Page 35 of Hypnotized By Love

“Thank you.” I couldn’t believe Mason had stuck me with the check. To be honest, it didn’t seem like something he would do. He had to be around here somewhere.

Maybe he was hiding out in the bathroom, too.

I wondered if I should go looking for him.

The lights in the enclosure just beyond the balcony went on, and I shielded my eyes for a second. It was bright.

Several people went over to the windows, crowding around my table. I wondered what they were looking at and saw a couple of men, one of whom was carrying a bucket, as they walked toward the alligators.

Mason. Mason was carrying the bucket.

What was he doing?

It dawned me on that they were going to feed the alligators. There was no fence, no way for them to be safe if the alligators decided they wanted a Mason-size snack for dinner.

That fear / adrenaline / heart-in-my-mouth feeling was back.

He was going to die.

He was going to walk over to them and those alligators would sense his fear and he’d be eaten alive and I’d have to watch it happen. There would obviously be some small degree of satisfaction that karma was real, but then the rest of it would be terrible. Not just the carnage but having to tell his mom about it.

I stood up and pushed through the other people so that I could press my face against the glass, my heart constricting in my chest.

Mason and the other man came to a stop, still quite a bit away from the alligators. But I knew how fast those suckers could sprint. They were deceptively slow moving, but they could run four times faster than a human. Mason reached into the bucket, grabbed something pink looking, and threw it toward the alligators.

A bigger one caught the meat while other alligators snapped and growled. The winning alligator quickly turned and took his spoils into the water, steering clear of would-be poachers.

The other man said something to Mason, and they shook hands. To my great relief, Mason headed back to the building while the man reached into the bucket to throw hunks of meat to the patient and waiting alligators.

The other diners continued to watch the show, but I went to sit in my chair, feeling a bit wobbly. I needed a second to collect myself, and then I turned to see the moment Mason entered the room.

When he walked in, he was wearing the biggest smile. I was struck by the desire to run over and hug him, glad that he hadn’t died.

He rushed over to me and sat down in his seat. “Did you see? I fed an alligator!” His voice was full of triumph, like he’d just won a state championship.

“You did,” I said, still in shock at what I’d witnessed. I still remembered the field trip to the zoo in middle school where he’d refused to even walk into the reptile house because of the alligators, which had been behind a thick glass window.

“For the rest of my life, this is something I can say I did. I fed an alligator.”

There was this zing inside me that took me a moment to identify, but it felt a little like I was proud of him, so I had no choice but to push down that feeling until it went away. Instead I took note of the way he seemed to be trembling. “Are you okay?”

A big grin. “Were you worried about me, Sinclair?”

“You want to know if I was worried when you approached the man-eating death lizards with no sense of self-preservation?” The answer seemed obvious to me. I would have worried about anyone who had just done what he did. “Your hands are shaking,” I pointed out.

“Adrenaline,” he said. “Right now I feel like I could conquer the world.”

“Which is why I came here in the first place. So that you wouldn’t do your best gladiator impression and try to fight a beast for the crowd’s entertainment.”

He laughed and said, “There’s this rush—I feel terrified and excited and amazed that I’ve done something I’ve always wanted to do.”

“Is it out of your system?” Was it safe to leave him alone?

“Who knows?” He sat down in his seat and glanced around him. “Where’s Bridget?”

I wondered why she hadn’t said goodbye to Mason. “She got a text from her mom and had to go home to take care of her.”

“That’s too bad. I hope her mom’s doing okay. But on the other hand ... and then there were two,” he said, leaning forward.

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