Rita
My eyes flutter open. I fix them on the ceiling, the room is dark but I distinguish the outlines of the furniture, of his body. I hear his quiet, rhythmic breathing, his heart moving steadily in his rib cage, he is lying so close to me.
He is the only one who has fallen asleep next to me. Elio used to say he would never shut his eyes in my presence because he never knew when I might snap and kill him. He said it as a joke but I don’t think it was entirely a joke.
Peter stirs and turns on his side. He drapes a hand over me and pulls me towards him. He does it unconsciously, in his sleep. We met earlier and we came to this place- I still have difficulty calling it “my place”. No one from the family knows about it and I've made sure they will never find out. It’s the only place whe
