Page 14 of Alonzo

This street of Dumas family cottages is just… my normal.

But I had dreams once. I grew up in what is probably considered a big family these days. Two brothers and a sister. Mom and Dad never got divorced. Hell, they don’t even really fight. My mom nags a little. And she’s always yelling, “Jack! Jack! Are you listening to me?” But she’s just bossy like that. Her nagging is really more along the lines of endearing sass.

I thought maybe one day I’d have my own little Dumas clan. But then… everything changed. The new normal took over and… yeah. Here I am.

I sigh and turn the water off. Grab a towel, wrap it around my waist, step out of the shower, and stand in front of the mirror.

It’s all foggy so I reach up with the flat palm of my hand and clear a small circle in the center so I can see my face. Stare into my own hazel eyes. Then squint at the guy behind them.

He had dreams once.

I have always wanted to be a fisherman. Us kids grew up in the old dive shop with my parents. We were always on or in the ocean. We always had a boat and my father’s idea of a good time was either diving around the Great Florida Reef or casting a line over a calm, blue sea.

This life was my dream. I’m literally living my dream. But I always wanted to share it with someone else.

I’m not immune to the new normal. It always catches up with you eventually.

This is where Tara comes in. Because she is my new normal. She is how I process the turn my life took back when I was eighteen. She is how I avoid potential traps and pitfalls. Her, and the others like her who came before.

See, I have this thing for mermaids.

Not Ariel, the Disney mermaid. No, I’m talking mermaids like the siren-esque creatures of Greek mythology. Or the melusine in Europe. Or the Rusalka in Eurasia. I have always been fascinated by dangerous women. I think that’s why I’m obsessed with mermaids. So obsessed, I have them tattooed all over my body. Every different kind of mermaid you can imagine. And they are beautiful and demonic. Frightening, but like the siren, they call to you. Tricksters who ruin your life and leave you for dead.

Look, I’m not saying all women are like this. My sister isn’t a mermaid. My mother isn’t a mermaid. I’d say ninety-nine percent of women aren’t mermaids.

But the ones I gravitate to… I don’t know why I go looking for these girls. But they are the mermaids. They are there to trick me, and ruin my life, and expose my secrets.

I get it. It’s my fault. I’m the one attracted to that kind of woman.

That’s why I stopped dating a while back and got into the online thing. That’s why I have Tara now.

I used to date girls in real life. And I’m not gonna lie. Every once in a while I go find myself a good one-night stand to take the edge off. A tourist who has no expectations. A spring-breaker who thinks I’m her conquest instead of her being mine. But they’re just booty. It’s just fucking.

Tara and I started that way. Just booty. Just a way to take the edge off. But it’s been two years now. Two years we’ve been talking.

I feel like I know her intimately. And I get it. That’s stupid. We’ve never even met in real life. I’m fucking catfishing this girl. Almost everything I’ve told her about myself has been a lie. But maybe Lonnie the accountant is really the better way to go? Maybe I could change my path? Become that dude. Leave my Dumas secrets behind, get a dead-end job, and have a real life?

So fucking ironic that living my dream is starting to feel like a prison sentence.

Or maybe it’s always been a prison sentence? Maybe I was just so resistant to the new normal I didn’t even notice when that earthquake devastated the town or that drunk driver wiped out my family?

I dress in a pair of jeans, opt out of a shirt, and stand in front of my screen door to watch Luke and Tony as they lay a new roof on the cottage two doors down and across the street.

It’s slow season for them too. Tony runs Dumas Boat Tours. He takes people out into the Gulf in his sailboat, puts them all in kayaks, tours them through the mangroves, and then serves them a champagne dinner at sunset. Luke runs Dumas Water Adventures. Think jet skis, water skis, flyboarding, parasailing, jet-packing… high-octane adrenaline shit like that.

But in the winter, they spend most of their days doing maintenance work on the cottages because it’s the only time we’re not fully booked up. My fishing business slows down too, but not nearly as much as the diving and boating.

Tony and Luke aren’t the only ones out on the street today. There are three groups of housecleaners, a whole crew of landscapers, and our newest addition, Zach Boston.

I don’t see him until I step outside because he’s kicking it on the porch two cottages down to my right.

He lifts his chin up in greeting when he notices me. “Lonz!” he calls. “I just got off the phone with Jesse. He’s heading down here tomorrow.”

I don’t know why he’s telling me this. I give no fucks about the Boston family. I don’t even care that Jesse is my new brother-in-law. As far as I’m concerned, he’s just another outsider who needs to be managed.

But when I say nothing, Zach feels the need to explain. “Emma’s in Europe for some business thing.” Zach shoots me one of those trademark Boston brothers grins. “He’s lonely.”

I sigh and go back inside.