The memory of kissing

My most recent relationship was an early casualty of the Coronavirus pandemic. My partner and I both panicked, each in our own unique ways, about the impending end of reality as we had come to understand it. The pandemic exposed new faultlines in our relationship and we both reacted to them by withdrawing, leaving nothing to hold on to.

For a time I was so wrapped up in fear, and grief — for my lost relationship, for the…