As they stepped out of the tunnel, Steph gasped, her eyes wide as she looked around her. The entire room was one massive glass wall. There were glowing lights inside the water, making the room glitter, and hundreds of fish swam all around, above and below her. It was as though she had been placed in an air bubble underwater, able to walk around the ocean life that surrounded her.
“This is amazing,” she breathed, taking a few more steps inside.
A bright pink fish that was at least three feet long swam past her head, and Steph watched as it blinked at her curiously before paddling onward. She laughed in delight.
“You weren’t kidding! This is the biggest sanctuary I’ve ever seen. How can you make sure the fish don’t kill each other, though, being in such a wide open space?”
Mehdi shrugged. “I’m sure the keepers have their ways. Our university has an exceptional marine biology program, for obvious reasons, so they are very up to date on the proper treatment and care of these creatures.”
A large, shark-looking fish swam beneath Steph’s feet, and she stepped aside and kneeled down to get a better look at it.
“In all my life, I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said.
Mehdi stood beside her, quietly watching the fish. The silence of the room, with the glowing lights and magnificent animals, was one of the most soothing things Steph could imagine, and she found herself calming down from her meltdown.
She gazed up for some time, watching the fish as they swam gracefully through the water, some of them working symbiotically, others ignoring everything but their own search for food. Steph approached the glass wall and ran her fingers along the cold, smooth surface.
“Isn’t it funny how much like the fish we are? Here I am getting ready to be put on display tomorrow, primped and primed to become someone’s wife. I’m trapped, just like these fish. It may be a decent prison, but it’s a cage nonetheless.”
A wave of sadness washed over Steph at the thought. She felt a warmth next to her and turned to see Mehdi staring up into the tank, his expression thoughtful.
“I think I know how you feel, at least to some extent. While my life is quite pleasant on many levels, the degree of display can be simply overwhelming sometimes.”
“How are you on display?” Steph asked, curious about this handsome stranger.
Mehdi’s gaze darted down to her before he looked back up. “My job makes it difficult for me to be the person I would like to be. It requires much of my time, and my behavior is always under scrutiny. It is not unlike how it is for these creatures in here. While they are beautiful, and they are safe, they will never get to see all the world has to offer. There are so many experiences I will never know because of what I do for a living.”
Steph waited for him to elaborate on that. He was being wildly vague. When he didn’t, she decided to let it go. There was no reason to pry into Mehdi’s private life if he didn’t feel like sharing it with her. After all, it was very unlikely she would ever see him again. Instead, she let her mind wander to a happier place, where there were tropical fish dancing all around her in the peaceful silence of an aquarium at night.
“Thanks for this,” she said.
“For what?” Mehdi asked, his eyebrows raised in question.
“For being kind enough to cheer up a sad woman when she’s down. I mean, I’m sure my parents are going to kill me by the time I get home, but it kind of feels worth it when we’re insulated like this.”
“You’re a citizen of El Farah, right?”
Steph nodded. “I am.”
“Then consider this my civic duty. It falls to me to make sure you know that no matter what happens tomorrow, you’re going to be all right. Everything is going to turn out fine. It always does.”
Steph looked up into his eyes, then, and realized that they weren’t actually brown. Little specks of emerald green dotted the dark landscape of his pupils, giving them an ethereal quality she had never seen before. For a moment, she found herself wishing Mehdi was the man she would meet the next day, but she dismissed that thought as soon as it arrived.