Teddi plunged into the autumn sea. She breached, spluttering. I couldn’t chicken out.

We dressed: wet goosebumps, grey lips. She turned away, unlike when we were teens.

We reached the road. If she’d been single, I could have asked.

When I drove to drop her off, the road had flooded.

Christina Nordlander was born in 1982 and lives outside Birmingham with her husband and two cats. Her writings primarily fall within the speculative fiction spectrum.