Chapter Text
The first time you met him, you were both twenty-two and in love already. He was in love with a girl; his best friend, someone he knew his whole life and vowed to live and fight for. While you—You were in love with the stars. These were both things which neither of you will ever have.
You were out of place. Quiet, awkward, different, foreign. A transfer student into the astrophysics program for the first year of your master’s. It had been a grand achievement to land a place in such a program—in such a city.
Skyhaven was the Holy Land for all things space related. Whether you were trying to be an aeronautical engineer, an astrophysicist, or enter space yourself, if you wanted anything to do with space you wanted to be in Skyhaven. And you had made it. You, with your small, rural background, language barrier, and despite the general doubt stacked against you, had made it there. You thought you’d be living your dream, that you’d all of a sudden become the version of yourself you always wanted to be. But it wasn’t so easy.
You did well in your program, you worked hard and well under your professor, but that didn’t change anything about you fundamentally. You were still just… different.
You tried to be one of many, but the fact was that you weren’t. Even with your head down and your nose in a book, people here took one look at you and just knew you didn’t belong there. It wasn’t just your accent, though you were working hard to smooth it out every day. It was written into your spine, the way you carried yourself. Somehow, people just knew instinctively that you weren’t from there.
You should have been used to the feeling by then, you reasoned. It wasn’t as if you had ever fit in back home. You had friends, of course, but they were few and far between and none of them had seen you in your entirety. It was as if you’d found select people to share select parts of yourself, but never had found a group of people that you did not feel ashamed of being entirely authentic before. You had thought, maybe, that moving three-thousand leagues across the world and into the sky would change that. That upon touchdown, you’d miraculously find your place and purpose. You hadn’t.
You were only more alone than ever.
The people here were nice, really. Your peers liked you. They greeted you in the morning, included you in conversations, invited you out, but you couldn’t shake the feeling that you just weren’t meant to be there. You weren’t meant to be anywhere. Like you didn’t belong on earth. Still you tried, which was how you landed yourself there.
You stood in the corner of someone’s apartment observing everyone. It was a get together between related friend groups and had quite a diverse mix of people. Academics, college students, some trade workers, and even some DAA fighter pilots. You had been introduced once to everyone at the start of the party and everyone had given you a shake-down of the same questions everyone had.
Where are you from? What’s your accent? What are you doing here? Oh, that’s cool, do you know so-and-so?
And then, once your novelty had worn off, they all seemed to break off into groups while you were left awkwardly sidelining and answering to the rare stray-comment directed at you. It was always like this, no matter where you were. You could have left and you didn’t think anyone would realize.
You began to twitch. You didn’t feel like you belonged there. You thought you were going to suffocate.
“I’m gonna go outside,” you murmured to someone. A friend in your same program. She barely glanced your way.
You slipped out of the apartment and onto the balcony where two chairs were set up in one corner. You took up one and sat down, pulling your purse on your lap as you rifled through it before pulling out a small box and a lighter. You set it down on the empty chair beside you and then balanced your drink between your knees—some sort of baijiu cocktail you’d been handed. Opening up the box and picking back the foil, you pulled out a thin white stick and placed it between your lips. Flicking the lighter on, you held the flame to the end and waited for a beat. You sucked in slightly and once the cigarette began burning properly, you held the smoke in your mouth, inhaled, and then blew it out in a rush.
Inside, you could hear a swathe of laughter unfold and some rowdy chatter. While you felt as though you could breathe out there by yourself, you felt a curl of missing-out settle into your chest. You hated it. You hated—
The balcony door opened, catching your attention. You glanced up to see someone stepping out.
“Where are you going,” someone called from inside.
“I’m just sick of you guys, I need a moment.”
“Make sure you come back for cards, we’re breaking ‘em out soon!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be back.”
You stared up at the person stepping out with you. A guy. Tall, broad shouldered, and, you noted, very fit. Dark hair cut into something between neat and boyish, an easy smile, and a dimensional bone structure. He had a boy-next-door sort of handsome with a mischievous charm. He glanced down at you and paused. You paused too.
His eyes were purple.
“Oh, hey,” he said, expression shifting into something polite. He gestured to the seat next to you, “Can I sit?”
“Of course,” you said, picking up your bag and hanging it off the back of your own chair. “Sorry.”
“Thanks.” He lowered himself down and sighed. “It’s nice out here.”
