Page 584 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

looking into his wet eyes…

and he’s looking at me,

so violently loud,

eyes struck, stripped,

and screaming.

It’s love.

I know it.

There’s no other name.

It’s a voiceless love⁠—

a gag in its mouth,

a hand around its throat⁠—

so it shouts from everywhere else,

in the hands, the eyes, the pulse.

So he keeps looking into my eyes, begging me to see that so much of him is me, and if I ever leave, he'll bleed out too.

“But that’s not why I love you,” I say.

And hearing it again,

it fractures his expression.

I nod, and his jaw clenches in my hands, fighting back to keep himself from shattering.

“I do. I love you,” I repeat with a shrug,

still playing it off as casual,

not used to the words leaving my lips.

“Not for what you do. For who you are.

“On the other side of it all.

“When the day’s done.

“You, just like this.

“And I’m not taking that back.

“I’m not asking you to say anything⁠—”

Andrew cuts me off,

his kiss dropping onto my mouth

like a heavy tear hitting still waters.