Unknown Depths.

Chapter 27

It was quite early in the following morning when Delia arrived at the aquarium, early to the point where her car was nearly the only one in the parking lot. But now here she was, standing in the middle of said empty parking lot, her bag in one hand and coffee in the other. 

As she started walking over to the aquarium she breathed in a large gulp of the morning air, letting the salty scent of the ocean fall over her. Then for a moment she paused, truly taking in the full scent of everything and she realised, just how strong the scent of the ocean appeared to her. It was a scent that she had smelled countless times before, yet somehow it had never hit her quite as it did at that moment.

The strange thing, however, was that it was almost alluring to her as if it was trying to pull her in.   Somewhat surprised, and a little bit confused at that Delia continued walking over to the entrance of the building. All the while thinking about taking a swim after her shift...

Fully on autopilot, she went through the motions of getting ready for her shift. Today she was the first person at the aquarium, as she ran the opening shift. Now she wasn't quite used to having this shift, so everything felt just a little bit off to her, not that she really minded though. 

Once she was ready she started off which her first round, opening up all doors, turning on all lights and making sure everything was in its right place. Within the next half hour, some of her colleagues were set to arrive and start helping her with feeding the animals. 

Before she knew it the aquarium was up and running, and filled to the brim with customers. By this time, however, Delia had a break, yet she still liked to wander around the aquarium, looking at all the creatures.  When she reached the view of the ocean exhibit, however, something felt off... As she looked out into the vast ocean it looked different, it looked inviting. Almost entranced she watched the sea life scuttle by, fish darting in every direction. 

In fact, she had been so transfixed that she didn't even notice someone calling her name. It wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder that she snapped out of it. Somewhat startled she turned, immediately being greeted by the sight of Damian. 

"Are you alright?" He said, concern apparent on his face, "I didn't mean to scare you like that?"

Wide-eyed Delia stared at him for a second before regaining her composure, "Yeah... I'm fine, I just  zoned out for a moment."

Damian raised an eyebrow at her. 

"I had the opening shift this morning." 

"Ah," Damian said placing his arm around her shoulder as he started moving her away from the exhibit, "You simply haven't had enough coffee, nothing we can't fix."  

Delia chuckled as the two of them went over to the break room. Only mere seconds after they sat down Ricky walked in, a smile appearing on her face as soon as she saw the two. "You won't guess who just bought a ticket." She said, sitting down across from Delia. 

"Who?" Damian said furrowing his brows. 

"Your mystery man." Ricky smirked, "Gabriel right?"

At that Damian chuckled, "Ah you mean her date." 

Without saying anything at all Delia elbowed Damian. As at the same time Ricky exclaimed, "What?!" 

"He!" He said, "I mean I'm not wrong, right?" 

"You went on a date with him?" Ricky said, smiling but with her eyes rather wide. 

"Eh..." Delia started not quite meeting her eyes, "I mean sorta..." 

"Sorta?!" Ricky  exclaimed, "I need details!" 

Delia chuckled, knowing she'd spend the rest of her break filling Ricky in on the details of her 'date'. By the time the two actually finished talking about the subject, or more specifically when Ricky finished asking her questions, their break was already over. Soon each of them went back to their respective workplace. Ricky went back to the ticket booth, Damian had to feed the marine mammals and Delia had a giftshop shift. Not exactly her favourite shift, but not one she minded all that much either. 

Lost in her thoughts she made her way over to the gift shop. While physically she was in the aquarium, mentally she was thinking about the swim she was gonna have afterwards. A part of her wanted to just jump into the ocean then and there. But the more logical part of her brain knew that she should go to a place where people wouldn't see her. 

Before she knew it though, she was standing behind the counter inside the gift shop and time didn't exactly fly by as she had to watch children begging their parents to buy them stuffed toys and other trinkets. 

All the while her mind stayed on the ocean, and how she wanted, so desperately, to go for a swim...