“It is,” you nodded, looking out toward the city and further up to the sky. Up here in Skyhaven, you felt like you could see a trillion stars.
“You’re Xiao Tu’s friend,” he said conversationally. “What was your name again?”
You told him and listened as he repeated it. The vowels and consonants sounded nice in his voice, you noted.
“I’m Amelia’s friend, she’s the one who knows Xiao Tu,” you clarified. “You’re Caleb?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, tossing one foot out and sinking farther back into the chair.
You didn’t know everyone’s name in that room, but you had been inclined to learn his for some reason. Maybe because Amelia had talked about him before. The pilot who she had been excited to get to know.
Some ash falling on your foot caught your attention. You brushed it off and tapped out your cigarette before bringing it to your lips for another drag. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Caleb watching the movement. When you exhaled, you held out your box and the lighter.
“Do you want one,” you asked.
“No, I don’t smoke,” he said, waving his hand. “I just came out for some air, it’s stuffy in there.”
“Oh, I can put it out,” you said, going to rub the end into the ground.
“It’s fine, you can do whatever,” Caleb shrugged, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
You hesitated before bringing the stick back up. If he didn’t complain, you’d rather finish it.
The two of you sat in silence. It was strangely comfortable. You watched the clouds move through the sky and the stars behind them, distant and faint and gorgeous. You loved the night.
Your cigarette burned through enough that it burned your fingers to hold so you crushed the filter into the concrete below your seat. You downed the rest of your drink and dropped it inside to throw out later.
Maybe some ten minutes later, Caleb spoke again. “You’re quiet, huh?”
You jolted a bit, blinking over at him. You jolted again when you realized he was staring at you, studying. Like he was curious. Like he could see right through you.
“Uhm, yeah,” you nodded. People always called you that, especially at parties. You lowered your sights to your hands and scrunched your fingers together with a shrug. It wasn’t as though you didn’t have things to say, it was more so that you didn’t know if what you said would be correct. Or if you could manage to say it in the correct way.
Caleb tilted his head a bit before asking, “Where are you from again?”
You told him and he hummed.
“That’s cool. And you’re studying here now?”
“Yeah, I’m researching under the same professor as Amelia,” you said.
“Astrophysics, yeah? I had to take a couple of those classes for flight school. It’s complicated, it’s impressive that you can dedicate yourself to it,” he commented.
“I just love it,” you hummed. You looked back up at the sky. “I’ve always loved the stars.”
“Me too,” Caleb smiled slightly. “I just always wanted to be near them.”
“I do too,” you said quietly. “Being a fighter pilot must be so exhilarating. Getting to be so close. I wish I could do that.”
He tilted his head, “Was astrophysicist not the first choice?”
“No, I wanted to be a cosmonaut,” you confessed.
Caleb blinked in surprise. “Why didn’t you become one?”
You hesitated to answer for a moment. You didn’t know why you were talking so much to him, telling him so much about yourself. Even your friends here didn’t know that being an astrophysicist was not your true dream. But there was something about him that was so… easy. It made you feel easy too, in a way. After a beat, you said, “I have a heart condition. Nothing—Nothing major, just an arrhythmia. But they’re strict about that, you know. They won’t take a risk on someone who might faint in the middle of a take off, let alone a flight.”
“Oh,” he uttered, looking at you with sympathy. “I know someone with a heart condition. It stinks, but they’re lucky, I guess. It doesn’t get in the way of something like that.”
“Yeah,” you shrugged. You lifted your opposite hand to brush some hair back behind your ear, pausing when the ends caught in one of your silver hoops. “It’s alright. I don’t mind… Looking at them is enough.”
Or so you told yourself. You lifted your eyes toward the night sky where thousands of distant stars glittered and twinkled. They were so beautiful, you longed to touch them. To get near enough that you felt their heat, that they might burn you alive. But it was nothing but a rumination as distant as galaxies. Out of your reach in the vast expanse of the universe of which only the smallest, quietest part belonged to you.
“They’re beautiful,” Caleb hummed.
“You have no idea,” you whispered.
The two of you fell into another companionable silence. You don’t know how long you stayed out there with him. Long enough for the balcony door to open again and for another guy to lean out.
“We’re breaking the cards out, you ready, Caleb?”
“Yeah, sure,” Caleb said, standing with a slight sigh. He glanced at you questioningly, “Do you want to join?”
