Picking Up the Pieces

I woke to the sound of a sneeze and my bed moving underneath me. Strange...beds don’t sneeze....and they don’t breathe.....and they certainly don’t have tattoos.

Oh, right. I fell asleep on Tony. Well this is awkward.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Your hair was tickling my nose.”

“S’ fine,” I replied, pulling away from where I was leaning on his chest. “How long was I asleep?”

“About an hour or so, I guess,” he answered. “You looked so cute...I just couldn’t wake you up.” He was blushing as much as I was.

“Whaddaya wanna do?” I asked.

“We should be in Minneapolis soon,” he said. “We could get lunch, go shopping....maybe go to the aquarium and see some turtles?” he said the last bit quietly.

I laughed at him. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe you’re twenty-six years old, Tony. You really wanna go to the aquarium?”

“Shit yeah!” He exclaimed. “I’ve always wanted to go!!” He made a puppy face at me, which I gave into easily.

“Okay, fine,” I agreed. “I’ll get ready. We should be there in a half hour.”

I rolled off of him and out of his bunk, almost running into Mike, who winked at me and smirked. I shook my head at him and continued towards my bunk, where I took out a pair of light-colored ripped jeans that I knew Tony would love, a Key Street crewneck, and my makeup bag before turning back around to get ready in the bathroom.

~~~~~~~~~

The bus pulled up to the venue’s parking lot at 2:00, which gave Tony and I four and a half hours, respectively, to hang around the aquarium. We said our goodbyes to the others and caught a cab.

About fifteen minutes later, the cab came to a stop in front of a huge white building. Tony hopped out immediately, leaving me to pay the driver.

“Come on!!!!” he yelled, pulling me by the hand to the doors as if I was his mom.

We got inside the building hand in hand, and after waiting in a short line for tickets, we were off.

“Turtles are this way!!” he exclaimed excitedly, tugging on my hand.

“Alright, calm down, babe,” I said, trying to keep up with him. “People are staring.”

I didn’t blame them, I mean I can’t imagine that they get a lot of tattooed hooligans in their mid twenties at this aquarium, especially on a sunday afternoon. But I almost didn’t want to tell Tony to quiet down, his childishness was just too cute.

“Wait, Tony!” I squealed, pointing at a large clear pool in the corner of the first room that was surrounded by kids. “Stingrays!!!!” Okay, I know it’s weird, but I just really love stingrays. Especially when you see their little faces on their undersides....it looks like they’re smiling at you!!

I led him over to the pool, where we both stared into it with amazement. A couple of the kids ran off, weirded out, but the employee standing beside the pool was just as friendly with us as she was with them. She reminded me of that really cool grandma on That’s So Raven.

“Feel free to reach in and touch em, sweetie,” she said sweetly, motioning to the pool. “They won’t hurt ya.”

I looked over at Tony nervously. I was actually kind of scared. What if I hurt it? What if it bites me? Didn’t the crocodile hunter die from one of these things?

He smiled cutely at me and rubbed my back soothingly. “Come on, we’ll do it together.”

I nodded and gulped, and the both of us stretched our arms over the pool.

“One....two...three!” He said, and we dipped our hands into the cold, shallow water. Almost immediately, a stingray swam underneath my hand, and rubbed its back carefully. Tony did the same, giggling. It felt weird....like really soft rubbery leather. I laughed along with him.

We took our hands out and squatted down to get a better view. One of them swam up along the side and I saw its little smiley face! “TONY!” I yelled. “Did you see that? It smiled at me!!”

“I saw,” he said, laughing at me.

We stood up and thanked the lady before continuing on to the next room, which was long, tall and dimly lit. The glass of a huge aquarium the size of a football field served as a wall, with various benches and ledges for kids and parents to sit on while they looked at the fish.

Tony raced over to an empty spot and I ran to keep up with him. He smooshed himself up against the glass with an adorable, childish look of wonder on his face as he looked up at the turtles that swam lazily towards the top of the tank.

Figuring he was oblivious to the fact that I was watching him, I pulled my camera out of my purse and snapped a quick picture.

He must’ve heard the shutter or something because he turned at me and frowned. I took a picture of that, too. He frowned even harder then, so I turned my camera off and put it back in my purse, then joined him in looking in at the fish and turtles.

He turned his face to look at me after a couple seconds of silence. “What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he mumbled back. “Can I see your camera?”

“Sure, I guess,” I said, pulling it back out of my purse and handing it to him carefully. “What for?”

He didn’t answer me, just smirked and held the camera out at arm’s length. I smiled, thinking we was just going to take a normal picture, but when he pressed the shutter button he turned to kiss me on the cheek.

A mom sitting on a bench a couple feet away from us must’ve seen, because she came over and offered to take a picture for us. Tony nodded quickly, and this time I was ready. I kissed him full on the lips and he kissed back without missing a beat, putting his hands on my waist.

“That was perfect,” the lady said with a smile, coming back to us and handing me the camera. “You two are adorable.”

“Thanks,” I giggled as Tony kissed my cheek again. The mom turned back around to the bench, leaving us be.

He took my hand, lacing our fingers together before we both went back to looking at the fish.