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“So, any news?”Annella sighed and shook her head, stopping in the middle of applying lotion to her hands. Her husband, lying in bed next to her, gave a humming sound, but his eyes stayed fixed on the book he was reading.“You know that I love our son more than anything in the world,” she said, continuing taking her of her delicate hands, “but sometimes…”Samuel chuckled, finished her sentence: “Sometimes one cannot help but wonder where all his brain cells went.” He reached out and took one of her hands, now no longer busy, in his own, and placed a kiss on top of her knuckles. “The problem is that he has too many of them, and that they are constantly busy with music and books, instead of processing what is right in front of him.”Now, it was Annella’s turn to hum contemplatively. “Poor Oliver.”Samuel weighed his head. “He is older, knows how to be on guard, keeps his feelings close to his chest. I wonder if he has been hurt before, with how fiercely he protects himself.”“Isn’t it obvious? Not all parents want their child’s happiness the way we want,” Annella said, her face turning sad, and Samuel put his book down, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer.“He has us now,” he said soothingly. “At least for the summer.”“…at least for the summer…,” Annella echoed. “But then what? And: What if they don’t talk?”Samuel kissed her temple.“I think you already worked your magic choosing the story of the French knight.”Annella chuckled. “You could literally see Elio’s brain working.”“I hope he won’t forget that he can always talk to us,” Samuel said, more to himself than to his wife. “And Oliver, too.”“Oh, he knows. He so much as told me that he liked Elio a lot.”“He mentioned something similar to me, too. After I showed him the slides of the statues.”They both chuckled fondly, then sighed.“And poor Marzia,” Annella suddenly added. “I bet she knows but doesn’t want to see. And Elio…”“He is seventeen.” Samuel snorted. Annella tsked and playfully slapped his chest.“Oh, come on, we met when we were, what, twenty? Don’t tell me I was any better, even then,” he winked.“You men. Impossible,” she chuckled.“I know, my love. But, coming back to the matter at hands, I’m quite certain they will act on their feelings soon. It’s too obvious for everyone by now. At least, our son is.”Annella thought about his words for a moment, then pushed herself up on one arm. “We don’t need to talk to him about… you know?”Samuel laughed. “A little too late to refresh that talk, don’t you think? I mean, have you seen Marzia when she left?”“I know!” Annella exclaimed, doing a bad job suppressing a laugh. “But…”“He will be fine.” Samuel kissed her lips. “They will be fine.”They both chuckled, thinking about their boys. Somewhere inside of the house, a door fell shut.“We should get some sleep now. It’s late, and we had an eventful day.” Samuel stretched out his arm to turn off his bedside lamp while his wife was getting comfortable at his side.“But if they continue to ignore the elephant in the room, I will read something more obvious. To both of them,” she mumbled, eyes already closed. Samuel wrapped his arms around her, a smile on his lips, trying to imagine which explicit pieces of literature his exasperated wife might dare to pull out from the depth of her book collection,… while some rooms down the hall, two young men had finally decided to explore the things that mattered in their own way…