The other man paused, blinking at you like you had materialized from the background.
You hesitated, folding your hands together. “Uhm, I don’t know…”
Caleb shrugged, offering you a playful smile. “Next time, then. Promise?”
“Sure,” you offered. Though you were anything but sure.
He flashed you a charming grin that had your cheeks warming slightly before leaving you alone.
While he went back in, you lingered outside until it got too chilly.
—
You didn’t think much about the party or Caleb after the fact. It wasn’t until a week later when you ran into Caleb that you thought of him at all.
Your days at the research center were more than enough to occupy your fore-thoughts. They were monotonous in a comforting way. Time spent losing yourself in thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. Your interest was in stellar structure and evolution, which was considered an outdated concentration in your field. These days, everyone was focused on cosmology—especially concerning the Deepspace Tunnel. You understood the importance, but it just didn’t interest you the same way stars did. However, you were not exactly in a position to choose. The program you were a part of was funded with a single purpose in mind. You were there to research what they told you considering they were paying you to be there—regardless of how meager the salary.
The lights of the restaurant were mellow and orange, casting a warm glow over you and the boiling hot pot between you and Amelia. Both of you had been famished after another sixteen hour day in the lab where it was so easy to lose track of times and meals. Thus, you agreed to splitting a late dinner with her before heading your separate ways.
“I swear, sometimes it’s like I don’t make any progress at all. Senior Hu just keeps dumping more work on me. How am I supposed to write my thesis on top of all this?”
You nodded along empathetically to her complaints.
“And don’t even get me started on Old Fischer, it’s like he thinks we’re calculators or something. I bet even he can’t do the math he asks us to do in his head. Why can’t I write anything down for the quizzes he gives us?”
You did also hate that about your professor. Though he was a casual and overall personable man, he definitely pushed all of his grad students.
“Amelia?”
Both of you looked up to see two figures. Xiao Tu and—Caleb. They just seemed to have walked in.
“Oh, hey,” Amelia greeted brightly, mood switching in an instant. She sat straighter, “What are you guys doing here?”
“We just got hungry but the canteen closes at curfew,” Xiao Tu quipped. “What about you guys? It’s so late.”
Nearly twelve, in fact, if the clock on the wall was correct.
“We didn’t get done until, like, eleven-fifteen today,” Amelia answered with a suffering sigh. “And we both forgot to take our lunches today. By the time we got out, we were about to eat each other!”
“Geez, and when did you guys start?”
“Seven,” you said tiredly, rubbing your eyes.
“That’s crazy, they run you guys like dogs in that lab, huh? Almost sounds worse than basic training,” Xiao Tu whistled.
“Feels like it,” Amelia sighed. “Anyways, did you guys want to join us?”
“I’m cool with that,” Xiao Tu said. He looked at his companion, “What do you think?”
“Sure,” Caleb said. He then smiled at you and said your name in greeting. “Can I sit here?”
“Of course,” you said. It felt like deja vu as you removed your purse to hang on the back of your seat for him. He slid into the chair casually, long legs knocking into yours.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“It’s fine,” you assured, tucking your left leg over your right to make more room.
Across the way, you caught Amelia staring at both of you closely. She gripped her chopsticks faintly tighter while Xiao Tu waved down the waitress for a menu.
“How are you?”
You glanced at Caleb, having not anticipated that he’d address you further. It took a bit for your brain to catch up and translate as it had been thoroughly fried from the lab, but you were able to muster a response, “Oh, uhm, good. You?”
“I’m good,” he said. He looked at the pot, “What did you guys get?”
“I got the tomato broth and Amelia got the seafood,” you said. “Did you want some? We can turn it so that you can get her side.”
“Mmh, nah, this works. I like tomato,” he said. He peeked over your shoulder. “What did you put in your sauce?”
“I don’t remember, to be honest,” you said a bit sheepishly. “My brain hurts. But I think I did plum sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, cilantro—”
He made a gagging sound, “Eugh, say less.”
You unwittingly laughed at the drama of his reaction, tipping up an eyebrow. “You don’t like cilantro?”
“Hate it,” Caleb said with a bit of a sneer. “If cilantro has a million haters, then I am one of them. If cilantro has ten haters, then I am one of them—”
“Oh God help me,” you huffed in your language, shaking your head as a laugh burst from your lips. You tossed him a lean glare although the smile didn’t leave your lips, “Well, I wasn’t going to share that with you anyways. I don’t know you that well and I double dipped.”
