Incense

She belonged, like many other things, to the past, to and uncertain time that existed but that was blur now. The memory was as vague as real. Suddenly, the incense nights of that burgundy painted room came back and all that thick smoke condensed between them. He closed his eyes and saw his hands undressing her slowly. The images from the past mixed with feelings from the present and it was like if the slides of his memory were incomplete.

...her breasts in his hands, her empty stare, her legs around his waist...

"You don't smell of incense anymore", he muttered.
"Incense times are pretty far... though, right now, it's like if everything was coming back", she said.
"Even incense".
She nodded and whispered a shy "yes".

There was a silence then.

"Essence of Lust", she suddenly said staring at him in the eye. He stared back at her confused. "That was the name of that incense. You know what? They knocked that house down... it was like they were taking away a part of me with it. I remembered you that day".
"I've been ten years remembering you".
"You should have never fallen in love with a whore".

But she was the only one staring at him like that. Without past, present or future and, above all that, without chains that could tie him. He never knew much about her besides the essential, however, everything he confided to her, in that uncertain past, made him feel uneasy. She only receive money from him the day she met him and few days after she put it back in his wallet as he slept. That same day she borrowed a coin he would never miss.

...his tongue touch hers slowly, looking for the exact and precise pace with which time stops. She, naked, holds him tight. Her kisses taste of incense, her body tastes of incense. He reflects on his pupils, he undresses her again, he runs his hands all over her...

Her stare is still empty.

"Are you going to leave again?".
She stares at him: "I'm still here. We can't change anything anymore. It would be worthless".
"Come home".

And in the smoke she vanished.

He misses her deeply but the fear of depending on her wouldn't let him look for her again. She will always remember him but he's the only one who can find her again.