She walks through the garden, sensing. She feels the spring of the turf through the soles of her feet. As she passes, scent from the turned earth mixes with the fragrance of an orchid, white as bone. Her steps now are slow and deliberate. There is no sense of hurrying or even of time passing. This place seems like it is a pocket, one secret area on the face of our earth in which the clock is stopped. All is deep green; slanting shadows and fading sunlight. A stand of leaves brushes her hand and she savours its smoothness.
*
She has known him three months and one day, and three months they have been together. The shades, angled downwards, permit the evening’s rich ochre to paint the room. Pure white bedsheets and bare minimalist paintings. Expanses of skin. Her hands trace his as his trace her form. Feeling that odd coolness. A fingertip across his lips. His kisses feel like impatient butterflies. She could spend lifetimes like this.
*
The grass gives way to an immaculate bed of flowers set in front of a pool. Like everything else here, it is still. An arch of slate spans the water. The sun’s setting is reflected up at her – what should be above, below.
*
Even when they walk separately, it seems as though they are each a part of each other. It is six months later, and they have flown to Paris – at his bidding, on the spur of the moment. It is a public holiday and the Parisians have, fittingly, become flâneurs. She finds it strange, observing the observers in their own city. As they cross the Seine, they are by themselves in crowds. The days are brittle with cold, winterbright making the streets gleam. That night, they make love sitting up with the curtains open, looking out on the city.
*
The path turns a corner and opens onto a short lawn. Young beeches form a border. One last ray peers through the branches and smiles upon his dark grey headstone. She kneels, smoothing her skirt around her knees. There is a bouquet of lilies on the grave. She smells them, then softly kisses the cold marble. As she stands, she looks away suddenly. He loved giving her flowers.