The Outing
Her breath smelled of fresh fish, he noticed, pausing to kiss. She immediately noticed his hesitation, took distance from him to get a better look in his eyes.
"What's wrong", she asked quietly with an appraising look at him.
"You", he hesitated, continuing after a pausing while," you smell like fish. "
She blushed and lowered her eyes, seemingly feeling very interested in her toes out of sudden. Then, when she raised her head and looked at him, she said, a bit hesitantly, "Me ... I should have told you long ago."
"What?" he managed eyeing her with the determination of a man bracing himself for the worst. Unconsciously he wanted to reach up an errant strand from her face, as he did it so often before, but this time he stopped in the midst of this gesture.
"Well ... I ...", she faltered, "I'm a mermaid. In water my legs turn into a fishtail."
He deeply swallowed air and managed to clear his throat and suddenly spat out in surpise: "You are ... WHAT?"