Safe Place

Memory : 1

- So you wanna write today as well? - Jaehyun asked while leading a steering wheel taking a quick turn in a Tuscan narrow street.

- Yeah, I keep having inceptions when here, - I replied.

We went on a summer vacation to Italy. It has always been a dream of mine and to fulfill it we just had to sort out his schedule and free up some space. For me, it has been very productive so far. I've been writing a few pages every day. If I keep up this way a new novel would be coming out this autumn. And of course, without Jae, all my books wouldn't be possible. He doesn't know yet the inspiration I receive is the one he keeps giving me. The cool breeze flounders the strands of his straw pale hair still a little wet from swimming in the gulf and his linen shirt is trembling from the wind force too. I remember ironing it this morning. And all of a sudden I want to grab a pen and write it all down with raw explicit detail. But I have to wait till we pull up to our recent favorite restaurant on the seashore and book a table.

A remarkable place we discovered a week ago. Amazing food and wine, traditional blabbering, and a sunset sea harbor view - it brings me so much peace and calms me down. When Jaehuyn parks his marine blue car and takes off his glasses he leads me to the outdoors table gently holding my dress-wrapped waist. He told me to wear white today I don't know why though, maybe it concerns one of his fantasies, well I don't mind.

As soon as I get to the table I pull out my notebook and start writing. I barely pay attention to Jaehyun ordering some food and drinks. But he doesn't care, we both need some privacy leading us to sit in silence for hours shoulder to shoulder and just doing what we both love. The most important part is that we know it brings us together more than any words ever could.

- We were lucky to get here before sunset, - Jae caught my attention when I got a little distracted and dreamy. We both look out at the harbor view. It's so tranquil and still, yet the town around us is so lively.

- I love it here, - I reply, - I think it was the best decision of our lives to come here.

- You better write it all down and capture these moments so that others can experience it when reading. This is your special power. - He leans in and caresses my hand with a pen in it. His gentle smile slightly showing his dimples and I can smell his perfume lingering all over us. It holds us in a bubble I never want to get out of. I want to wrap it all over me; I want to dive into it just like we did in this sparkling evening sea. I want to smell it all the time around me on white sheets when I wake up. I want my body to start smelling like his and our minds to coincide if only for a brief moment and levitate together in this smell.

- You sure you haven't said that out loud just now? - Jaehyun picks up my hand and puts a warm kiss on the inside of my palm. His soft cheek is pressed to the cold of my pen and I find this color contrast so cute: his peachy pale skin over my dark blue steel pen. He glances at me from under the lashes and rolls up my fingers as if to keep his touch inside my hand.

-I won't distract you any longer, baby, write - he always gets shy in such moments.

Jaehyun went to say hello to a few fellows we met here at the restaurant. We keep stumbling into them every evening at dinner. I see him off to the other table of a group of smoking, eating young men. And the feeling of warm heat floods my heart as he beckons them in my direction and they wave me their greetings. A group of young men all breathing youth too childish to be adults, to understand the laws of life, but yet too old to be considered fooling around when they pick up a riot or simply sing late at night on the littered streets. I lead my hand lazily on the paper holding it from folding and rolling from the wind. Down below me is a lively street of cheerful people rushing home from work, going out, meeting lovers, and friends, riding bicycles, fishing, talking, singing, smoking, eating, fucking, speaking, and simply living their lives. I like this feeling of being a part of them, yet here we are strangers to them, both came to this Tuscan village to find ourselves or maybe to engulf ourselves in it. That day at our rented apartment Jae said: "If you ever happen to write something in here. I want it to be something memorable for us. Something we could reread in years and feel ourselves young again and how it was. I want to capture this moment when we are together like it's the last spark of life on the paintings from the last day of Ponticapeius".