I felt the rhythmic vibrations of the skateboards speeding along past me on the bench as I tapped the footpath with my bare feet. I opened my mouth slightly, and the dazing summer air seemed to enter my mouth greedily, almost suffocating me. I loved the weather, as stifling as it was, just like this. The hum of insects, and way summer moods were infectious made me feel content.

I watched two skateboarders that appeared to be suspended in the air as they pulled their tricks. Another boarder sitting next to the skate ramp pulled of his t-shirt, damp with sweat, and placed it beside him in a humorously careful way, and I couldn’t help but to let my gaze linger on his tanned, lean body.

Another boarder was coming up the path, swinging a bag full of groceries precariously. He zoomed past me uncontrollably, and for a moment wobbled dangerously. I stared with bated breath, and finally he toppled over with a high pitched cry, and oranges and cans of tuna tumbled out of the bag.

He lay on his back and groaned quietly, and I approached him carefully. He looked up at me with a small smile playing on his face, and I gasped.

“You’re a girl,”

“Indeed I do own a female sex organ!… Surprised, are we?”

“I am so sorry,” I wailed, blushing deeply. Fuck, I was a moron. How could I have been so blind? She had taken off her baseball cap now, and was sitting up gingerly. Her short sun kissed hair gleamed. I was looking at her loose grey t-shirt. It said don’t forget love on it in big white letters.

“Eh, it happens a lot. I dunno… I just feel better in loose clothes and short hair. Hey, I skate like a boy; I ought to look like one right?”

She laughed loudly, and it struck me how beautifully natural it sounded. All I could manage was a smile. She lazily began to pick up her groceries and playfully kicked the squashed oranges onto the grass. I silently helped her. She started humming a lighthearted tune, and I couldn’t help but grin. It was endearing.

“I’m Sam,” she said breezily in the middle of our task.

“Roland,” I replied. Suddenly I felt awkward and too tall crouching down next to her, helping her pick up groceries. I kept fumbling.

When we were finished, we both sat on the bench in a comfortable silence. Sams groceries had mostly recovered, except for a few dented cans of tuna and oranges squashed beyond recognition. She kept giving me sideway glances that she probably hoped I didn’t notice. I wondered why I felt so comfortable with this stranger, who literally knew nothing about me.

I found Sam disarmingly easy to talk to. She seemed to have a natural charm about her, as if every time her attention was turned to me I was the only person in the world, and there was no one she would rather talk to. I found her small quirks- the way she stretched her arms to the sky occasionally as if she wanted to catch fragments of it in her fingertips, and a number of other things- utterly charming.

There was a fleeting pause in our conversation and I stopped to inspect her face. It seemed to glow with every promise of Summer, and I was mesmerized for a moment. She even smelled faintly of mangoes. She is Summer, I kept thinking. Sam returned my captivated gaze with a playful wink.

“So,” She said, with no particular direction.

“So,” I mirrored.

She drew her legs up and rested her chin on her knees. The sun had begun to set, and I jumped. Had I really been talking to Sam for this long? I began to talk, but she stopped me.

“Yeah, I know. I was just about to tell you I should be going too,”

“How did you-“

“Female intuition!”

I absentmindedly shooed a mosquito away from me. After exchanging numbers, we both got up from the bench.

“Um,” We said at the same time.

She ran a hand through her short wavy hair. She wanted to say something, and for the first time she was at a loss for words. Her naturally flushed cheeks were becoming pinker as she blushed and looked at me from under her eyelashes. I became increasingly interested in my shoes as she twirled a lock brushing against her cheek absent mindedly around her finger.

“Well, goodbye then, Roland,”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Bye. Sam,”

She gave me another one of her engaging grins, let her skateboard drop to the ground, and kicked off strongly, momentarily leaving my life as quickly as she had entered it. For some reason, I wanted desperately to call out to her, to talk to her one last time, but she was already simply another stranger in the distance. A bird cawed like it was lost, and I began the walk home in summers embracing heat.