Chapter 2: 2 – An encounter with a ‘marine enthusiast’

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It was Saturday, and checking his watch, Aidan was able to confirm that it was already past eleven thirty in the morning. Thus, Aidan was able to draw three quick conclusions:

Firstly, he had been sitting there for a good forty-five minutes already, watching as the line ahead of him grew longer, then shorter, and then longer again. It was progressing at a reasonable pace though, which was a good thing.

Secondly, Aidan’s eleven o’clock had yet to show, and each minute ticking by seemed to add validity to his third conclusion, namely that he had been stood up. Honestly, it seemed to have become something of a thing in his life as of late.

“Huh,” Aidan said, checking his phone next to check and see if his eleven o’clock might have left him some sort of message. There were none however – not even some halfhearted excuse about a car breaking down, a beloved pet running away, or a sudden death in the family.

It was... disappointing, to an extent. Then again, calling it a disappointment might have been laying it on a bit thick, because him being disappointed would indicate that he had actually had high expectations to begin with.

“Maybe I truly am destined to spend eternity alone,” Aidan muttered to himself.

Well, since he had eternity ahead of him, then he might as well wait fifteen more minutes to see if there was a response. And if not, then he would go over there and buy himself a ticket to go and look at some sharks. Because honestly, having come all this way, he might as well.

Mind made up, Aidan stood up, shielding his eyes against a sudden glare of sunshine reflected in one of the nearby windows. Clearly, not bringing sunglasses along had been a serious mistake.

“Ah, honestly,” he muttered to himself, shoving his phone back into his pocket. “I should’ve just stayed home.”

He could have stayed home and slept in until noon at the very least, not dragged himself all this way for nothing. Or, well, not for nothing, because Aidan would be seeing those sharks whether he had company or not.

As such, he steered his steps towards the ticket centre, getting in line. Unfortunately, it seemed as though one of the ticket counters had suffered some sort of technical malfunction, meaning that the line was now progressing significantly slower compared to before.

Exasperated yet at the same time resigned, Aidan looked up the tour schedule again, confirming that even if he did end up missing the tour at noon, there was another one in the afternoon.

“Oh, are you also here for the shark tour?”

Aidan did not startle, not quite. He was surprised though, because he had not expected the person behind him to address him directly – and certainly not for them to so readily admit to reading over Aidan’s shoulder.

The stranger was on the taller side – certainly not basketball player height, but tall enough, with slightly curly flaxen hair, high cheekbones, a firm jaw and piercing blue eyes. And as Aidan looked at him, his lips curled into a smile, showing off noticeable laugh lines around the eyes.

Seeing it, Aidan was unwittingly reminded of Lyall, and then immediately shoved that thought down and stomped on it.

“Yes,” he said at last, perfectly neutral. “I assume you are as well.”

At this, the other’s smile widened considerably.

“Do you have a membership card?” he then asked, showing off his own.

Aidan shook his head, because⸺ “It’s actually my first time coming. I mean, I’ve been planning on coming for a while, but...”

He trailed off, then opted not to resume the thought.

“Oh,” the other said. “Well, better late than never, right? You’re going to buy a ticket here?”

Well, obviously. What else would he be standing in line for?

“Let me buy you the ticket,” the guy said, flashing a winning smile at Aidan’s raised eyebrow. “This gets me a twenty percent discount on guest tickets.”

Huh. “That’ll still amount to about thirty dollars. It’s fine. I can pay for myself.”

“Oh no, I insist,” the guy said, eyes practically twinkling. “You can make it up to me by buying me lunch after the tour. Deal?”

Well, was that not awfully forward of him. Still, Aidan supposed that would be fair enough, and if the guy did prove too annoying, then he could always buy him lunch and leave.

“Yeah, sure. If you insist.”

At this, the guy positively beamed, extending his hand. “Jonathan Clancy, marine enthusiast, at your service.”

Aidan looked from the hand to the man and then finally gave in, reaching out to grasp it.

“Aidan Burns,” he said, noting the firm handshake. This was evidently the hand of someone who did a fair amount of manual labour. However, this was also⸺

“Pleasure to meet you, Aidan.” Jonathan grinned. “English, Scottish or Irish?”

Hah. Aidan pointed to his highly auspicious hair. “Take a guess.”

“I’d say Irish, but I wouldn’t want to assume,” the other said, giving Aidan’s hand a final press before letting go. “My great grandfather is from Ireland, from Cork, I think? I’ve always been meaning to go there, but...”

He trailed off, then offered up a mild shrug that could have meant a whole lot of things.

Speaking of Ireland though⸺

“I was born there, yes,” Aidan finally said. “In Howth, just outside of Dublin. I have not lived in Ireland for many years though, so I doubt I’ve kept much of the accent.”

In fact, Aidan was quite sure that he had kept none of his original accent – not much of anything, really. In part, this was due to moving around, and in part, this was due to the passage of time. Language was not static after all. Besides, English was not even his first language, although it was currently his strongest one.

 

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“Oh,” Jonathan said. “Are you sure you don’t want to order anything for yourself?”

