The Billionaire's Tail

chapter nine

I opened my eyes to find myself in Alan's bedroom. my eyes felt sore and irritated and I had the taste of salt in my mouth. I looked down at myself. I was wearing Alan's red flannel pajama pants and one of his t-shirts with my bikini underneath.
I sat up. "Alan?" My voice was hoarse and painful.

Just as I was about to leave the bed to look for him he entered through the door.

"A-Alan." I coughed. "I thought you were gone."

I started to climb out of the bed but he pushed me back down onto the pillow.

"You need some rest." He said as his hands lingered on my arms. "I'm going to bring some medicine up for you okay?"

I nodded, trying to piece together what happened yesterday. I remembered pieces of information that didn't make any sense no matter how hard I thought of them.

Alan returned to his bedroom with a bowl of soup, a bottle of throat syrup and eye drops.

He spoon fed me the medicine and put the eye drops in my bloodshot eyes.

"Alan, what happened yesterday? I remember you diving into the ocean and I ran after you, but you didn't come up to the surface for air. I thought you were gone." My voice broke at the end of the sentence. "And then these waves crashed over me and I thought I was gone too. Then I felt your hands pulling me back up to air."

"I just wanted to take a splash and then I saw you drowning so I brought you back to land and you were unconscious." He explained.

"You're lying. How come you were underwater so long? Why didn't you tell me not to worry before you dove in?" I asked.

"You probably didn't see me and I probably didn't see you until those waves came. I didn't think you'd be so worried."

"But I called for you Alan, how did you not hear me?" My eyes burnt with fresh tears that were more painful today than they had ever been.

He held onto my hand. "I must have been underwater when you were calling for me."

He had his eyes trained on his lap and he hadn't looked into my eyes once.

"I don't believe you but I don't want to argue either. You still saved my life in the end."

"I-." He started but he stopped himself from finishing. He didn't have anything to say to me.

"I saw something else. In the water before you grabbed me. It was a large blue tail. I know it wasn't a shark or a dolphin because it had scales, not smooth scales like the scales of a snake, but rough and coarse scales." I explained it with the vivid memory I had of it.

"Are you sure? There's thousands of species of sharks and dolphins around the reef of this island. It could have been anything."

"It wasn just anything." I said. "It was different. It was beautiful."
"You think it was beautiful?" He asked me as he sat in bed beside me.
"Of coarse! I wish you'd seen it." I snuggled against his shoulder. "Whatever it is, it's probably gone by now."

"It might be closer than you think." He whispered into my hair.

"I need a shower but I'm probably going to steal these." I stretched the waist band of the flannel pants out and let them go so they made a smacking
sound against my hip.

"I'll give you a fresh pair when you come back. You can even take a bath in here."

"Sounds tempting but I want to be away from large bodies of water for a while." I smiled up at him.

"My bath isn't that large." He caressed the side of my face.

"Well I have been daydreaming about that bath since the day I saw it. Might as well." I stood and walked to my bedroom to grab underwear and toiletries as well as a toothbrush.