Yours to Bare

“I like you shy. And not shy.” He drops a smooth, lingering kiss on my lips. “And everything else you are or are not.”

“It’s supposed to help your craft, right?” She half-laughs. “Heartache . . . longing.”

I look forward. A stoplight changes from red to green. A man steps off the curb, narrowly avoids getting hit by a taxi, and darts through traffic anyway. Are any of us really awake? Are we making decisions about our lives, or just letting things happen to us? Is that why we like art, why Halston needs it, because without it, we’d never feel anything out of the ordinary?

“Why would anyone want to make mistakes?” she asks tightly.

“They’re necessary. It’s how we grow.”

“Don’t hide who you are. It’ll come out somehow, some day, and you’ll have struggled with it for nothing. Take chances and risks. Make mistakes. Especially now.”

I’m a better man when I’m not trying to be someone other than myself.”

“I was caught off guard at first.” My hand sweats around the leather. “But you’re talented. You drew me in and I’ve been unable to get out since.”

A smoker without a cigarette, a seemingly nice girl without her naughty journal.

Too close, and I might forget how it feels to lose what was never mine to begin with.