Page 53 of Plus One

“You mean them trying to get us together?”

He nodded, cheeks a pink-bronze in the lantern’s glow.

Shrugging, she said, “Yeah, a little.” Deb and Don were mere silhouettes ahead of them, glowing like beacons. “But it’s obvious they love you, love us. I can’t be mad at them for that.”

“Can’t say I’d be as forgiving if I were in your shoes.”

Monique scoffed. “Really, Mister ‘Man of Faith’?” She turned her camera toward the water, watching for the glow the guide had promised.

“Maybe something’s changed for me, but I’m tired of being mad when people show me they care.”

The guide stopped rowing and let them drift.

“My kids, my girls, my neighbors, as annoying as it can sometimes get, they’re just making sure I’m okay. It’s tough for me, though. But it’s also kinda proof.” Her fingertips grazed the water, slicing open a vein of electric blue.

“Proof of what?”

“That I was here, that I matter.” Monique gasped. Water dripped from her fingers like liquid stars. “Are you seeing this?”

The water around them began to glow. Just sparkles here and there at first. The guide swished an oar along the side of the boat, and a neon wave crested.

“My God.” Maurice leaned over the edge, fingers reaching tentatively at first toward the water. Light bloomed. When he pulled his hand back, awe spread across his face. He stretched to the water again, reaching deeper this time, like a child. “The water is so warm and silky. It’s… magic.” Wonder replaced his tight mask of control.

“It’s plankton,” Monique said dryly, yet smiling at his openness.

“Dinoflagellates,” the guide said. “Tiny lifeforms that glow when disturbed.”

Maurice looked from Monique to the guide and then back to the water. “What was that?” he shouted and jumped back, snatching his hands from the water.

Their guide laughed under his breath.

“What is what?” Monique looked closer, pressing her shoulder against his. A school of small fish darted back and forth under and around the boat like silver-blue comets streaking through the darkest reaches of the galaxy.

He leaned closer, reaching an arm over her back to brace himself in the small boat to look over her shoulder. He was pressed there against her. Even with the inches of nylon and foam between their bodies, his heat surrounded her.

Breath stolen, she whispered, “Magic.”

They sat side by side as the guide steered them toward a mangrove tunnel where the bioluminescence intensified just beyond the natural archway. Every movement burst with light. Like this was a sacred place.

They approached an alcove. “The water is very warm here and not very deep. It’s safe to swim if you’d like.”

Maurice looked shocked.

Monique smiled and kicked her sandals off. She shimmied out of her skirt and stood before Maurice and the guide, in biker shorts and the T-shirt she wore under the life vest. “I’m going in,” she announced. Maurice’s eyes went wide. “What?”

She swung one leg over the side of the boat and then the other. Swishing her feet around, part marveling at the glow and part waiting for Maurice to choose. “You comin’?” she asked him one last time before slipping over the side and into the warm, glowing water.

Her body was alight. Every muscle, every movement, was a dance of billions of light pulses of life. Every stroke and kick created galaxies and streaks of constellations. She gasped and laughed as she whirled through the water like those synchronized swimmers in the old movies she used to watch with her grandparents.

Monique watched herself glow.

“Dear God—”

She looked up in the direction of Maurice’s voice. He stood at the side of the boat, staring at her likeshewas magical.

“You praying…” She splashed him, and the water droplets covered him like fairy dust. “Or are you coming in?”

Monique could say he jumped, but he fell over the side in an explosion of light. Thanks to the life vest, he didn’t go under. He flapped his arms and legs to steady himself, making giant arcs of star-infused water.