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Aidan offered up a noncommittal hum, signalling that he was very much sure. And he was, because a glance over at the menu pretty much confirmed that there was nothing on it that he would be able to stomach other than the sparkling water at most – and paying over five dollars for one bottle and extra for the straw had seemed a bit excessive, but⸺

“I’m fine,” Aidan said, sipping his drink. “I’ve got a number of dietary restrictions, so I’d rather not risk it.”

“Oh,” Jonathan said, eyes lingering on him briefly before returning his attention to the plate in front of him; fried calamari with tomato sauce, banana peppers, shaved parmesan, lemon and roasted garlic – and Aidan could smell it quite well, even as he leaned back in his seat from across the table.

Clearly, today was one of those days that Aidan ought to have turned around and crawled back into bed at the very first sign of things going awry, because if he had, then he could certainly have avoided all of this.

Because as things were, the shark tour at noon had unfortunately been full, leaving them to attend the afternoon one and a number of hours to spend in the meantime. And, since Aidan had agreed to buy this Jonathan guy lunch, it was only natural that they had ended up here, in one of the National Aquarium’s two cafés.

And this also meant that Aidan would potentially have to spend much of his afternoon in close proximity of this, now strongly garlic-smelling guy. The thought made him a bit sick, honestly.

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asked, pausing once more to look at him with evident concern. “You know, even for a redhead, you are kind of pale, and your hand was pretty cold.”

Hah. “Unfortunately, I’m genetically predisposed to develop anaemia. It comes with the territory.”

“Oh.” The other man watched him, still displaying a great deal of concern – and a frankly abnormal amount of concern for someone they had only just met. “Do tell me if you start feeling faint. I might not be a doctor or anything, but I’d probably be quick enough to catch you on the way down?”

Hah. “Fainting only really becomes an issue in cases of severe anaemia. I take supplements to avoid that sort of thing.”

“That’s great then,” Jonathan said, digging back in.

Aidan glanced at him and then averted his eyes, scanning their surroundings. The café was not overly crowded in spite of the time of day, Saturday shortly after noon. Maybe people were off taking part in tours though, or just idly wandering around waiting to do so.

In any case, Aidan reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, mostly just to have something to do. Opening up the dating app, he was not really expecting to see anything. However, just as he did, he got a ping from a new notification.

“Hm?” Jonathan said, having stopped chewing.

Aidan opted to ignore him though, bringing up the message he had just received. Reading it, he could not help but snort however.

“What is it?” Jonathan asked.

And although it was clearly none of the other’s business, Aidan opted to humour him.

“The person I was supposed to meet up with just messaged me to apologise. Apparently, he overslept. I’m pretty sure he just forgot about it though, since we set this up weeks in advance.”

“Oh,” Jonathan said, clearly interested while attempting to appear neutral. “Was it supposed to be a date?”

Well⸺

“I suppose it could’ve been,” Aidan said. “But yeah, I think that ship has already sailed. I guess I should’ve known better than to expect good things from anyone named Orlando.”

“Well,” Jonathan said, dabbing his mouth with the napkin. “I for one am glad. I would hardly have had the opportunity to meet you otherwise after all.”

Well, this guy sure was frank – but only about certain things. Still⸺ “It’s still hours before the tour. I might give you reasons to change your mind before then.”

At this, the other looked up and smiled warmly at him – and annoyingly enough, it made Aidan’s heart skip a beat.

Don’t delude yourself, he reminded himself. Don’t give yourself expectations.

 

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Leaving the café behind, they took the escalator up one floor and then another, starting with the Australian exhibition.

Jonathan led the way, talking incessantly. In a way, it was a relief, seeing that Aidan himself did not need to talk. However, by the time they reached the first small aquariums of the exhibition, the guy was still prattling on and on and on. As a matter of fact, he did not stop talking until they had gone over that particular floor and taken the escalator back down to continue exploring the previous floor.

“I’m not boring you, I hope,” Jonathan said, smiling sheepishly in his direction as they headed towards the Blue Wonders section.

“I’ve heard more boring lectures,” Aidan answered quite truthfully, then moved ahead to look at the coral reefs.

After that, they took another, smaller escalator up to another section featuring the seascape of Maryland, before moving up yet another escalator. This next section had an exhibition of stingrays and horseshoe crabs, which Aidan supposed was interesting enough. To his great relief, Jonathan also seemed to have stopped talking, at least for now.

Perhaps Aidan had hurt the other’s feelings by being so blunt. However, even if such was the case, Aidan did not feel the need to apologise.

Yet another escalator brought them up to a floor featuring things such as kelp forests and the river forests of the Amazonas. Then, they ascended yet another level, and upon reaching the top, Aidan found himself standing in some makeshift rainforest. There was not an awful lot to see up there though, other than some birds.

“This way,” Jonathan finally said, decidedly more muted now. “There are more coral reefs over here, and going farther down, we’ll get to shark alley.”

Oh.

“But we should go back to the information desk first. The tour starts from there.”

Hoh. “Got it.”

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