The Summer Burns

You stayed there longer than made sense. The metal under your back had gone cold. Your shirt was twisted somewhere halfway to your shoulder blades. Your legs were tangled with hers, your arm dead under the weight of her torso, but you didn’t move.

Karina’s breathing slowly evened out. Every few seconds, her fingers flexed in your hair like she needed to check you were still there.

Eventually your radio crackled to life near your foot. Static, then Rafi’s voice, bored and tinny.

“Wheel check, you alive up there or am I calling your next of kin?”

Karina huffed a quiet laugh into your chest. “That’s your cue, safety boy.”

You groaned. “I hate him.”

“No you don’t,” she said. “You love him almost as much as you love your precious bolts.”

You reached out, groped for the radio, thumbed the button. “Yeah, I’m good,” you said, amazed you sounded almost normal. “Just finishing the checklist.”

“Checklist,” Karina mouthed, amused.

“Copy that,” Rafi said. “We’re closing in twenty. Start wrapping it up.”

The line went dead.

Karina shifted, wincing as the metal dug into her hip. “We should probably attempt to look like we didn’t just desecrate your workplace,” she said.

“Probably,” you agreed. You’d been ignoring the fact that you were technically on the clock. Right now you were fairly sure there was a regulation somewhere about “no intercourse on or near operational machinery.”

She peeled herself off you, shivering as night air hit bare skin. You sat up, hunting blindly for your boxers and jeans. Your hand brushed her thigh and she jumped.

“Cold,” she muttered.

“Sorry.” You found your clothes, pulled them on in clumsy, fumbling movements. Your fingers weren’t working like they belonged to you yet.

Karina found her underwear, then her shorts, then her tank, wiggling into them with a kind of lazy efficiency. Her hair was a mess. There was a smear of your stubble red on her neck where you’d sucked too hard.

You couldn’t stop staring.

She caught you looking and smirked. “Eyes up, Jason.”

You cleared your throat and tried to smooth your hair down.

“Your hair is a lost cause,” she said. “Just own it. It’s very… ‘I’ve been railed behind the Ferris wheel.’”

“Karina.”

“What?” she said innocently.

You glanced down at your shirt. Wrinkled. A button half wrong. Your neck felt strange. You reached up and hissed when your fingers brushed a tender spot.

Karina grinned, too pleased. “That one may or may not be my fault.”

“You gave me a hickey at work,” you said. “Actually multiple crimes have been committed.”

She shrugged, unbothered. “Consider it… branding.”

You wanted to kiss her again so badly it almost hurt, but the adrenaline had started to fade and reality was settling in.

“Okay,” she said, standing, bracing a hand on your shoulder. “Game face time. You go down first. I’ll wait a minute.”

“Why do I go first?” you asked.

“Because you have to actually, you know, do things,” she said. “Close stuff. Pretend to be responsible. If we come down together, Rafi’s head will explode.”

“That might be entertaining,” you said.

“Not as entertaining as him giving you the disappointed dad speech,” she said. “Trust me. Go.”

She leaned in and stole one last, quick kiss, just a press of lips, nothing like what you’d just done and somehow just as dizzying.

“Go,” she repeated against your mouth.

You went.

Your legs felt weird on the ladder, like they were remembering something entirely different from climbing. At the bottom, the boards under your boots seemed too solid. The pier sounded different too—dimmer, muffled, like someone had put a blanket over the world.

Rafi sat on a crate near the control box, scrolling his phone. He looked up and grinned.

“There he is,” he said. “Thought maybe you and the wheel ran off together.”

“Ha,” you said.

He narrowed his eyes, taking in your hair, your half-tucked shirt. His gaze lingered on your neck. One eyebrow climbed, slow and delighted.

“Well, well,” he said. “Somebody had fun at work.”

You resisted the urge to clamp a hand over the mark. “Bolt inspection is thrilling,” you deadpanned.

“Is that what the kids are calling it now?” he said. “Listen, I don’t need the details. Actually, that’s a lie, I do, but I’m not your therapist.”

Karina came down a minute later, careful and steady like she hadn’t just changed your entire life.

She hopped off the last rung and landed lightly. She didn’t look at you. Not directly. Just stood next to you, folding her arms, eyes on the wheel like any other night.

Rafi’s gaze bounced between the two of you like you were a tennis match.

“Subtle,” he said. “Truly. If you ever want to go pro at espionage, don’t.”

“Shut up, Raf,” Karina said, but she was smiling.

He held up both hands. “I’m saying nothing. Absolutely nothing. I am a vault. However…” He pointed a finger at you. “Maybe don’t give Cole and his nerds a free reason to call us unprofessional, yeah?”