Xan has not visited Florida before. Leo has, but Leo is notably not with him - he's at his dumb family thing. Which might be a blood sacrifice? It's not not a blood sacrifice. So he sent Xan on vacation, because otherwise he'd just be "hanging around Whateley like a sad puppy, waiting for [him] to come home". (This earned Leo a punch to the arm.)

Anyway, Xan hasn't been to Florida. Or, really, anywhere with a good stretch of beach. So he wants to go to the beach. Specifically, he wants to go to a nude beach. So he does. He brings with him one (1) towel, red; one (1) pair of sunglasses, black; no (0) sunscreen, because he's a fucking Exemplar.

It turns out nude beaches are, for the most part, kind of boring. The water is cool, but the sand is kind of inconvenient. Many of the beachgoers are old, which is just depressing. Few to none of them, even the young ones, are anywhere near as attractive as the people he sees around Whateley.

Well. Actually, there's a guy over there who's pretty good-looking. He meanders over and lays his towel down.

"Hey," he says, lying down on his back.