Marina swam back to the dock. Other boats had returned since she swam off. She spotted another one coming in that she didn't recognize so she hid under the dock, waiting and listening. After tying up at the dock, the boater chatted with someone else. Marina recognized the second voice as Adrian, the dockmaster. He was a young man and Marina had chatted with him before. He lived on a houseboat at the dock.
When the boater had left, Marina swam over to Adrian's houseboat and surfaced.
"Hey Marina. Having a fun swim?" asked Adrian.
"You have no idea" replied Marina. "I do need some help though. Can you keep a secret for me?"
"Yours wouldn't be the first secret I've kept here" he said with smile.
"Then help me up onto your boat." Marina pulled herself up as far up the ladder on the side of the boat as she could go with her arms, but her tail was of no help here. Adrian pulled her her the rest of the way onto the wide stern of the boat.
"I see what you mean about a secret. How long have you been a mermaid ?" he asked.
"Just started today. Ever since I found this medallion." Marina held it out for him to see better, but didn't take it off.
Adrian examined the medallion, trying out of politeness to keep his eyes on it and not Marina's bare chest.
"What else can I do for you?"
"I'm hungry and exhausted and I can't really go back to my motel like this."
Adrian got some towels for Marina to dry off then set about making dinner, cooking some fish he'd been been given earlier in the day by one of the local fishermen. He carried Marina inside to a bench in the houseboat's combination kitchen and dining room. Adrian got some wine to go with the fish. The two of them chatted over dinner and into the night. Adrian tried to look Marina in the eyes and not her breasts. He thought about offering her a shirt, but she seemed oblivious or indifferent to her nudity. Truthfully, Marina hadn't even thought about it until she noticed Adrian's wandering gaze. She got a slight thrill out of the way she was passively teasing him simply by being topless.
The conversation drifted Marina's experiences that day - finding the medallion, her wetsuit changing and changing her, bringing the boat in, and the thrilling experience of swimming as a mermaid. She continued to have her turquoise tail despite having dried off.
"Have you tried taking off the medallion to see if that changes you back?" asked Adrian.
Marina realized taking off the medallion hadn't occurred to her since right after she removed her wetsuit to reveal her new tail. She took the medallion in her hand and looked it over in silence for a minute. "Strange as it sounds, I'm not sure I want to..." she finally admitted.