Sing My Name

by Ellen O'Connell

“I’m used to you holding on to me while I sleep, so when you snuck off I missed you.”

Matt had trouble with the concept. “How can ladies bleed from inside for a week every month? You’d fall over dead.”

Love was not something you decided on. Not the part in your mind that made you want to know everything about him, make him forget every bad thing that had ever happened to him, make sure nothing bad ever happened to him again. Not the part in your body that made you ache to touch him, have him touch you.

She wanted to feel the smoothness and warmth of his skin, feel the muscle and tendon and bone under his skin. She wanted to spread her hand out flat over his belly, feel the breathing and life of him.

“I think I like that, like knowing I marked you by loving you,” he said.