"Oh," he replied, and nodded. It wasn't that he didn't like Cris, and all to do with the fact that Tommy was beyond rubbish at talking to people he wasn't related to. Sure, Cris was his sister's boyfriend, but they hadn't really chatted all that much yet and so he floundered with what to say.
"I, um. Yeah. I like swimming, but I've been on Pandora so much recently and I haven't been swimming since the door opened, I think, so I decided to take today off and come here," he rambled, "...uh, obviously, because I'm here. You?"
Oh, that was a dumb thing to ask a merman, Tommy... "I mean, I know you like the water far better, I just, uh. Is this a cool place to visit? I'd imagine beaches aren't the most interesting of places when you can go find underwater cave systems and coral reefs and places like that."