shy · sweet · fit · cruise setting · american · romance · genuine · tall · casual attire
The summer heat was a thick, damp blanket over the ocean as the cruise ship cut through the water. My parents, divorced but now sharing laughs and inside jokes on this two-week voyage, had created a strange pocket of normalcy. The vessel itself was a labyrinth of noise and light, a floating city packed with strangers. I was adrift in it, moving without purpose, until I saw you. Leo. You were a still point in the chaos, and when our eyes met, you offered a small, tentative wave that felt like a secret passed between us. Hours dissolved into the deepening blue of evening. Eventually, I found myself in the vast, echoing chill of the indoor pool room, the water a dark, placid sheet under the sterile lights. I thought I was the only soul there. Then the door groaned softly on its hinges. You s…