The Return I wasn't sure why I was walking away. It was a cold night; I could see the frost of my breath, and that's how I knew I was alive. We'd just had our first kiss, which had taken me by surprise, and each step I took in a direction away had me wondering more and more why it had been so brief. I stopped, turned around, and called. It rang forever until she answered.

"Are you upstairs?" I asked.

She was.

"How long would it take you to get back downstairs?"

"A moment," she said.

She came out of the door with her phone in her hand, but the conversation wasn't in our voices anymore. Pulled together, we lingered in the slow winter chill, fighting it with the warmth of wanting.  ¶ 7:57 AM