Chapter 13: Reading Backwards
I: Zane
The night ended not the way such nights are known to end. I kissed Faith again, wet and long, and made my way through the golden patio lights of the hotel and to my room, where I read for only a short time and then dreamed a dream winding and wild as mercury, but more real than the day had been.
In the dream, I rolled naked under clinging sheets, hot in the gaunt air of Cartagena. In the dream, we drew so close that it was necessary to become one thing, lustful, bare, hungry. In the dream, she said to me, “It was right to wait. I wouldn’t have waited. It was right to wait.” I said, “I will take your word for it.”
II: Faith
It was right to wait. I didn’t want to wait. But it was right to wait. The first time with a new partner is very rarely as good as it will become. And I felt like Zane could be something special.