Episode 88: The sands of time

 

Episode 88: The sands of time 

Ted grabs his to-go, ice-cold Dr. Pepper, the paper cup sweating cold condensation against his calloused palm as he pushes his way out of the heavy glass door of the pizza place. 🥤

Outside, the ocean air hits him like a physical wall—sharp, intensely salty, and heavy with the deep, thundering roar of the crashing surf. He only has to wait two minutes before Samantha steps out the back door. 🌊

She’s already pulling off her grease-stained pizza apron, tossing it onto a nearby bin as she greets him, a quiet, magnetic sort of energy humming between them right from the very start. The heavy, comforting aroma of baked dough, melted cheese, and toasted pepperoni still clings to her clothes, cutting through the crisp, biting sea breeze. 📋

As they set off together, walking down toward the beach, the feeling between them is absolute, pure electricity. For Ted, this timing couldn't have been more perfect. ⚡️

He’d been drowning in dark thoughts lately—feeling completely down, unwanted, betrayed, and just flat-out hurting. 💔

He’d seen her before, of course. He’d secretly liked coming to this pizza place just to catch a glimpse of her beautiful face, but he’d never thought for a second he even had a shot at asking her out. 🍕

But Samantha was holding onto her own secret. She’d always thought Ted was a seriously cute guy, but every time she saw him, he was always around other women. 👀

She’d completely written herself out of the script, thinking she didn't stand a chance. Two people, entirely blind to the potential right in front of them, now walking side by side where the dark water meets the shore. 👥

Her blonde hair flies wildly in the breeze, whipping softly across her face, the strands catching the light as their boots sink into the damp, packed sand. 💨

Ted clears his throat, looking out over the grey expanse of the water. "So... you're a permanent local?" he asks. 🗣️

"Yes," she says, a slight, knowing smile touching her lips, her bright eyes locking onto his with a sudden warmth that makes his chest tighten. "Most of my life. It’s good... but, yeah. I see people from the conference center come and go. I see the tourists come and go." 🗺️

She stops for a beat, turning her eyes up to meet his, the deep color of her irises reflecting the twilight sky. "But standard's it, I like somebody that doesn't leave." ⚓️

The silence stretches for a moment, just the crashing of the waves, before she takes a breath and puts herself right out there on the ledge. ⏳

"You know... I’d like a cute guy like you to cuddle up with," she says, her voice dropping down to a soft, husky register that feels incredibly intimate against the backdrop of the ocean. ❄️

"Because, you know... as you know, it gets very cold here in the winter. And very, very boring." 🥶

A beautiful, soft pink blush instantly creeps up her cheeks, deepening under the chill of the sea air. She practically bites her lip the second the words leave her mouth, her wide eyes locked on his face, waiting to see exactly how he’d respond to a statement that bold. 👄

Ted doesn't hesitate. He steps a fraction closer, blocking out the cold wind with his body. 🚶‍♂️

"Well," he says, his voice steady and low, his gaze fixed entirely on her. "You don't have to worry about that... cuz I want to be the one that warms you up." 🔥

She stops walking entirely, turning her whole body to face Ted. The playful banter, the testing the waters—she doesn’t want to play games anymore. 🛑

Before he can say another word, she steps right into his space, reaches up, and kisses him. 💋

Ted kisses her back instantly, completely lost in her arms. They pull each other close, catching each other in the motion, their lips meeting in a gentle, soft kiss that carries the clean, sweet scent of the ocean air. 👩‍❤️‍👨

It feels like it possesses the power to make all the troubles of the world just completely sever and hit the ground. 🌍

It feels to both of them like that single kiss lasts for centuries, a timeless weight lifting off his shoulders, her skin warm beneath his hands as the dark clouds in his mind vanish, leaving just one long, sweet moment out here on the sand before they finally part. ⏳

When they stop, she looks up at him with a breathtaking, radiant smile that lights up her entire face. "You know... how long I've been waiting to do this? To kiss you?" she asks. 😊

But as the words leave her mouth, that bold confidence slips away and she gets shy all over again, looking down for a second as her blush deepens all the way to her ears. "I just... I didn't want my shot passing and you didn't go for it. So I didn't want to miss my chance," she says softly. ✨

Ted clears his throat, a genuine, warm emotion cutting through the lingering chill in his chest. "You know... normally a guy would mind a girl moving that fast, but... I don't mind." ❤️

He reaches out, wrapping his fingers around hers, grabbing her hand and holding it securely. 🤝

It’s a bit of a standard move, but the comfort of it is immediate as he holds her hand tight against the wind, feeling the delicate warmth of her palm. 💨

