Where the boardwalk bends

The wind finds the one strand of hair you thought you had tied back. You tuck it behind your ear, where it stays for approximately three steps.

Beside you, your dog is having a much better time with the weather. Nose lifted, ears moving, they seem to have discovered several things about the sea that the view alone could never tell you.

No hurry to reach the end

The boardwalk runs between pale grass and a strip of water the colour of an old blue shirt. Farther along, a few houses are just beginning to open their shutters. Someone carries two cups toward a doorway, careful not to spill them.

You let the leash settle into a loose curve and match your companion's pace. The plain tan collar you chose has softened into the collection of familiar things by the door: shoes, keys, the small bag you always forget to empty.

Once, you would have walked straight to the end and back, treating the distance like a task. Today, the bend ahead seems a perfectly good place to stop.

A moment without arranging it

Your dog looks up just as you look down. You smile at the coincidence, then at yourself for thinking it was one. They have been checking on you all morning.

The wind lifts the hem of your sweater. Sand has found its way into one shoe even though you have not left the boards. You decide this is an acceptable contribution to a morning by the sea.

There is no grand conversation to have with the person beside you when that person has four paws. Still, you tell them what you are thinking: which house you like, whether the weather will hold, how nice it is that neither of you has to be anywhere yet.

On the way back, the water has brightened. The boardwalk is the same. You are both a little quieter, which feels like enough to take home.

Find a little something for your next outing

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