“Gross,” he quipped.
“Why,” you challenged. “I’m the only one eating it.”
“Still gross,” he said, his own smile evident.
“Hey man, what kind of meat did you wanna order,” Xiao Tu cut in, showing the menu to Caleb.
It was a surprisingly comfortable dinner, all things considered. Though you were in general a painfully awkward person who was more there to listen and react, Caleb had been able to pretty steadily keep you in the loop of conversation. In such a way that you hadn’t even really noticed until Amelia pointed it out while you stood outside with her, fishing for a cigarette.
“I didn’t know you and Caleb knew each other,” she commented.
“We don’t,” you said, popping open the box. You offered her one but she waved her hand. She wasn’t like you who practically lived off of nicotine and coffee.
“You seemed pretty friendly,” Amelia noted. “You were super talkative.”
“Oh. I guess I was,” you said after consideration. You lit the end away from your face this time, watching the end bloom with embers before bringing it to your mouth. After you exhaled, you explained, “I dunno. I spoke to him a little at the party last week. But not much. He’s probably just being nice.”
Though you tried to assure her, you could tell it did not work much. You weren’t oblivious to her small crush on him. They’d been mutual friends for years before you ever came to Skyhaven, but her efforts to get to know him hadn’t ever really succeeded. At that point, you felt a bit guilty, wondering if you were overstepping.
“Sorry,” you apologized.
“Don’t be, it’s not like I’m dating him or anything,” she said, sighing. “Just disappointed I guess. He warmed up to you so fast, I feel like I’m pulling teeth when I talk to him. So I don’t mind, really.” She looked at you with a smile. “I’m happy you get along with him. Sometimes I worry about you. I feel like you’re always in your head.”
You shrugged, “I guess maybe more than others…”
A few minutes later, Caleb and Xiao Tu walked out of the restaurant.
“You’d better let me get it next time,” Xiao Tu said. “You always use your Evol so you can foot the bill. I know you’re not rich, we get the same paychecks.”
“Well, if it bothers you, you should figure out a way to do it behind my back,” Caleb said loftily, pocketing his wallet. “Makes me think you like that I pay for everything.”
“I think it’s actually just that you like showing off in front of pretty ladies.” Xiao Tu gestured toward you and Amelia.
“Awh, you think I’m pretty,” Amelia said sweetly.
“Oh buzz off,” Xiao Tu muttered embarrassedly. They started a back and forth exchange that was very characteristic of them, leaving you and Caleb to watch.
You laughed as Amelia swatted at Xiao Tu for a comment, smoke coming out in puffs before you looked up at Caleb. “Thanks for dinner.”
“No problem,” he shrugged, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “Do you guys need someone to walk you back?”
“She and I live in different directions, but I’m ok,” you said. “Thanks, really. And it was nice to see you again.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. He tilted his head, “Are you coming to the next get-together? It’s gonna be for our friend Gideon’s recovery.”
You furrowed your brows, “What happened?”
“Nothing serious, he just broke his arm. But he just got done with PT so that means he can come back to active duty,” Caleb explained. “You should come. It’ll be mostly the same people.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” you said, nervously tapping your ash out.
“You should,” Caleb said encouragingly.
“I mean, I don’t want to intrude.”
“He won’t care, he’s probably gonna get too drunk to even remember you, no offense,” Caleb said. He smiled down at you, deep purple eyes crinkling. “You still owe me a card game.”
You fiddled with one of your hoops, “Well, I’ll think about it.”
“Hope to see you,” he offered before turning to Xiao Tu and hooking an arm around the man’s shoulders. “Come on, we gotta get back. You can keep flirting later.”
“Flirting?! What the hell are you talking about, dude,” Xiao Tu balked. He looked nervously toward you and Amelia who was smiling fondly at him. “Uh, well, bye.”
“See you,” Amelia said while you lifted a hand casually.
—
You did, despite all hesitancy and anxiousness, show up at the party a week later in tow to Amelia and a couple of your other friends. The process was the same as last time. You started off by introducing yourself to the people who didn’t know you, you ran through the scripted questions, and then end up fading into the background when you stopped being interesting to them.
