“I’m leaving.”, Leah said.
“I know.”, Tobias replied.
“I don’t know when I’m coming back.”
“And, do you know if you’re gonna be safe there?”
“I think no one can answer that question now.”
“This room is going to be very quiet without you here.”
“You can always turn the lights on and imagine us dancing in the bed.”
“My hoddies looked so good on you.”
He smiled, but she couldn’t see it; one meter apart, they couldn’t touch each other.
Leah was going back home, to England, Tobias was staying there, in Ireland.
Life didn’t feel normal, the sky lost its color, the time was broken. Destiny was being unfair again, but what can you do if you don’t want to cry?
“I still remember when we bought them.”, he said.
“You wanted them blue and purple because they were like my eyes color.”, she said.
“Blue during the day, like the Atlantic or the sky after a storm, when the sun is too scared to come out yet.”
“And purple at night, like the first sapphire that was unburied and made people fall in love with the world.”
She smiled this time, but he couldn’t see it; their hands were covered by gloves, their faces by masks.
How it felt when they touched? Their fingers forgot all the roads they traced in each other’s backs, the constellations disconnected from the darkness, the lips were withering of despair and claiming for salvation.
The heart was dying for all the oxygen they couldn’t have.
“Why don’t we dance once last time?”, Tobias asked.
“We can’t get any closer.”, Leah said.
“Is that a problem?”
He turned the lights and the radio on, «Before You Go» by Lewis Capaldi just started.
Tobias began spinning slowly while the neon color was melting in the monochromatic walls.
Leah put the hands in the air, letting them pose in her head while she was closing her eyes and moving the hips side to side very smoothly.
They continued moving around the room and getting closer and closer in every step until they were in front of each other.
Tobias removed his gloves, throwing them to the floor. He took Leah’s hands and did the same.
He grabbed her by the waist really carefully, she removed their masks; how something like that turned into such an intimate and sensous act?
Leah didn’t hesitate and caressed his face. They looked for a minute, dancing the most dangerous walt that ever existed.
“I think you’re wrong.”, Leah said.
“About what?”
“My eyes. Yours would make everyone fall in love with the world in moments like these, and that’s more lovely than the ocean or the first gemstone discovered.”
The song was ending, the world too, the virus was out there and it was winning, they could get sick, they could even die, but the fear didn’t exist for a minute because, for them, that was the safest place in the universe.
They hugged one last time, so desperate and insatiable, so intense and tragically beautiful.
“I love you, Leah.”
“I love you, Tobias.”
And they kissed without knowing if they would even make that again.
Listen while you’re reading to get a more immersive experience: https://open.spotify.com/track/2gMXnyrvIjhVBUZwvLZDMP?si=6Q_cTKekS12klzlBUV3EcQ
