The wood on the dock was so worn down that you could walk it without shoes. As your feet hit the planks, you remembered summers spent diving off the dock, floating in the water until your fingers turned pruney and your shoulders turned a golden brown. Memories that all heavily featured the boy next door. The boy you hadn’t seen for years, the boy that would now be a man. A man that would now be a stranger to you.

The sun was just starting to set as you reached the end of the dock. You sat down, dangling your legs over the edge. The sunset was so different here than in the city, more colourful, more peaceful. The years that you’d been spent away from here didn’t feel so long now that you were back. Back in this place that had shaped you.

The light breeze caressed your skin, reminding you of all the nights spent tangled up with Rafe. The way he’d touched you inspired feelings and desires in you that no man had since. It didn’t seem to matter how many years went by, your mind continued to compare every man to him, and they all came up lacking.

Footsteps sounded behind you, taking you out of your reverie. Tugging your cardigan tighter around you, you turned around. When your eyes landed on him, you couldn’t say that you were surprised. After all, when you’d walked out here, you’d been hoping he’d show up.

“Rafe” you say softly, his name slipping from your tongue in the easy way it always had. Just saying it caused a shiver to travel up your spine.

“You’re back” his brow is furrowed, like he almost doesn’t believe that you’re real. For a second he thinks you’re a mirage, a cruel trick his mind is playing on him. The longer he stares at you, taking in every feature and the way time has only seemed to make you more beautiful, the angrier he gets.

His jaw tightens, remembering the last night you’d spent together. The promises you’d made to him, and how you’d broken every single one. How you’d been here one day, and the next you were gone, like you’d never existed. He’d let you in, in a way he never had before. And all that had done was confirm to him that he was right to be standoffish. You’d broken his heart, the heart that until you, he hadn’t been certain he had.

And now you were here, and he didn’t know what he wanted to do more, kiss you and remind you that you were his, or turn around and leave you like you’d left him.