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Produced by the ILAB at WBUR Boston.

From The New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, Loss and Redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

We don't always think about the privilege of human touch and of being able to hold another person's hand while we're walking down the street.

But Nicole Dennis Ben and her wife have thought a lot about that.

She writes about their experience in her essay, Who's Allowed to Hold Hands?

It's read by Alicia Keys.

Alicia is a 15-time Grammy award-winning artist.

Her new single is called Show Me Love, which Alicia calls a meditation on the simple, powerful magic that comes from being lost in love.

On our first date, I dared to give her a lingering hug on a crowded subway platform on West Forest Street.

An unusual display of physical affection on my part, which I blamed on the wine.

It was the start of spring, the city in bloom.

Charmed by the hug, she agreed to see me again.

We wandered the city, strolling through the Upper West Side in Harlem.

Smiling her shyest smile, she told me she dreamed of living in Harlem and starting a family after finishing graduate school.

I began to visit her at her studio in Washington Heights, where we would spend hours.

We spent the evening watching CNN and debating politics, whether or not Obama would win the election.

By the time she laced her fingers with mine and kissed me as we sat criss-crossed on her carpeted floor, our mouths wreaking of garlic and tomato sauce,

we felt like we had known each other all our lives.

During one of our evening strolls, our hands brushed together.

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