‘For Gods sake don‘t leave me.‘ He said, ‘Of course I won‘t,‘ and felt the occasion close in on him, suffocatingly, from a great distance. It was something else Toby had mentioned, by the lake: there are times when she can‘t be alone, and she has to have someone with her.

He wanted to go to bed with her immediately, pull the sheets around them, dig his toes into the mattress, her heals pushing against his calves, her fingers running rivers along his sides. But these days fantasies flourish and die like Summer flies.

We are destined to be together forever. We have a card that says so. We have matching birthmarks.

We are not strangers to ourselves; we only try to be.