He looks down at her, a completely new light shining in his eyes. "Let's keep walking," Ted says, his voice low and steady. "I want to know everything about you." 👣

They keep walking, their boots crunching softly in the sand as the conversation just opens up between them. 🏖️

They talk about everything and anything—family stories, little details of her life, the kind of things you only tell someone when the rest of the world has completely faded away. 💬

Samantha absolutely loves to talk, her beautiful smile flashing with every story, her voice rising and falling musically over the sound of the waves, and Ted is entirely content to just listen. 🌊

He listens to every single word she says, anchoring himself to her voice. But at the same time... he keeps getting completely distracted. 😍

Every time she smiles, every time the light catches her bright eyes, his mind just goes totally blank. ✨

At one point, she stops mid-sentence, looking up at him with a knowing, playful smirk. "Ted? Are you even listening to me?" 😏

He blinks, waking up from his daze, and clears his throat as his face goes hot. 😳

"I'm listening, I swear," he says, stumbling over his words like a nervous schoolboy talking to his very first crush. "It's just... you're so beautiful. I can't help but look at you. Yeah... it's just... you're just so beautiful." 🌹

Samantha finds it absolutely wonderful, her eyes crinkling at the corners with pure joy. It makes her feel so intensely wanted, so completely seen. 🥰

She thinks it's incredibly cute that a grown man could be so utterly uneven and undone around her that he might just forget his own name if she kept looking at him with those adoring eyes. 💭

As they keep moving, the warmth of her hand in his gives him the courage to finally open up about the heavy stuff. Ted takes a breath and tells her the entire story. 🗣️

"I tell you, she and her best friend, Chloe... they were working together the whole time," Ted says, his jaw tightening at the names. 😡

"Cindy threw me right off that ledge. I fell... straight into the ocean. She fled the scene, got arrested later on due to technicalities, but the system being what it is, she was let go." 🌊

"Then she targeted Andrew—the guy who pulled me out of the water. She tried to go after his family." 🚨

"From what I’ve heard lately, they just completely disappeared. Some people think they fled the state, no one really knows for sure... but I just hope they’re gone for good." 🗺️

"I don’t want them anywhere near me ever again. They’re dangerous. But don't you worry, babe—no one knows where they're at right now, and absolutely everybody is looking for them." 🛡️

Samantha stops dead in her tracks, her hand tightening like a vise around his. Her eyes are wide with shock, processing the sheer weight of what he's just dropped on her. 🛑

"Wait..." she says, her voice barely a whisper against the wind. "You're *that* Ted?" 🤯

"I mean, this whole town is full of old listeners who are completely immersive. Everyone has heard bits and pieces of a story about you, but the rumors just go around and around and around in circles. Nobody actually knows what happened to her, or why she did it." 🗣️

"Some people whisper that she threw you off the cliff because of a jealous rage, like the whole thing was a setup. And other people say you were just clumsy and you simply fell. Nobody knows the truth." 🤷‍♀️

"But... I hate to bring it up, but you *were* dating that short-haired redhead, Allyson, right? Is that who we're talking about?" 🧑‍🦰

Ted takes a deep, heavy breath, the sea air burning his lungs. 😮‍💨

"Yeah," he says, looking out over the grey water. "I caught her cheating. I'll get into the ugly details of that later, but I broke things off with her right then and there." 💔

"I left town... I recently just came back. But it's crazy how a rumor can just spin out of control like that around here." 🏙️

A heavy, suffocating silence falls over Ted. The warmth completely drains from his face, and his voice drops to a quiet, deadly serious whisper. 🤫

"I loved her," he says, staring out at the breaking waves. "Even though I had to end it with her. Now... I don't even say her name." 🌊

"Her death was a blow. I couldn't even attend the funeral away. For the longest time, I thought it was my fault for how quick I was to break up with her." ⚰️

"But when I saw them... I literally went up to where she was and saw them together, and that was it." 💥

Samantha watches his profile, her heart aching at the raw pain etched around his eyes. She squeezes his hand tighter, stepping closer so her shoulder rubs against his. "May I ask... who she was sleeping with?" ❓

Ted lets out a bitter, humorless breath. "Well, yeah... but you won't believe it. She slept with Andrew. The same one I just told you about. The guy who saved my life." 🤯

"It was only that one time, I think. And I just saw him not too long ago at the conference center... had a brief conversation with him." 🏢

"He really had love for her, and I loved her. I know what was in both of their hearts." 💔

He stops walking, his boots deep in the sand as he tries to sort through the wreckage of his past. 🧳

"And so recently, I came back," Ted continues, trying to shake off the ghost of the redhead. 🚶‍♂️

