Muscle Memory

He lay flat on his back. He felt a wetness over his lip and knew it wasn't over. He pressed the tissue against his nose and stared at the blood. He looked up at the ceiling again. He created constellations out of the Spackle marks. He heard her step out of the shower in the next room and he thought about what she looked like naked. He loved her but wasn't in love with her.

He had a flash of his ex-lover standing in a dingy blue towel in the doorway of his old apartment. She rested her hand on the off-white dry wall and said "let's go down to the lake today". She put on her earrings and dropped the towel as she walked back into the bathroom.

He sighed and felt his upper lip. He looked down at his finger, it was a dirty red.

"Let's maybe go to the lake today", he called out to her.

"What? You know we're having lunch with Mark and Marlena. I mean...I can ask if they want to-"

"Forget it", he said, "I'm just being stupid".

He sat up slightly and turned his head to look out the window. It was overcast and wet, but not raining.