He gave me a sad smile. I saw it on his face, what he was ready to give up, for me. I wondered if he saw that same sadness reflected in mine.

“I need you to do something,” he said, and I said, “Of course.”

He moved away from me, and only I knew that was the last time. He moved away, unburdened by that, and he got up. “Let’s go.”

“Where to?” I said. “What for?”

“It’s time,” Novo said. Nothing more, nothing less. Just “It’s time.”

We slipped out of the house for the last time together and we walked the center line of the road with the end of the light following, the sun’s last rays spreading out in the sky behind. All the flowers in all the gardens lifted their faces in one brief show of bloom and then closed them for the night, nodding softly, tucking themselves under, saying goodbye, and the birds dipped in and out of puddles and a fox by the trash cans stopped in its tracks, the same way Novo had the first day I saw him, with nothing between us but the width of the street.

We walked away from town and up onto the cliff path and it was black-dark and moonless when Novo stopped. He let go of my hand and I couldn’t see him in all that darkness, but his voice when he spoke was very close.

“Do you want to fall with me?” he said.

“Of course I do. Always. But—”

“If we fell from up here, I would catch you.”

“And what would happen?”

“We’d be together. You would always have me here.”

“At what cost?” I said. “What’s the catch?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it matters.”

“Let’s do it,” he said. “Why don’t we just do it?”

I knew that if we did, I would feel what it was like to be him. I would fall without fear and always remember falling and never, ever have to land. Not without him. Not alone. I wanted that. It goes without saying. I wanted that more than anything else. I wanted to say yes. But love isn’t about what you want. Not really. Beyond that, it’s about what you give. Freely. Without asking for anything back.

“Do it with me,” Novo said, and I could hear the gray break of the water, way beneath us, against the rocks.

“Fall,” Novo said. “Fall in love. And I’ll fall with you.”