The Summer I fell in Love with a Crocodile.

I couldn’t have been more exhausted if I tried after arriving in Miami. The flight from Philadelphia airport alone was enough to take a lot out of me, but the Uber ride, checking in at the hotel, and hauling my luggage, coupled up with the fact that it was ninety-eight degrees with seventy percent humidity according to the weather app on my phone just made it worse.  

Thankfully I got through all that, so the worst should be behind me. I thought. Now I can just focus on why I was here in the first place: to meet with a client and focus on sealing a deal. My supervisor, Rosemary, had told me in private that if I could get this fifteen-million-dollar deal done, then I would.... how did she say it? “most certainly have a future with the company”. She didn’t exactly spell it out, legally she can’t, but I’m definitely taking that to mean there’s a promotion in my future.  

So, there I was in a beautiful hotel suite right on the beach in Miami, Florida. I took out a few things from my suitcase, looking for my swim trunks. I couldn’t wait to hit the beach. The beach was basically the hotel’s ‘backyard’. I put on my trunks and some sunblock, grabbed my beach towel, and a copy of “Great Expectations by Charles Dickens”. I looked at the clock, six-thirty pm. Not bad, I can still enjoy the rest of the sunlight and unwind before meeting the client tomorrow.  

I went to the beach and was surprised to see it wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be. There were some teenagers playing volleyball, some women laying in beach chairs, a couple of small families and....an anthropomorphic crocodile...? Wait, really? Were my eyes deceiving me? I had seen Anthros before, but they were always mammals not reptiles. I supposed it made sense that reptilian anthros would live in the south as it’s probably too cold for them in winter in New Jersey, where I’m from, but I just wasn’t expecting to see one here. 

He was sitting on a beach towel by himself looking out over the ocean wearing a pair of pink short trunks with Hawaiian flowers on them. I had to admit he looked kind of.... dare I say it... cute. So, what if he had the head, tail and scales of a crocodile, he was still human...enough. It was definitely the large bulging muscles that was doing it for me. Curiosity got the better of me and I couldn’t help but walk over to him. 

“Uh....hey.” I said somewhat timidly. 

“I’m not leaving.” he spoke in a deep drawl that could be both threatening and soothing. 

“Oh, no I wasn’t going to ask you that.” I finally understood why the beach was so empty a lot of people probably got up and left when they saw him coming. “I just got here, I saw you sitting by yourself and I wondered if you could use some company.” 

He turned his head to look at me and sized me up. He tilted his head to try to see what book I was holding. I showed it to him. “Great Expectations.” I spoke. 

The Anthro-croc smiled and nodded his head. I laid my towel beside his and sat down on it so that I was facing him with my back to the ocean.  

“I’m Dan, by the way.” The Anthro-croc said. 

“James.” I replied. 

“That’s a really good book.” 

“Let’s just say I know what it’s like to be discriminated against.” 

“...and not being able to be with someone because of something trivial.” he returned. “So, what brings you so far down south?” 

“How’d you...?” 

“Your accent. I’m guessing.... New England?” 

“Close, I’m from New Jersey.” 

“I’m from Tennessee.” 

That explains the drawl. I thought. 

Out of nowhere a volleyball came and hit Dan in the side of the head and landed in my lap. We both looked in the direction it came from. Two of the teenagers, a boy and presumably his girlfriend, were standing there. The boy was laughing while the girl was standing behind him. 

“Oh, sorry, sorry that was an accident.” 

“Yeah, I’ll bet it was.” Dan said getting to his feet and grabbing the ball. 

“No, don’t.” I cautioned getting to my feet too. “Stop, stop.” 

I gently took the ball from Dan. 

“What are you hanging around that thing for?” the boy scowled. 

A small crowd started to gather around us some of them were holding up their smartphones.  

“That’s none of your business and he’s not a ‘thing’. We weren’t bothering you now leave us alone.” 

“A fag and a freak, that’s what bothers me.” 

“Well, maybe one day when you hit puberty, you’ll get over that insecurity.” Dan shot back. 

The teen boy glared and crossed his arms. He looked to be an older teen maybe around eighteen or nineteen years old. So, Dan accusing him of not yet having hit puberty definitely pissed him off.  

“Okay, okay, stop. You’re right. Okay? It was wrong for Billy to throw that ball at you. He’s really sorry he did that.” -No, I’m not - “Can we just have our ball back and just forget this happened?” His girlfriend intervened she was clearly uncomfortable. 

I lightly tossed her the ball and they both went back to their game arguing with each other. 

