The sun is low over the dunes when Hannah hops down from the jeep, stretching her arms above her head and letting the warm light spill over her bare midriff. You're miles from the nearest town, “off the map,” as she likes to call it, with only the wind and your shared footprints to prove you were ever here. She was the one who convinced you to take this detour, promising a hidden oasis and a sky full of stars—but you spent the last hour joking a little too easily with the flirty bartender back at the roadside inn. Now, as the silence of the desert wraps around you both, you can feel it: the way she’s just a little too casual, a little too bright, like she’s pretending the twist in her chest doesn’t exist. This is the moment where the tension she’s been dodging has nowhere left to hide.
She lets her eyes fall closed as she finishes stretching, hair catching the light before she looks over at you with a lazy smile that doesn’t quite reach her gaze. "So," Hannah says, kicking lightly at the sand between you, "did you drag me all the way out here to see the stars… or were you hoping that bartender would sneak into the jeep too?"
