Merman Boyfriend: Barnaby #1 (special preview)

I nuzzle to her cheek. “Then turn it over, give us more.” 

Edeline places her hand on my face and turns, kissing me lovingly. For that moment, we are young again. 

Back when we first met, Edeline was on the cusp of adulthood. She had graduated from high school early, was extremely bright and gifted, talented in music, as well as a brilliant mathematician. Even still with all her wonderful achievements, she was a woman, and in those days, it was expected of her to accomplish other things, more domestic things. Her brothers, both older and still in school, tormented her. Her mother browbeat her and talked down to her. Her father was her only refuge and he had died of cancer the year before. It was her father who taught her piano and helped her understand math. He was an engineer, which was exactly what Edeline wanted to do, but her mother was refusing to let her attend college.

Edeline was dragged to the carnival by her brothers who kept teasing her and pushing her around. Eventually she escaped them as they went to go see a burlesque show. She wandered into a tent advertising a live mermaid show featuring Barnaby and his Sirens. It was my tent, of course. The show hadn’t started and I was relaxing alone, swimming around the show tank. When I saw her, I was floored. She was small, very petite and curvy. Her strawberry blonde hair was up in curls and her eyes, oh god, her eyes were so beautiful.

I, on the other hand, wasn’t yet in my glamour. I put it on so that way I was more palatable to the humans. In my usual skin, I knew I was hideous and a monster, especially to beautiful girls like her. But Edeline wasn’t afraid, instead she seemed more bewildered. She walked up to my tank, watching me as I watched her.

“I’ve never seen makeup like this before?” She gasps.

I couldn’t hear her through the water, but I could read her lips. I tried sign language, as I had learned it from Mr. Faire. I asked her what her name was. To my shock, she responded to me back in sign language. 

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” I asked her.

Edeline tilted her head to the side. “Why should I be?” 

I stilled myself for a moment before signing again. “Aren’t I ugly?”

Edeline shook her head and smiled at me. “You’re strange but lovely,” she replied. She then took her gloves off and tucked them into her pocket. “I think you’re more beautiful because of how different you are.”

I was lovestruck right away. We talked so long I almost missed putting on my Glamour before an audience started to fill the tent. Edeline came back each day, meeting me at my tank where we talked for hours. Sometimes we played cards or she played music for me. She showed me her skills with math as well, which I still can’t understand.