We are just sleeping together.
We say.
This is just until the next best thing comes along.
We protest.
I love the feel of your skin.
He whispers.
But it’s the loudest thing I have ever heard.
It’s deafening.
It’s confusing.
It makes me feel.

I’m not ready for a relationship.
I decree.
That’s funny, he says, I was just thinking this is the best one I’ve ever been in. This non-relationship stuff is cool.
Which puts us in a relationship.
It might as well be a cage, for me.
Of course, now I have to leave.
The end.
Always the end.