The scene was set. All that was required was an action, a cold start, instant and brutal as beginnings always are.

Choices are made in brief seconds and paid for in the time that remains

The scene was set. All that was required was an action, a cold start, instant and brutal as beginnings always are.

Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other.

She emptied herself of Fabio and of herself, of all the useless efforts she had made to get where she was and find nothing there. With detached curiosity she observed the rebirth of her weaknesses, her obsessions. This time she would let them decide, since she hadn't been able to do anything anyway. Against certain parts of yourself you remain powerless, she said to herself, as she regressed pleasurably to the time when she was a girl.

All Mattia saw was a shadow moving toward him. He instinctively closed his eyes and then felt Alice’s hot mouth on his, her tears on his cheek, or maybe they weren’t hers, and finally her hands, so light, holding his head still and catching all his thoughts and imprisoning them there, in the space that no longer existed between them.

[Their love] had burned itself out, like a forgotten candle in an empty room, leaving behind a ravenous discontent.