I felt drawn to the edge as if there were a string connecting us as he strode out into the dark water. And then he gracefully dove beneath a cresting wave and disappeared under the reflection of the emerging stars. I gasped and waited for him to surface, but when he didn’t after a minute, I wondered if I should start to worry. What was he doing? Would he be okay down there? How long could he hold his breath? Oh god, what if a shark got him!

I went back to the car and quickly fumbled into my bathing suit. It was the bikini I’d forgotten I’d left behind at his strange home. I thought I’d never wear it again, but alone with Riley, I suddenly didn’t feel as opposed to the idea. So thoughtful of him to remember to bring it back for me. There really was no one around, but I felt so wrong changing out in the open. I did my best to stay hidden behind the car door until I was done, and then I ran down the path toward the water.

“Riley?” I called. He was nowhere to be seen.

I held my breath and listened, my eyes scanning the mirror-like expanse that filled the almost circular cove, but there was no sign of him at all. The only sound was the gentle washing of the low waves on the shore. I went all the way down, but stopped at the edge of where they reached, keeping my feet dry.

“Riley?” I called again, unable to prevent a note of hysteria from rising in my voice. Oh god, I couldn’t lose him now. Not after everything! But what could I do? I gaped at the waves that moved in and out like the breathing sides of a slumbering creature. I curled up my toes as one almost reached me, as if the ocean were enacting the dream-state version of its usual sinister efforts to try to hook me by the ankle and drag me under.

But gentle waves or not, I couldn’t go in after Riley. How could I even begin to try to find him below the black water? The cove wasn’t very large, but the far side of it opened up to the vast expanse of the monster of the Atlantic. Could he have gone all the way out there so quickly? As fast as he moved, anything was possible. But why would he abandon me here?

“Riley?” I whimpered.

Part of me wanted to sink down onto the sand and weep, but I was frozen in place by all the horrible possibilities rampaging through my mind.