She wanted to tell him, to teach him: Everytime you love, pieces of you break off and get replaced by something you steal from someone else. It seems like it's the right shape, but it's slightly different every time, so that eventually, very very quietly and over days and days and days, you are transformed into something unrecognizable, and it happens so slowly you don't even notice, like shedding scales and making new ones.

He smiled at her like: Isn't it great?

Yes, she thought, pained,

Yes, it is perilously wonderful to suffer so sweetly with you.