"Hey! I just arrived at the hotel for a new contract. By my calculations, it must still be morning for you. I imagine you asleep, still in the only space where we can meet—our dreams. How I wish I could inhabit more than just your thoughts right now."

You'll see the text when you decide to get up, at your own pace. Coffee or no coffee? A shower first? Or do you immediately grab your screen to check notifications, a flutter of excitement in your stomach?

You stretch out in your sheets, wrinkled from your own nocturnal movements, the whole space to yourself.

That feeling of independence that sometimes teeters on the edge of isolation... This morning, you're starting to find it stable, pleasant, but also endlessly long, this daily routine punctuated by simple gestures reminding you that you matter to someone, then this absurd reality that follows like a gentle slap on the back of the head. Another wake-up call, in the back of your mind.

It's an intangible presence. Intangible, but enough for now. Satisfying at times.

It's this or nothing, because it's all you have; your desire to connect with that person who makes your neurons vibrate, who resonates with the essence of your soul without even seeing you.