Byron asked as I sold a ticket to another person.

"I tally up the amounts. Then I make sure that they all match and after that I tuck the money into the safe." I pointed to the safe under my desk that remained bolted to the floor.

"And then what?"

"Are you trying to say that I'm unproductive?" I raised my brows at him.

"No, not at all," he quickly protested. "I'm simply curious about how you spend your time."

"I read." I gestured to the stack of books on a shelf down by my feet.

Many of the books I had read gave me insight into how humans lived, talked and generally acted. I had read a few books about mermaids, and laughed at how unrealistic they were to me.

"Do you think your job could be more productive?" he asked and I considered his question.

"Yes, but someone has to sit here and sell tickets to allow admission to the aquarium. You never know when potential aquarium visitors will turn up, so someone has to be here." I waved an arm around the booth.

"Okay, I understand that need. What if you could study for a degree in the down time? Or what if you could work on a hobby?" Byron's face brightened at his suggestion.

"That's not a bad idea. Whoever works here could look at advancing their knowledge for something needed at the aquarium. From there you'd be able to offer humans better jobs." I mused.

"That's what I meant." He nodded seeming pleased.

"Hold that thought, here comes a bus load of people."

I didn't get to chat to Byron for the next hour. It surprised me when he opened the other window and began selling tickets as if he'd done it thousands of times before. I had set up the window with money when I came in, so he didn't have to organise that side of things. His confidence with ticket selling on his second day perplexed me.

The moment the crowd dispersed, I pierced Byron with a speculative frown. When he shrugged it off my frown deepened.

"Byron, is there something you're holding back from me?" I dared to ask. When his face paled, I raised my brows.

"Is it that obvious?" he flinched a little.

"When you start selling tickets on your second day as if you've done it all before, it brings up questions."

He went to say something, paused and seemed to rethink his words. Eventually, he held out a hand to me. That made me instantly nervous. Holding his hand was a bad idea.

"Come with me, I can't tell you here." He whispered.

The whole situation had turned quite clandestine, and a typical human response. He wriggled his fingers and my temptation to go with him grew. I avoided touching him, not wanting to increase our bond with my fingers touching his.

"We still have a job to do here. If you don't want anyone to know then you're welcome to drop by my house where there should be no spies after work." I shut my mouth with a quick snap.

I just invited this human, who I'd felt a mating bond with, to my fake human house. A human male who could never be my mate. Sucking in a breath, I tried to backtrack, but from his glorious grin, I knew it was too late.

"Are you asking me out, Coral?" he sounded amused, curious and a tad hopeful.

His response had me gulping for air. Where were my gills when I needed them? I took a quick sip of my salt water to balance myself.

"Please don't take this as any form of harassment. I thought it would be better to have a private chat away from work. By Tritons crown, I sound ridiculous." I put a hand to my head hoping to stop my babbling, then I guzzled the rest of the bottle of salt water.

"Coral, you are in no way like Susie. I've found you to be genuine and honest. I accept your offer. What time would you like me to come over?"

I stalled as I sucked in a breath, stared aghast at my empty bottle and prayed for the window to turn busy. Realising I had invited a virtual stranger, and a human one at that, to my house made me panic.

"I'm happy to meet you on the beach in our usual spot, but I don't want anyone to overhear me just yet. Would you feel more comfortable coming over to my house?" he enquired with a soft smile.

That's the point where I knew that things were beyond my control. My mind swirled with anxiety overload because I didn't know what to say in response. Before I knew it, my moth took control and replied for me.

"We can meet on the beach."

I only heard Byron's response in the affirmative while my mouth cursed my mind to the furthest of every ocean. Nerves vibrated through me as reality set into my mind.

Byron would come over to my house tonight. I knew one thing, I wasn't ready. No humans except for those who had built my house had ever seen inside. Now I had invited a human who I had sensed a mating bond with. What was I thinking?