Dybek doesn't clearly state what the two characters didn't do, but he's clear about everything they do, for example: “...the pinch that makes snap the bra strap; behind the lilac bushes... where you first touched me through my jeans... we kissed all day, all summer, kisses that tasted like different shades of lip gloss... (43) .” Dybek draws the reader in by creating a tension in the story that makes the reader and narrator wonder when or if the “act” will take place. The tension in the story illustrates to the reader the struggle the narrator is facing to almost but not quite succeed in having sex with his girlfriend. The step-by-step encounters create even more tension when the narrator and his girlfriend attempt to have sex on the beach because at this point both the reader and the narrator are convinced of what will happen there. The narrator wants something he cannot get. Dybek uses “We didn't,” at the beginning of the story, after each scene described, to initiate the tension between his narrator's unfulfilled desires. The narrator