Spendin' my evenings and spendin' my days

“Hm hm hmmmm…” Kim hummed to herself as she skipped shoeless through the rising tide. The hem on her qipao was just high enough to avoid getting splashed with seawater as she frolicked.

Nick watched her with a smile on his lips. She looked so happy and pretty, so… content. It was amazing to see. And quite a relief, given the panic she’d showed earlier that afternoon, and the tension in her mood before that. For the first time all day it seemed like Kim was really, completely present for their date, and he couldn’t be happier.

She turned to face him, holding up her socks and shoes. “Come on, Nick!” She called over to him. “It’s a lot of fun! I know you don’t like the water, but you can play in the tide for a little, can’t you?”

Nick had to laugh. “I’m not afraid of the water anymore,” he said, walking closer to her. Well, not that much, anyway. “I’d have been fine if you wanted to swim, in fact!”

Kim blinked and looked at him for a moment. “Really? Well, wish you’d told me, I coulda brought my swimsuit.”

“We could always go skinny dipping,” Nick joked, while at the same time being secretly curious what Kim’s reaction to that would be. Surprise? Or another protest about how she wasn’t an exhibitionist? Or maybe…

A cheeky smile spread across her lips.

“You know, if you want to get me out of this dress, you don’t need to use skinny dipping as an excuse,” she cooed, batting her eyelashes. “No need to get covered in seawater as a formality when we could just… have a good time.”

“Sex on the beach? Again? Isn’t that a bit derivative? Well, I’m not gonna say no…” Nick maybe could have worded that better. But with Kim, it felt like he didn’t need to. She just laughed, not caring one bit about being “derivative” or whatever.

“Now that you mention it, without a bed out here?” Kim looked around the long stretch of sand and then turned back to him and shook her head. “You’re right, not a good idea. Maybe we should aim for something else.”

Nick could get behind that.

“Still though…” Kim turned and looked out at the water again. It was getting pretty late; they only had a few more hours of daylight before this part of their date came to a close and they would turn in for the night. “This… it’s lovely, don’t you think? Back when I was working all the time, the idea of enjoying a nice walk on the beach with a boy would have been laughable.”

Nick nodded in agreement. He knew what Kim had gone through before coming here. And he hoped that when they finally got back to civilization she wouldn’t have to go through it again.

He opened his mouth to broach the topic that had been building in his mind for a while now. “Hey Kim…”

“Oh, look over there!” Kim turned away from him, barely hearing what he started to say. Her attention had been captured by something in rocky part of the beach a few meters down the shore. She rushed over and crouched down to get a closer look. “Cool! It’s a tidal pool!”

Nick joined her and looked down at the churning cauldron of seawater caught in the hollow crevice of the rock. It wasn’t very large; only a couple of feet in diameter, and more of an oval shape rather than completely round. High tide had yet to come in, meaning that it was a perfectly separate ecosystem of ocean life.

The water was clear as glass, giving them a perfect look inside.

It was like an isolated microcosm of sealife. Seaweed floated lazily in the shallow pool, forming tiny little strips of black. Beneath it, Nick could make out the shape of rocky mussels littering the bottom, blending in with the rest of the rock. A little higher, colorful starfish clung to the sides, and sea urchins rested in shallow divots, along with some sea snails and clinging barnacles.

“It’s so weird, seeing all this stuff,” Kim said, making a face. “Kinda gross though, don’t you think?” She enjoyed nature, but seeing all these small creatures just vibing in a small little habitat was an interesting sight. “Hey, do you think maybe this is like a Jacuzzi for them?” She joked. “Like, things are getting stressful back home in the ocean, so they ride the high tide onto shore and just chill out for the day, without their spouses back home to nag them?”

Nick had to admire the way Kim could turn something like that into a fantastical tale. He laughed. “Well, actually, when it comes to reproduction, most of these species don’t actually mate the way you would imagine. Starfish do, though. They spawn just like fish, forming these tight little clusters where they release sperm and egg cells into the water, and…”

He trailed off, feeling Kim’s eyes boring holes into him. She gave him a blank look.

