Merfolk are used to being naked (occupational hazard), but I’ve never felt so exposed. Apparently, Europeans don’t believe in inseams. I’m pretty sure Samir can tell I dress to the left.
“Those look good on you.”
I shiver and hum a warm note. “Thanks.”
“Come on in. The water’s fine.”
I dive in without a splash and pop up next to Samir. He studies me with soft eyes.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you a mermaid?” a voice asks from the side of the pool.
Samir sputters and coughs. A little girl with the same brown skin and thick eyebrows has emerged from the house to watch us.
I swim up to her. “What makes you ask that?”
“You have long hair. Like a mermaid.”
Even in a half-up ponytail, my hair goes past my shoulders.
“Sara...” Samir groans, but the girl squats next to me and grips my cheeks with her brown hands.
“I’m a mermaid,” she whispers.
“You are?”
“Mermaids are real. Samir saw one once.”
I look back to Samir, who looks like he wants to drown himself.
“He did?”
“Uh-huh. He says they’re the most beautiful people in the world. What’s your name?”
“Dylan. Nice to meet you, Sara the Mermaid.”
She grins at me. She has Samir’s grin.
Samir rolls his eyes. “Come on, Sara, we’re trying to swim.”
She sticks her tongue out at him but retreats into the house.
“Sorry. My cousin.”
“She’s cute.” I swim back to Samir. “So you met a mermaid, huh?”
“Merfolk. They don’t do binary gender.”
“And they’re beautiful, huh?”
Samir grins and splashes me, but I hold up a hand and hum a note. The water stops midair and surges back at him. He laughs and runs a hand over his face.
“What was that? Magic?”
“Maybe,” I say, and dodge as he takes aim again. He laughs and chases me, half swimming and half bobbing. I’m not actually that fast in human form (too used to having a tail, and why do humans use their arms so much?), so I only halfway let him trap me against the corner, laughing between breaths.
