“The five of us followed her to a shallow pool. A few feet away was the shark tank. It looked a lot smaller than it did from the vantage points I'd had on previous visits to the aquarium. And the sharks looked a lot bigger. In fact, they made Jaws look like a pond koi. "That's a nurse shark." Yet another aquarium employee, this time a buoyant guy,pointed out a smaller (yeah,right) one that was lurking near the edge of the tank. "They're cuddlers. They like snuggling up to each other and even us sometimes."I edged closer to Alex.He grinned and wrapped an arm around my waist. That got me into the practice pool.”

“How recently have the sharks been fed?" the guy next to me asked.Alex and I were in a small room with a dry-erase board, a perky blonde aquarium emplyee, and three guys from Rutgers who'd won their fraternity Christmas prize. True to Alex's promise, no one had seen me in my miniscule jungle print. Another perky girl had handed me a wet suit and pointed me into a changing room. So as I listened to the basics of shark tank etiquette, I was fully encased in blue neoprene from ankle to jaw. The frat boys kept sneaking looks at me when they thought I-and Alex-wasn't looking. It made me feel just a little bit better. Alex's promise that I didn't have to get into the water if I really didn't want to helped, too. It had gotten me out of the car and into the aquarium."You can do it," he'd coaxed."Yes," I'd answered, thinking of the skateboarder a little and "fake it til you make it" more. "I can do it.""Yesterday." Perky Girl answered the feeding question. "Believe me. They're not hungry."I wanted to know exactly how she knew that.Did she ask the sharks?"Okay," she chirped. "Let's get snorkeling.”

“Nearby,one of the overexcited frat boys started wildly windmilling his arms. He had overbalanced and now tipped himself right over the wall.In a second, the diver with us had grabbed his ankle and hauled him back.The sharks, instead of being attracted by the flailing, like they are in every single scary underwater movie, took one sideways look and promptly turned tail,heading for the other side of the tank. They stayed there and didn't come back.The culprit's buddies pounded him when we climbed out of the water. "Smooth move, Ex-Lax," one muttered. "Way to be a buzzkill.""hey" was the red-faced retort, "at least I can say I scared off a shark.”

“He recognizes a sea goddess when he sees one," Alex said, nudging me with his arm."It's a ray," I retorted. "Its brain is the size of a peanut." But I was secretly very, very pleased. I was genuinely sorry to climb out of the pool. The sharks...well, the sharks I could do without. But Ferdinand had charmed me.”

“So,I'm curious." Alex dragged me from my pleasant contemplation of cowardice and back in the bathroom. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, his feet almost touching mine. "What is it you like so much about this guy? I looked up his stuff. It's good, but nothing out of the ordinary."What a difference a week and a shock to the ideals makes. I felt my defense of Edward sticking a little in my troat. "I like his portraits. He really saw people.It was his great strength, that intensity."Alex tilted his chin toward the picture. "Not to seem crude, but she could be any girl with a nice ass." When I glared at him, he uncrossed his arms quickly and held up his hands in surrender. "Hey,all I mean is that if I were all about really seeing someone, that's not the angle I would choose."He was probably right. No matter how I looked at it, he was probably right. "You're probably right," I told him.He bowed. The small space suddenly got a lot smaller. "Stick with me, Grasshopper. I will never lead you wrong.”

“It is time,my darling.""Oh,Frankie,no-""You chose dare," he reminded her."I did," she agreed sadly, stepping up. "You're right."It hadn't been entirely fair of him, starting the game in the middle of Neiman Marcus. The King of Prussia Mall, a zillion acres of retail-and-food-in-a-box, is many people's idea of perfect therapy. Me? If given the choice, I might opt for swimming with sharks instead. But today was about Frankie."So," he told her, "I pick out three outfits,head to toe. You put them on.""Fine." Sadie pulled her jacket closer around her.This one was a muddy pruple, and had a third sleeve stitched tot he back. "But if you pick anything like that"- she pointed to a tiny tartan dress that seemed to be missing its entire back- "I will cry.""Have faith," he replied with a slightly twisted smile, and dragged her toward women's sportswear. "What our sport is," he said apropos of very little save the sign on the wall, "I have no idea."Ten minutes later, Sadie was heading into the dressing room with an armful of autumn color and a look like she was on her way off a cliff.”

“I have something to show you."He sank down next to me and handed me a sketchbook. I opened it.And saw the mermaid. She was drawn in colored ink, exquisitely detailed; each scale had a little picture in it: a pyramid, a rocket, a peacock, a lamp. Her torso was patterened red, like a tattoo, like coral. She had a thin strand of seaweed around her neck, with a starfish holding on to the center. Her hair was a tumble of loose black curls. She had my face.I turned the page.And another and another. There she was fighting a creature that was half human, half octopus. Exploring a cave. Riding a shark. Laughing and petting a stingray that rested on her lap."I'm calling her Cora Lia for the moment," Alex told me. "I thought about Corella, but it sounded like cheap dishware.""She's...amazing.""She's fierce. Fighting the Evil Sea-Dragon King and his minions."I traced the red tattoo on her chest. "This is beautiful."Alex reached into my sweater, pulled the loose neck of the T-shirt away from my shoulder. I didn't stop him. "It looks like coral to me."He touched me, then,the pad of his thumb tracing the outline of the scar. It felt strange, partly because of the difference in the tissue, but more because in the last few years, the only hands that had touched me there were mine.I set the book aside carefully. "Guess I don't see what you do.""That's too bad, because I see you perfectly."I curved myself into him. "Maybe you're exactly what I need.""Like there's any doubt?" He buried his face in my neck.I didn't stop him. "So.""So?""We'll kill a few hours, watch the sunrise, have pancakes, and you'll drive home.""What?"I felt him smile against my skin. "I got you swimming with sharks. Next on the Conquer Your Fears list is driving a stick shift.Right?""One thing at a time," I said. Then, "Oh. Do that again."In another story, the intrepid heroine would have gone running out and splashed in the surf, hypothermia be damned. She would have driven the Mustang home, booked a haircut, taken up stand-up comedy, and danced on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.But this was me, and I was moving at my own pace.Truth: My story started a hundred years ago. There's time.”