“…Really. And here I thought starfish reproduced by splitting in half and growing two new ones,” she said with a smirk.

Nick rolled his eyes. “That’s cartoons. Starfish regenerate new arms when they lose them to predators, kind of like lizards shedding their tails. But the shed arm doesn’t grow into a whole new starfish like some kind of…”

He trailed off again, because Kim was laughing hysterically.

“Oh come on, I was joking!” She socked him playfully in the arm. “I swear, sometimes I forget you know even more about fish than I do!”

“Really?” Nick was surprised to hear that. “Because you used to work as a sushi chef?”

Kim shook her head. “Nah, this was stuff I picked up from when I was working as a guide at an aquarium. Pretty good gig, gotta say.”

Nick’s eyes widened. There was only one aquarium that was local to where they lived, so it had to be…

“Wait, you didn’t… you didn’t work at Deep Blue, did you?!” He gasped incredulously.

Kim’s gaze met his and she nodded, her eyes sparkling mischievously. “Why… that wouldn’t happen to be your favorite aquarium, would it?”

She knew full well that it was. Everyone knew by now about Nick’s love of sealife, and how much he used to enjoy going to the aquarium. It was strange… he’d always feared the water after what happened to Dakota, and yet he kept getting drawn to it.

Almost like he knew that this was where he would eventually end up.

“Like most of my jobs, I only worked there for a little while,” Kim murmured, thinking back on her time guiding people through the exhibits and tanks. “Hey, who knows, maybe we met way before we actually did, and I even gave you a tour? Who knows, could be possible.”

It could be. But given the timeline Nick wasn’t so sure. After all, it had been quite a while since he had been back to Deep Blue, the real Deep Blue. He went there most often in his college years, which would have been back before Kim was even a teenager yet. He’d only gone a couple of times since becoming a fully-fledged adult.

He forgot about it at times, because the two of them had such great chemistry, but it really served to remind him that there was a pretty substantial age gap between himself and Kim.

Seeing the look of apprehension on Nick’s face, Kim decided to change gears. “You know,” she said loudly, “knowing you and I were going to get so close, Nick, I should have never quit that job. Can you imagine? If I was still working there now? Maybe our eyes would meet while I was giving a tour, maybe we feel a little spark together…”

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“Maybe while everyone’s watching the fish in the tanks, and the lights are low, you and I could do some fooling around in the dark… just a thought.”

Nick imagined the two of them messing around together in the middle of a tour. Of all the sexual fantasies he’d had (and there were quite a lot) something about that one struck quite a chord with him, and he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it.

“That’s quite a fantasy,” he noted, raising his eyebrow.

She flashed a toothy smile. “I know, isn’t it? These little things… I’ve worked quite a lot of jobs, Nick, you know?”

Kim turned and looked down at the tide pool. She reached down and slowly stirred her finger in the water, being as gentle and careful as possible so as not to disturb anything. As she did, Nick noticed her gaze take on a pensive quality, and he felt a smile tug at his lips.

It was quite a sight to see. The fancy qipao Kim was wearing looked like it was made of high-quality silk. He was no fashion expert but he was sure if he asked for Vivian’s appraisal she’d tell him it was worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars. And knowing Dakota, the gold trim on the garment may have even been real gold.

Kim was wearing something like that, and yet still she crouched on the shoreline without caring how it was getting a little dirty on the wet rocks. That was the furthest thing from her mind as she leaned over the tidal pool, studying its contents with the focus of a marine biologist.

“You know something fascinating I learned?” Kim murmured thoughtfully. “A tidal pool is so small, and yet it’s really wild in there. The water level is always rising, the composition is always changing, it’s like a completely contained world all in just a few gallons of water.”

She splashed it slightly, judging the depth. “Maybe not even that…”

Nick was surprised. Apparently, she’d learned quite a bit from such a short period of working in an aquarium. “You’re right about that. They’re really dynamic environments,” he noted. “Did you know, there’s a theory that tidal pools may have been the origin for all life on earth?”

