the SEVEN-FIVE project

2005-08-08 - 12:34 a.m.

I dropped the towel that was wrapped around my waist almost as soon as she closed the door and grabbed at the pile of clothes she left for me. Everything was black; I don't think it was a conscious choice of her part, just a coincidence. The pants were as baggy as what I normally wear and the shirt was kind of tight but manageable. I switched everything out of the pockets of my old clothes to the new ones and just left them on the pile of towels in the corner.

I walked into the living area, carrying my shoes under one arm while finger combing my hair with the other hand, she was back on the floor in front of my guitar case going through pictures. I put my shoes down just inside the living area and went into the kitchen, with the building's open floor plan I could still see here from where I was. I put some of the still warm stew that I had made into a bowl and leaned against the counter to eat. She stayed in the living area going through pictures and whatever else she could find, separating them into piles.
After I finished eating I went into the living area and sat down behind her on the couch. "What's with the piles?"
She dropped the pile she was sorting and leaned back against my legs, "The left pile is drawings of people, the center pile is letters, and the right pile is pictures." She pointed to each one in turn and then went back to work sorting things.
"I can see that, but why are you sorting my stuff?"
"Because there was no order to it. Everything was just mixed up and made no sense. It was all just in there."
"I kind of liked it that way."
I moved over and slid onto the floor next to her. She looked over at me and smiled. I picked up the pile of drawings and began sorting them. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, but was slow to draw away. I put the pile I was working on down and put my right arm around her. She leaned into my body like she was made to fill that space.
"I'm sorry." She turned to me and whispered softly.
It took me a minute to figure out what she had said. "And what do you have to be sorry about?"
"I'm sorry I'm not better at this. It's been a long time since anyone... since Matt."
"It's okay. It's been a while for me too. Since what happened between Mary and me I've really just distanced myself from most people."
"We seemed to be doing fine before... before we started thinking about it."
"Then let's not think about it for now." I leaned in and kissed her again. This time neither one of us held back and let whatever feeling was in us flow into the other.

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