Dan sat back down and I could tell he was trying to relax again, but his mood was ruined. I knelt behind him, put my arms around him and kissed his neck. 

“You’d think I’d be used to that by now.” I could tell from his tone that he was somewhat embarrassed but I couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed because of what happened or how he handled it.  

“You shouldn’t have to get used to it; neither of us should.” 

“You don’t have to stay here just because you feel sorry for me.” 

“I’m not. I’m still here because I still want to be.” 

He turned his head to look at me and when he saw that I was serious, he smiled and opened up his arm. I ducked under it and crawled around him and sat on his lap. I rested my head on his shoulder and her wrapped his arms around me. We just sat there, not really saying much of anything. I felt safe and secure in his arms and I knew that this was love. Real love.  

When the sky started darkening and everyone else seemed to be leaving, we decided to get going to. We decided that we both wanted to stay together for the night. So, we decided to go back to our suites, as we were both staying in the same hotel, and meet up for dinner in the hotel dining room. 

As we talked over dinner, we discovered we had quite a bit in common. Not only did we both love classic literature, but also classic movies. We had a great dinner consisting of Calamary, Veal Parm and a light cheesecake for dessert. When I made a comment that I’d rather have HIM for dessert he agreed and invited me up to his hotel suite. As soon as the door to his suite closed, I threw my arms around him and kissed him. He threw me down on the bed. 

........................................................................................................................................ 

The next morning, I woke up to my phone going off, but it wasn’t my alarm clock. It took me a minute to get my arms and legs moving again as I was stiff. I started grabbing for my phone on the nightstand but just missed the call by the time I got to it. I looked at the caller ID and it said “Rosemary - work”. 

I cursed under my breath and promptly called her back. “My boss” I mouthed to Dan and he nodded that he understood to be quiet. 

“Rosemary?” 

“Where have you been?” her voice sounded angry. 

“I just woke up. Why, what time is it?” I was still half asleep. 

“It’s not about what time it is, it’s about what you were doing yesterday.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“James, you’re going viral.” 

“Viral? What do you mean?” 

“I’m sending you a link to the video. It’s all over social media.” 

She sent me a link to a youtube video showing me and Dan being harassed by the volleyball teenagers. “A fag and a freak that’s what’s bothering me.” the boy was saying. I looked at the comment section and nearly everyone was calling him homophobic but others were condemning me and Dan saying we started it and that we were “obviously harassing him for no reason” and that we ‘clearly stole their ball’. 

“That guy started with us. We were just laying on the beach not bothering anyone and the boy in the video threw the ball at us on purpose. You can even hear the girl there say....” 

“That’s not the important part, what I would like to know is why you are getting personal with our client.” 

“...our client?” 

“Yes, that Anthro-croc you’re with in the video is the client you’re supposed to be making the deal with.” 

I completely froze. “I swear I didn’t know that. We just met on the beach and just kinda took to each other.” 

“Please tell me you didn’t sleep with him last night.” Rosemary sounded defeated. 

“I’m with him right now.” 

“If you want to secure your future with our company then you better figure out a way out of this mess you’ve created.” 

“I didn’t create this mess. It just-” click “...happened.” 

“Are you in trouble for something?” Dan asked. 

“I think we might be in trouble. Did you know that I was the Agent you were supposed to be meeting with this morning?” 

“What?” Apparently, not.  

“My boss just told me that our little encounter with the boy last night went viral and she told me that you’re the client that I’m supposed to be meeting with this morning.” 

Dan’s eyes went wide. “You mean you’re ‘Jim Allen’?”  

“...and you’re ‘Daniel Turner’.” 

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before.... 

We both burst out laughing. 

The absurdity of the situation including the odds that of all the people I could have hooked up with last night he turns out to be client I was supposed to be making a business deal with. It’s not like Rosemary had told me that the client was an Anthro-croc. So, how was I supposed to know? 

We met up for breakfast where we made the deal that our employers sent us there for. After which, we exchanged social medias and agreed to continue seeing each other for the duration of our stay.  

While Rosemary was happy that I made the deal like she asked, she wasn’t too happy with how I went about it. Still, she was willing to let me keep my job, so it wasn’t a total failure. She also wasn’t too happy with my remark about ‘forming a good relationship with the client’, but she had to admit the odds of that situation happening once were unheard of. 

I flew back to Philadelphia Airport and got into my car and drove back to New Jersey with more than just a new career deal. I also brought back with me an experience I will never forget. 

The End.