Call Me By Your Name

by André Aciman

Just say something, just touch me, Oliver.

If he knew, if he only knew that I was giving him every chance to put two and two together and come up with a number bigger than infinity.

We were too close, I thought, I’d never been so close to him except in a dream or when he cupped his hand to light my cigarette.

If he brought his ear any closer he’d hear my heart.

We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new.