the tango is a sad thought to be danced.

So... I say

I've been thinking a lot about you, us 

I say this, interrupting the stream of lively trivia and excitement we always manage to work ourselves into. There Is a glimmer or recognition in her eyes. Is this what she knew all along ? The cafe shrinks. All of the week's melancholy boiled down to a sentence.

This isn't a breakup. It's a relationship rezoning - What a terrible term to have just imagined. 

But she leaps into place. Catching her falling dance partner in a soft familiar embrace I'd only recently discovered. 

She knew. Knows. She says she's ok, it's been on her mind. 

I'm sorry, I don't feel for you the way I want myself to feel about love.

I surprise myself with these words. Am I in love with an idea of love that's so different from what's really going on? Can it be helped? Isn't this the most terrible thing to say in this fickle age? 

Can we be friends?

Is what we're about to do possible? 

The lights narrow to a spot, we bow and exit stage right.