Everyone said Noa and Adam were in love.

People said it at parties, watching them arrive. They said it under the photos. Noa and Adam said it too — to each other, at the correct moments, the way you say bless you after a sneeze.

This is a story about what they actually had.

You only need one word in your pocket to follow it: stroke. A stroke is a unit of recognition. A look. A compliment. A hand on a shoulder. A name said warmly. It is not a metaphor and it is not a luxury. Babies who are fed but never held do not do well. Adults learn to live on less, and on substitutes — but the hunger never resigns. It just learns manners.

Watch what these two do with that hunger.

Everything else is furniture.