My cheeks went hot, even hotter than they already were, but this time for an entirely different reason. “She warned you?” I said, reaching down to scoop up Purrnest in an attempt to hide my blush.
“She knows I have a weakness for girls in black dresses.”
“Any girl in a black dress?” I tugged on the ends of my hair. I didn’t have to see it to know that my hair had gone wavy in the humid, salty air.
“Not any girl.” He cocked his head, studying me. “Anyway, are you okay? You seem kind of angry. And shouty.”
“ ‘Shouty’ isn’t a word. But yes. I am shouty.”
He studied my face. “Besides the talk with your dad, what’s wrong?”
What wasn’t wrong? “I miss home. My mom and brother, and Dax… and then everything with my dad—” I grimaced. “This is a disaster.”
He straightened. “Disaster. A severe disruption of the functioning of a human or community.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Also, why do you know that definition off the top of your head?”
“It’s in the documentary,” he said.
Ugh. The documentary. At least it provided a change in subject. “How did filming go tonight?” I’d suggested that he get some fill-in footage of the many businesses that paid homage to the mythical city.
“Great.” Theo shrugged. “You were right. Fira has, like, a hundred shops with Atlantis in the title. I even interviewed a few people—tourists and locals—and asked them what they thought about Atlantis. Everyone seemed to be on board with the whole idea.”
“Maybe because it didn’t disrupt their entire lives.” I hadn’t meant to say it, but it tumbled out with the general anger I was feeling.
Theo’s eyes lifted to mine. And I felt his hesitation. I knew what was coming. We were so not done talking about my dad.
“Oh no…,” I said, putting up a hand warningly. He didn’t catch the gesture.
“What was it like when your dad left?”
I almost fell off the table. This was literally the first time anyone had ever asked me that question.
“I know. Serious lack of boundaries,” he said, his hands up in surrender, eyes grave and thoughtful.
“Theo… do you even know how to do small talk?”
“Yes. I’m actually very good at it.” He leaned back, adjusting the captain’s hat. “But not with you. I told you, you’re the one person I don’t know how to read.”
He was staring at me like I was an exotic parrot or a new species of salamander, but still, I felt weirdly flattered. A part of me liked that he couldn’t figure me out, and that he was interested enough to try. Most people saw layer one, Liv, and were fine with it. Not Theo.
I let out a choked little laugh, and then, inexplicably, I was actually answering his question. “We cried a lot. And then we couldn’t afford the apartment we were living in, and my mom couldn’t find another job, so we moved, and then she lost that job, and we tried to live with her parents for a few months… but that didn’t go well. And then we apartment hopped and stayed with friends of hers until she finally got a good job and was able to start law school. I was alone almost all of the time. I remember thinking that clocks slowed down in the afternoons after school. I still sometimes feel that way.”
It all came out in a rush, all those details forming a cloud of sadness. I’d never told anyone what those years had been like, how chaotic and disorienting, and sad, and yet here I was telling someone who was practically a stranger.
Theo sat up and leaned toward me, resting his chin on his hand. “Have you ever asked your dad why Atlantis is so important to him?”
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. Asking my dad why he cared about Atlantis was like asking a fish why it cared about water. It was necessary to its survival. “Have you?”
He paused and blinked slowly. “No. And I think that’s something we need to address in the documentary.”
Always with the documentary. Heat flared through my chest. Did he think of my life as something to be entertained by? Ready with his camera? “We don’t have time to add anything to the documentary, especially after losing all that time today,” I said.
“No, we really don’t,” he agreed. “But I keep thinking about your dad at the volcano and how everyone gathered around him. Have you ever noticed how magnetic he is? It’s like people are more interested in the Atlantis hunter than Atlantis itself. So why not incorporate more of your dad’s story? I get the feeling that it’s more to him than a city or some old ruins.” His hands cupped the back of his head. “What do you think?”
I grabbed the yacht hat and pulled it on over my face. Digging deeper into my dad’s obsession with Atlantis was not going to make any of this better. The thought of it made me want to charter a boat and get as far from this island as possible. A mixture of energy and anxiety pulsed through me, and I jumped to my feet. “Can we talk about something else? Anything else? Better yet, can we go somewhere?”
A slow smile spread across his face, and he reached for my hand, pulling himself to standing. “How about a swim?”
“Not in the ocean,” I said quickly.
“Not in the ocean,” he agreed. His hand was still on mine, and the warmth of it trickled up my arm, making me feel like I’d swallowed helium. It was a new feeling—one I couldn’t recall ever having with Dax. It scared me. Instead of letting go, he moved in closer. “It’s a place I haven’t taken anyone before, but I think you’ll really like it. Come with me?”
“Yes,” I said, because what else are you supposed to say when someone holds your hand and you feel it right down to the tips of your toes?
Breathe. You have a boyfriend. You and Theo are friends.
It seemed like the sort of thing you shouldn’t have to remind yourself. But Theo made me feel like I was on a life raft in the middle of a storm. I couldn’t get my bearings.
* * *
Outside, the night was thick and velvety, the only sound coming from the gentle rolling of the ocean down below and murmuring voices from open windows and patios. I had no idea where Theo thought we were going swimming at this hour, but I couldn’t think about that. I needed to stay grounded. Refocus. Get my sea legs, as my dad would say. The fact that I found Theo as attractive as I did didn’t really matter. What mattered was how I reacted to said fact.
Theo met me on the front walkway. He’d changed back into his bathing suit and a black T-shirt, and his dark eyes shone brightly. “Ready?”
“Ready.” Maybe if I didn’t look at him, I’d be okay?
To my utter shock, Theo walked, me trailing a few steps behind him, sidestepping the occasional pedestrian and looking at all the closed storefronts. At first we headed through the maze of alleyways toward the cliffs, but eventually Theo changed direction, leading us farther into the darkness and away from the blue domes.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked. The night was so quiet I almost wanted to whisper.
He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into a warm hug that scrambled my brain and made my cheeks go hot before releasing me. “Trust me, Kalamata.”