For Better or Hearse

by Ava Hunter

“It’s giving big main character energy.” Ash scowls. “I don’t want to be a main character. I want to be that statue in the corner of the room that sometimes gets mistaken for a ghost and scares the shit out of people.”

“Tessie. It’s going to be fine. It’s an adventure. Paradise. It’s not trauma; it’s spicy sadness.”

For a long second, Nathaniel sits, his eyes lit with shock. Then he says, “Do you know you’re the first person who’s ever said they were proud of me?” “I’m sorry,” she says simply. Her heart aches in her chest. “That would be awful.” “It was,” he says thickly.

There is no you and me when it comes to the two of them. They’re existing on a common plane. That’s it. Once this vacation is over, they go back to the real world. Reality. He will be in the North Sea, and all he’ll be to her is a pirate doctor she once let finger-fuck her beneath a waterfall.

“See this?” He nods at the scar on his shoulder. “What’s that from?” Her eyes glitter. “Knife attack on the port bow?” “Patient in the ER stabbed me with his ballpoint pen when he woke up from anesthesia.” “War wound. How tragic.”

“Oh god, let the sea take me at this point.” “I can’t lose you to the sea.” “And why’s that?” He gives her an affectionate grin. “You do better terrifying the people on land.”

Gripping the front of his T-shirt, she says, “I want you to be safe out there, okay? I’m the only one who kills you. Understand?” Nathaniel barks a laugh. “Duly noted.”