This time, you were holding a beer. You hated beer, but you hated to waste even more so you were suffering through it. Idly, you thought a cigarette might make it better. But before you could go out onto the balcony to start smoking, a hand was settling on your shoulder and causing you to lurch out of your skin.
“Woah, sorry.”
You came to face Caleb as you whirled around, heart pounding in overtime.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, quickly removing his hand.
“No, you’re good,” you said breathlessly. “I just—I get surprised easily.”
“I’ll remember that,” he said with a teasing lilt. (You weren’t quite sure if that was a good or bad thing…) He then looked at the bottle in your hand, “What’ve they got you drinking?”
“I don’t know, I don’t like it,” you said, turning the bottle to look at the label with a wrinkle in your nose. Tsingtao. “I’m not a beer person.”
“Why are you drinking it then,” Caleb asked.
You shrugged, “Someone gave it to me.”
“Do you always drink whatever people give to you?” His expression grew a little worried. “That’s dangerous for a girl, you know.”
“I figured since this was someone’s house…” you reasoned.
“You should be more careful,” he said, shaking his head.
“Well, I’ve been drinking this for an hour now so I think I’m good,” you said.
Caleb lifted a brow at that and took the bottle from you, noting how it was barely half-empty. He snorted, “Wow, you really do hate beer.”
“If beer has a million haters, I’m one of them. If beer has ten haters, I’m one of them,” you recited and it drew an amused grin from him.
“I’ll take it off your hands then,” he said, bringing the bottle to his lips for a sip.
Your brows rose, “You don’t think sharing drinks is gross?”
He shrugged, “No, why?”
“You had a problem with double dipping,” you recalled.
He hummed, “That’s different.”
“How?”
“Just is,” Caleb told you. “There’s more saliva that builds up on someone’s utensils than their beverage.”
You gave him a wry look. “There is not. Who told you that?”
“It’s based off of research, Ms. Scientist,” he said haughtily.
You narrowed your eyes at the nickname and then pressed, “Whose?”
“My own.”
“And by what parameters did you run that experiment?” You crossed your arms and slanted your hips left for an imposing look. He merely glinted down at you as if you were cute.
“Observation,” he said in a sing-song tone.
“Oh really,” you snorted. “Have you been peer-reviewed?”
“I’m waiting on it.” Caleb took another sip to challenge you.
Scoffing, you looked away though there was a telling twitch of your lips as you shook your head. “Then I’ll have to remain skeptical. You can tell me when you get proper feedback on that.”
“You’ll be the first to know,” he said. “Do you wanna have that card game while we wait for it?”
You laughed slightly and straightened out your posture into something a little more relaxed. “Ok, that was pretty slick. You must be great at picking girls up, huh?”
“I feel like I’d be pretty good if I tried my hand at it,” Caleb allowed with ease. He then jutted his thumb toward an empty table where a deck was lying in wait. “Speaking of hands, let’s get to it, Ms. Scientist. I bet you’ve got a great poker face.”
“You’re kind of annoying, aren’t you,” you hummed, following him regardless.
Somehow, you ended up ten bills deep into a poker game surrounded by people who loudly vocalized their excitement and disappointment when each hand was placed down. Caleb was on your right, pressed uncomfortably close but acting as an effective shield against the three other men just as large as he was who made their seats on the small sofa. Without him, you’d have probably ended up on the floor by now. You’d probably also be winning by now too.
You had always been a decent card player and good at making gut-guesses. But Caleb was on another level. You weren’t sure how he was doing it, but you felt as though it were statistically impossible for him to have won this many rounds. Everyone else seemed to think so too.
“You fuckin’ cheater!”
“I’m not cheating,” Caleb said, throwing his hands up in an appeal at innocence but the light in his eyes was too mischievous. “How could I be cheating? I haven’t dealt once!”
That much was true, but you were still quite sure that there was some sort of trick at play.
The next round, you swiped up your cards carefully, making sure not to let anyone see you bleed. You held them up and shifted their order around with equal care. Then you held them as you waited for the others. As you did so, you noticed something. A tiny, slight, near imperceptible shift in the air. A warp. Looking down, you saw that your hand had shifted slightly of its own accord, like it was guided by some kind of weight. And your cards, at that growing angle, would soon be visible to Caleb.