"The truth is, I broke up with my first summer... one of my first summers was Shelly. I thought she was the one." 🗓️

"And when she went back out of state, I broke up with her, and I felt so bad about it." ✈️

"Then eventually, when she came back—I think it's been more than a year now—she came back to work at the exact same time I did, really recently. And that's when I knew things." 💼

"And so... we hadn't had a chance recently to see how things would go," he explains, his voice tight. ⏳

"It was basically just work. But she said she was interested, that she wanted to get back together." 💬

"So I told her to wait for me after our shift ended today, so we could go out and do something for the whole day. And that was today, babe. She didn't show up... and she didn't show up." ⏰

"And then, when she finally *did* show up, she was with this other guy she's been working with. Gage." 😡

Samantha listens intently, her wide, expressive eyes fixed on his face as he pours it all out, her expression full of understanding. 👀

"I pressured her," Ted admits, shaking his head. "I asked her, how could she do this? I thought she wanted to get back together." 🗣️

"I pressured her until she finally revealed that nothing actually happened between them because, turns out, Gage is gay." 🏳️‍🌈

"But then she tried to use that as an excuse, like it didn't mess things up between us." 🤨

"But she went out to walk with him to the ocean at two o'clock with her top completely buttoned up... and she came back with her top really, really unbuttoned." 👚

"So I told her, 'Well, I bet you unbuttoned those buttons for him.' I told her we are officially *not* getting back together." 🙅‍♂️

"She just wanted Gage, and when he wasn't available, she thought she could just swap right back over to me." 🔄

He stops, looking straight into Samantha's beautiful eyes, a look of pure relief breaking through the anger. 🌟

"And then I told her no, we're not getting back together. And right after that... that's when I walked into the pizza place and saw you. The most amazing woman ever." 😍

Ted lets out a long, heavy sigh, letting all the lingering tension finally bleed right out of his body. He shakes his head, staring down at the sand. "Still... I feel bad for her." 😮‍💨

Samantha doesn't hesitate. She reaches up, her hands warm and soft against the chill of his skin, and gently grabs his face, turning it so he's forced to look straight into her eyes, which are sparkling with genuine affection. 👐

"You don't have to feel bad," she says, her voice steady and fierce, her beautiful smile coming back to reassure him. "It's okay to let a toxic relationship go. And now... you have room for me. If you can handle me." 🛑

A playful, wicked little spark lights up her eyes, and she leans in closer, her breath warm against his lips. "In her prime, babe, I'm a lot to handle." 😏

To prove her point, she gives him a soft, teasing little kick right over there, her boot catching his leg just enough to break the heavy mood. It works instantly, wiping the gloom right off his face and making his handsome features break into a wide smile. 🥾

He steps right into her space, a mischievous grin breaking across his face as he looks down at her rosy cheeks. "Oh, you think you're a lot to handle, do you?" 😁

Before she can even try to run, he leans against her and starts tickling her sides mercilessly. 😂

Samantha squeals, the sharp, joyful sound cutting through the roar of the waves as she tries to pull back, her face flushed red with laughter. But Ted is too quick—he tickles one side and then the other, completely catching her off guard. 🌊

She tries to defend herself playfully, batting at his hands, her eyes bright and crinkling with happiness as she absolutely soaks in this newfound attention. 🥰

It becomes clear very quickly how easily she gets out of breath, gasping for air between her bursts of ecstatic laughter because of all the tickling and flailing around. 😮‍💨

When she finally manages to lean into his chest to make him stop, their shared laughter dies down into a quiet, heavy breathing. ⏳

Ted catches her, pulling her soft body close against his, and they kiss again. It's a long, lingering kiss, and once the first kiss stops, they just look deep into each other's eyes, the vibrant connection between them completely blocking out the chilly ocean breeze. Then, they go right back to kissing. 💋

It wasn't one of those wildly passionate, aggressive kisses like you see in the movies where you're gripping each other tight; instead, it was a series of soft, deeply sensual, and loving kisses that just went on and on for the next ten minutes, their lips melting together in the darkening twilight. ⏱️

When they finally part, both of them are smiling from ear to ear, their eyes glowing with unspoken promises. 😁

Samantha steps back slightly and kicks off her boots, pulling off her socks and letting her bare, shapely feet sink into the cool, damp sand. 👣

Ted watches her, a warm, captivated chuckle escaping his chest, before he takes off his own shoes and socks. 🧦

Carrying their shoes in their free hands, they take each other's hands once more, fingers interlocking securely. 🤝

They step closer to the water's edge, walking hand in hand and talking softly, sharing more of their hearts as the sun dips completely below the horizon and the sky turns to a beautiful nightfall. 🌅