Summer, 1983 (I'll call you by mine)

I'll call you by mine

The three of them were all sat out in the orchard. The peaches had not been as well maintained since Anchise's days of nurturing them. Marzia sat where Elio's mother always had, and her daughter, Valentina, sat across from him. She often joined her mother on these visits. They had become less and less now that she was a teenager but Valentina almost lived here as a child. His parents never stopped treating Marzia like she was family, the same way they never stopped treating Oliver the same way.

"How was it having Oliver here again?" Marzia asked, taking a drag off of her cigarette.

"It was fine, we talked a little of the past. He mostly talked about his children and not much else." Elio said giving her a crooked smile.

"Who is Oliver?" Valentina's nose came out of her dreaded romance novel, her dark curls fell into her face just enough that she had to sweep them behind her ears. Her green eyes asking him more questions than she had verbalized.

"Oh, Oliver is an old friend of Elio's. He stayed here when Mr. Perlman used to house a graduate student every summer. And Oliver won over our dear Elio." Marzia patted her daughter's hand.

Valentina's eyes widened, he could tell she wanted to know more but he shook his head.

"I don't want to talk about Oliver. He left out of here with few words and I've not heard anything from him in a few weeks. No email or phone call so my guess is he's back home with his wife. He wanted me to meet her once, and the boys, but I just couldn't do it. It would have made them to real, too alive, you know?" Elio asked her, and she understood. Marzia was the person he ran to when Oliver told Elio, he was getting married. She was the only one Elio told, his parents never came out and asked him, they just knew.

"It's time to go home Valentina, your father and brother will be waiting for us," She said. They gave Elio their hugs and kisses. He cleaned up the table. Mafalda was done for the evening and he rather enjoyed doing daily tasks that he was never required to do as a child.

After dinner was put away, Elio sat down at the piano, running his fingers over the keys. The wildlife outside was stirring as the sun was going down. He started playing with sorrow drowning out the world.

On the last key, Elio dropped his hands to his knees. The house was quiet, he kept his eyes closed summoning the image of a red swim short clad Oliver laying by the pool reading over his papers.

"Play what you played outside twenty years ago." The familiar voice startled him. Elio thought his heart was playing tricks on him. He turned his head slightly and closed his eyes again taking a deep breath.

"Elio..." he breathed out slowly. Not believing his ears. The weight shifted on the bench next to him, Oliver tilted Elio's head up slowly running a finger across his lips.

"Oliver..." the deep voice whispered.

Elio opened his eyes to see Oliver, twenty years older, sunspots kissing his skin, and a slight smile on his face.

"Before you speak let me. When you showed up in my classroom covered by that beard. The moment I realized it was you my heart nearly choked me. When you got in that car and left, I went home and my wife greeted me at the door. She looked at me and asked what was wrong, I had nothing to say, for once in my life no words could be said." Oliver shifted on the bench, taking Elios hand in his.

"The next few months after that I was very quiet. I was sitting at my desk, she walked in stopped in front of me laying a bundle of letters in front of me. Madeline told me she had found them when Christopher, my oldest, was 2 and he had gotten into my desk pulling all my papers out. She chose to ignore them, but when we visited your parents that year and they showed me your pictures and I talked to you on the phone. She said she knew she would never see me smile like that toward her, that she had read my manuscript that I had hidden in my desk. It's about our summer together. I've been waiting for the right time to put it out in the world. She told me she could not live in a marriage that didn't exist. She didn't know who I was, I didn't let her in to see me. She handed me a duffle bag full of my clothes and told me the marriage had been over for some time now and now it was time for us to move on." He had tears in his eyes, Elio couldn't tell if they were for joy or sadness. Elio wrapped my arms around him.

"Oliver, I'm so sorry," Elio said kissing Oliver's forehead. Oliver pulled away, tear-stained face.

"Don't be sorry, I regret not coming back to you. I regret so much but not my life with her. She gave me two beautiful gifts and you give me even more. My boys are confused and heartbroken by this and I hate myself for it, but she's not keeping them from me. They can stay with us during the summer, and when we go back I can have them when I want."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Elio asked with a slight smile.

"I don't want to waste another twenty years without you, Elio. I can't bring myself to do that again. I hate myself for wasting all these years not speaking to you, but every time I did a little piece of me died."

Elio silenced him by running his fingertips over Oliver's lips, slowly leaning into Oliver. Oliver closed the gap between them hungry for Elio's mouth. It was as if the last twenty years melted away, every passing year vanished. They worked there way to Elio's room.

"Elio, Elio, Elio. We have all the time in the world, just savor me," Elio whispered kissing Oliver's cheeks.

Oliver closed his eyes taking in the sweet scent of Elio. "Oliver.."

They laid in Elio's bed, relearning each other's bodies.

"This is new," Oliver said running his hand over Elio's lightly hair clad chest. He ran his fingers over Oliver's, with a chuckle.

"Well, I'm not 17 any more things have changed."

"I know. That beard is something I don't know if I like yet, but I can grow to love it. It does take away from your boyish looks." He said pulling at it.

"My boyish looks went away when I turned 30, but you have changed too. I'm not the only one that has lost their boyish charm."

They laid like that for hours, making love, remembering every inch of each other. Elio and Oliver started their life, it was summer neither of them had to go back to their lives in the states until school started back. They went to Rome together the last two weeks of summer visiting the places they had gone, staying in the same hotel they had twenty years ago. When they had come back home, Mafalda had packed up their things. Annella stayed in Italy all year round now, her Alzheimer's made it difficult to bring her to the states. For some reason she remembered the house, she would ask about his father and she remembers Oliver. The morning they were set to leave she was having a good day so she joined them for breakfast.

She sat looking at Oliver, she smiled her voice had become raspy after years of smoking.

"Oliver, don't leave my Elio again, his heart will not be able to take it."

Oliver looked at Elio, he went to respond to her, but she grabbed Elio's hand.

"What time did your father say he was coming back from his trip." Elio patter her hand.

"Soon, momma, soon.'

Elio didn't tell her anymore that his father had passed, he said it just made her cry. It hurt his heart too much to do that to her. They said their goodbyes, Elio promised his mother he would call every day. They took a taxi to the train station, standing on the platform Elio looked around.

"Twenty years ago today you left me behind if I could go back and tell myself it would all work out. That all the tears and heartbreak I felt would finally stop, I would do it all over again, but I would have told you I wanted you sooner, like the first day."

"You saying you would have let me do more than rub your shoulder that day?"

"You have no idea what was going through my head all those years ago, Professor."