On the Subject of a Tender Moment

You held me for a little longer than necessary, a little too short for my liking. The warmth of your body was a pleasant surprise.

It was a foreign feeling: to have someone’s arm around me, in the most “I-am-comfortable-and-I-am-having-a-wonderful-wonderful-time” way. And there wasn’t even the need for a comma between the wonderfuls because it all came out in a breathless spurt of unspoken feeling — so much can be said with the hand and the appendage to which it is attached.

I thought, how lovely this is; how nice. And I could not contain the burst of laughter that bubbled forth: spontaneous and unapologetic, a fountain that split the cold air and the silence.