I swallowed, trying to keep it together as the definition of not-the-same stared back at me. “So, what are you studying? Or is that too non-stranger-y for you to share?”

I was grateful the music had changed to be less Ibiza-like and more relaxed and chill. I needed to hear the lilt in her voice when she talked. To listen to how her tone dipped and ebbed with every perfect, harmonious syllable that came from her luscious lips.

“I think we should stick to things that aren’t personal.” She would bite a hole in her bottom lip if she sank her teeth deeper. “If you want to keep talking to me, that is?”

I knocked back the rest of the bourbon, which should’ve been slowly appreciated, then went for the second glass. I could easily make choices that were all my own, alcohol or not. I had a high tolerance, being both Sicilian and a sailor. And it would be a shame for such a smooth pour to go to waste. “I’d very much like that.”

I paid the tab, and we went to a high-top table at the edge of the bar and spent nearly an hour talking about everything except ourselves. She probably didn’t even think I was American, given I hadn’t quite shaken my accent.

But talk about life’s greatest mysteries and the off-limits subject of politics, religion, and even whether there was an afterlife? That happened.

We were surrounded by music and people partying, and somehow, we wound up having one of the most profound, intimate, and deep conversations I’d had in my life.

The buzzing of my alarm from my phone in my pocket reminded me I had only a few hours before I needed to head to the airport. I wasn’t ready to leave her, though.

“I have a flight later, which means I have another two hours at the most to hang out.”

Her mouth rounded in a little disappointed O. “So, we don’t have much time to continue to not get to know each other.”

“Feel like walking on the beach before I leave?” I was trying damn hard to be a good guy and not ask her to spend my last two hours naked with me instead. “I promise I’m safe.”

“Considering I saw you protect that girl, I believe you’re more than just safe.” A shy smile cut across her lips, and she hopped off her seat and came to my side of the table, offering her hand.

I didn’t hesitate. I stood and took it, warmth spreading up my forearm and into my body when our fingers locked.

She looked down at her feet, turning one delicate ankle back and forth. “Walking on the sand in these shoes isn’t easy. You feel like going somewhere else?”

“And where might that be?”