“Don’t you see it? It’s right there!” I once again followed her index finger aimed at the cloudless night sky. Somewhere in the abyss of stars I was suppose to find ten stars arranged in a way that’s suppose to represent a swan. Or so, that’s what Sarah tells me. I’ve been looking for the past couple of minutes and can’t seem to find it. I’m starting to believe she’s just messing with me, and there isn’t actually any swan shaped constellations. It wouldn’t be the first time. I remember a night a couple of months ago, a night very similar to this one, actually, that she told me there was a guitar shaped constellation. And of course, me being the musician I am, and her being the astronomy genius she is, I believed her and was eager to find it. I must have spent a dozen minutes scouring the night sky trying to find it, until she told me that there isn’t one before bursting into fits of laughter. They were cute fits of laughter, though, so I quickly forgave her.
“Are you just messing with me?” I ask, giving her an accusing look. She chuckles, probably remembering the night a couple months back as well. She shakes her head.
“Oh my gosh, it’s right there! How can’t you see it!” She says, index finger pointed at the sky. She stands up to emphasize her point. She looks down at me expectingly, but I’m enraptured by her beautiful dimly illuminated brown eyes in the night to even pay attention to the sky. She’s giving me a radiant smile that shows off her teeth that seem to shine brighter then the stars surrounding us. Her long, dark brown hair flies gently in the light wind.
“You’re damn beautiful, you know that right?” I tell her, smiling. I’ve always loved flirting and complimenting her. I remember in the first couple of weeks of our relationship, her cheeks and ears would turn crimson and she would look away, trying to hide her blush whenever I complimented her. I loved exploiting this whenever I could, as she looked incredibly cute when she was blushing, even if she denies her cuteness every time.
Her not looking and acting cute? Ridiculous.
And now, a little over a year later, I’m still up to my flirty antics, still fishing for reactions. While her face doesn’t turn to scarlet like it did before, I can see her smile grow after hearing that. That’s more then enough for me.
“Why thank you… but you know what’s even more beautiful? The swan! Look!” She says, waving her arm at the sky. I laugh, and she quickly joins in. I just continue looking at her, and she sits back down, finally recognizing my obvious lack of interest in the swan anymore. I wrap an arm around her shoulders, and she wastes no time leaning into me and resting her head on my shoulders.
“You’re hopeless. I bet you can’t even find the big dipper.” She says, her voice becoming much softer now. She tends to do that whenever we get a little more affectionate with each other. And her comment on not being able to find the big dipper? We both know I can find the big dipper just as well as she can, since she spent so much time teaching me how to find it. Seeing her so interested and excited about astronomy got me interested in the subject, so I asked her to teach me about it. She taught me about these things on nights like this. We spent these nights with our heads aimed at the sky, where she would show me constellations and tell me about the stars, comets, and the galaxies millions of light years away from here. I would watch her sometimes, while she was explaining this stuff to me. She seemed to glow. It was as if the stars were actually gazing upon her, brightening up her face, like it was in the spotlight. Either that, for she just loved the subject so much that she radiated whenever she talked about it. I’m sure it’s a bit of both.
As we had more and more nights like this, we spent less time looking at the sky, and more time looking at each other. We would talk, cuddle, and kiss under the stars. These gatherings became more and more of just an excuse to spend time with each other. Most couples go to the movies or have dinner during dates. We just have our own little star party.
I doubt either of us would want it any other way.
I rested my head against hers, and we stayed quiet for a while. It wasn’t an awkward silence, no, it was more of a comforting one. We would just sit against each other, and revel in the presence of each other. Taking comfort in the fact that we were with each other. Take solace in each others warmth. That’s all we needed. No words needed to be exchanged.
A nearly full moon(a warning gibbous is the name of that moon phase, if I remember correctly), along with many, many stars seemed to watch over us. My eyes searched for constellations. I start with finding the Big Dipper. It’s always the first one I find, because it’s become quite symbolic to me, and, well, it’s really easy to find. Polaris and The Little Dipper naturally come next, then comes Cepheus, Hercules, Vega…
A smirk crosses my face as I played connect the dots with ten stars. I chuckled at the image it made.
“I see it.” I say, breaking the comforting silence.
“Hmmm? You see what?” I pointed at the newly found bird in the sky.
“There. I see the swan.” She giggled, and raised her head off of my shoulders. She looked at me deeply and passionately, and brought her face closer to me, resting her nose against mine. She smiled that beautiful smile of her, and felt her arms wrap around me. My arms naturally did the same, around her. I found a familiar glow illuminating her face.
“Yeah, I knew you would.” She whispered, before finally bringing her lips to mine.
I caught one last look at the stars before becoming fully engrossed in her love and affection. They seemed to twinkle.
