Not Another Summer Love Story

Epilogue

I breathed in the welcoming, west-coast air as I stepped off of the domestic airplane and onto the ramp that would take me into the airport. My heels clicked against the floor, and I longed to take them off, preferably to sink my toes in into the thick, golden sand that awaited me.

But first, I had to greet my best friend.

Maisie hadn't changed much in four years.

Well, superficially, she certainly had. What was once long, platinum hair was now an edgy pixie cut, which she rocked with a cute orange dress that reminded me of sunshine. Living in the city, she'd insisted on picking me up from the airport. And of course, who could do a better job at welcoming me than the woman I'd spent my life with?

"Oh, Val, I still struggle to look at you in your businesswoman get-up."

I rolled my eyes as we parted from the embrace we'd fallen into. "Sorry I left my meeting until the last minute. Not everyone is an expert at wardrobe changes, Maiz."

I'd seen Maisie each summer since we'd both left Sandy Cove. I'd watched as she fully embraced her artistic side at graphic design school, and she'd seen me find the confidence and charisma I never knew I could project in a business setting.

And after graduating last month, I was returning home. To run my first business.

But that wasn't the only thing happening in Sandy Cove.

"I visited last weekend," Maisie said as she flipped on a large pair of sunglasses and wheeled one of my suitcases behind her. We were in the middle of trying to find her convertible in the carpark. "It's only the start of summer but it's swarming. The redevelopment on the esplanade is finished, and you should see the land they've cleared for the resort. They finally bulldozed the old building that used to have the doctor's clinic on the foreshore, they're conducting geotechnical surveys, there's huge drills and everything."

"Geotechnical surveys?" I asked. Geotechnical surveys were undertaken by geotechnical engineers, likely consulting with structural engineers. I happened to know of a newly qualified structural engineer.

"Yes. Geotechnical surveys. You know exactly what that means," she raised an eyebrow cockily, it popped up from beneath the bright coloured rim of her sunglasses.

"He's there already."

"Zoe said he landed last Tuesday."

I hadn't spoken to Alastair much in the last few months. I'd been busy with graduation, and he'd been busy with drafting the first resort in Sandy Cove. We'd known the development was due to start years ago, and finally, it was starting to come to life this summer.

It was strange to think that the last time I'd seen him in person, I'd only been eighteen.

I wasn't stupid. Time changes a lot of things, and so does being physically separated. Chemistry dissipates, as does affection. Our tiny summer together seemed like a tiny blip in our lives, and sometimes I began to think that maybe reflecting on it made it a lot more significant than it actually was.

Though it did have a large effect on my time in university, I'd admit that. It helped me meet Sabrina, and Mitchell, two of the friends I'd made in my course, and it even encouraged me to agree to go on a date with Jackson Renny in second year. It helped me grow attached to people without feeling the need to question my trust in them, or become scared of what could go wrong.

Maisie's chatter filled the car, particularly centred around Chad Crowe, her fiancé.

If anyone could find their soul mate in the first year of graphic design school, it was Maisie. I'd heard the story a billion times. He was her barista, she was immediately drawn in by his cheery attitude and hypnotic mind. But, it took a lot of time before she dated him. Daniel was still fresh in her mind, and for a while I was worried that she'd never let her walls down. But she did.