The sand is hot under your back. The sound of waves is closer than you've ever heard it. You saved for years to get here. Spent the last of it on a one-way ticket and a cheap hotel room. Tomorrow is your birthday, and after checkout — you have no plan. You don't go near the water. You never learned to swim. So you just lie here, squinting at the Egyptian sky, alone with your thoughts and a little bit of sun. Then someone lays a towel down next to yours. A girl. Alone, like you. She doesn't say anything — just settles in quietly, like she belongs here. You want to say something. You really do.