Fluke

36: Ex Marks the Spot

I had four out of the five whales identified that afternoon when Logan headed out to do his seal watch without me. Judging by the fluke size, the remaining whale was much smaller than the others, and I imagined that it was just a calf.

Soon, I'd get their health results back, and I'd be able to get a better sense of who these whales were, but until then, the identity of the last one was my top priority. It could have easily been one that hadn't yet been identified, and that was the ideal situation for me. I had a cute plan in mind if that was the case.

Logan told me that he had another name in mind for a whale, and to get us back on track, I'd ask him for his suggestion. But, of course, that would only work if I couldn't find the last whale in the database. I was willing to put my fear aside for our sake, but I wasn't willing to lie about whales and their identities. I had to draw the line somewhere.

The baby whale had a mostly white fluke with an X printed in black toward the bottom and spots near the top. Depending on the photo, the X could have been easily cut out, so I had to make sure that the spots didn't line up with any of the other whales in the database.

Even though I had another task that needed more of my attention, I still thought that there wasn't any definitive way to determine whether Logan was even telling the truth about his feelings for me and lack thereof for Morgan, but I'd have to find that out eventually.

The sun shone through the window, and I let out a sigh. Baby whale needed a name. I had to get the job done.

I picked up my laptop and headed out the door to the seal watchtower. Outside, the rocks were drier than normal, and gulls squawked at me as I passed by.

"Oh, quiet down. I haven't hurt any of you, so stop being so threatened all the time," I muttered, even though they certainly couldn't understand me. Their babies had just learned to fly, and they must have thought I was a hazard or something.

I climbed up the ladder to the top, and surely enough, there sat Logan, scribbling down seal counts and weather conditions. He didn't notice me, so I peered into the room from the ladder for an extra moment.

He ran his fingers along the part of his hair that I cut. Even though the difference in length was noticeable, he never really made a big deal out of it. Of course, I cut his hair, then asked him if he was actually in love with another girl, so maybe that had something to do with it, but he handled the hair situation better than I thought he would.

Maybe I didn't know him as well as I thought I did.

I took in a breath, then climbed the last few rungs and hoisted myself up into the seal tower. I brushed off the dirt that collected on my dark turtleneck and cleared my throat.

Logan looked over at me but didn't say a word. Instead, he shifted over, making room for me on the bench next to him.

I took that spot. "Hi."

"Rea."

He really wasn't making this any easier on me.

"How are the seals?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Pretty much the same as always."

I didn't say anything for a moment. The seals rested on the rocks just like they did when Logan and I were beginning to figure each other out, and everything was new and exciting and terrifying. Now it was just terrifying.

"The reason I came up here is that I actually have a question I'd like to ask you. There's—" I began, but Logan interrupted.

"You didn't actually think I would ever pull some shit like that, did you? I mean, I know I'm not a nice person and shit, but I figured you knew that I'm not the type to just—" He trailed off. "No, you should talk. I'm just gonna make things worse."