She lifts an eyebrow… and laughs.
I rush through eating to get the platter off me and me closer to Vincenza. “D-do you have any lingering thoughts? I still wanna talk about our night.”
“Too many.” She hides her head into my neck. “I haven’t been inside this room in nearly two years.”
“I’m sorry… Was it Nascia’s?”
“No, we slept together. After her diagnosis, it became too painful to remember the dreams we had in here.”
“Would you rather we leave? And I don’t ask you about them?”
“The problem isn’t that being here hurts me—it’s that it doesn’t. Not as much as I want it to. The plans we had and could never finish seem so far away now. I wish they weren’t. But, every day, I find myself thinking less about them and more about you when I stare at the door.”
“I don’t want to take any memory of her away from you.”
“I know you don’t.” She closes her eyes. “I don’t know when the year passed. In my head, I have the memory of her funeral, and then suddenly I was meeting you. Every day ends quickly, but I’m not at a loss for time.”
I shut my eyes.
I’m playing with the emotions of a relationship older than me.
Vincenza stumbles off of me—I won’t stop her. It suddenly feels cruel that I tried to keep her in this room.
My body’s lifted off the bed. “You don’t mind if I dress you, right?” she asks.
“I thought the parlour was closed today,” I mumble.
“I can’t bring myself to run from you, so you’re leaving this room with me.”
I blink them back open. “Alright.”
Slowly, respectfully, she gets me into my old non-bespoke dress. Her hands take physical notice to the points where it’s become ill fitting. “This is why I’ve been holding off on the rest of your dresses. We should get you new measurements at Stella’s.”
I raise hopeful eyes to her. “Does ‘we’ mean we’re both going?”
“...Yes. I found the confidence to have a one-night stand after the festival, for anyone’s asks.”
“Oh?” I draw out with extra vocal fry. “Who’s this theoretical woman you pulled?”
“A Lawrinian, barely spoke Roversellan. She fled in the morning after I patronized her.” A smile forcefully carves across her lips. “And maybe she keeps coming back, right as her connection’s about to run out.”
“I like this woman. Maybe we could all have fun together.” I chuckle, but very quickly add, “uh, I don’t actually think I—No threesomes.”
“You’re terribly cute when you stutter.” She pulls me closer by the collar and kisses me.
“Typically, I’m told that it’s annoying.”
“Your little vocal hiccups aren’t annoying.Youare,“ she reassures.
I hide my eyes by staring at her chest.
Our hands disconnect after the car parks.
I couldn’t dare to make myself ask her how she felt towards me; she doesn’t deserve to be asked that question.
And, maybe, I’m afraid that a stone engraving will be left if I do ask. No second chances. No more time to grow closer. If I asked, and she had to know without any ambiguity that I wanted her romantically, I could so easily see her finally putting down the courting.
Stella turns up to us as we enter the shop and—I can see them.
