A Secret Between Us

The moment something began - without ever being named.

I return -

not to you,

but to the moment

before anything had a name.

The first time

our eyes met -

everything stilled.

Not around us -

but within.

Something in you

reached me

before anything was spoken.

Not memory -

but recognition.

Like my body knew

what my mind

had never learned.

It lasted only seconds -

but something in me

kept it.

As if that moment

had already happened -

somewhere

I could not name -

but knew.

Like arriving

where I had never been -

and still knowing

the way.

You stood close -

but not close enough

to explain it.

And still I felt it -

that quiet current

beneath the skin.

Not in what you said,

but in what never needed

to be said.

We let it exist -

in glances,

in pauses,

in the quiet pull

neither of us resisted,

in the way I could feel you

without turning -

like the air shifted

when your attention

found me.

And then -

that night.

The world dimmed

into background noise,

and for a moment

it was only us -

beneath a sky

that seemed to understand.

Your hand found mine -

hesitant,

as if asking

a question

we already knew.

And when you kissed me -

it wasn’t sudden.

It was inevitable.

Like something

that had been waiting

for the right silence

to arrive.

And after -

nothing changed.

And everything did.

We never spoke of it.

Not fully.

Not in the way

that would make it real enough

to survive

what stood around it.

So it stayed -

between us.

Unfinished.

Unclaimed.

Unsaid.

But never unreal.

Author's Note

There are connections that don’t arrive loudly.
They don’t ask to be understood, or explained, or even spoken.

You just feel them - as if something in you recognizes something in another before your mind can follow.

At the time, I didn’t question it.
I didn’t try to define it.
I only knew it was there.

And somehow, that was enough.

— 1 of 4

Reviews

[JayG]

So, this is a letter from you, an unknown, to someone not introduced, about situations that have meaning only for the two of you. That's great...for you and him/her...I suppose. But, what's in it for the reader? You sent your letter to us, not this unknown person. And given that, shouldn't it have context and meaning more explicit than reporting a brief fling with someone unknown that wasn't repeated? Are you hoping that people here will confide in you about their one-night stands, too?

In short, instead of talking to the reader, make it meaningful to them, as they read. Make them care and feel, not nod and say, "Uh-huh."