By The Pool With Shalina · Updated

By the Pool with Shalina

We had known each other for seven years, but it was here, by the water, that we talked least and understood most. The chlorine smell, the wet tiles, the way her laugh echoed off the fence—these things became a language. by the pool with shalina

I followed her gaze. A dragonfly hovered over the shallow end, its wings catching every color. “Maybe it’s not time,” I said. “Maybe it’s just that pools have their own gravity.” By the Pool with Shalina We had known

She smiled, small and knowing. That was Shalina—always letting silence do the heavy lifting. A dragonfly hovered over the shallow end, its

The late afternoon sun cast fractured diamonds across the water’s surface. Shalina lay on the lounger beside me, her sunglasses pushed up into her hair, a paperback open on her stomach. She wasn’t reading—she was watching the light shift through the leaves of the palm overhead.