There were several entrances to the gardens, each one a wide spill of steps twenty meters wide. From the center of the piazza the north entrance began and it was here Etienne had been asked to wait. How were they to walk the gardens together yet not see each other? Angelina no doubt knew, else she would never have asked him to walk with her.
It was two hours before sunset. The paths were free of sunlight, but the heat of the day still moved drowsily through the canals.

* * *

I lay on my bed
Wet & naked
And dreaming of you
I hear your whisper
- A ghost in my ear
My body's aches
Disappear

Exhaustion lays hard
Upon eyelids weak, and
Your whisper grows

Now deep in dreams,
I feel your hands
Smooth on my wet skin
Easing the days cares
Soothing tensioned cables
Tight in my limbs
And back
And tightening others

I am wet
Dreaming
And stretched upon my bed
Wishing you were the same