The months of summer were consumed
At a rocky outcropping perched on a rippled sandbank
Microplastics and debris littered the beach with each tidal change
Bottles with messages unread collecting unnoticed 

Their first meeting was dreamlike
A hallucination of myth and manhood
He was drunk on youth and rumplemintz
She was moonbathing and softly singing 
They both questioned the encounter later the next day
A dryness in each of their mouths 

But one long night of laughter, salty kisses and touching tongues 
Turned into weeks 
She learned a lot about him and he pretended to listen   
He was fascinated with her uncovered breasts
The light sea foam green of her areolas and the darker glitter of the surrounding nipples 
Her scales were cold to the touch but they sent tingles of electricity through him and he could tell she liked it

On the last night of a full moon
A charge of possessiveness burrowed into him as he waded to the meeting place
He needed release and was tired of waiting 

She arrived with bright smiles that didn’t change as he grabbed her hair
Slicing thin lines across his palm on the shells woven into her flowing locks 
His kisses desperate 
She sang that she was ready
Pressing herself to him as never before 
His extended ego engorged like a sea cucumber
Hands up to his chest she arched her back
A moan like a wind chime escaping her throat 
Shifting away 
Still grinning 
Eyes focused on a glimmering collection of fingernail sized orbs
Neatly deposited into a dip in the rock
Glowing faintly and vibrating 

The disgust carved into his face surprised her
An expression of death like those she had seen on the drowned 
Confusing and disconcerting her

He grabbed his blood rich organ
Lifted his bare foot and brought it down firmly on the spheres between them 
Malice shooting out of him like the leaks in a rusted vessel 
The wet squelch like crushing olives in fig preserves 
Her shrieks and screams drove the seabirds skyward and the crabs back to their holes
As she collapsed into the water
Limp
Her heart imploding and body floating back out to the great deep
To be eaten by the sea she loved so well