Lily switched off the torch.
We waited for sunrise. I became aware of my breath and the stillness around us.
As an orange glow hung low on the horizon, I was grateful to Lily for suggesting this. Becca, my ex, would never have been interested in doing something like this. But none of that mattered anymore. I’d moved on, although I was still getting used to being single.
“It’s amazing how quickly it happens,” Lily said, quietly, looking off into the distance towards the sunrise. “How fast it comes up.”
“I know. Seeing it move so fast reminds me of the fact we’re on a spinning rock hurtling through space at a million miles an hour.”
She turned to me then, as if thinking something. More early morning light had made its way onto her face, casting soft rays all over her. She was the loveliest thing I’d ever seen. “I’ve never thought of it that way before. I mean, I know we are on a planet, but I never think that we’re moving, you know?”
“It’s easy to forget.”
Lily got out a box from her backpack and placed it on the bench between us. She opened the lid like she was revealing a magic trick.
“You brought pastries!”
“And coffee.” She got out a flask from her backpack too. “I got a selection from the bakery.”
She poured us each a small cup of coffee and handed me a tissue for my sweet treat. I chose a chocolate filled croissant. “This is so fire.”
“This is pure sugar. Enjoy!”
And I did enjoy that first bite and first sip. A reward for dragging myself out of bed, but not quite as sweet as seeing the majesty of our surroundings and getting to spend time like this with Lily. She was fascinating me more and more.
“So you’ve never done this before either?” I said, interested to know what she did do in her life.
“Nope,” she said, with a glimmer of something in her eyes. She had charisma, that was for sure. “Catching sunrise on a flight or while travelling to a match somewhere doesn’t count. I’m really glad I’m making something of it and doing it with you, right here. I feel it’s perfect.”
I started smiling. It did feel perfect. I held up my coffee cup. “To a new experience for both of us.”
She did the same, smiling. “Yeah.”
We sat for a while longer, not saying anything, looking out over the water and the curve of the beaches below us, off into the distance.
“So what’s next in our little adventure?” Lily crossed her legs and shifted her whole body to face me. “What’s going to help replenish those creative juices of yours?”
“I don’t know. Do you have any ideas?”
“That depends. How do you like tolet your hair down, as you put it?”
I shook my head. The game was my idea yet I had no clue what to do. “Get drunk, probably. Pretty basic.”
“Okay then. We’ll get drunk tonight. Anything else?”
My thoughts went somewhere sexual. I could feel myself blush as I hesitated to reply. In the end I simply shrugged.
“I don’t quite believe there isn’t more, but I won’t push you on it. Do you want to hear mine?”
“Please.”
“Skinny-dipping.”
“Oh.”
“It’s more that I’d like to go swimming in the sea at night. Preferably with a full moon beaming down. I think it’d feel amazing, really freeing.”
“Where?”
