Waves folded onto the sand in lazy ribbons, retreating just as slowly, leaving behind a sheen that caught the light like scattered glass.

You’d only been in town a few hours. The moving boxes were still stacked in your room, the furniture unfamiliar, the walls bare. But the ocean had called—an insistent pull you couldn’t ignore.

And now here you were. Shoes in one hand, toes sinking into warm sand. The beach was mostly empty, save for two figures near the waterline.

On you.

The waves kept their rhythm behind them, endless and patient.