We took a walk to a rock beach. There was a natural jetty jutting out into the ocean, breaking the waves into clouds of white spray. As we walked down it, I held her hand, but when we sat down at the end, she pulled hers away from mine. It was a windy day, and there was fog over the Pacific. We talked for a while, but then reached an unspoken understanding that we both preferred silence. I laid down and looked at her profile. She put some hair into her mouth.

“Go to this barbecue party with me tonight,” she said after a while, as if she were thinking out loud. “I’m not close with any of the people.”

“Sure,” I said.

When we left the beach I opened my mouth to say something, but then decided I should not. She noticed and asked me what it was.

“You were manipulating me,” I said. “You told me to come to the barbecue with you because you don’t know the people, but you seem to be very comfortable with strangers. You only said that so that I would think you needed me, and I would grow more attached,” I said finally.

“You doubt yourself too much,” she said calmly but resolutely. “Everybody has these doubts, but you give them too much credence. I have fear and confusion in my life too.”

The bus arrived just as she finished the sentence. She never said anything more.{shortcode-20db3f6315df227f20f23facfae253cfbf89d3f6}

—Staff writer Tianxing V. Lan's column, "3AM Cinema Club," is a serialized work of fiction set in Hong Kong which follows the protagonist as he works to write a screenplay.