TEN

"Nicky stop flirting with, Liz." Louise stood up and nudged him with her elbow, laughing.

He stopped wading in the water to defend himself. "Flirting with Elizabeth? You must really be losing it, Louise." He chuckled, and went back to floating after Louise rested back into the waters.

Laughing along, Elizabeth set her eyes back to the endless sky above.

"But, Elizabeth can I ask you a real serious question?" Louise asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you really love Benjamin?"

Elizabeth was silent. She breathed in and she breathed out. She saw the sky and processed the shades and colors. The day was fading as the sun shrunk. The night would approach soon and there would darkness coating the lands.

"Elizabeth?"

"Did I ever tell you about the first time I met Benjamin in the flesh?"

"No. I don't think so."

Elizabeth exhaled. "The first time Benjamin and I met was a day before our actual wedding arrangement. I was so nervous to meet him that I became tied up with butterflies and knots. It was so bad I found myself barely comprehensible for a basic conversation. When he'd ask me simple questions like where did I go to school and what did I like to do, I kept stuttering and sputtering as if I hadn't been writing to this man for years. I knew him through the pages but in real life? Well, I was so sure within the few minutes of talking to a wreck like me, he would want to cancel arrangement or leave me standing at the altar. It was horrible. I was horrible." She took a few long blinks, the memories fresh in her eyes.

Louise lightly laughed. "I was like that when I first realized my feelings for Tommy."

"No, but I was worse." Elizabeth snickered, biting her bottom lip. "I was just awful in ways that can't be described. And, I thought, there was no way he could possible ever want me knowing I'm a mess like that. I remember feeling such dread, just waiting for him to leave and say he's had enough of it and enough of me." There was a genuine soft smile on her face. "But he didn't. Instead, he passed me a paper and a pen, and he said, write to me." Her smile was bright. "And so I did. We sat there in that room and spoke to each through pen and paper, and the next day he married me."

Louise shared her smile. "So, you knew then and there."

"I did."

"I think my moment of knowing for Tommy, was probably before we had even started our relationship."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She nodded, water grazing her chin. "You remember how I would only go to the beach if it was rainy?"

"To find the mermaids?"

"Yes." She grinned, showing teeth. "It was a childhood habit; I wasn't able to give it up. I was just so adamant that the mermaids had existed and that on a rainy beach day, where no was present, they would come to the shore."

"I remember." Elizabeth giggled, a stary hair sticking to her cheek.

"So, there I was. I came to the beach alone, just for old's time's sake to look for those mermaids. The day was rainy and awfully stormy, but I sat on the shoreline staring at those waves---just waiting for something. For anything. I knew it was silly, and I knew didn't really exist. But I just wanted to find something, or be found by something. And I was. That day, the mermaids never came but he did. When the rain was pounding on my cheeks and soaking my clothes, a sudden shadow that came over me. I looked up, and there was this funny little man holding an umbrella over me. And I don't think I will ever forget what he said to me that day: are you looking for them too?"

"He was looking for mermaids too?"

"I'm not sure." Louise's smile was permanent. "He's never really told me what 'them' he was looking for. I just know that in that moment, he knew me more than anyone had ever known me."

"That's absolutely beautiful, Louise. You never got the chance to tell me that story about him," Elizabeth whispered.

"Yeah."

"I mean, what are the odds that you find someone like that?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know." Louise lightly shrugged, continuing to wade. "I just knew he was the one. I knew what I was risking by choosing him, and I knew how it would cost me, but I couldn't lose him. I knew it, and I didn't want to give him up. I knew." She emphasized. "I mean, people always say love is a complicated thing, but it's not. Sure, it can be messy, wild, explosive, and sometimes dangerous, but despite all of that, it's still laughably simple---you know who you love, and you know who you want."

"That's why you married, Tommy huh?" Elizabeth glanced at her.

"It is. My parents thought I was being reckless, but I just loved him, and I still love him, and sometimes you just have to do what you have to do because people you love are worth that much."

SPLASH!

Nickolas stopped wading and stood up suddenly shot up straight, splashes of water jumping.

"Worth going into hundreds and thousands of dollars of debt for him?" He loudly exploded on them without warning.

Elizabeth got to her feet in the water, puzzled. "Thousands of dollars of debt?"

Louise slowly stood as well. "Nicky..." she lowly muttered, gesturing with her hands if she were trying to diffuse a stick of dynamic.

"Louise has been completely cut off and dirt broke. These past few years, she's just barely been making to manage her finances. Finances her 'beloved Tommy'," he said, hatefully spitting. "---has been throwing away through loose gambling habits and criminal loans! They are over 750 thousand of dollars in debt!" He tossed his hands around, angrily fuming.

"Nickolas." Louise huffed. "I told you not to say anything!"

"How can I not? You're acting like that coward of a man Tommy didn't dig you into this hole in the first place!"

"Excuse me? Do not talk about my husband that way!" She shrieked like a banshee.

"You're being ridiculous Louise! That man has failed to support you and failed to be a good husband to you! He is supposed to protect you, and instead, all he's done is place stresses and burdens on you!"

"Enough Nickolas!" Louise shouted, her throat cracking. "Do not speak of Tommy that way! He only pulled out those loans because we needed to keep the house! He didn't know they would trick him into a faulty loan! And he stopped gambling after he realized what he had done!"

"That doesn't solve anything!"

"What is your problem, Nicky! You always have something bad to say about him! All he has ever done is try to be like a good brother to you, and all you've done is criticize and badmouth him!"

"Do not call him my brother! Those words make me sick, Louise!" He growled.

"He made a mistake, and he's paying for it through his blood, sweat, and tears! You don't think that he doesn't feel awful about everything? Every morning I wake up, he apologies to me for not being able to give me the life and comforts he thinks I deserve! And some days, when he thinks he's alone I find him crying and cursing himself; he thinks he's ruining my life by being with me!"

"Because he is ruining your life, Louise!"

BAM!

Louise slapped him hard against his face. "Don't you dare say that again, Nickolas!"