A ĆUP OF ROMANCÉ

On our way back to his aunt's apartment, he put his arm around me, a gesture that he'd repeated a hundred times, but this one it was different, more timid, his fingers gently circling shoulder. This has become a routine lately, before I know it, I find I've wasted half an hour looking at pictures of Delun on a beach in Hawaii surrounded by bikinied girls, Delun on the back of a motorbike get on one of his mates, Delun's familiar, alluring grin, Delun at a food market trade. I've missed Delun so much, the way he makes me laugh, his shyness if I ever succeed in making him blush, the midnight banquet that we make after a night out. We lie back on the carpet and Delun rests his head on my stomach, slowly stroking my legs.