*Watcher*

I first noticed your swimsuit. It wasn't a bikini, and not particularly revealing. It was unique, a flowery little thing with a halter top and a high waist. You looked like you had just stepped out of a 1960's catalog. You had a peach scarf tied up in your long blonde hair, to keep it off your face. I'd never seen hair quite the color of yours before. I couldn't stop staring at it. It seemed to be made of spun gold or honey. I was captivated by your porcelain skin, your green eyes, your sweet smile. You looked so innocent, so happy.

I was working at a hotel that summer in Leigh-on-Sea. You were on holiday with your mum and your brother. After that first time I noticed you, I spent all my spare time on the back veranda of the hotel, watching for you, watching you.

You didn't notice that I followed you and your mum one afternoon when you went to the shops. You bought a pair of earrings at one shop and you put them on immediately upon exiting the shop. They were some kind of blue gemstone; I remember because they looked so beautiful with your hair. Then your mum bought you a gigantic sun hat and you didn't want to wear it, but she insisted because she didn't want you to get a sunburn.

You stayed for exactly 17 days at Leigh-on-Sea. Every day I watched you swim in the ocean. Frolic with your brother on the beach. Take lunch in your hotel suite. I watched you while you read your favorite books under the sun umbrella.

You took sailing lessons and I watched you even then. I took the hotel's catamaran and followed you from a distance. You're a natural, you know. You were made for the water. One afternoon you begged and begged until you convinced the instructor to let you swim out in the open water.

I felt like the breath was sucked out of my lungs the day I saw you dragging your luggage away from the hotel. I returned from my break and told my manager that I was ill and had to take the afternoon off. I went to my room and laid on my bed for hours. It felt like my reason for living had suddenly disappeared.

Then all at once, I knew what I had to do.

I found you.

I followed you.

And I watched you.