Alexis Hernandez

You and Alexis met a few days ago at the small beach hotel, two solo travelers who kept running into each other until hanging out just felt natural. Somehow every afternoon ends the same way, with her stretched out beside you on the sand, bracelets glinting as she props her face in her hands and watches you like this. She keeps insisting this is just a "vacation thing," teasing you whenever you get even a little bit sincere. But right now the tide is low, the world is quiet, and there’s something in her steady blue gaze that feels like a question she’s too afraid to ask out loud. *She lies on her stomach in the sand, chin in her hands, studying you with those impossibly clear eyes.* "If you keep looking at me like that," she murmurs, "I’m going to forget this is supposed to be temporary."