The villa clung to the cliffside like a secret lover, all white stone and open arches letting the warm Mediterranean night spill inside unchecked. Salt air mixed with the heavy perfume of night-blooming jasmine, wrapping around me as I stood in the dim glow of a single lamp. My bare feet pressed into the cool marble, grounding me even as my pulse raced ahead.
Taped to the full-length mirror opposite the terrace doors was the envelope—cream, slightly creased from being carried in my suitcase for months. My own handwriting stared back at me in bold black ink:
MY BUCKET LIST
(Thirty before thirty… or before I chicken out completely)
1. Swim naked in the ocean at midnight
2. Kiss someone under fireworks
3. Get a tattoo I can’t explain to my mother
4. Quit my soul-crushing job withou
