0th Week: Land in a country too green. Hear accents sing. Listen to your own clang like dropped pans on checkered floors.
1st Week: Cross streets. Look right. Go to the “tea” party. Discover that T is short for Tequila. Take shots. Squeeze limes. Wonder if this is how Emma Watson spent her time.
2nd Week: Write a paper. Press send at 4:59 pm.
3rd Week: Shoot a gun. Miss the target. Ignore jokes about American gun control.
4th Week: Go to Wales. Jump on trampolines in abandoned slate mines. Hold hands with a stranger. Laugh.
5th Week: You’re already forgetting his name.
6th Week: Third wheel. Words spar. Flirt like a fencer. Walk home alone with your heels in hand.
7th Week: Leave his dorm at 6 AM. Clap your soles against St. Giles – Magdalen – Beaumont Street. Hear nothing but the flap of pigeon wings. A bike chain creaks in the distant fog.
8th Week: Lace limbs. Lie awake. Let lack of sleep bruise your face.
9th Week: Fly home. Look left. Trace the blue branches under your skin. Does your pulse still squelch in time with him?