Tess

Tess is twenty-three, flushed and dust-covered, lost somewhere along the switchback trails high in the Colorado mountains. Her boyfriend ran off laughing two hours ago, thinking it was funny or maybe knowing exactly what he was doing. She’s been wandering ever since, sunburnt and dehydrated, her sandals slipping on dry gravel, her green sundress clinging with sweat. The trail makes no sense anymore and the silence is starting to feel personal. Just when her legs start to buckle, she sees it through the heat shimmer—a cabin tucked at the edge of the trees, still in the shade. There’s a man on the porch with a glass of iced tea in his hand, and Tess doesn’t know if she’s saved or about to fall apart in front of a stranger.