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She leans over and kisses my lips "I’m not interested in hi of lance and the honesty I see in her expression puts a s exactly what she intended Trying to push sex out ofabout you that I don’t know"

She picks up her phone, looks at the screen, then drops it in her bag before pulling her sunglasses down from atop her head and back onto her face When I hop on the freeway she presses the button for theand it slides down She inhales as the wind blows her mass of red curls all around her face Then she turns back toon the back of your bike And I love the Santa Anas"

The sun is shining today and the winds have died down, but they’re still stronger than on a typical day She points out theto the s smoke in the distance "But I hate the destruction they cause"

"You know surfers think of them as heaven and hell mixed in one?"

She cocks her head in my direction "Do explain"

"When they hit the surf head-on they hold up falling lips and hollow out pitching waves,for an unbelievable ride They turn reef breaks into e awesome But at the sa swell and can actually flatten an otherwise s sucks"

She s, don’t you?"

"Yeah, I do I hated living in LA and not on the beach It reallyti else I don’t know about you"

My fingers caress circles on her leg and she glances down "I used to think I had superpowers"

A huge grin crosses my face "Oh yeah?"

"It’s stupid"

"You tell me and then I’ll tell you how I used think I was Aquaman"

"Aquaman?" she squeaks

I shake my head and shift my eyes her way "You first"

She inhales a deep breath "Don’t laugh"

"I can’t promise that But, S’belle"

Her eyes cut to mine

"You" I stop, not sure of what I want to say or how to say it "You knohat, never h"

She narrows her eyes at"I said I promise"

She juht be ticklish"

She grabs rin and pull her hand to my lips to kiss it

"Okay, so when I was little I noticed that I could s I knew didn’t ive

"As I got older it worked even better One ti I honestly didn’t knoas speeding The police officer asked if I kne fast I was going I answered that I was going sixty He stared at o any faster than that unless I really ja too slow’ He looked atand explained I had crossed into a residential area and threeher hand on top of her leg, I roll ht you were cute"

"No, really it was hing and drop her hand to cover hter "Yes, I used to believe ue"

My mind wanders back to sex at that comment, but she doesn’t seem to notice and continues with her anecdotes about her silver tongue When it’s my turn I tell her ills and breathe underwater if I stayed in the ocean long enough She laughs just as hard at lorious Pacific and the serene Catalina Island on the horizon are the only view froed copper-shingled roof engineered by a master shipbuilder to weather the worst of stor out over the ocean, looks like a physical paean to light, sky, and sea I canon the coastline

He’d toldcould have prepared me for how beautiful it is in person I look over at him "This is supernice"

"Thanks I haven’t lived here that long, but it really feels like ho onto the shore

"Where are you going?" he yells

"To see the beach up close"

He chases after me around the side of the house and down to the back

I kick my shoes off as soon as I hit the sand and look out into the calrabs my hips "You’re crazy"

"No, I just love the beach My dad used to take us all the time ere kids He’d put the Beach Boys on in the car and sing along and eventually we all joined in"