In the Back of My Mind
In case I ever forget
She sat me down in the bathroom and groomed me. She trimmed my beard for an hour, with the concentration and care of someone being paid a thousand dollars a hair. She would kiss me periodically, not caring that my whiskers would stick to her face. I would look into her eyes, and she would have to stop because her hands were shaking, and we would both have to touch each other in some way, as if reminding one another that this was real. We barely slept. We barely ate. We came home from the party and started talking, and eight hours passed. We hadn’t slept. We didn’t even notice. She had to leave. It was as if time was against us, and she kept pushing her alarm back. Every hour it would go off and our eyes would lock in slight terror, as if this was the last time we would see each other. She stretched out the minutes as if each second was a treasure she couldn’t bear to part with. When she left, I felt her absence, and knew I had found someone who I wouldn’t want to leave again.
