Again, he doesn’t move, and my heart beats so fast I’m sure he can see it. He stares at me, his eyes drifting to my lips. He lifts his arms just a bit, like he wants to wrap his hands around my waist and pull me to him like he’s done so many times, the movement becoming natural in such a short time. Like he did before he showed me what it’s like to be completely surrounded by him, both in and outside me. He takes in a breath, his lips parting slightly, looks me in the eyes, and then . . .

His hands fall back to his sides.

He takes a step back, cold air whooshing between us. Then another step. And another.

“I can’t do this,” Sean says. “Goodbye, Ross. I’ll never forget you.”

I stand there, stunned, surrounded by the reek of chlorine, drowning in a tsunami of feelings that I never expected when I first washed up on the beach. I don’t know how I get back to the bungalow, or when I go to sleep, or even if I go to sleep at all or just stay staring in a stupor the whole night instead. Friday goes by in a blur, same thing, and when I wake up on Saturday, I finally have the most clarity on the situation that I’ve had in a long time. I finally know how this all went wrong.

Kavya.

If she’d never brought Drop around, Sean would never have seen us together and we’d still be enjoying my last days left on land. Who knows, maybe I’d even be waking up next to him right now? Maybe he’d show me how to dance, wishing my Journey was a couple weeks longer so he could take me to his prom. He’d pull me close and we’d sway together and he’d always laugh and put me back on my feet when I stumbled.

But we don’t get to do that. I don’t get to hear Sean’s voice anymore, I don’t get to kiss him anymore; I’ll only get to replay his goodbye over and over and over. And if I have to live with that for the rest of my life, so does she. She has to know that she’s ruined everything. Which is why I end up in the parking lot of the beach club, pacing, stewing, waiting for her to get to her shift.

The longer I wait, the angrier I get, pounding each step against the pavement. I wish I’d never met Kavya. She wouldn’t have been able to interfere and use her knowledge of mer against me to ruin my Journey. When her purple PT Cruiser finally pulls up, I’m ready to let her have it.