When fifteen-year-old Rian Mariso’s family road trip to the East Coast turns into a summer of heartbreak and self-discovery, he never expects to be swept away -- literally -- by a storm and rescued by a beautiful merman with a sparkling silver tail shimmering beneath the waves.
Now years later, Rian is a successful but closeted insurance salesman, haunted by memories of that secret kiss he shared with the merman whose sea blue eyes he never forgot. Though his friends pressure him, Rian doesn’t have the courage to come out to his conventional parents. His life has become a sham, and the loneliness is slowly killing his dreams.
Then one night, the past resurfaces in the most unexpected way. The merman, who now calls himself Olson, shows up in the marina by Rian’s home, in human form, desperate and weak. After years of searching for Rian, Olson has made a terrible deal in exchange for his human legs. Together, Rian and Olson have four weeks to conquer the spell, but for Rian, that means risking being discovered by his family. As Rian and Olson’s connection deepens into something fierce and transformative, old wounds reopen, and time begins to run out for Olson.
Can they find a place where they both belong -- on land or at sea -- before it’s too late?
Feeling dejected, Rian stepped into the washroom and flicked on the light. He stood paralyzed for a moment.
Olson was in his clawfoot bathtub, chest deep in water, with his stunning gold and silver speckled fish tail spread over the side of the tub. “I needed water,” he said, gently.
“I, uh, can see that.” So it was real. All of it. It was real. Olson was a merman, and he was lying in his tub. “I thought you’d left.”
“You asked me to stay until morning.”
Then Rian noticed Olson’s eyes were red rimmed and swollen as though he’d been crying all night. “Are you okay?” he breathed, sitting on the closed toilet lid. “You seem pretty ... upset.”
“I didn’t know this would happen.” Olson’s voice broke and he turned his head, hiding his face inside the crease of his elbow.
“Hey, I don’t mind the tail.” Rian hesitated, but then reached out and briefly caressed Olson’s arm. “You can have it out all you like.”
Olson shot him a poignant look. “Where will I go?”
“What do you mean, where will you go? Back to the sea, right? I mean, Olson, I have a job to get to all week, and my family is expecting me tonight and I can’t leave you alone all day --”
“So you want me to stay?” Olson leaned in, his extraordinary eyes sparkling once more. “Until the next full moon?”
The next full moon. That was roughly one month from now. He could cram his appointments or take in less clients. He could say he was sick for a while or maybe take his vacation time. He’d tell his parents he wasn’t feeling well today. Buy some time to figure everything out. “Why the full moon?”
Something intense moved behind Olson’s eyes. “That’s when I have go back.”
“What, is it like a spell or something?” He didn’t like the look on Olson’s face. “You talked about a gift last night. Who gave you this gift? Did you have to trade anything for it?”
Olson gazed at him intently. “No,” he finally said.
“And you have, like, four weeks here. Is that it?”
“Yes. Until the next full moon.”
“But what happens then?”
“I’ll ... leave.”
Rian leaned in to give Olson a straight look. “Are you messing with me? Is this real or are you playing games? Come on, tell me ... where do you live? How come no one has ever discovered your kind or seen you swimming around out there?”
Olson squinted and touched his forehead. “I can’t remember.”
“That’s pretty convenient, don’t you think?”
“But I don’t know where it is anymore ... I was banished.”
“From your home?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Rian realized that he was leaning in even more, suspended on Olson’s every short sentence. “Why were you banished?”
“Because I wasn’t like them. I -- I didn’t respect our ways.”
Rian stared at the silvery scales of Olson’s tail shimmering under the water. Something in those words had touched him. Being different, that, he understood. How could he turn Olson away after the man had saved his life? Still fascinated, he grazed his fingers along the tip of Olson’s tail. It was dry and yet pleasant to the touch. “If you stay,” he finally said, “we’ll have to be very careful and when I say careful, I mean, paranoid. No one can know that you’re here. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Rian. I understand.”
Gazing at Olson’s face, tenderness thawed Rian’s heart and afraid to lose control, he quickly looked away. “Well, how long are you going to soak in this tub?”
“A little longer,” Olson said, cracking a grin.
“Okay, you do that and I’m going to make myself some coffee and a toast.” He stood and then, out of nowhere, fear gripped him again. “One month, Olson. Okay? Then you’ll have to leave.”
A dark emotion, like a black bird, fitted across Olson’s face. “Yes, I’ll be gone by the next full moon.” Then he sank into the water and pushed his tail further out of the tub, so he could submerge his head under the surface. Through the clear water, he smiled at him.
Rian looked at him for a few seconds. How unnervingly beautiful this man was and how strangely innocent he seemed. After a while, he finally stepped out and walked to the living room window. He stood watching the river with his thoughts whirling. What was he doing? Why was he agreeing to this?
It was Sunday, his parents would be expecting him for dinner, and there was a merman in his tub.
He must have been out of his head. And yet, as he smiled, tears filled his eyes. Because as insane as all this was, he’d never felt this happy in his whole miserable life.
