A Love Journey Through Time – Part 2

A week had passed since their walk by the sea.

A week that Cendra remembered not for its events, but for the calm it had left inside her. In the first few days, she caught herself smiling, recalling how Mario had walked beside her in silence, never trying to fill the space with words. How he would sometimes just look at her—as if he truly saw her. Not through the lens of the past, not through desire, but the way you look at someone who is genuinely here, in this very moment.

On Thursday, she got a message from him:

“I have an idea for the evening. Will you trust me?”

She did.

He picked her up just after sunset and drove them out of the city. They took the slow, winding side roads, and when they arrived, it felt like stepping into another world. They were by a bay—a quiet beach hardly anyone knew about, hidden beyond the dunes and pine trees, far from the main paths. The air smelled of sea, sand, and something else—something sweet and unspoken.

Mario didn’t say much. He smiled and reached out his hand.

They walked barefoot on the cool sand, slowly, without a destination. The wind played in her hair, and the sound of the waves was the only music they needed. The sun had dipped below the horizon, leaving the sky streaked with pastels—rose, lavender, deep blue.

They didn’t speak much.

And that was the beauty of it.

Cendra felt as though any words would be unnecessary—even out of place. In the quiet, she could breathe with him, without any masks. Their steps were in sync, as if their bodies already knew each other, even though they were still just beginning to. They didn’t search for topics—they were the topic. They strolled along the shoreline, pausing now and then to gaze at the sea, at each other, at the stars beginning to timidly flicker above them.

At one point, Mario gently took her hand. Not suddenly, not with a gesture that said “come”—he simply enclosed hers in his, warm and steady. Cendra replied with a soft smile, but said nothing. She didn’t need to.

They walked down closer to the water. Waves brushed against their feet.

They stopped near a large flat rock. She sat down, and he sat beside her. For a while, they just watched the horizon melt into the night.

- You know. - Mario said quietly - sometimes I think silence says more than a thousand words. Especially between two people who... can hear each other without speaking.

She looked at him.

There was no impatience in his eyes, no expectation. Only presence. And a kind of peace she had been missing for a long time.

- Yes. - she replied just as softly.

- Silence can be a home. If it’s shared with someone.

She didn’t know who kissed whom first. Whether he leaned in or she did.

But when their lips met, nothing else mattered.

The kiss was warm, slow, and unhurried—just like the entire evening.

Not a trace of urgency—rather, a seal of trust. A soul’s gentle touch saying:

- I’m here. Truly here.

They didn’t stay the night.

After the kiss, Mario walked her back to the car, opened the door, slipped his hand into hers, and simply said:

- I hope this won’t be the last time.

- I hope so too. - she replied.

And as they drove away from the bay, there was no restlessness in Cendra’s heart. Only a quiet certainty that something meaningful had just begun — in silence, by the sea, under the light of the stars.