We make it to the sidewalk, catching our breath, me smiling at his cuteness while stroking his thumb. Oh shit, I am stroking his thumb. It just felt nice to be linked to someone again, fingers laced like they always were with Dominic, but this is serial-killer-level creepy.

I pray to the universe Ross didn’t notice and let his hand fall from mine. “You okay?”

He just stares, his mouth falling open and closed over and over, looking like a fish. He breathes, “Yeah, I just . . .” Ross looks over his shoulder at the speeding cars, then wipes his hand over his face, gaining his composure. Finally, he turns back around and points to my tank top. “I guess your name really fits. You just guarded my life back there.”

“My name?” I look down to see LIFEGUARD in red, running across my tank over a white cross. “Oh, no, that’s my job. My name’s Sean. They don’t have lifeguards in Indiana, saving the lives of swimmers in distress? Isn’t there a Great Lake there? Or, like, any pool?”

No traffic, no lifeguards. I mean, even if he’d never seen these things before in real life, he’d have to have seen them in a movie.

“Oh, right, lifeguards,” Ross finally says. “My family calls them something different. Uh, safety swimmers.”

“Safety swimmers?” I can’t help the laugh that bursts out. When something is really funny, this haw just jumps from my throat. Kavya calls it my Donkey Laugh. “Sounds like something from an after-school special.”

Ross furrows his brow like he has absolutely no idea what I’m talking about. “Sure. I’m a pretty good swimmer, though, so I never really had to use their services or anything.”

“We should go for a swim together sometime,” I say. “Or bodysurfing. Have you been? Zuma is a great beach for beginners.”

Ross gets that floundering fish look again. He’s clearly trying to think of a way to get rid of me. I mean, I did find him on a beach only minutes ago and now I’m asking to go swimming together. He probably thinks I’m trying to ask him out and he’s not into it and I’ve just majorly come across as clingy.

“You know, I should get going,” I say. “I’ll grab lunch and go. Have an enjoyable day.”

Have an enjoyable day? Kavya calls this my Upset Accountant, where I sound like a very bland accountant when I’m flustered.

I walk as fast as I can to the back of the Beach Burritos line snaking around the bright yellow cinder-block building. I’ve got my head down, never looking back so Ross knows I’m not some desperate loser who asked him on a bodysurfing date. But as I hustle away, I hear, “Hey, slow down, would you?”

I glance behind me to see Ross following close.