15 SEPT 2025

you could make the case that i had at least two opportunities to chat with you yesterday. here's how things played out from my PoV, though...

i landed at Tilden at about 12:30ish with a partner of mine. we set up a tad further west from you, just past that guy on your right if you're facing the ocean. not long after setting up, you strolled over and stopped in front of us, gazing off into the distance and taking in the white-capped waves crashing at your feet. you looked back at me or at us or at her. i noticed you in my periphery but i happened to be biting into the sandwich i packed for lunch at the very same moment and you had continued your jaunt down the shoreline by the time i looked up. unlucky timing. i set it aside and noticed you started making your way back toward us. you had on a cherry-red swimsuit that paired flawlessly with your complexion and sunnies that were both very ~now~ and very ~you~ (in that they suited you well).

you trekked back to camp and laid out and i decided to head out for a swim. usually, i wait to swim out deep past the breakers between sets so i can get out there and just float, but there wasn't a break. i found out later that there was a red flag warning, so i *so* should *not* have been swimming, but my soul was craving time out in the ocean and i've been surfing & swimming in the ocean for decades so i was confident i could handle some choppy waters anyway.

realizing it was too rough to be relaxing, even out deep, i decided to make my way back to shore and then walk the beach to dry off and see who else decided to make the day a beach day.

landing back at camp, i laid out while the partner i was with took her turn at a swim. i noticed you had done the same, though both of you thought better of it after quickly realizing it was crazy-choppy out there and probably dangerous. the rest of the day we glanced in each others' direction—in my case, both to scan the rest of the beach and to see if you were, by chance, looking my way again.

during a few of my scans, i happened to notice some cishet dudes blatantly staring at you while you sunned like total fucking creeps before gawking at our other beach neighbor for going bottomless as if they've never seen tits or a dick before. i pointed them out to my partner and she mentioned she clocked them too and mentioned that some couple in their fourties walked by and acted creepy toward us while i was sunning with my eyes closed. it was all enough to make her decide to keep her top on. for me, i opted to keep my swimsuit on because i had recently had an unexpected surgery that's left me still feeling a bit alien in my own body, but, i'll admit, their leering kinda made me at least mildly relieved i decided to leave my bottoms on too. they really do ruin the vibe out there and i so wish they'd just fuck off and stay off our beach so people could feel free to be themselves and enjoy the beach unencumbered. i put it together that, earlier, after that moment when you stopped in front of us, you must've run into someone who was leering at you further down the shore and that's why you came back with your own top on until you got back to our side of the beach.

after dozing off for a bit, i woke up when my partner came back from the bathroom and decided to do the same. leaving the beach, i spotted you down a ways at your bike packing up for the day. it was then that i started thinking about saying hi—telling you that my partner and i were admiring your perfect tan which i was mad-jealous of by the way because i hadn't been able to get to the beach much this summer because of recovery, asking if you rode in from brooklyn or had taken the ferry like we did, or pointing out that we noticed the dirtbags leering & gawking and hoped you still had a fab beach day—but after considering that last part and deciding you probably had enough unsolicited attention for the day (and that you'd, no doubt, probably get some more on your trek home), i settled on waving and smiling as you rode by on your bike.

but it didn't line up like that. more unlucky timing. i was heading back to the beach already while you were still packing up. so, while i took in the view of the beach from the stretch of road and scrunchied my still-damp hair to help it curl, i hoped to at least share a smile with you if you happened to glance up from unlocking your bike. i think you did, but as soon as i passed you, after looking up from your fab sleeve, it hit me that it might've come across as more gazing or leering and that i should've said something anyway so you could get a better sense of my intentions slash understand that i wasn't yet-another-creep-sapping-your-beach-day.

and maybe you were hoping i would. that, through the sea of unwanted attention, you were still hoping for attention from *the right* people—the people *you* wanted attention from and who you were aiming to share *your* attention with. and if you were, i'm not sure if you were hoping for me to reciprocate, for the partner i was with to reciprocate, or both of us. if it was her, i'd be happy to get you two in touch (we're both friendly and both bi). if it was me, you seem like the type that is, like me, holding onto summer as long as you can in spite of everyone else's demands to speed through the year and get to the next season before we've had a moment to savor the one we're in, so, just say when & where, and i'll meet you to ride out to Tilden for your next beach day.

while the odds of spotting a missed connection written about us are slim, i feel like i've got a better-than-average shot since there were so few of us on the beach that day and anyone reading this might be curious enough to casually ask their friends if they happened to go to Tilden that day to help us connect.

signed,
the guy with the curly dark brown hair, the beard, the short, floral bottoms, and the crop top sweatshirt (though, i don't think i had gotten chilly enough for the sweatshirt yet by that point) who's looking forward to his next mellow beach day at Tilden

EDIT: i tried posting this missed connection to Craigslist shortly after posting here but it keeps getting flagged and removed for some unknown reason, so help me get this to the right person!