The Rome Affair

They always said theirs was a pop-up friendship, like one of those camping tents you could pack in a bag and throw open wherever you stopped.

You're so long," he grinned, picking up one of her arms and waggling it playfully, as though she was Mr Tickle

She turned to face him as, suddenly, he was there - as though he always should have been, as though he always was going to be - standing just a metre from her, his eyes burning

Cesca sat on the small square at the top of her steps, legs outstretched and the last of the wine in her hand as she caught the final rays from the fast-melting sun, which was oozing from the sky

They glided down the magnificent staircase, the builders' cacophony increasingly audible as they descended, while the open windows at each level brought in raucous shouts from the square, too. Rabble on one side, rubble on the other

Her body curled into a comma - but there would never be a pause from this

We just understood each other. We didn't need a bank of memories and shared experiences to know exactly who the other one was; you don't often get that with people in this life.

She knew better than anyone that sometimes it was silence that was the lie. That sometimes it was silence that could kill.