There he was, that guy. You'd seen him on the beach when you were still pretending to care about the girl you were seeing. He’d nodded at you when you assumed your gaze had locked on him for just that moment too long. You'd seen him out surfing, as you lay on your towel in the sun. He’d walked back up the beach afterwards with his board under his arm, with his wet suit pulled down to his waist. His gaze, you’d thought, had locked onto you for seconds too long. You couldn’t help but smile back. You'd seen him in the pub at night all fresh faced from the day in the summer, sun kissed in his cream cable knit jumper. He’d smiled at you, as he drank beer with his mates.

And there he is now, shirtless, in the unusually warm winter sun.

You wonder where he's been?

It is just him and me

He catches my gaze. I was sure there was a hint of recognition. “Alright,” I say.

“Alright,” he says. 

He has on bright blue board shorts. “Quicksilver?”

“Yeah.”

“Pussy,” I say.

“Okay,” he says.

I had a joint just before I left the house to come down to the beach, and it was really hitting me. And the bulge in his boardies looked way bigger than it should have been. And my filter was pot-shut-down. “You hard?”

He smiles. He moves his hand almost subconsciously down over the front of his shorts. He hesitates, then says, “Yeah.”

“You wanna do something about that.” I hold his gaze.

“Something?” He tilts his head.

“I hear its bad for you…”

“Bad for me?”

“You know, prolonged…”

He smiles. “I’m Jacob.”

“I’m Jack.”

“We finally meet,” he says.

“You remember?”

“Oh yeah, I remember you,” he says. “The…” he stops as though he thinks for a minute. “Handsome guy from the beach with the beautiful girlfriend for whom he doesn’t really seem to have eyes…”

“We split up.”

“I can’t say I am surprised.”

“What you doing down here in this lukewarm sun?” I look up at the sun in the perfect blue sky and think it is only really warm because it is a such still day, no wind.

“Oh, I don’t know? It’s been so dreary these last few weeks, when I saw the sun out today, I just had to feel it on my skin.”

“You are lucky there is no wind.”

“Take your shirt off and lie down here with me.”

“What?”

“Come on,” he says. “I bought an extra towel with me today, I didn’t really know why, but now I do.”

So, I took my shirt off, and Jacob lay the extra towel out next to him, and I lay down on it.

“See,” he says. “It’s nice.”

The sun is like warm honey; I have to admit. “Yeah, it is nice.”

I lay there looking up at the sky as the sun warmed the pores of my skin. I’d got goose bumps, but I think they are caused by Jacob and not the sun.

“Jack with the beautiful girlfriend,” says Jacob. “Who’d have thought.”

Then I started to wonder if he thought we were just a couple of new mates getting to know each other... lying on St Kilda beach… in June. “Ex-girlfriend,” I say.

“Yeah, ex-girlfriend,” Jacob says.

Then I felt Jacob’s hand take mine in his, and you know, the whole world then just seemed to make total sense.