Chapter 11: All Night

He called me on Monday night at nine and said he couldn't sleep.

He hadn't slept past three in the morning in over a year.

He said it.

"I'm sorry," Isak said. "It's a bad reason to call."

"It's the best reason," I said. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."

He opened the apartment door in a T-shirt and gray sleep pants with his glasses pushed up on his forehead.

There was a new lamp in the living room.

There was a new green plant on the windowsill.

"You bought a plant," I said.

"It was on sale."

"It's a fern."

"I noticed," he said, and turned pink.

He took my hand and led me down the short hall to his bedroom.

It was small and plain, with a wooden bed frame and gray sheets.

There were two pillows on the bed.

One was old and flat, and one was brand new, still creased from its package.

I looked at the new one.

He looked at the ceiling.

"It was also on sale," he said.

I turned to him and put my arms around his neck.

"Isak."

"Yes."

"Take your glasses off."

He did, and put them on the nightstand.

I kissed him slowly.

I took my time.

He had been hurried all week by weddings and families and pie.

His hands settled on my waist and stayed there.

"No speeches," I said. "No schedule. Just this."

"I can do that."

I pulled my sweater over my head and dropped it.

I unhooked my bra, and he looked at me by the lamp.

Then he lifted his shirt over his head, and we stood there with our chests bare and the room warm and quiet around us.

We got onto the bed together.

He lay on his side, and I lay facing him, so close that our noses touched.

His hand traced down my ribs and over my hip, and I felt every one of his fingertips.

He kissed my neck.

He kissed down my collarbone and the curve of my breast, and took my nipple in his mouth and drew on it slowly.

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