You swiftly righted your grip and then snapped a look toward him. Caleb blinked in mild surprise before grinning again in that way that could only mean trouble. You regarded him narrowly. The rest of the game, you found your odds were a little better.
An hour later, you started to get twitchy from all the buzzing energy in the room. You told the group that you’d opt out for a few rounds and went to the balcony for a cigarette.
“Geez, you’re an addict. Every time I’ve hung out with you, I’ve seen you smoking.”
You turned slightly to see Caleb joining you.
“It helps me relax,” you shrugged, tossing the box and lighter into your bag. You were leaning against the balcony railing, looking out at the stars again. They were just as bright that night as the time you first met him. He came to stand by you, a respectful distance but near enough. Before you could delve into silence, you spoke up, “You were totally cheating, weren’t you?”
“Now why would you think that,” he asked, that terribly un-innocent look coloring his features again.
“Gut feeling,” you said.
He only grinned. You continued to scrutinize him but he gave nothing away.
“It’s fun to win,” he hummed. You figured it was as much of a confession as you’d get.
“Right,” you mumbled, exhaling deeply. The smoke left your mouth in a straight stream—until it didn’t. You watched in fascination as the smoke curved down, then up, then twisted and then dissipated all together. You blinked at him and he was still just smiling, a million secrets in his straight teeth. You wanted to press him for answers, but you didn’t think you’d be lucky enough to garner any more on that front. So you asked him something else.
“Why are you always so nice to me?”
He tilted his head, “What do you mean?”
“I just feel like you go out of your way to be nice. I mean, I’m not saying I don’t appreciate it, but it’s just…” You trailed off though your unspoken words still seemed to be heard.
You didn’t feel like you were worth the time.
Caleb’s expression faded into something unreadable. He studied your face closely and the expression was so intense you felt almost naked before him. He then said, “You just look really lonely. I know how that feels. It sucks. So I guess I just want to try and… help you, I guess. Or something like that.”
“Oh,” you mumbled. You swallowed. “I… Yeah.”
He leaned forward. His shirt had been rolled up to his elbows so you saw the flex of his forearms. The backlighting seemed to highlight him somehow. It cast him in a lovely glow and made him seem so warm even in the chilly night.
“You don’t have to talk about it, but I get it. That feeling like no one really knows who you are, like no one really understands you ‘cause you can’t explain it. It’s lonely, even when you’ve got a dozen people around,” he said.
“Yeah,” you murmured again, breathing in more as you closed your eyes. “Maybe it’s like that.”
The first-world struggle of social ennui, you thought. It made you feel as dark and grey as the smoke filling your lungs. You felt guilty for feeling so, somehow. Here you were, living every bit of your dream and yet trapped in a listless cycle that not even the love you had for the stars could shine through. Though maybe it was because they didn’t shine as brightly as they had a few years ago. Before he’d been gone.
Blinking slowly, you tipped your face toward the sky again, endless and black and pricked with the faintest light.
“Do you ever wonder what it’s like to touch a star?”
He nodded, “Every day. When I’m up there flying, I always think what if I went just a little further. Like, what if I flew right into the sun?”
“You’d be burned alive,” you noted practically.
“You know, I don’t think that’s all that terrible of a way to go,” he mused.
You frowned deeply. In a flat, almost harsh tone, you whispered, “Yeah. It wouldn’t be the most awful. The absolute worst way to go is by being blown to bits.”
He hefty air settled between the two of you. Caleb paused as the mood shifted into something jagged. He leaned back slightly, turning more toward you. “You say that like you know what that feels like.”
“I don’t,” you said. “And I pray to God everyday that I never do.”
From then on, the silence was not so comfortable. It seemed to settle on your back and drag its nails down through your skin. It felt like it was choking you. You took a longer, deeper drag and then breathed out again, shaking your head.
“Sorry,” you muttered. “I don’t know what I’m saying.”
It was clear you did, though. But he didn’t comment on it. Rather, he simply nodded and played along, waiting until you were done smoking. When you were stamping out the end into the railing, he nodded back toward the doors.
“You wanna do a couple more rounds before you leave?”
You looked up at him. You debated before moving forward, “Yeah, I think I do.”
You put on a brave face and sat back beside him on that too small couch. Surprisingly, that time you won. When you gave him a questioning look, he merely met you with that secretive smile that made the purples in his eyes burst like a nebula. The sight knocked some of the breath from you.
He was beautiful.