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

Letting Go

It was mid-January, Elio had been reading the paper as usual on a Saturday morning. Annella was drinking her coffee when she looked at the front of Elio's New York Times, there staring back at her was David, with a dark-haired young woman who Annella observed was very beautiful. The front of page six read.

Mayor Gordon Vascos son to Tie the Knot.

Vascos's son David, 25, is set to marry Christine Palmer, 24, at the end of the month. The wedding is said to be the biggest wedding New York has ever seen.

Annella tapped her nails on the table getting Elio's attention, he looked at her as she was pointing to the front of the paper. Elio looked and quickly folded it, as Christopher was getting a bowl of cereal. He turned as Elio was putting the paper down and he and Annella looked at him. Christopher stopped in his tracks as he was about to take a bit of the cereal.

"What?" He asked as Elio pushed the paper under his laptop.

"Nothing just didn't expect you to be up this early after your late night," Elio answered smiling at Christopher. Reaching for the paper, Christopher ripped it out from under the computer. David was smiling back at him from a black and white photo, the smile wasn't real, he'd seen Davids true and genuine smile this wasn't it. Reading the headline he tossed the paper into the trash, running to his room, quickly getting dressed storming out of the house.

" Piccino, it's love no one goes through that much pain if it wasn't love."

"I know momma, Oliver tried everything he could but none of Stan's partners would even go near it. Mayor Vascos is a very intimidating man."

"Men like him meet a terrible end."

"I know."

**********

Time heals everything in the world by the end of April time had begun to heal. The Adler-Perlman house was starting to brighten again, Christopher was graduating next month and Jona was going to be a junior in high school. The world was moving fast, it had been nearly two years since Oliver and Elio had started their lives together, so much had changed they had grown in these last two years.

Elio sat barefoot in the study with his feet propped up in the window reading a book that Nan had suggested, Elio was glued to this book. Oliver got tired of seeing the cover of The Outlander instead of Elio's face. Oliver said he had the book cover memorized by now because that's all he saw. He watched as Elio sat with the tip of his thumb against his lips and his brow nearly knitted together, engrossed in the book was an understatement. Elio didn't even flinch when the house phone rang. Elio had gone through 10 pages by the time Oliver walked back into the room, glancing up Oliver looked stunned sitting on the piano bench.

"What's wrong Oliver?" Elio put down the book reaching for his hand.

"That was my publicist, my book reviews are outstanding even Oprah has put it on her book list. Elio, my book is at number seven on the New York Times bestseller list. And he says it's climbing, it's fucking mad!"

Oliver's limited print book was gaining traction. He had let all of his protective wall down to write this book about his summer of true love. The New York Times said it's 

"A love letter, and invocation and something of an epitaph...An exceptionally beautiful book."      - The New York Times 

"Superb...The beauty of Adler's writing and purity of his passions should place this extraordinary first memoir within the canon of great romantic love stories for everyone"               -The Washington Post Book World