I was white-knuckling the steering wheel, staring straight ahead at the line of palm trees blocking my view of the water, when a rap on my window startled me out of it.
“Oh, fuck,” I breathed.
The woman outside was tall, with long, caramel-colored hair pulled into a messy braid that rested over one shoulder. Her skin was dusted with freckles, visible even in the early light, and she wore cutoff shorts and a loose tank, like she was ready to wade straight into the water if she had to.
I rolled the window down and gave her what was probably the world’s most awkward wave.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just saw the car parked and figured it was you. Jessie, right? I’m Sadie.”
“Hi, yeah. Hi.” I swallowed. “I recognize you from the ad thing. The email. With the pictures and the… you know.” My fingers twirled in the air, like that cleared up anything.Great, man. You’re really killing it right now.
She smiled anyway. “Would you mind waiting for about ten minutes? The other participant is already here, and I’m almost done setting up.”
“Sure,” I said too fast. “Yeah. No. That’s fine. I mean, waiting is good. I can do that.”
“Great.” Her smile widened. “Then we’ll go straight into the reveal.”
“The reveal?” My voice jumped about three octaves. “Like… abigreveal? Or just, like, you know… ‘Hi, here is this guy.’ Normal stuff.”
She laughed softly and rested her hand against the door. “Normal stuff. Promise it’s not as scary as it sounds. And if you ever feel uncomfortable, just nod in my direction, and I’ll stop everything.”
That helped. A little.
With one last reassuring smile, she headed back toward the beach.
My forehead dropped on the steering wheel. “Fuck…”
Ten minutes later, as the sun finally started to peek over the horizon, my bare feet sank into the sand as I walked onto the beach, my board tucked under one arm, the top half of my wetsuit hanging loose at my hips. My heart was still lodged firmly in my throat. Even more so when I spotted another board propped upright near the shoreline—someone already standing behind it, hidden completelyfrom my view.
Sadie stopped me with a gentle press of her hand to my elbow. “So here’s what we’re doing. We’ll get your board set in front of his and take a couple of shots before you see each other. Then I’ll ask you to move them to the side, and we’ll go from there.”
I stared at her blankly.
“I’ll walk you through it,” she added. “But most of it is just you being yourself. If I suggest contact or a pose, just check in with each other first, make sure you’re both good, and then we’ll take the picture.”
“Okay,” I said, a little breathy.
Her body turned, already taking a step.
“Is he, like—”
She stopped, waiting patiently.
My gaze flicked toward the stretch of beach and then back to her. “Like… relaxed?”
“He’s a little nervous too,” she said with a soft laugh. “And that’s perfectly normal.”
My free hand brushed over my cropped hair, back and forth, like that might somehow calm me down. I nodded to where he was waiting, and we started walking again.
Sadie talked me through where to put my board and where to stand, the shutter of her camera clicking as she took a few shots of my back before moving around us.
It was incredibly nerve-racking, knowing there was a guy right in front of me. A real person. A real, breathing man who had signed up for this too, who was about to take a good look at me and decide… something.
I had checked all the boxes on the form. Yes to touching. Yes to closeness. Yes to whatever this was supposed to be. I just hoped we found each other attractive, because if we didn’t, this was going to be awkward as fuck and somehow still intimate, which felt like the worst possible combination.
Sadie planted her feet at the edge of the water, waves brushing her ankles as she adjusted the camera so it framed both of us. “We’re ready. Count of three, okay?”
I nodded, hands sliding to the edge of my board. I was supposed to move it left. I repeated that in my head like a mantra.Left. Left. Left. Don’t fuck it up.
