see you later near the golden arches.

I saw something in your eyes as you brushed your hair back, something that lit up along with the reflection from the streetlight a few feet away from us but I couldn't bring it to life when I tried to speak and so I just looked at you. Then you smiled and it broke the silence with that silence, and you asked without looking at me if I was going to work overtime tonight. I said no, but didn't return the smile back and I just continued to look at you and you brushed your hair back again leaving a few stray strands that contrasted with your face and made you just look more beautiful against the backdrop of this evening and the subdued yellow gleam from the McDonald's across the street from us.

We sat down on the few short steps of the corridor leading to the side of the building and you finally lit the cigarette you were holding like it was the last Marlboro in the world. When you took that first long drag, you almost closed your eyes and kept that breath in for some time then let it out like a long withdrawn sigh and smiled uncomfortably at me, your eyes sparkling in the nicotine high. I got the cigarette from your fingers, savoring that instance of touch and took a drag myself, letting all my little highs mix with that puff. We passed the Marlboro to each other a few times, dragging our entire attention to its passage from your fingers to mine and back to you again, like an old forgotten ceremony.

You flicked the cigarette away and it hit the asphalt, scattering a few orange sparks and you let your hand freeze in the follow through for a few moments, and as I stared I wanted to hold it, just hold it and keep it warm as your hands were always cold. After a few seconds you moved your hand in that silent movement you always made like you were pushing something away then you placed your hands on your lap and looked at me, with a look that wanted to hold and be held.

I looked away instead and eyed a taxi coming round the bend, the name of the taxi read "The 28th of September" and it struck me as something lovely out of the ordinary. I also wondered what we were doing on that date but it was a time out of mind already and I gave up remembering and just returned to looking at you, the silence creeping in again, like the shadows around us when the traffic slowed down.

I asked if it was your day off tomorrow, even if I knew that it was; even if I had memorized thursdays and fridays as the new saturdays and sundays. You only smiled and looked at your shoes with a nonchalance that was almost perfect except that your eyes gave you away again and you sidled closer to me; close and just enough for our clothes to barely touch each other but enough for me to feel your body heat that made your presence more real and physical. I had to contain myself not to embrace you as I would be crossing a threshold and I would forever change once I stepped over and had to content myself with your warm scent, the scent of your shampoo that I couldn't place but familiar.

Another taxi came driving slowly and saw us looking at our dark reflections on its side window for a few seconds and I froze it in my memory; us, together for just a little while again, then you opened the door and went inside the taxi. You placed your right hand flat against the window and waited for my hand on the other side of the window to place it there, palm against palm; the unseen boundary just becoming real, and I looked at you, taking you all in as I held your hand in my mind. The window glass was cold and I remembered your hands again and me wanting to keep them warm, always. The taxi moved and I saw your eyes again, that same look and knew the words wouldn't matter now.

See you.