We finished our champagne and dessert after that, growing drowsy and satisfied before the fire, with the Christmas tree glowing in the background. Sometime around one we deposited our empty plates and glasses in the kitchen and went back upstairs. Moving quietly and smoothly, in contrast to our frenzied coupling of earlier, we fell into bed together, pajamas falling in a heap on the floor as we pressed bare flesh against bare flesh, joining in a way that once again made me feel as if I no longer knew where he started and I began. And afterward we slept, twined in one another’s arms, breaths coming as one.
Pale morning light peeking through the blinds woke me. I blinked up at the ceiling, thinking of how I had awoken in this apartment just a few short days ago, and how much had changed in
