“That happenedonce.”
“Sunday,” I said.
“Sunday.”
He hung up.
Dane reached past me, picked up the postcard by the corner the way he picked up evidence, and looked at the front again. He stared at the slick cobblestones. Then he set it back down, face up.
I poured us fresh mugs of coffee. Dane took his mug, carefully walked back to the couch, and lowered himself with the small grunt he didn’t think I could hear.
At nine, I made grilled cheese because neither of us had eaten and the sourdough Dane had brought back from the bakery on Tremont was too good to waste on anything more complicated.
He sat at the island in jeans and the gray hoodie of mine he had put on three weekends ago without asking. He absorbed it into his wardrobe.
“Two cheeses?” Dane said.
“Yes, they balance each other’s shortcomings.”
“Cheese has shortcomings?”
I didn’t answer.
Dane smiled into his coffee. I plated the sandwiches and set one in front of him. He picked his up without ceremony and ate half of it in three bites.
“Okay,” he said. “Two cheeses was the right call.”
“I told you.”
“You didn’t tell me. You looked at the cheese drawer for three minutes and then made an executive decision.”
“That’s how I tell you.”
He finished the sandwich and wiped his hands on the dish towel I’d left within his reach.
“Bed,” he said.
“You’re tired?”
“Not yet, but I will be after—“
I set my plate in the sink.
He came around the island, took my face in his hands, and kissed me, slow, with confidence.
“Come on,” he said.
I followed him down the short hall to the bedroom. He stood at the foot of the bed, and I rested my chin on his shoulder. He smelled like a mix of soap, sourdough, and laundry detergent.
When I wrapped a hand around his waist, he covered it with his own.
He turned inside the circle of my arms.
I kissed him, and he kissed back.
I walked him backward to the bed.
He let me do it. That had taken time. The first three weeks at my apartment, he’d resisted being moved through a space, even gently. The body of a man who controlled his own footing was a hard body to lead.