Cam entered the cafe knowing that he was about to face his girlfriend. His very mad girlfriend. They hadn't made up since the close call that Cam had on the beach, frankly for two reasons: the first being that Carly was really scary when she was mad and the second was for her protection. As much as he hated it, the further away that he stayed from her the more protected that she was. Even if it meant that she hated him, Cam knew that this was the best for Carly. He just hoped he hadn't been too late, she had been exposed to magic before, though small, the dragon would eventually find her. They just needed to find a way to stop it before that happened.

As he entered through the doors he welcomed the breath of fresh cool air after stepping in from the sweltering heat that had plagued his town for the past few months with no remorse. But the heat outside was incomparable to the glare that Carly threw his way the second she laid eyes on Cam. The anger came off of her in waves. Cam knew that he had to make some sort of attempt to clear the air between them, despite the risks he knew that came with it. He tried to pick his way across the cafe his mind hyper-aware of the drinks and splash threats that surrounded him. But before he could successfully make it to the front counter Evie stepped away from her cashier as the boutique on the other side of the room and blocked his way.

"It's not a good idea, Cam," she warned him. Despite the fact that Evie and Carly were best friends, Evie had agreed to not tell Carly about Cam's recent developments under the condition that he wouldn't keep his girlfriend in the dark forever. She knew the fearful position that Cam was in (having to pull from her own experiences) and was able to be sympathetic for her friend.

Cam sighed and conceded by sitting down at the empty table nearest him. He picked up a menu that was left sitting on the table from the previous customers and pretended to study the drinks listed on the menu. He hardly needed to read the menu though, having been to the cafe every morning since it had opened two years ago, instead, Cam was watching Carly out of the corner of his eye. She was doing a very good job in pretending that he wasn't there, busying herself with stacking supply shelves and waiting on customers that weren't him.

It was instead David who made his way over to Cam's table to take his order, "What can I get for you?" He asked the blond cheerily.

Cam responded with a gloomy look and attitude to match, "I think I'll just wait a little longer."

David sighed and sat down next to his friend, "The easiest thing would be to tell her the truth. It's not fair for us to keep her in the dark, especially since she knows about half of us already."

Cam hung his head dejectedly. That was easy for David to say, he and Sirena had such a strong relationship, almost nothing ever came between them and they were both so calm and level-headed that it didn't matter anyway. Not like Carly and Cam, the two being the emotional, impulsive, hotheads that they were it was hard to bounce back from a disagreement like this.

But Cam was also stubborn. So he decided that he would wait a bit longer, see if his presence would show his commitment and wear her down. The minutes ticked slowly by as Cam watched customer after customer enter and leave the cafe. He didn't know how long he was sitting there before he was startled by the chair next to him being pulled out from under the table. Much to his surprise, it was Carly who occupied the seat to his right. There was a folded apron in her lap, it must have been her break.

Cam spoke first to break the silence, "Hi." It was all he could manage.

Carly took a deep breath, "Hey."

It was definitely awkward.

"About that night on the beach, I just wanted to say I was sorry. The night was supposed to be romantic and for us and I just ruined it." Cam said, finally voicing what he'd wanted to say to her for the past few weeks.

Carly laughed, though there was no humor in her voice, only disbelief. "You really don't get it, do you?" She said. "You think I'm mad about the date going wrong. But that's not it at all. I couldn't care less about a date not going as planned. I'm mad about the fact that it doesn't feel like you're being honest with me at all. You're hiding something, Cam. And if it's hard to talk about I'm sorry but you know you can tell me anything. We're in this together."

"I-I know that," Cam stammered.

"Then tell me what is going on." Carly finally demanded. Her left eyebrow arched high and she pursed her lips into a tight line.

Cam blinked, he knew that this was the time to come clean. Time to tell her everything. He even found himself opening his mouth to respond but when he did so, no sound came out. He shook his head with his eyes turned down, not being able to meet her fiery gaze. He was a coward and he knew it.

Carly scoffed in disbelief, "You can't be serious. I can't force you to confide in me but until you can fess up or come up with some sort of explanation we are through." She then abruptly forced her chair out from under the table, creating a loud screech that caused everyone in the restaurant to turn and look at them. Carly stood up with a dramatic huff and marched toward the exit.

Cam stood up too, attempting to follow her and try to talk some sense into her. He called out her name and asked her to wait. But all she angrily responded was, "Save it!" from over her shoulder and left. Cam was left standing there with everyone that was still in the cafe staring at him wondering what that big fight had been about. Some patrons offered him looks of sympathy or curiosity, some of the men had that "Ugh women." look on their faces. But none of it made Cam feel any better.

No sooner had Carly left did Evie sit down in her empty seat. "You do owe her an explanation, you know." The brunette reasoned.

Cam knew that she was right, but he protested anyways, "I know she hates me now, but it's for her own good. I'm doing this for her. She doesn't want this kind of life."

Evie let out a hollow laugh, "Did any of us?"

Cam lowered his eyes, "I did once."

"And now? What do you want?"

Cam thought for a moment. Did he really even know? He wanted to be human, he also wanted to be a merman. He wanted to keep Carly safe and unaffected as well as his family. He wanted to stop the dragon and protect his human and fishy friends. He wanted his old life back but at the same time didn't want to give up his new one.

Finally, he said, "I don't even know anymore."

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