Dante clenches his jaw.

“I tried to call him but his answering machine keeps on telling me that he’s out of town. I’m gonna go to his office tomorrow”.

**

“Shane…”, I call her in the silence of the room, and she rolls on her back as silently as a cat, facing me in the dim light. I run my fingers on her face, my eyes grazing and swallowing every detail of her perfect features.

“I love you”, I whisper to her, simply and painfully, “You’re the most important person in my life. I love you with all my heart”.

I don’t know why I need to tell her about how I feel. I need it so much. I’m scared and I’m angry and I feel life we’ve been catapulted out of our life, out of our reality, and now I need to reaffirm them somehow. Shane is my tenet. Shane is my everything. Our marriage is my belief and I need her to know that.

“I love you too, Carmen, so much. So much…”, she replies with a small, invisible smile, and her thumb slightly brushes my lips.

There are millions of things I would like to say and I instead I just keep on staring at her. And she stares back at me. And those green eyes of hers are wonderful to see. Yeah, I look at them and I am so full of wonder. Wonder is the best term to describe how they make me feel, everyday, every time. I love how they look so soulful and seem to swirl and churn and crisp like a bottomless pool of liquid. A rotary current of emerald green, so full of soundless words.

I skim over her long, dark eyelashes and she blinks, just once. I open the palm of my hand on her cheek and kiss her lips, gently, slowly, for an endless time. Just lips on lips. Nothing primal, nothing sexual, just my lips on her warm, soft lips.

“Unsaid words…”, she murmurs huskily, staring at me attentively.

“Like you always do, master…”, I whisper back to her, half smiling, and she beams. Her smile hits me like a stream of light and now I know I’m not gonna give up on her and I’m not going to give in on what we have together. Nobody, nothing – no vengeance, no fear, no threats, no maniacs will make me turn my back to her. Never.