Free On A Day Like This by Peter Stamm

didn’t eat meat all that often. But now he felt like it.
    “I’m a new man,” he said, and rolled his shoulders. “I’m going to start all over again.”
    “And do everything differently,” laughed Delphine.
    “And do everything differently,” said Andreas.
    “Right. And now we’re going dancing,” said Delphine.
    Andreas protested, but it was no use.
    It was very loud in the discotheque. They bought drinks at the bar, and watched the dancers for a while. Then Delphine took Andreas by the hand and led him out onto the dance floor. She went on ahead, dodging through the mass of people. She walked on light feet, like a cat, or a model, he thought. Andreas stared at her bottom, then she spun around, pushed his hand aside, and drew him against her. She beamed, kissed him on the mouth, laid her other hand on his shoulder. She seemed to be unaware of the rhythm of the music, until Andreas took over. When that happened, Delphine laughed, a silent laugh that the music drowned out. Her head went right back, and Andreas thought either she’s drunk or she’s happy,it doesn’t matter, comes to the same thing. He too was drunk with the wine and the loud music and the flashing lights. And perhaps he was happy as well, or just excited, he couldn’t tell. He wasn’t sick, for a moment he almost believed it himself. He turned his head this way and that while he danced, he looked at other women, but it was only Delphine he wanted to dance with, who held his face in her hands to make him look at her, and then let him go again. A strobe light cut the movements of the dancers into individual stills, and then the colored lights came back on, and everything gleamed in red, and blue, and red again. Delphine spun around Andreas’s hand, lost the beat, and hugged him clumsily, while the other couples jigged up and down around them.
    The music seemed to have gotten quieter, Andreas had the sensation of floating, he was moving in slow motion. He held Delphine, and she gripped him, then he picked up the beat and took Delphine with him. The music was back again, and louder than before. The DJ sang something, and the dancers sang along, no one seemed to have understood the words, they were all just mimicking the sounds, as though they were in a foreign language that was all vowels, meaningless words, a pounding rhythm, a song that imperceptibly segued into another, and then another.
    Delphine leaned up to Andreas and shouted in his ear that she wanted to sleep with him, right now.
    “Here?” Andreas yelled back. Delphine didn’t understand him, so he yelled “Here?” again.
    She punched him playfully on the shoulder, and dragged him off the dance floor.
    Andreas didn’t turn the lights on in the apartment. He opened all the windows. There was a light in the yard, and its orange glow suffused everything in the apartment. Delphine had followed Andreas into the bedroom, and he started undressing her. When she was naked, he took off the ring she wore on one finger, and her little earrings as well. She laughed and asked him what he was doing. He didn’t answer. While they made love, he told her to look at him. At first she wouldn’t and turned her head away, but then she did, and it seemed to excite her as it excited him. Her pupils were dilated in the dim light, and her eyes looked as though they were made of glass.
    Andreas and Delphine lay side by side, sweating. She had her palm on his thigh, and was stroking it mechanically. She asked him what he was thinking.
    “I want you to leave,” he said.
    “Leave where?”
    “Go home.”
    “Now?”
    “Yes,” said Andreas. “Don’t be upset, just I’d prefer to be on my own.”
    He had thought Delphine would resist. But instead she got up without a word, went in the bathroom and showered. She came back, and got together her clothes and her jewelry in the dark. Andreas felt like making love to her again, and for an instant he regretted having sent her away. He got up and embraced