Kim snapped up her head and looked at him in surprise. “Seriously?”

He nodded. “It’s what you were talking about before, the dynamic conditions of the environment caused by the changes in the tide, it leads to unique concentrations of chemicals. So some scientists theorize that the chemical reactions in tide pools led to the development of life itself. All just from water at different levels during the day, swirling around in here. In fact, it’s incredibly likely that the first fish to walk on land came out of one of these tide pools, setting the stage for the inevitable chain of evolutions that lead to the human race.”

“That’s so amazing…” Kim had never heard of that before. She might have been a clever girl, but having spent so much of her life working and gaining street smarts, there was still so much she didn’t know.

“…Are you sure, though?” She frowned. “Because Mary told me that life began 6,000 years ago, and that evolution is made up.”

Nick rolled his eyes at her lazy attempt at a joke. “No, she didn’t say that.” He knew his wife well enough to know she wasn’t one of those religious types. Mary was passionate about her beliefs, sure, but she was also well-educated and had gone to the same college he did.

“You’re right,” Kim cackled. “She didn’t.” She turned and looked back at the tide pool. “Still… that thing about tidal pools, that’s really cool. Really… to think, all life started out from a tiny little puddle of seawater like this. We went from little invertebrates who could barely perceive the world around them, just lying around lazily in the water, to building a thriving society of technological and cultural advancement. …Where people have to work mind-numbing, backbreaking jobs to just barely scrape by and feed themselves.”

She paused, looking at a starfish throbbing in the water.

“…Man, are we sure it’s such an upgrade?” She snickered, winking back at him.

Nick could understand how Kim felt, even if the playfulness in her tone perturbed him slightly. “Well, in a way, I’d say we’re kind of in a tide pool of our own,” he pointed out.

Kim scrunched up her face curiously. “Oh? How so?”

He shrugged. “Well, I mean, think about it. We’re on this island, right?” He raised his arms and swung them around. “We’re completely cut off from the ‘ocean’ aka life back on earth, and all our needs are met here. We can eat whatever we want, get practically anything we want thanks to the faeries, and all we have to do is just… exist.”

“Maybe for you, we have to get BP and VP and complete challenges,” Kim pointed out.

“Yeah, good point,” Nick conceded. “Still, I just think… it’s something to consider. How we’re kind of isolated ourselves.”

“Mm. And you and Mary are already getting started on the whole ‘origin of life’ thing, too,” she ribbed him playfully.

Nick winced, but he had to laugh. He shook his head. “Well… yeah.” The question Nick had almost asked before once again returned unbidden to his mind.

“So… what do you think about it?” He blurted out.

She looked up at him with confusion for a second. “About… the tidal pool?”

Nick shook his head. “No, it’s… I mean, about life, moving forward. When we… get back from here, I mean.”

Kim stared at him for a second. “I… I see…”

She looked down at the water for a moment. “…You’re not talking about a general thing, are you? About all of us? You mean me in particular.”

Kim was pretty perceptive.

“Well…” he crouched down next to her, getting the same look from the same perspective that she was. “You’re the one who’s always been pressuring me to think about the future. To think about the consequences of my actions, right?”

Kim looked at him. “There’s a big difference between talking about job prospects, and thinking about the consequences of getting every woman you sleep with pregnant,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, but… talking with Holly today… she mentioned how she thought that when we all got back home, she’d just move back into her apartment and go back to work, without moving in with Mary and I,” Nick explained. “Hell, Mary… she’s living in Tennessee. We haven’t even talked about moving in together after we get back home, you know?”

Kim nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said softly. “So you’ve been giving this some thought, huh? That’s reasonable. I think though… well…”

She really hadn’t given it much thought.

“If I’m being honest here, Kim, I don’t like the idea of you going back to all those jobs,” he said gently, placing his hand on her shoulder. The thought of Kim ending up back in her previous state, just going through the day, with the bright light he saw presently in her eyes flickering out… it made his heart ache.

