You Between the Lines

by Katie Naymon

His voice carries all the gravitas of a sixty-four-year-old novelist and National Book Award winner—deep, rich, buttery. The croissant of voices.

The 216 Cleveland area code is the same as mine, a revelation that is so obvious and yet reminds me he’s not someone I just met. Even though it’s much easier to think of us starting with a blank slate. I create a new contact in my phone. Will Langford, I type, adding his number. I’m not sure if I should use it. But there is a sort of thrill in being given something that is his.

“I already know you’d break my heart.” It’s almost too vulnerable a statement, but he always pulls them from me, doesn’t he? It’s hard to give him anything else.