disoriented while I rouse, I hear faint, melodic French music drifting from the kitchen. When I reach the threshold, I see Tobias uncorking a bottle of wine. Without looking my way, he pours two large helpings into stemless glasses before he turns and extends one to me.
“Just in time for the show.”
Curious, I take the offered glass along with the hand he extends and follow him to the back door. Silently, I trail him with our hands attached while the insect noise increases, sounding on all sides of us. The air rapidly cools as we walk, the sun slowly dipping behind the mountains beyond taking the bulk of the heat with it. The grass feels cool and dewy against my bare feet as he leads me up the small hill and into the clearing.
“Une table pour deux,” Table for two. He lays his suit jacket on the ground and gestures for me to take a seat. I’m still in my tweed slacks and wrinkled blouse, my heels long forgotten. He’s still dressed in suit pants and the button-down I stained with my tears. He sets his wine down and removes his shoes and socks, planting his feet in the grass to ground himself.
We sit for long seconds just sipping and taking in the view.
It’s when the violet sky starts to blacken, illuminating the full moon that the lightning bugs begin to play a soundless melody around us. With the next sip, my shoulders roll back, and I start to sink into the earth below. Completely at ease, I lean into his side, trying my best not to read into the words he spoke earlier, the softness in his eyes, the tenderness in his kiss. But I’m too drained emotionally to keep my guard up. And far too numb from the day’s events to let myself overanalyze, to protect myself further from the damage he could—in my weakened state—so easily cause. And I can’t bring myself to give a damn. He was there for me at a time I felt utterly alone in the world, and for that, all I can feel is grateful.
For endless minutes we just follow the lights from the ground to the expansive tree line above. The night sky becomes littered with twinkling stars as we’re transported into a different world. I’ve never in my life seen anything so breathtaking. That is until I turn to the man sitting next to me, watching me carefully.
“I like your view much better,” he whispers.
“What do you mean? You have the same view.”
“No, I don’t. But I’m starting to see it again.” He tenses and lets out a long breath. “At this point in your life, you’re experiencing many things for the first time. And in a way…I’m jealous.”
I lift a brow. “That’s an awful lot of honesty. How much wine have you had?”
One side of his mouth lifts before all amusement disappears, and he tears his gaze from mine.
“T-thank you for today.”
“Don’t,” he says just as soon as the words pass my lips. He lifts his chin just as the light around us intensifies. “Look.” As if on cue, the fireflies seem to multiply by the hundreds, and it’s nothing short of whimsical. It’s as if we’re surrounded by unearthly light. Reading my thoughts, he speaks up, his voice slightly mystified.
“This place. Right here. Is magical.”
I scoff. “You’re too much of a realist, too practical to believe in magic.”
“It’s practical magic,” he counters, “see because here, we can catch light,” he reaches out and snatches a lightning bug, which beams in his palm as he speaks. “No decisions to make, no burdens, no debts to pay, no deals to strike, not here, not now.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Ah,” he opens his palm, and the bug takes flight between us before floating away. “Now, there’s a magical word. Because if there’s something you want, here, all you have to do is dream it up, and then you just reach out and take it.”
“Maybe it’s the wine and the view, but right now, that doesn’t sound so far-fetched.” I take another sip. “So, I take it this place is significant for you?”
He nods. “This place made me. It holds every secret I have.”
I glance over at him as he keeps his focus on the shimmering trees above. Briefly, I close my eyes, letting the rest of the stress of the day fall away. It’s the hurt that remains, that will probably always remain, but for the moment, it’s a bearable throb.