“Well… maybe you’re right,” she conceded, breaking eye contact with him. Back to the tidal pool. She watched a snail slowly crawling up the shallow hill of the rocky ledge. “I’m working hard to get through community college…”

“To be an economist, right?” Nick asked.

She snapped her eyes back to him and laughed. “…In a general sense,” she giggled. “I actually want to go into financial planning. You know… helping out poor, underprivileged families who can’t handle their own budgets. Helping them get the support they need to get back on their feet. Like my dad did for my mom and us.”

The ache in her voice touched Nick’s heart. She was such a sweet girl… thinking about other people, even after everything she’d already gone through.

“Kim… you’re amazing, you know that? Working so hard, barely getting by, with a dream of helping out others… I really admire that.”

“Well, that’s just how I’ve always been,” she murmured. “I need to be able to stand on my own two feet. Ever since my parents got married, things have been easier on my mom. My little siblings, they don’t have to worry about half the stuff I had to, growing up. But if I can help out even a little bit… lighten her burden even slightly, so she doesn’t have to worry about me… how could I not?”

Her eyes watered as she thought of her mother’s tired face. How she would go without eating just so the three of them could have a little more for dinner.

Kim fought back the urge to cry. Not here. Not now. Not when they were enjoying their date so much.

Nick felt like crying too. But for a different reason. “Kim… you don’t have to feel that way,” he said gently. “You do have people you can rely on now, you know. I have a little money, and, well… if you win the season you could wish for anything you want for your family,” he pointed out as well.

Kim snorted and rolled her eyes. “The wish… you know, to tell the truth? I haven’t even thought about it in ages.”

Nick was surprised to hear that. “Seriously?”

“It’s always been in the back of my mind, but you know, it feels weird,” Kim said, shrugging. “I mean… I want to accomplish things myself. Without having to use some magic wish to make all my problems go away. Is that so wrong?”

“No, not at all,” Nick said, shaking his head. “Does that mean you won’t accept money from me, either, to support you?”

“What, like a kept woman?” Kim laughed playfully. “At that point, you might as well marry Vivian for her billions, and move all of us into that humongous estate her family has!”

As Kim cackled to herself, Nick wondered whether or not he should tell her that had actually been Vivian’s very first proposal to him. Knowing what Kim thought about Vivian and her money, he doubted that would go over well.

Before he could figure out how to address it, Kim turned and looked back at him with a serious expression on her face.

“I’m glad you’re thinking about this seriously, Nick,” she said, her eyes gazing deeply into his. “I won’t lie, having the support of everyone around me… it would mean a lot. Life-changing, really, like how my dad helped us so much. But there’s a limit. I want to accomplish things for myself, too. Wishing for the perfect life without any cares, it’s nice, and I did it so much when I was little, going to bed with a rumbling in my stomach. But I don’t know, it just feels wrong if I get something and didn’t earn it for myself, you know?”

Nick didn’t like how much he agreed with Kim, because he really did just want to wish all of her problems back home away. But he thought about how much he had toiled over his first book before releasing it, and how proud he had been of that accomplishment.

If he had just snapped his fingers and the book magically wrote itself, it would have lessened the burden and he wouldn’t have had to deal with all those stressful, painful nights.

But would he have felt that same sense of accomplishment? Somehow, he doubted it.

“I get what you mean,” he murmured. “And I think that’s really admirable of you, Kim.”

“Really? I thought you’d tell me I was an idiot and I should just take the money.” Kim almost looked disappointed, like she was hoping for that excuse. But at the same time, they both respected each other too much for that.

“Sorry, no dice,” Nick said, shaking his head and giving her a smile. “At least I’ll support you enough where you won’t have to go without food or sleep.”

Kim’s face twisted into a look of shock. She held her hand over her chest. “And miss the full college experience? But that sounds so wrong!”

They shared a cackle and shook their heads, wiping away their tears of laughter as they trickled into the tidal pool below.