République Magenta Stalingrad Laumière. Parts of Paris I never knew before. I like Stalingrad, I like the names of battles. I keep pedaling, the bike is light, it's a Peugeot, an old racing bike, 60 euros on leboncoin. One of the brakes conks out, I slow down, it's hot. The humidity, the Canal de l’Ourcq, I don't know this area. I know I've arrived when I see the sign “Sushi Paradise—20% off orders to go” opposite her house. Digicode, elevator, I put my bike in the kitchen, I go over to the big windows. There's a high-rise opposite, blocking the view on the left, but on the right there's just a huge stretch of sky, giving everything a sci-fi feel, Valerian vibes, almost utopian. We don't do much. I guess we talk a bit, open our books, listen to music. I'm sitting on the floor. I'm holding something in my hands. At some point she says, Come here, and we lie down. We sleep together but not right away. At first, we just lie there, our bodies pressed against one another. Then she rolls onto her stomach, she asks me to stroke her back, her ass. Then she stops talking, she doesn't tell me what to do like she sometimes does, like she did this morning, she lets me do what I want, she doesn't say a thing. Afterwards I lie close to her, one leg over her, I fall asleep. I wake up, she tells me not to go yet. Every time I leave, she says it feels like we'll never see each other again.

She does the paying, I do the driving. We've decided on Normandy. I say, It's nice around Bayeux. We buy food in plastic packaging at the service station. She chooses the music. I'm in love with your brother what's his name, the song goes. We find an Airbnb near Omaha beach. We go for a swim. We go for dinner. She beats me at ping pong. We get two rooms. No pressure to have sex. No pressure to be in love. In the morning she comes into my room. We have breakfast. We drive through the country-side. I take her to visit a cousin who lives in a château not far away. It used to belong to my grandmother. There's an ornamental lake with swans in it. We stay for twenty minutes. We leave again. We fool around a bit in the woodland, take the highway, she calls me Maurice, like in the James Ivory film.

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From the get-go, the deal is serious exclusive monogamy. I say OK because I like her. I can see how it intensifies the passion, how it increases the risk. The risk of breaking your teeth, the few you have left, all in one go. The upside is the simplicity.

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