“If you ever want to cook a steak for someone, I’m here for you,” Luke said solemnly.

Julia rolled her eyes and pushed him, forcing him to dodge the waves so his shoes didn’t get wet. She knew he was playing around, trying to lighten the mood, but the reality was, the idea appealed to her. She liked the thought of doing something for him. Maybe not cook a steak exactly, but something nice.

“I’ll think about it,” she finally said, regretting the words almost immediately. It was a foolish idea. She barely knew him. It’s not like she could invite him over to her place for a dinner date.

Could she? It was only Tuesday, and yet it already felt like so much had happened between them. At this rate, what would things be like by the time she left on Sunday?

Julia pulled back from that line of thinking. It was just five more days. Things would be the same as they were now. Maybe she’d know him slightly better—assuming of course that anything about the person she was interacting with was the real him, and she had to imagine it was, at least a little bit. She was pretending to be someone else, and yet, aside from hiding the fact that she was the reviewer, pretty much everything she said and did was just her being herself. Especially around Luke. When they were together, she forgot all about her role as a reviewer. She was just a girl …

“You mentioned your dad wasn’t around a lot when you were growing up.” Luke paused, as if testing the temperature of this conversation before wading all the way in. “Were your parents divorced?”

“No, they’re still married.” Julia shook her head. “Dad’s work took him all over the place. As a family, we moved a lot, but not nearly as much as he got bounced around. It was like they would occasionally relocate us to a different hive, and he buzzed in and out.” She scrunched her toes, watching the patterns she made in the sand disappear with the tide.

Rather like her parents’ marriage. They’d been together for decades but felt nothing for each other beyond a pleasant, tolerant regard. Julia stared ahead, taking in the miles of shoreline stretching before her. No matter how far she walked or for how long, eventually the waves would sweep in and smooth things over. Her footsteps would be erased. Forgotten.

Filled with an aching sadness, she wondered, as she often had before, whether her parents had ever felt something deeper for each other. She wanted to believe they’d started their journey together in love, but that somehow made it worse, knowing feelings that had once been there were gone, washed away over time. “They’re still together, but I’m not sure if they’re happy.” She exhaled. “They’re not unhappy, just not … happy.”