A many days away, on a beach

 She stood with her back to the ocean, her toes slowly sinking in the sand. Her sun dyed hair danced all around her, seemingly transitioning from wavy to curly. Sometimes little wisps would stick to her cheeks and she would remove them with care as she was already feeling the pain of a little sunburn. Her mind wandered to her youth, when she waited for her dad to pick her up from summer camp. The day had been hot, too hot. It was hard to distinguish between sweat and the salty ocean that lingered in her skin still. She knew the day was ending but felt comfortably paralyzed, in a place between the ocean and the earth. Embraced in a worldly blanket. 

She smiled as the satisfaction of the lazy day rumbled through her body. Her mind was moving slowly and lazily. Her shoulders were relaxed and heavy, tanned and firm from all the early morning swims. Her hands soft from playing with the sand, making silly castles and moats. Her belly was patterned with tan lines from different swimsuits and bikinis, something she’d try to fix before leaving back home. Her legs felt longer than normal, as if her muscles had grown from her hips to the center of the earth. She felt she could run for miles or jump higher than ever in her life. She could see the definition of muscle gained from beach volleyball, beach frisbee, beach running, beach. 

She curled her toes and her feet sank a little deeper. She was happy. As the sun started to hide, the change in temperature was immediate. She could feel it in her chest, her heart beat a little slower, a little sadder. 

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I saw her standing there with a smile that started to fade with the sun. It was as if she was done with the day and told the heavens to rest, like a cosmic princess. I clumsily rose to my feet but swiftly ran to her towel in hand. After 10 years she continued to stun me with a look. I always wondered how deeply one could fall in love but every time she batted her eyes at me I kept spaghettifying myself into her abyss of love. 

“God she is beautiful” I thought repeatedly through the time warp. 

She finally moved out from her cozy sand prison. She grabbed the towel and kissed me. It tasted of ocean, of deep love, and still a bit of Coca-Cola from earlier. She laughed at my face because she knew she still had me in her wiles. Satisfied with her magic and wrapped in her towel she took my hand and we walked back to the hotel. 

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She felt his hand and the warmth was unexpectedly pleasant. She knew he loved her and it made her giddy but she kept it as a secret. A secret that ran fast through her body, electrifying things everywhere.