Strangers for One Summer

Summer Ingram-Ruiz is used to putting schedules, friendships, and plans back in order, yet her father’s illness, the hospital visits her best friend Lily keeps enduring, and the kiss she and River Choi swore to forget will not bend.

River has been her constant through ten years of late-night talks, reckless choices, and steady loyalty, even as his job at a campus café leaves him standing still while she moves on.

He has loved her quietly for years, convinced she deserves more than he can give, and now every lingering glance and loaded silence makes going back impossible.

Summer offers a fix anyway: a no-strings summer fling meant to repair what they broke.

River knows it is a bad idea and says yes, because losing her slowly may hurt more than risking everything, and the nearer summer pulls them, the harder it is to pretend any of it was temporary.