A Very Fishy Love Story

1

Oliver Fin strolled through Wal-Mart without any particular purpose, thinking hard.
“Okay, buddy, come on, it won’t be hard… Just ask her. Asking does not require any special abilities!”
But the problem was, he needed these particular abilities – bravery, courage, valor, whatever. He really needed them badly, indeed. Asking a beautiful girl if she would spend one (just one!) evening with him seemed somewhat impossible. And the more he thought about that, the more he hated himself and his cowardice.
Jennifer Bass was an outstanding girl. (At least, that is what he thought, rambling down the cat food aisle and almost bumping into a nice little old lady who with a most serious and skeptic face was thoroughly examining a pack of kitty litter, grumbling something about artificial ingredients.)
Jennifer that he remembered had brilliant blond hair and her magnificent blue eyes usually shone with delight like the sun’s rays playing on the water surface. Even if they were filled with sorrow they reminded him of a wistful spring rain splashing ruefully. Sometimes he felt like her eyes weren’t eyes at all, but two deep oceans in which he drowned every time he glanced into them…
“Hey, Oliver! Wassup?” he heard as if from somewhere in another universe.
With this unexpected greeting he was violently ripped out of his own memories to this unfair world. And then he just couldn’t believe his eyes: there was… Jennifer in person, standing in the fish-food aisle, getting some… well, fish food.
“Oh… Um, hi!” he answered gazing at her with his mouth open. Today Jennifer’s earrings had emerald-like rhinestones in them that matched wonderfully with her grassy blouse and a woven greenish skirt.
“Are you OK, buddy?” she asked him nervously with her charming alert aqua-colored eyes that resembled restless ocean waves before a storm.
He was so astonished, the girl thought he was about to faint. Indeed, Oliver nearly forgot how to breathe. “She is… gorgeous!” he thought. And then, as it often happens after a shock, his mind was suddenly filled with determination.
“Err, Jay?” he asked.
“Yeah?” She flapped her eyelashes, looking like a marvelous tropical butterfly. Or rather – considering the pattern of her clothes – a flying fish.
“Whatarudointenayt?” he muttered.
She blinked “Sorry?” and flapped her lashes again.
Oliver thought that he was indeed going to faint soon.
“I just asked, what you were doing tonight? Maybe we could…”
“Oh, Ollie! I am so sorry. I have to feed my fish.”
The whole idea seemed hopeless again.
“I’m sure we’ll meet later. I promise,” the girl whispered and sped away.
Oliver sighed. This relationship was somewhat fishy.

2

During the following week he occasionally bumped into the girl, but when he started mumbling something like, “What do you think about us goi– ”, or, “And how about today eve–”, and even, “Jennifer, I have to tell you someth–” he was interrupted by a brand-new, unpredictable excuse; “Sorry, I’m almost late for biology, we’re studying fish today, you know”, or “Oh, I have to clean my fish tank.” But when he met her at the State Fair, she was playing that simple game of throwing a ping-pong ball into a small bowl of water containing a beautiful goldfish. To win both the fish and the orb the player had to slam-dunk the ball into the tank. Jennifer apparently had a delightful mood that day since almost everything she was wearing was orange. Everything, except her golden sunglasses that glittered in a warm September sunlight like a pot-o-gold at the end of a rainbow. The metamorphosis alas, did not include her noticing Oliver. As usual, she paid no attention whatsoever to his appearance.
That is when Oliver’s patience snapped. He turned his back to her and moved rapidly towards the exit. But she was so carried away by the game she didn’t even notice him.

3

“I need something… extraordinary!” Oliver thought, fumbling through glittering sheets of metal foil. “I need her to notice me.”
There was less than a week left before Halloween.

4

Poor Oliver couldn’t get out of his car. His costume was too big. He was struggling and pushing, but it still felt as if an inflated air bag was pressing on him. Finally, feeling stupid like an enormous fish burger, he managed to squeeze himself out.

… The party had just begun. Drinking his lemonade in nervous gulps, Oliver scanned people around him. But he couldn’t find Jennifer. The problem was, he couldn’t see her at all. But then something caught his eye. Unbelievably, it made him forget all about the girl he loved to the bottom of his heart. This something made him absolutely frenzied. His insides were gurgling with an enormous fury. He felt it as his face reddened with anger like a boiled lobster.
Somebody was… wearing an identical costume. Not that he was so concerned about the latest Halloween trends, no. He recalled the enormous effort he made sewing this costume on his own trying to make the girl of his dreams pay some attention to him. His outfit was actually of a huge goldfish.
And then… he couldn’t believe his eyes, as the person in the other goldfish costume yanked off her mask… Jennifer! Oliver’s heart leaped, as she rushed across the room with a strange, koi... coy, and yet at the same time, blazing look.
She flung her arms around him… and did something he had never even dreamed of. She kissed him hard on his own flaming lips and time literally stopped for him.
Oliver had never experienced anything like that before. His whole body was on fire; he couldn’t breathe. Because he was again drowning in those magnificent ocean-blue eyes full of overflowing love. He couldn’t think of anything else except Jennifer, her eyes, her lips and their first kiss that was, he had to admit, somewhat… fishy.

THE END